Ever After

gesture, and I half stood, my dress pinching as I stretched across the table to reach my clutch bag. “Okay, I’m game.”

Jenks flew over to eavesdrop, and I wondered if he’d suggested it in the hopes of finding out about Jax. I heard a stitch give when I fell back into my chair with my purse. Wings clattering, Jenks hovered over my open phone as I scrolled, his dust making the screen blank out until he moved away.

“Tink’s panties, why do you still have Denon’s number in your address book?” Jenks said, and I made a face at him. Not only was Denon no longer my boss, but the man was dead, entombed and burned to ash in one of Cincy’s tunnels. I helped with the last part, but he got dead all on his own.

“You got a problem with that?” I asked him, and he held his hands up in surrender. Embarrassed, I punched Nick’s number and put the phone to my ear. The hum of Jenks’s wings was loud as he came to sit on my shoulder so he could hear.

“I don’t think it’s good anymore,” I said, but then my bobbing foot stilled when the phone machine clicked on and an automated voice told me to leave a message. It was generic but familiar. The number was good. I finally got a beep, and I filled the silence with my attitude.

“Hello-o-o-o, Nic-k,” I said, hitting the K hard. “You might want to consider getting a new number if you’re going to be doing bad-guy stuff.” Jenks flew backward off my shoulder, giving me a thumbs-up with both hands. “I saw you tonight—running away as usual. If I catch you, you will be in the I.S. lockup with a zip strip bolted to your forehead. That’s a promise from me to you, you hear me, crap for brains? These are babies, not a piece of antiquated piece of history no one cares about. You are stealing someone’s child, and I’m going to—”

The phone clicked. “Rachel.”

The flat sound of my name cracked through me, and my eyes darted to Jenks, now standing on my plate. It was Nick all right, his tone dry and accusing. The image of his narrow face, scruffy stubble, and casual, unkempt clothes flashed through my mind, and my gut tightened. What had I ever seen in him? But behind his rough exterior was a wickedly clever mind, one that was going to get him in a hole in the ground.

“Oh,” I said lightly. “So you have a pair after all, huh?”

“You left me with no recourse but to sell my soul,” Nick said.

“Oh please.” I stood, pacing to the other side of the kitchen with Jenks hovering by my ear. “You sold your soul all on your own. I never made you summon a demon. I asked you once, but you were summoning him already, so I’m not taking the blame for that. Besides, you don’t belong to Al. Who owns you, Nickie? Is it Newt? You almost deserve her.”

“There you go again,” he said, his bitter laugh clear through the phone. “Jumping to the wrong conclusion. Listen to me this time. You left me with no recourse but to sell my soul. Thank you.” My lips parted. “I never would have met Ku’Sox any other way.”

Oh. Shit. My gut tightened even more, and Jenks dropped to the counter before me, pale and his wings unmoving. Ku’Sox was totally deranged and psychotic—along with coddled, endured, and hated by his entire race as their beloved and mentally unstable attempt to circumvent the elven curse that had made them basically barren. The lab-created demon had a tendency to eat people alive because he thought his soul was missing something. Maybe he was right. Nick stealing surviving Rosewood babies for him wasn’t for the good of his species. He was up to something, something really bad. I had to call Algaliarept. My teacher had to know of this like yesterday.

“Son of a Disney whore,” Jenks whispered.

I spun, hearing the silence of the church. “Listen to me,” I said, and Nick snorted. “Ku’Sox is psychotic. He’ll kill you as soon as he has everything he needs.”

“Which is why I haven’t told him how to make the enzyme that keeps his babies alive,” Nick said, his voice distant. “God, you think I’m stupid?” He wasn’t really paying attention, and that made me even angrier.

“You think you have something on him?” I exclaimed, and I heard pixy kids whisper from the hallway. “Nick, you almost deserve what’s coming. Just stop. Okay? Stop. If you stop and go away, I won’t have to hurt you. Better yet, put the babies back, and maybe I can get the rest of the demons to not kill you, too. You’re not going to come out of this alive.”

