Page 5
Chapter Five
A narrow slice of early-afternoon sun made it into the front seat to warm my arm, resting on the open window. I was driving-big surprise-and the wind had my hair in a tangle that would take half a bottle of cream rinse to fix. We'd stopped three hours out in the bottom part of Indiana for Jenks to find something to eat and somewhere to pee, and after that he told me he was going to nap. Elves had a similar sleep schedule, and though he hadn't said anything, it was obvious that Trent was getting sleepy, too, so I'd offered to drive.
Actually, I mused as I glanced at a somnolent Trent, the last four hours had been nice. Trent's face was pleasant when he wasn't scowling. His jeans and shirt made him look dramatically different-more attractive than his usual suit somehow. Accessible maybe. The wind shifted his baby-fine hair as he slumped against the door, as far from me as he could get.
I could reach right out and smack him if I wanted. I hadn't liked his quiet disdain of my mom's car. So it didn't have a six-speaker system or power doors or windows. It wasn't shiny, and the blue color didn't do anything for me, either. But I could do ten miles an hour more in my old-lady car than in my shiny red car and never get noticed. It had lots of cup holders, too.
Tucking a wayward curl behind an ear, I eyed his sunglasses in envy, just sitting on the dash while he slept. I bet they'd look better on me than on him. The sun was giving me a headache, and I almost reached for them-until I noticed that Trent's hands were clenched, even in sleep. Okay, maybe he wasn't as comfortable with this as he wanted me to believe. Still, it said something that he'd even fallen asleep.
Looking back to the flat landscape we'd been in for the last hour or so, I wondered if I'd be able to fall asleep with Trent driving. This was weird, and not just because a witch, an elf, and a pixy were on the Great American Road Trip. I still owed Trent that "freed familiar" curse, and guilt was tugging at me.
Bothered, I glanced at my shoulder bag where his curse was, then back to the road. A quick look at the rearview mirror assured me that Jenks was still sleeping, soaking in the sun like a tiny winged cat in the back window. Sighing, I returned my attention to the landscape. I'd never driven like this, and the open spaces were getting to me. The road had been built pre-Turn, and it was creepy driving past town after town that had been abandoned during the plague the Turn had been born of. The trees growing through the roofs of abandoned buildings and the tall yellow M's and old gas station signs high above new forests made me positively uncomfortable.
The mix of vegetation covering the old destruction was reminiscent of the ever-after, and curious, I brought up my second sight. My scalp tingled, the sensation shifting over my skull to make me shiver as the red-tinted ever-after swam up, coating everything in a sheen of red. The sun seemed to cast two shadows, but apart from the road, which now looked broken and covered with weeds, everything looked pretty much the same. A sun-baked field of nothing but grass stretched from horizon to horizon. Demons congregated where the ley lines were, living under them in the ground where nothing changed much.
According to Al, the ever-after was a broken reality, unable to stand on its own, and was being dragged along behind ours, connected to and kept alive by the ley lines. Energy flowed like tides between them, preventing the ever-after from vanishing and giving the alternate reality a broken visage. It was a reflection of reality but shattered. So if Cincinnati put up a new building, a new one would show up in the ever-after, but would begin to fall apart even before it was completed. That's why demons lived underground. We didn't construct much below a certain level, so nothing changed there but what the demons fashioned for themselves. They used gargoyles like familiars, pulling ley-line energy deep into the earth to where they could use it.
But here, out in the spaces between big conglomerations of ley lines where the cities were, there was a whole lot of red-sheened nothing: trees, grass, bushes. You'd think that being an earth witch I'd like nature, but I didn't. Not like this anyway. It felt broken. It didn't help that the ever-after looked almost normal out here. Except for the black parts. . .
Squinting, I tried to figure out what they were. I'd never seen them in Cincinnati's version of the ever-after, and they glinted silver under the red-tinted sun, like a heat mirage or something, reflecting. . . nothing.
