Ever After

path.” He hesitated, and I saw him struggle to keep his face steady. “I will be out of contact for several hours. Questions?”

He closed the phone, breathing raggedly. “Hurry up, Jenks . . .”

I stood, my shadow covering Quen’s pale face. It made his pox scars stand out. I couldn’t do anything. If he was bleeding, I could stop the blood. If he had a concussion, I could treat him for shock. If he was delusional, I could sit on him until help arrived—but this? I didn’t know what to do, and I found I was rocking back and forth with Ray. She was silent, her beautiful dark green eyes scared.

“Maybe Ceri made it back to the stables,” I said, turning to the burn marks. “The horses are gone.”

Trent was taking Quen’s pulse again. “I called before you got here.” His voice was even, distracted. “The horses came in riderless. Ceri never would have left Quen.”

And yet, she was gone. Damn it, Quen had tried to stop them. I should have been here. I could have helped. “It doesn’t mean that demons took them,” I said, flushing when Trent looked up, his anger obvious.

Ray turned, her eyes tracking Jenks as he darted back from under the trees. His dust was almost nonexistent. “I did a circle two hundred yards out,” he said. “No sign of them.”

“Then do a wider one!” I said, and he frowned.

“I didn’t go out any farther because there’s a circle burn. We’re in the center.”

Shit. Quen couldn’t make a circle that big, even under stress. Neither could Ceri. It was demon made.

“If there’s a demon circle, then they’ve been taken,” he finished, and Trent’s hands clenched.

Ku’Sox. I needed to talk to Al, and I turned to the horses, thinking of my scrying mirror, hours away. I’d been promising myself I’d make a compact version, and I cursed myself for having put it off. I was completely out of contact with the ever-after. “It couldn’t be Ku’Sox,” I whispered, just wanting it to be anyone else. “It’s daylight, and he’s cursed to stay in the ever-after.”

“He’s working through Nick.” Trent stood up. “This is my fault.”

Fault? It was no one’s fault. “Don’t start,” I said harshly, and Jenks hummed his wings nervously. My tone brought Trent up short, and his eyes narrowed as he focused on me. “No, I mean it,” I said, jiggling Ray on my hip. “Ku’Sox could have as easily been going for you. Maybe he didn’t because I was with you, in which case it would be my fault they were taken.” Oh God, Ceri and Lucy with Ku’Sox was too terrifying to think about.

“You don’t understand. This is my fault,” Trent said, his voice angry. “I never should have left them. I thought I was his target. I sent them into danger, not away from it.” He looked at me, anguish in his green eyes. “He took them. Why? I was right there!”

“Because you’re an emancipated familiar,” I said, numb and almost sick to my stomach. “Ceri was freed, but you were emancipated. The papers had been filed and there was no way he could get away with it like he can with Ceri. Trent, give me a chance to look into it and get Ceri’s papers signed and filed. Lucy is my godchild. I think that comes under the leaving-me-and-mine-alone deal we have.” I hope. “We can get them back.”

Teeth clenched, he turned away. Another look of guilt slithered over his face. “I’m the only person who can make the Rosewood cure permanent,” he said, head down so the sun couldn’t reach his eyes. “It should’ve been me. I was ready if it had been me.”

His voice cracked and he stared at the river. It flowed uncaring before us, like the chaos that was running through his mind, always moving, never silent. I hovered over Quen as I remembered that hug last night. It had been unusual, especially in front of the newspeople. Had Trent known this might happen and had been trying to keep me from being a suspect? Up until recently, I would have loved to see him in jail.

“He took her to make me comply,” he said flatly. “Rachel, I can’t do that. I vowed to see to the survival of the elves. A resurgence of demons might be our end.”

“Maybe not. There’s the—”

“I can’t!” he shouted, and I became silent. “I was ready to give my life to keep the secret of the demons’ survival out of their hands. I was not ready to give theirs.”