“You’re not the only one who wants to cheat death,” he said bitterly. “I’m hanging up now. Don’t bother calling back. This number isn’t going to work anymore.”

I stared at the phone as he clicked off. “Son of a bastard,” I whispered, knowing now why he’d gone to Ku’Sox. He wanted power and was hoping Ku’Sox would give it to him. “Sweet loving son of a bastard.” More tired than angry, I leaned against the counter, my dress pulling tight against me. Head bowed, I set the phone down with an exaggerated softness. Nick was going to get himself killed, but not before he hurt a lot of people and broke the balance of power that kept Inderland and humans from open conflict. Ku’Sox was halfway to making his own army of day-walking demons—unless I did something about it.

My dinner sat on the table across the kitchen, the two bites out of it looking odd and disconnected—coffee and a sandwich when I’d been expecting to end my day with grilled salmon and tiramisu. “Where’s my scrying mirror?” I said softly, and Jenks lit into motion, darting to the open shelving under the counter.

Lungs full of stale air, I leaned to get it. My dress tightened again, and with a smooth motion, I pulled the scrying mirror from between the demon textbooks and my favorite cookie book. Holding it tight to my chest, I sat back down in my chair and rested it on my knees. It was wrong side up, the flat silver back dull and mundane. “I’m calling Al,” I said, though that was obvious. “He needs to know what’s going on.”

The red-wine-tinted glass sent sparkles through my fingertips and the tops of my legs as I arranged it right side up, the silver-edged etchings that I’d put in it catching the light and gleaming. The round, plate-size glass holding the demon curse had been scribed with the figures to make it into sort of an interdimensional cell phone. It was really beautiful, and the fact that I had made it was a source of guilty pride.

“Keep your kids out in case he comes over,” I warned Jenks, but he had already chased them back into the garden, and I set my right hand in the center glyph. Tapping a line, I felt my mind expand as my awareness was dumped into the demon collective. I could still see the kitchen, hear the pixies playing outside, but I could also hear the faint whispers of a handful of conversations—demons in their chat room, I guess. It was uncomfortable, but it would ease if I could get Al to pick up.

Rachel calling Al, come in, Al, I thought sourly. It wasn’t even midnight yet. He should still be up. Most demons kept to a witch’s sleep schedule, and they did sleep. Al had given me his bedroom after examining the closet-size room I’d purchased from another demon. His old room had safeguards built into the walls, and he didn’t trust I could take care of myself—yet.

Yo! Are you there, Your Immenseness? Come in, Al. I need to talk to you!

Jenks’s wings were humming, and my move to look up at him was cut short when Al’s thoughts slid into my mind, somehow maintaining the slightly dry, lordly tone of a British aristocrat that his verbal speech invariably had. What do you want? We’re busy.

“We?” I said aloud, knowing that my verbal speech would carry through the mirror, reflected perfectly in my thoughts. Jenks wouldn’t be able to hear Al’s responses, but it was polite to include him as much as I could.

Ah, me, Al amended, his embarrassment making it through the attempted barrier that he tried unsuccessfully to erect between us. What do you want? I’m busy. If it’s about canceling your next lesson, forget it. Wednesday midnight, or I’ll find you.

I hesitated, getting the faintest impression of books and candles, but his thoughts weren’t tinged with thoughts of the library. He was in his closet of a room, etching the walls with curses to make a new safe room. Paranoid, are we? “Ah, we might have a problem,” I said, meeting Jenks’s eyes and seeing his encouragement. “It’s Nick.”

How many nasty little men do you need, love? Isn’t Trenton enough? Al thought, clearly distracted. You can’t have him. Ku’Sox would put too high a price just because it’s you. Cut him loose. He’s toad shit.

My jaw dropped. Hovering across from me, Jenks’s wings dropped in pitch as he reflected my shock, not knowing why. “You know Ku’Sox has Nick?” I said, warming. “And you don’t care? You didn’t tell me?”

Of course I know. And no, I don’t care. His thought was distant, as if I was only getting half his attention, and I wondered what he was doing. Why do you? If all you’re after is abuse, I can give it to you far more deliciously than a human.