Still using my second sight, I looked over the trees to St. Louis, feeling better with the tall buildings, even if they looked broken with the overlay of my second sight. We were close, and I dropped my second sight and twisted in my seat to pull my phone out of my back pocket. I'd gotten a text from Ivy earlier when she'd boarded her plane, then again when she'd landed. We were going to meet at the arch. I should give her a call.
"What were you just doing?" Trent said suddenly, and I jerked, dropping my phone.
"Jeez, Trent!" I yelped. "How long have you been watching me?" I flushed, glancing in the back to see Jenks's wings shift and spill a silver dust as he slept on. "I'm calling Ivy. "
Trent sat up, rubbing his right bicep where his familiar mark was, before he bent almost double to get my phone from under my feet. "You forgot I was here," he said as he handed it to me, smiling as if it pleased him. "What were you doing? Before, I mean. You were looking at something, and it wasn't the view. Your aura had a shadow on it. I've never seen that. "
Great. He'd been watching me. Grimacing, I focused on the road. The traffic was starting to thicken as we approached the city. "Really?" I said shortly. Jenks had said the same thing to me once when I was doing some high magic. I didn't like that my "aura shadow" showed up when I was using my second sight. Smiling as if nothing was wrong, I tossed my phone to him, and he deftly caught it. "Will you call Ivy for me? Tell her where we are?"
He tossed it back, and it thumped onto my lap. "I'm not your secretary. "
Dude, that was just rude, I thought, intentionally swerving from the right lane to the left as I flipped the phone open.
Trent clutched the door and the dash, and from the backseat Jenks shrilled, "Hey! Rache! What the Disney blasted hell are you doing?"
I was smiling my prettiest as Trent growled, "Give me the phone. "
"Thank you," I all but sang, dropping it into his hand and rolling up the window so he could hear better. He seemed harmless in his jeans and shirt, and I wondered how much of his charisma came from his wardrobe. Jenks apparently appreciated the drop in wind, and he flew back to the front, looking rumpled and sleepy as he yawned and sat on the rearview mirror.
"Where are we?" he asked, rubbing a hand over his wings to check for tears.
"Still on I-70," I said as Trent scrolled through my call list, eyebrows going high when he found the mayor's number. Yeah, we had talked. Got that little misunderstanding about her son a few years ago taken care of. "We'll be crossing the Mississippi in a minute," I added.
Rubbing his arm again, Trent hit a button and put the phone to his ear. I wondered if he knew he was doing it, rubbing his familiar mark. "One of these days your smart-ass attitude is going to get you killed," he said softly.
"Not today," I said, then watched Jenks peer behind us.
"Huh," the pixy said, not sounding at all worried. "They're still there. "
Nodding, I flicked my gaze to the mirror, seeing a gold Cadillac a way back. "Yup. "
Phone to his ear, Trent turned to look. "We're being followed?"
"Relax, cookie maker," Jenks said as he continued to work over his wings. "They've been there since Terre Haute. "
A knot of worry started to tighten. Was it me they were following or Trent?
There was a faint hail on the tiny speaker, and Trent continued to watch the car behind us through the side mirror. "Ms. Tamwood," he said, and I marveled at his voice. "Rachel would like to talk to you," he added as I held out my hand.
"Hey, hi," I said as I wrangled the phone to my ear. "We're almost across the Mississippi. How was your flight?"
"Lousy. " Ivy
sounded tired, but she'd been up longer than I had. "I'm at the arch," she continued. "Stay on I-70, then take the South Memorial Drive exit just after the bridge. "
"Thanks, I already looked at the map," I said, mildly peeved. The woman had not only laminated the map, but she'd used a marker to star where we could stop for Jenks.
"Follow Memorial Drive all the way down to Washington," she continued, as if I'd said nothing. "There're signs everywhere to the parking structure. "
"Okay, thanks," I said, exasperated, but Jenks was laughing as he landed on my shoulder.
"Rache, those guys are getting closer," he said, pitching his voice so Ivy could hear him.
"What guys?" Ivy asked, her concern clear through the tiny speaker.
I fluffed my hair to make Jenks take off. Thanks a hell of a lot, Jenks.
"Someone's tailing us," I said casually.
