it felt good.
My hair lifted in a sudden swirl of power as I began the second half. With all but the word of invocation said, the energy crested, sending a swirl of prickles to push evenly through me. It hung within me for a moment, then it flashed from me in a flat pulse of yellow, to run like ripples over the contours of the land.
'Holy crap,' I said, then covered my mouth, hoping I hadn't just ruined the charm. I hadn't finished it yet. Shocked, I watched with my second sight as the flat sheet of ever-after energy sped away. The pulse was the color of my aura, and I felt uneasy, reminding myself that the spell had taken only the hue of my aura, not my aura itself.
The ring continued to expand until it went faint in the distance. I didn't know whether to be pleased or alarmed that it seemed to have gone all the way to the half-seen city. The outgoing ripple didn't leave the ever- after landscape unchanged, and my awe shifted to alarm as I realized that in its wake was a smattering of glittering green smears.
Bodies. They were everywhere. Beside me I could see the small ones, some no bigger than my pinky nail. Farther out, only the larger ones could be discerned. My first gut-twisting reaction dulled as I realized the charm was picking up everything that was dead: rodents, birds, bugs, everything. A huge number of big ones lay to the west in neat and orderly rows and columns. I had a moment of panic until I realized they were right where Trent's stables lay in the real world and were probably the bodies of his past race winners.
My heart slowed, and I tried to remember the last word, the one that would sensitize the charm to show only human remains. Brow furrowed, I stood in Trent's office, my feet firmly in a gateway to the ever-after, trying to remember what it had been.
'Oh, isn't this a delight,' came a richly cultured voice from behind me.
I waited for someone to tell me who had just walked into Trent's office, but no one said a word. The hair pricked on the back of my neck. Anticipating the worst, I kept my eyes closed and my second sight open, and turned. My hand rose to my mouth and I froze. It was a demon dressed in a robe and slippers.
'Rachel Mariana Morgan?' it said, then smiled wickedly. I swallowed hard. Okay—it was my demon. 'What are you doing in Trenton Aloysius Kalamack's ley line?' it questioned.
My breath came faster and I waved a hand behind me, trying to find the edge of the line. 'I'm working,' I said, my hand throbbing as I found it. 'What are you doing here?'
It shrugged, its stance lengthening as it molded into the familiar vision of a lanky, leather-clad vamp with blond hair and a torn ear. Slumping into a bad-boy swagger, it licked its pouty lips, the chain running from a back pocket to its belt loop jingling. My breath went shaky. It was getting better at picking Kisten out of my mind; it had him down perfectly.
A pair of smoked glasses with round frames appeared in its hand, and it snapped the earpieces out with a quick flick of the wrist. 'I felt you, love,' it said, its teeth lengthening to that of a vampire's as it put the glasses on to hide its red goat eyes. 'I simply ha-a-a-ad to see if you had come for a visit. You don't mind if I be this one, do you? He's got the balls of a bull.'
I felt a touch on my hand and I jerked away. I could smell burnt coffee, and I wished Edden would quit doing that. 'Who the devil is she talking to?' the FIB captain asked softly.
'I don't know,' Jenks said. 'But I'm not going into that line to see.'
'Leave?' the demon said, its grin widening. 'No, no, no. Don't be silly. I want to see how much ever-after you can manipulate. Go on, love. Finish your little charm,' it encouraged.
In the background I could hear Trent and Quen having an intense argument. I wasn't willing to open my eyes and risk losing sight of the demon, but I thought Trent was winning. Nervous, I licked my lips, hating myself when the vision of Kisten did the same with a mocking slowness. 'I forgot the last word,' I admitted, then stiffened as I remembered. 'Favilla,' I blurted in relief, and the demon clapped his hands in delight.
I jumped as a second wave of ever-after jolted through me. Clutching my arms about myself as if to keep my aura intact, I watched the flat pulse of yellow dart away, following the path of the first. Algaliarept moaned, staggering as if in pleasure as it passed through it. I watched its reaction in near horror. The demon obviously liked it, but if it could have taken my aura, it would have by now. I think.
'Spun candy,' it said, closing its eyes. 'Flay me and slay me. Spun candy and nectar.'
While Algaliarept ran its hand over the grass and licked from its fingers the yellow smear of ley line power my charm had left on it, I scanned the surrounding countryside. My shoulders tightened in worry. Every glittering blur marking death was gone. Algaliarept seemed content seining the grass for remnants of my spell, so I snuck a quick look behind me, my fast spin jerking to a stop.
One of the horse graves glowed a bright red. It wasn't a horse, it was a person.
It was Trent, having stepped into it to see what I was seeing. His gaze went to the flash of red, widening, but his shock was nothing compared to when the demon shifted into a mirror copy of me, sleek and dangerous in a black silk body stocking.
'Trenton Aloysius Kalamack,' it said, making my voice sexier than I ever could. It suggestively licked the last of my spell off its finger, and I wondered if the demon was making me look better than I actually did. 'What a dangerous direction your thoughts have taken,' the demon said. 'You should be more careful whom you invite to play in your ley line.' It hesitated, its hip cocked as it squinted over its glasses and compared our auras. 'Such a pretty pair you make, like matched horses in my stables.'
And it disappeared in a sensation of tingles, leaving me to stare across the ever-after landscape at Trent.
Twenty-One
My heels clacked with more authority than I felt as I walked down the long planked porch of Trent's foaling stable ahead of Trent and Quen. The empty row of box stalls faced the south and the afternoon sun. Atop them were the vet apartments. No one was in them, seeing as it was fall. Though horses could have their foals any time of the year, most stables enforced a strict breeding program so the mares all dropped their foals at once, getting the dangerous period over with at one time.
I thought the temporarily abandoned buildings were a perfect place to hide a body.
A faint baying of a beagle lifted over the hazy afternoon. My head jerked up and my heart gave a pound. Farther down the dirt road was a kennel the size of a small apartment complex. Dogs were standing against their wire runs, watching.
Trent brushed past me, the breeze of his passage smelling of fallen leaves. 'They never forget their quarry,' he murmured, and I tensed.
Trent and Quen had accompanied us out here, leaving Jonathan behind to supervise the FIB officers still coming in from the gardens. The two men angled for an alcove tucked dead center between the row of box stalls. The wood-walled room was completely open to the wind and sun on one side. By the rustic furniture, I guessed it was a box stall converted to an outdoor meeting place for the vets to relax during births and such. I didn't like that no one was with them, but I wasn't about to join them. Slowing, I leaned against a support post, deciding I could keep an eye on them from there.
Three FIB officers with their cadaver dogs stood by the dog van parked in the shade of a huge oak tree. The doors were open, and Glenn's authoritative voice drifted to hang over the sun-warmed pastures. Edden was with them, looking out of place on the fringes. It was obvious that Glenn was in charge, by the way Edden kept his hands in his pockets and his mouth shut.
Flitting over them was Jenks, his wings red in excitement as he got in the way and offered a steady stream of