“We’ll get them back,” I said as I shifted Ray’s weight, but even I knew it was only something to say. The doing would be harder. A faint thumping of a helicopter’s blades sounded in the late morning air, and Trent looked at his watch, then the woods. I touched his shoulder, finding it rock hard. “It’s going to be okay.” He jerked from me, and my resolve strengthened. “I’m telling you, if Ku’Sox has them, they will be okay!” God, please let them be okay.

He spun, the sound of the chopper blades growing. “How?” he barked. “The demon is sadistic and psychotic! He does things because he enjoys it, not for power or money, but because he enjoys it!”

Then maybe you shouldn’t have let him go from under the St. Louis arch, I thought, but to say it wouldn’t do any good; he’d freed Ku’Sox to save me. “Trent, I’ve been where you are now. It’s going to be okay. Give me a chance to talk to Al. We’ll get the papers filed and get them back. In the meantime, they will be safe. Will you look at me?”

He finally looked up, the anguish he was trying to hide stopping me cold. I held Ray tighter, and the little girl began to fuss. “Pardon me if I don’t share your trust of demons.”

“Trust has nothing to do with it!” I shouted, and Tulpa flattened his ears. “I know he’s psychotic, but he is not stupid, and he’s not going to eat his bargaining chip!”

Trent glared up at the circling copter, ignoring me. How would they even know where to land? “Ceri knows demons,” I said. “She will keep Lucy safe. She has her soul, and that makes all the difference. I promise I’ll find out what happened. We have a space. We need to think. Please give me a chance to do something.”

He wasn’t looking at me, his jaw set and his manner closed. I didn’t know if I’d made things better or worse. “Jenks,” he said suddenly. “They will have to land in the pasture and walk in. You’re the fastest person here. Will you tell them where we are?”

Frowning, I shifted Ray higher. We didn’t have time for this. I didn’t know what Quen’s aura was doing, but it wasn’t normal. “Are those trees important to you?” I asked Trent suddenly, and he looked at me blankly. Even Jenks hesitated. “Your dad didn’t kiss your mom under them or anything?”

Trent shook his head. “No.”

Jaw clenched, I pulled heavily on the ley line. Ray jumped as if smacked, but she wasn’t crying so I narrowed my focus and pushed it into my hand. “Adsimulo calefacio!” I shouted, throwing the curse at the nearest tree, superheating the sap in an instant. The tree exploded, and I spun, shielding Ray with my body. Bits of bark and sharp splinters struck my back.

The horses scattered with the muted sound of hooves. “Hey! Give me some warning!” Jenks shrilled as the last of the branches fell back to earth, and Trent looked up from where he had hastily covered Quen. The tree was scattered over a twenty-foot circle, the last pieces still falling. It had only been Molly that had run away, and Tulpa stood at a four-posted stiffness, his neck arched and his eyes wild. He snorted at me, shifting his skin to shake off the bits of bark and leaves.

“Consider yourself warned,” I said grimly, and after seeing Ray wide-eyed and quiet, I shifted her to sit more firmly on my hip and blew up two more trees. It was an ungodly mess, but there was room now, and better yet, the ambulance would know exactly where to land. Growing more angry, Tulpa withstood it all, held to the spot by Trent’s will alone.

Trent was silent as he joined me in the new sun, squinting up as the sound of the copter blades grew closer. I felt ill as the imbalance for the curse rose up, lapping about me. I could feel it cresting, and with no regret, I lifted my chin. I pay the cost for this, I thought, feeling the smut slither across my soul. The sun didn’t seem any dimmer, the sky was just as blue, but looking at the shattered stumps and splintered branches and wilting leaves, I knew my soul was a little bit darker.

But what was the point of a clean soul if Quen died and I could have helped?

“Thank you,” Trent said, and then he darted back to Quen as the long medical helicopter began to land. What wasn’t nailed down blew to the edges—and there was a lot. Ray began to wail, and I held her face to me, covering her head as I turned my back on the copter. Swearing, Jenks tucked in at my collar, and I stood there hunched and shaking, feeling as if I were at the center of a tornado.

Finally it was only bits of grass striking me, and I turned to see three men in scrubs jump out of the side, a