"For how long?" she said, loud enough for Trent to hear.
"Long enough," I said. "They aren't that close. Quarter mile. "
"Two hundred feet, Ivy," Jenks said loudly, back on the rearview mirror and knowing her superior vamp hearing would pick it up. "Three guys unless someone's taking a nap. "
The good news being that if they were that close, the car probably wasn't bugged.
"Maybe we should drive straight through. Where's the map?" Jenks said, taking off in a burst of sparkles and vanishing in the backseat.
Trent stiffened, his gaze sharp on mine. "We need to stop. "
"I don't need a map, Jenks," I said, paying more attention to the road. We'd picked up a dump truck somewhere, and the road was getting crowded with semis and SUVs.
"If you're being followed, just keep going," Ivy said. "I've got a rental car, and I'll catch up, okay? Ram them or something. "
"We are going to stop," Trent said again, looking militantly adamant. Maybe he needed to use the little boy's room after his nappies.
From the backseat, Jenks chimed, "I found it! Trent, be a pal and open it for me, huh?"
I jiggled the phone to my other ear, and the car swerved. Ram them? Was she serious?
"Rachel?" came Ivy's voice, and I put my attention back on the road.
"You're not going to ram them," I said, and Trent rubbed his forehead as if in pain. "And we aren't going to drive through. We are coming in. I'd rather meet up now than later, even if they are watching. They probably already know you're waiting for us. "
Jenks darted up from the backseat, his hands on his hips. "Trent, I could use some help here. You just going to sit there like a pile of fairy crap the entire way?"
"We don't need the map," I said, starting to get mad. "And we are not driving through. We are stopping for Ivy!"
From my phone, Ivy was protesting, "There's a bunch of kids here. You really want to risk a fight with the coven?"
"The coven wouldn't dare," I said as I started to wonder. "Not with innocents around. We can have an ice cream or something. Make bunny-eared kisses at them from across the park. "
"I suppose," she agreed, sounding doubtful. "Call me when you park, okay?"
Making a murmur of agreement, I closed the phone and dropped it onto my lap.
"Good plan," Trent said breathily, and a single warning flag went up, as smooth and sure as ice is cold. I don't know why, because he was agreeing with me, but his attitude-the overwhelming relief he was trying to hide-was at complete odds with what he should be feeling with someone tailing us. Frowning, I thought back to whose idea it was to stop in St. Louis in the first place. Ivy's, I think. She'd bought a flight going there.
The tires hummed as we found the bridge, and the world seemed to shift as we headed right for the city. The arch was huge. Word was that it pinned down one of the city's ley lines, which I thought suspect. Why would anyone do anything so stupid?
"You need the Memorial Drive exit," Trent said intently. "It goes right past the park. "
"Thanks, Trent," I said, my eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"You're in the wrong lane," he added, and clenching my teeth, I wondered what he'd do if I just drove past the exit. Watching his body language, I shifted even farther to the left to get around a black car. Sure enough, he tensed.
Interesting, I mused, and then, checking the rearview to see that the gold car had done the same, I slid back to the right-hand lane, making the motion far too fast. Jenks yelped, taking to the air as the steering wheel spun. Trent clutched the dash, glaring at me as we rocked to a halt, but saying little else as his sunglasses slid off the dash and to my feet. Another warning flag went up. That should have gotten me more than a dirty look.
"You're going to have to do a lot more than that to lose them," Jenks said, misreading my motion, and I eyed the semi that roared up behind me, aggressively making his brakes flatulate in an effort to get me to move faster. Faster. That might be a good idea, seeing as that gold Cadillac was a car length away. Three guys. All blonds. Elves? Not the coven, then.
