father…Damn him!'
'Trenton!' Ceri's voice came faintly from over the graveyard as my consciousness started to slip. 'Stop! Stop it!'
I felt her fingers trying to wedge between Trent's grip and my skin, and I choked as it loosened again. I couldn't break his hold, and my oxygen-starved muscles were like wet paper.
'She has to die,' Trent said, his voice close and rasping in my ear. 'I heard them. My father. My father mended her,' he agonized, and his grip tightened. 'She can start it up again! Not now! I won't let her!'
His arm muscle bunched, and as pain struck through me, I heard my last breath gurgle.
'Let go,' Ceri pleaded, and I saw her dress. 'Trent, stop it!'
'They called her kin!' Trent shouted. 'I watched her take a demon's name. She was summoned out under it!'
'She's not a demon,' Ceri demanded. 'Let her go!' Her braid slapped me as she bent over us and tugged at his fingers. 'Trenton, let her go! She saved Quen. She saved all of us. Let her go! She's not a demon!'
His grip loosened, and as I gasped, retching almost, he shoved me away from him.
I fell against the tombstone that he had hammered my head against, and I held it, fingers shaking as I pulled lungful after lungful of air into me, holding my neck and trying to find a way to breathe that didn't hurt. 'She might not be a demon,' Trent said from behind me, and I turned. 'But her children will be.'
I slumped back against the stone, feeling the blood drain from me. My children…
Ceri was kneeling beside him, her hands on him as she felt for damage, ready to hold him back if he tried to finish the job. But all I could do was sit in the sun and stare. 'What?' I rasped, and he laughed bitterly.
'You're the only female witch my father fixed,' he accused, taking the red ribbon from his neck and letting it fall to the ground. 'Lee can't pass on the cure. It's in the mitochondria. You're the only one who could start it all up again. But I'll kill you first!'
'Trenton, no!' Ceri exclaimed, but he was too weak to do anything.
Staring at him, I felt my reality start to crumble. God, no. It was too much.
'Trent,' Ceri was saying, kneeling between us, trying to distract him. 'She saved us. You have a cure waiting in your labs because of her. We can be whole again, Trent! Kill her, and you stain our beginning. You lose everything! Stop fighting them. It's killing us!'
From under the mat of his hair, Trent seethed, his eyes trying to burn me where I sat. I felt dirty, unclean. Filthy.
'Your father saved her because he was friends with her father,' Ceri rushed. 'He didn't know what it would do. It's not your fault. It's not her fault. But she gave you the way to make us whole today. Right now.' Ceri hesitated, then added, 'Perhaps we deserved what happened.'
Trent's attention tore from me, landing on Ceri. 'You don't believe that.'
Ceri was blinking to keep from crying, but a tear slid down, making her all the more beautiful. 'We can start again,' she said. 'So can they. The war almost destroyed both of us. Don't start it up again. Not when we finally have a chance to live. Trent. Listen to me.'
I shut my eyes. Why doesn't it go away?
In a rush of sound, Ivy and Jenks arrived together, standing over us in shock while Ceri held Trent back from killing me.
'Hi,' I croaked, still holding my neck, and Ivy dropped to me.
'What happened?' Ivy asked, and my chest clenched to an unbearable tightness. She didn't know. How could I tell her? 'You're back,' she added, checking me for damage. 'Are you okay? Your mother said you went with Al at Eden Park. Damn it, Rachel, stop trying to fight everything by yourself!'
I opened my eyes at the concern in her voice. I wondered whether I should just stay in the ever-after. At least there, I wouldn't be putting my friends in danger. Kin. Witches are kin to demons. Suddenly it was making a whole lot of sense. Demons had cursed elves into a slow slide of extinction. Had it been done in retaliation? Had the elves hit the demons first?
'Rache, you okay?'
No. I wasn't okay, but I couldn't seem to get my mouth to work to say the words. I wasn't a demon, but my children would be. Damn it! This wasn't fair.
'Is it Trent?' Ivy said, her anger rounding on him, and I shook my head. 'Get out of here, Kalamack, before I pound you into the ground!'
Ceri's delicate form helped Trent up, and as they hunched into each other, she helped him hobble to the street gate. She turned once, the tears flowing freely from her anger-black eyes. 'I'm sorry, Rachel. I-I…'
I looked away, unable to bear it. I wasn't ever going to have kids now. Not with anyone. Never. Stupid-ass elf. Look what they did to me.
'Rachel,' Ivy said, forcing me to look at her. 'Tell me what happened.'
She gave me a shake, and I stared at her, numb. Jenks was on her shoulder. He looked terrified, like he already knew. 'Trent,' I started, and tears spilled over. Wiping them angrily, I tried again. 'Trent's dad…he…'
Jenks took to the air and got in my face. 'You're not a demon, Rachel!'
I nodded, trying to focus on him. 'I'm not,' I said, choking on my words. 'But my kids will be. Remember last year when I said witches and demons both started in the ever-after? I think the elves spelled the demons, magically stunting their kids and starting the witches, and when Trent's dad fixed me, he broke the genetic checks and balances they put in to keep the demons from having children. Witches are stunted demons, and now demons can come from witches again. From me.'
Ivy's hand fell from me, and I saw the horror in her quiet face.
'I'm sorry,' I whispered. 'I didn't mean to screw up your life.'
Ivy sat back, stunned, and the sun blinded me. Tired beyond belief, I looked up to see Ceri helping Trent out of the garden.
What in hell had it all been for?
Thirty-four
Blue and pink baby booties had replaced the bats hanging in the sanctuary, the store-bought garland draping from one end of the sanctuary to the other. A cutout of a stork stood on the coffee table, and Ivy's piano was covered in yellow and green paper tablecloths. The white cake on it was surrounded by pixies snitching frosting. That is, the ones who weren't clustered over Ceri, ooohing over the delicate pair of baby booties and lace collar that Matalina and her older daughters had made.
The happy elf sat across from me in Ivy's chair, surrounded by pixies, wrapping paper, and gifts. She was nearly glowing, and it made me feel good. Outside, the falling rain brought darkness early, but in here, it was warm, comfortable, and full of the peace of companionship.
One month pregnant is way too soon for a baby shower, I thought as I leaned into the cushions while Ceri read the card from my mother, the box on her lap suspiciously similar in size to a humidifier. But watching Ceri's delight, I knew it had been the right thing to do. We needed to celebrate the beginning of a life. The beginning of something.
Ivy was to my left on the couch, crammed into the corner as if she didn't know her limits anymore. She'd been like that all week, hovering but hesitant, and it was driving me nuts. Her gift to Ceri had been the first one opened: an absolutely stunning lace christening dress of intricate beauty. Ivy had gone red at the fuss Ceri had made over it, and I was sure that Ivy had picked the delicate bit of feminine beauty out because she had given up the idea of ever having children herself. Though she never talked about it, I knew Ivy would rather remain childless than perpetuate her vampiric misery upon someone she loved, especially an innocent who was dependent on her for everything.
I squished the crumbs of my cake up with a fork as my eyes drifted to the present Jenks and I had gone in on together, wondering what it said about us. I had bought a set of redwood building blocks, and Jenks had painted garden flowers and bugs on them to go along with the alphabet. He was working on another set for his children, determined they would all know how to read before spring.