My phone hummed, and I ignored it. Trent jerked, his eyes showing a new alarm as he turned to me. "We need to get off this road. Now. "
"Like how?" I snarled. "Our exit isn't for another two miles. "
"Well, do something!" Trent exclaimed. "Someone is prepping a spell. "
My eyes flicked behind us, seeing the three heads clustered together. The shoulder was on one side and that truck on the other as he tried to pass me. A little VW bug was ahead of me, full of people. "Are you nuts? No one would make a hit on the expressway. Too many people could get hurt. And besides, I don't feel-"
"Look out!" Jenks shrilled, and I gasped, jerking the wheel as a reddish-gold ball of something blossomed from the car behind us. Our tires hit the shoulder, gravel kicking up underneath as I struggled to maintain control at a suddenly too-fast sixty-five miles per hour.
The spell hit the VW bug ahead of us, and I watched in horror as it turned sideways and spun, right into the path of the truck barreling down on it. Sparks flew inside the small car, and the truck hit its brakes, the tires hopping on the pavement as three lanes of traffic became five, everyone trying to get out of the way. The little car spun into a roll, a protection bubble snapping into place, and I stiffened my arms, looking for an out. The truck was going to jackknife, and the rear of it was two feet away, coming closer, almost shoving us.
Behind us were the ugly sounds of screeching tires and plastic crunching. I didn't dare look as we sped ahead, the truck now taking up three lanes as it slowly began to topple over. The little VW had hit the wall, and I swerved into the path of the truck to avoid it. There was a huge crash, and the sound of scraping metal. I looked back to see the truck on its side, cars piling up behind it. Three cars had made it through: us, a station wagon with a white-faced woman driving it, and that gold Cadillac. My God. What had they done?
"Go, go, go!" Jenks shrilled, plastered to the back window. "They got through! Go!"
I floored it, weaving through the cars ahead of us, most of them just now noticing the truck sliding to a stop and taking up the entire road. Brake lights were going on, and my grip on the wheel became sweaty. How had they gotten through? I wondered, seeing that they had lost a fender but were still moving. The VW had become small in the rearview mirror, and feeling sick, I pulled my attention back to the road ahead of us. No one does a hit on a busy road. No one. Who the hell did these people think they were? Or perhaps my question should be, who the hell did these people think we were that they would do such a thing?
"We need to get off this road!" Trent exclaimed as I sped past a slow-moving Jag.
"Gee, you think?" I said, seeing the Cadillac clip another car as it tried to catch up.
"Where's the map," Trent muttered, leaning over the backseat to find it.
Jenks looked scared, having moved to the front where he could stand on the rearview mirror and hold on to the stem for dear life. "Go right!" he shouted, and I jerked the wheel, looking back to see yet another ball of who-
knew-what headed for us.
Trent yelped as the car swerved, his butt smacking into me and a raised foot hitting the wheel. "Trent!" I shouted, shoving him off. "Sit down, will you? I'm trying not to get pasted here, and your ass in my face isn't helping!"
The orange blob hit the pavement behind us, the Jag I'd just gone around running right into it. The car flipped, and I started to get really scared. What the hell were they using to throw their magic? A grenade launcher? We were going over ninety!
Oblivious to it, Trent slid back into his seat with a huff, the map in his hand.
"Jenks, you got any ideas?" I asked as Trent buckled himself back in, and Jenks's wings stilled even as a green dust began spilling from him.
"Maybe Trent should have married the bitch," he warbled, and I shifted into the far-left lane to get around a bus. Sure enough, they stuck with me, and my heart pounded. I couldn't do magic and drive at the same time! Where the hell was Pierce when I needed him? No-o-o-o, the one time I have nonunion assassins behind us, I have a businessman riding shotgun trying to find answers in a friggin' map!
"That's our exit," Trent said, trying to look cool, but his grip on the map was too tight. "We're sitting ducks on the expressway. "
"Oh, thank you very much for that observation, Kalamack," I said sarcastically. "You think we should get off the road. And then what?"
"Just take South Memorial," he said, his eyes on the map as he swayed to my swerving through traffic, earning beeps and flashing lights. "We can lose them on the surface roads more easily than on the expressway. Do what I say, and we'll be fine. " But he was sweating. I couldn't make a bubble-we'd drive right through it.
Jenks darted down to land on the map in Trent's hand as we flashed past the sign. "That's the one you want, Rachel. Right lane. Right lane!"
There was a big truck ahead of me in the far-right lane. If I slowed down to take the exit, the Cadillac would hit us. My fingers clenched and relaxed. Behind us, a new glow was starting in the car. I had to time this perfectly. "'Do what I say, and we'll be fine,'" I muttered through clenched teeth. "Surface streets mean we put the entire city in danger. We're going to lose them right now. "
"Rachel. . . ," Trent said, his voice tinged with anger and fear. "What are you doing?"
"Getting onto Memorial," I said, licking my lips. The engine roared as I pressed the accelerator, and my mom's car leapt ahead. My heart pounded, and I darted around a white car on the right, then a blue on the right. Crap, this was going to be close. There was a weird prickling through me, but I daren't look at Trent. It was wild magic, but I didn't think it was from him. It was like the tracers that the earth sends up to the cloud before the lightning follows it down. The next hit wouldn't miss. "Hold on!" I shouted, eyes wide.
"Rachel!" Trent shouted, the chicken strap in his hand.
"This is going to be close!" I yelled, and I jammed on the accelerator. The car bounced as we raced forward, and I yanked the wheel to the right at the last moment, skidding across all three lanes and onto the exit ramp. The semi blew its horn, but we were through and bouncing over the rough pavement, narrowly missing the cement wall.
"Ye-e-e-e-e-ha-a-a-a-a!" Jenks shrilled, and I hit the brakes hard so I wouldn't ram the car ahead of me. My heart was thudding, and we fish-tailed. Scared, I looked to find Jenks in the back, face plastered to the window as he watched the traffic behind us. The awful prickling had stopped. Thank you, God. "They missed the exit!" he yelled. "They missed it! You lost them, Rache!"
I looked across the seat to Trent, white faced. From behind us came a crunch of metal, and someone's horn got stuck. My phone started to hum. Ivy. Where was my phone?
"We lost them. " I breathed, then became worried. We had lost them, but what about everyone else? God, I hoped those people were okay. I was sure I'd seen a protection bubble on the bug, but at those speeds, it might not make a difference.
Ahead of us, cars were slowing for the traffic light. "It's red, Rachel," Jenks said, and I slammed on the brakes, adrenaline making the motion too fast. Jenks yelped, and Trent reached for the dash, glaring at me. I couldn't believe they'd tried to take us out on the interstate! I'd been under death threats before, but there were niceties to be observed, union rules. This wasn't them!
Silent, Trent folded up the map, tucking it away with precise motions. He looked calm, but I was starting to shake. "Nicely done," he said and I almost lost it, my hands clenching the wheel until my knuckles were white. Nicely done? There were people hurt back there, and I felt a sudden surge of panic as three ambulances went by, headed for the interstate. Everyone in that VW bug was probably dead. And the truck driver. And the four cars behind him. The guy in the Jag was probably okay. Probably.
My foot started to jiggle, and when the light turned green, I crept up on the car ahead of us, pushing it into moving. I wanted out of the car, like now.
Jenks flew to the rearview mirror when Trent rolled his window all the way down to get rid of the scent of cinnamon and wine, and something in me eased as I turned right onto Memorial. He was shaken and trying not to show it. More sirens wailed, and Jenks landed on the steering wheel, giving me a worried look as a fire truck went by, headed for the on-ramp. People were hurt. Because of me? Trent? Did it matter?
"We're going to stop, right?" Trent asked, his eyes on Riverside Park as we passed it.
"Why? Think you'll get a better view of the accidents from up on top of the arch?" I asked sarcastically. This was way more than I'd expected when I agreed to escort him to the coast, and I was long past wishing I'd told him to shove his little problem and taken my chances by myself. My foot was shaking as I stopped at another light. The church was right next to us, and in a split-second decision, I turned the blinker on.
"Okay," I said as I glanced behind us at the flashing lights on the interstate. "We're ditching the car. Get your stuff together. "
"Ditching the car?" Trent stared at me like I'd said we were going to walk to the moon.
"Right now," I said as the light changed and I turned into the quiet parking lot, ignoring the DO NOT PARK sign. "You hear those sirens? We left the scene of an accident, one we helped make. There's no way we can go back there, which makes this a marked car, and not just by your friends from Seattle. Soon as we find Ivy, she'll carry your bag, Mr. Kalamack. Think you can handle it that long?"
"First smart thing you've done all day," Trent muttered, his fingers tapping.
Jenks exhaled loudly, his wings an excited red as I put the car in park and turned the engine off. I was moving almost before the car stopped, gathering my stuff and jamming everything but the bag of trash into my bag, Trent's sunglasses included.
Trent was already out of the car, and I popped the trunk. My fingers trembled as I worked the door handle, finally getting the stupid thing open. Cool air slipped in, and the sound of kids. Damn, that had been close. What the devil were they putting in their coffee in Seattle?
"Where's my phone?" I said, hearing it start to hum. "Jenks, have you seen my phone?"
Jenks darted to the floorboards. "It's under the seat!" he said, then added, "It's Ivy. "
I stretched, reaching for it, exhaling loudly as my fingers found the smooth plastic. I wished my fingers would stop shaking. Jenks zipped out from under the seat, and flipping my phone open, I muttered, "I think we lost them. We're abandoning the car. Where are you?"
"From the sounds of the sirens, I'd say a couple of blocks away," she said. "What's going on?"
"I wish I knew. " Getting out, I looped my bag over my shoulder and grabbed my coat and Ivy's laptop. Jenks was a sparkle of dust as he searched the car, giving me a thumbs-up before he joined Trent. Trent already had our luggage out from the back, and he slammed the trunk shut hard, his hands going to his hips as he squinted at the busy road, the wind from the nearby Mississippi River shifting his shirt to show the familiar mark on his shoulder.
"We're at the church," I told Ivy. "I g
ot your laptop, and we're going to walk in. Soon as we find you, we'll head to your car. " Worry pinched my brow. "Ivy, they tried to kill us on the interstate. A semi tipped over, and I think they killed a carload of people. Someone will remember my mom's car. "
"You're at the church?" she asked, not caring. "You can't park there. "
"I'm not parking, I'm abandoning," I said, frustrated as I looked at the big, hand-painted sign. My mom would not be happy. She'd been royally pissed off when I'd left her car at a pull-off by the Ohio River last year. At least this time the car was in my name and she wouldn't be getting the impound notice.
"Ivy, I gotta go," I said, not able to handle everything I had and my suitcase, too.
"I'm on my way," she said, and I could hear the hoot of a steamship through the connection before it cut off.
I closed my phone and tucked it away, worry settling in deep as I looked from Trent, standing behind the car with our stuff, to the road. We'd find Ivy, and then we'd be out of here. "Can anything else go wrong today?" I whispered, thinking I could have been sitting on a dock somewhere drinking coffee by now if the coven had let me fly.
"Uh, you gotta stop saying stuff like that," Jenks said, darting up in a wash of dust. Alarmed, I followed his gaze across the busy street.
"Crap on toast," I said, the dappled sun going cold on me as I saw three blond men in slacks and polo shirts. They must have left their car on the interstate and walked. It wasn't that far, and a feeling of ice seemed to slip through me as I took them in.
One had really long hair; the other was short but perfectly proportioned; and the third, in the middle, reminded me of Quen, even though he looked nothing like him. It was his pace, both predatory and graceful. The other two carried themselves with a belligerent swagger, shoulders back, arms swinging, and hands well away from their sides. The Withons had gotten serious.
All three were watching us as they waited for four lanes of traffic to clear, but upon seeing me notice them, the one with the long hair simply stepped out into the street, his hand raised. Horns blew and cars screeched to a halt, the drivers yelling out their windows, ignored.
Trent turned to the noise, his lips parting as he took a deep, resolute breath. Funny, I'd have thought he'd look scared, not determined, and I stifled a surge of what might be a feeling of kinship.
"Well?" he asked me, looking surprisingly calm.
"Find Ivy," I said, digging through my shoulder bag for a stick of magnetic chalk and reaching out for the city's ley lines. I sucked my breath in as I found the one the arch was pinning down. Holy cow, it was big and way stronger than the one under Cincy's university. It felt slippery, being next to so much water, and had a metallic flavor, like fish.
I looked up with the chalk in my hands, surprised to find Trent still standing there with his suitcase, Jenks hovering between us. "Go!" I shouted, pushing the chalk into Trent's hand and giving him a shove. "Find Ivy. I'll take care of this and catch you up. " Oh God. I could do this, right? Where was my black-arts bodyguard when I needed him?
"Rache. . . ," Jenks whined, but Trent looked at the chalk in his hand and nodded. Saying nothing more, he turned and walked quickly away, with his suitcase, headed for the arch.
"Stay with him, will you?" I asked Jenks, my attention on the three guys. They had gotten to the median and hadn't slowed down. "Maybe get him to run a little?" I added, trying to be funny as I glanced at the worried pixy. "I'll be right behind you. Piece of cake. "
"I don't like this. "
My eyes flicked back to him, seeing his worry in the slant of his brow. "Me neither, but who do you think needs you more right now? I'll catch you up. Go! It's just three guys. Once you get Trent to Ivy, you can come back and play. "
He made a face, and with a harsh clatter, he bobbed up and down in agreement, then zipped after Trent, telling him to hurry up, that they had things to do today other than play tourist.
I felt better with Jenks watching Trent, but nervousness prickled through me as I turned back to the three blonds, now at the curb. The one with the long hair peeled off and started for Trent.
"Hey, Legolas!" I shouted, my boots grinding the gravel as I shifted. "You want him, you go through me. "
Ignoring me, he continued on. That was just insulting, and gathering up a wad of fish-tasting ever-after, I threw it at him.
The guy with the long hair raised his hand, a protection bubble flashing into existence to deflect the ever-after. Standard move. I hadn't really expected my first shot to land, and I started backing up more, my feet finding grass as I moved under the huge trees. But the men stopped, and that was all I wanted for the moment.
Side by side, the three men looked at me, traffic passing behind them in an uncaring blur. The guy with the long hair seemed to be the leader, and he frowned at Trent, disappearing through the bushes, before turning back to me. "Whatever he's paying you, the Withons will double it if you turn your back for ten minutes," he said loudly, and my face burned.
Why was I not surprised? Elves were elves. "He's not paying me anything," I said, just now realizing it. I was either really smart or really stupid.
The short guy on the end snorted his disbelief. "You're kidding. "
Embarrassed, I backed up until the roots of a thick tree stopped me. "And even if he was, I don't work like that," I said. "Obviously you do. Pathetic. I should have known you were amateurs when you tried to take us out on the expressway. You keep that up, and the union is going to come down hard on you. There are traditions for this kind of thing, procedures. Or haven't you been playing the game long enough to know?"
I was stalling, and the guy with the long hair knew it, taking a moment to tie his hair back and frown at the arch behind me. I glanced back, a knot of worry easing when I realized Trent was gone.
"Who wants the pleasure?" he asked, and the one in the middle, the one who reminded me of Quen, smiled.
"I'll do it," he said, and I tensed, shocked when a heavy lassitude filled me. My legs buckled, and that fast, I was on my knees, the tingle of wild magic coursing through me, robbing me of strength. There was music in my head, like green, growing things, and my hands hit the ground, bits of twigs biting into my palms, making them tingle. I gasped, my lungs reluctant to expand.
I fought it, finding strength from the ley line. I pulled it into me, feeling it burn. Teeth clenched, I looked up through the strands of my hair. The man in the middle widened his eyes as if in surprise. And then he started to sing.
My breath escaped me in a rush as his words washed over me, and my head bowed. My elbows trembled, and everything I had won back left me. "Stop. . . ," I whispered. I couldn't think, the thick, muzzy blanket swallowing me up as he sang, the lazy words unclear as they became my entire world. My pulse shifted, becoming slower, meeting his song beat for beat. It was too slow, and I fought for control, failing.
I felt myself start to fall, and a warm arm caught me, gently cradling me. I could smell cinnamon and wine, bitter and spoiled. I couldn't fight the music beating its way into my existence, making me live to a rhythm too slow, and my eyes shut as someone propped me up against the tree. I was losing my hold on the ley line, and in terror, I reached for it, trying to make a protection bubble in my mind to wall the music off. But it was already in my head, and I couldn't separate it from me. It was too beautiful. I couldn't help but listen.
"That was easy," I heard the long-haired elf say derisively, but I couldn't move. Couldn't fight the lassitude that had become my world, hated and familiar from my childhood.
"You have her then?" the voice asked, and finally the singing stopped. The fatigue lingered as the song echoed in my brain, circling over and over, going more slowly each time. It was killing me.
"Go," a breathy voice said, and my head landed on a shoulder. "I'll be done by the time you finish Kalamack. "
Oh God. Trent. But the spark quickly died. My breathing had slowed to a shallow hint. I wa
s faltering. I recognized it. I'd lived this before when I was younger. The grass sighed as two of them left, and it was only me and the elf singing me to death. So beautiful I couldn't let it go, couldn't forget it, mesmerized.
The air grew cold on my face, and I realized I was crying. I didn't want to die like this. Damn elf magic. Wild magic. Divine, slippery. . . alive, uncontrollable.
Uncontrollable, I thought, fastening on that idea. Malleable. I couldn't control wild magic, couldn't fight it. But maybe I could. . . change it.
My heart gave a thump, and refused to beat again as the man's voice faltered, leaving a single note in my mind to spiral down to a long, soft hum. Om, perhaps. The sound of peace, the sound of death.
Not yet, I thought, and then I added to it, giving my mind an ugly note to follow the one of pure beauty, and my heart gave a beat at the harshness of it, discordant and wrong. The arms holding me jumped in surprise, jarring me, and I added a new note to follow my first.
I could hear him singing again, the words unclear and so exquisite it broke my heart. My jaw clenched, and I drowned the purity of his song with my own ugly music, harsh and savage-survival. It was never beautiful except for its pure honesty.
Again my heart beat, and I took a sip of air, breaking away from the elven spell, tingling with wild magic as control came flooding back, his hold on me broken. My eyes flashed open. I was sitting on the ground, my back to a tree, his arm around me like a lover, sleeping in the sun as he sang to me.
Son of a bitch.
I sat up out of his reach, turning to see the shock in his green eyes as his voice faltered. There was a hint of resemblance to Trent in them, and I felt a moment of doubt. Could he do this, too? "That was a mistake," I rasped, and then I plowed my fist right into his gut.
The man grunted, bending over and bringing his knees to his chest. I swung my legs around to kneel, reaching for his hair. It was soft, like silk, and I clenched my fingers in it, anger giving me strength. I slammed the back of his head against the tree, and as he groaned, I staggered to my feet, giving him a mean kick in the ribs, hard enough to at least crack one or two, if not break them. I was pissed.
"You son of a bitch!" I yelled, seeing the mothers nearby gathering their kids and moving them away. "Try to kill me with your magic? Have a taste of mine!" I shouted, shredding the last of the music in my mind, trying to get rid of it completely.
He looked up at me, the pain from his ribs making him squint. I put my hand on his face, and flooded him with ever-after, burning the last of the wild magic from me with my own. He screamed and tried to pull away, but I followed him down, having to kneel when he fell over.
"You are slime, you hear me?" I shouted, wiping my eyes as I pulled away, my hand throbbing and me not caring. "Slime! And you know what? The Withons are slime, too, and Trent's going to make it to the West Coast if it kills me. And it won't!" Heart pounding, I gave him another kick, thinking I should do a lot more. All those people dead on the expressway. Glancing at the empty park, I went and picked up my bag, searching until I found my lipstick. Throwing the cap away, I scrawled "I killed them" on his forehead.
Panting, I lurched to my feet and dropped the ruined lipstick on his chest. He whimpered, his synapses singed. He wouldn't be doing magic any time soon. Turning to the park, I pushed myself into a staggering, ugly run.
I did not like St. Louis.