A Perfect Blood (The Hollows #10)(135)
Author: Kim Harrison

What if I kill her?

Ceri went to Winona, tears in her eyes as she gave her a hug. "I’m going to miss you," she said as she pulled back, disentangling Ray’s grip from her horn. "After you’re normal, you’re going to leave!"

"I’ll come back for visits," she assured her, tears welling and spilling over and making dark tracks on her cheeks. "Ceri, you’ve been so kind to me. I’m going to miss the girls. Trent, thank you!"

Al sat back against the table and checked his watch again. His eyes met mine, and he made a "get on with it" gesture.

"I need some space," I said, and Ceri wiped her eyes. Giving Winona a last hug, she whispered something in her ear, and backed off, coming to stand beside Al, looking beautiful next to him, Ray on the hip farthest from him.

"Isn’t this marvelously exciting!" Al said, and Ceri gave him a dry look.

I was starting to shake, and I forced my jaw to unclench. Smiling sickly, I put my hand on Winona’s shoulder and closed my eyes. I didn’t need to shut them to work the curse, but I didn’t want to see her pain if I did it wrong.

I renewed my grip on the ever-after, letting it pour into me. I could feel it pushing on Winona, and I whispered, "Touch the line. Let it flow through us both."

She took a shaky breath, and then the blockage eased and the energies between us balanced. "Don’t pull back," I said, and when I felt her nod, I yanked more of the line into me.

She gasped at the increased flow, and when I felt her soul tremble, I touched the demon collective. "Uno homo nobis restituted rem," I said, praying that I hadn’t forgotten anything and that Winona wouldn’t be paying the price for my stupidity. I’d picked out the trigger words myself, and though they didn’t need to make sense grammatically, I hoped they did – or I’d be the laughingstock of the ever-after.

Winona made a gasping gurgle, and my eyes flew open. A wash of expected ever-after covered her, a bright gold from my aura stained with demon smut. She began to crumple, and when I felt the magic start to backwash into me, I let go, whispering that I took the price for this before the imbalance could even rise.

"Al?" I said, backing up as I watched her convulse on the slate. "Al! I did it wrong!"

"Wait!" He grasped my shoulder and pulled me back when I went to help her. His eyes were fixed greedily on her. "Wait," he echoed himself, softer. "You did it right."

It didn’t look like that as she jerked and gagged, covered in my aura and a reflection of my smut crawling over her slumped form. Ceri had retreated to stand by Trent; they both looked worried. Ceri was holding her breath, and she let it out in a gasp when the ever-after shimmered a pure gold . . . and ran down from Winona, back into the ground like rain.

My heart thudded. She wasn’t moving. Al’s grip on my arm tightened, and he wouldn’t let go as the woman took a deep breath. Winona had fallen with her back to us, and she slowly sat up. My shoulders slumped in relief and I exhaled. I couldn’t see her face, but it had worked.

Her back to us, she looked at her arms, running her normal hands down her faultless skin. They were smooth, not covered in fur. Her bare feet poking out from under her skirt were white, with ten toes. Tugging her sweater straight, she turned to us, elated, and my mouth dropped open. "How do I look?" she said, then put a hand to her throat, recognizing that her voice was higher. "Did it work?"

Sort of? Swallowing, I looked at Ceri, then Al. His hand fell from me, and he shrugged.

Lightly curling brown hair framed her normal-looking face. Her chin might have been a shade more pointy than I remembered, but it was still normal. She had high cheekbones, a beautiful complexion, and a turned-up nose. Though subtly different from the young woman I’d first seen in the cage under the observatory, she looked human. Except that her eyes behind her long eyelashes were still slitted like a goat’s.

"Well?" she said, feeling her face and thinking that it had been a success.

"Um, it’s close," I said, and then, at a loss, I scrambled for my shoulder bag, digging until I handed her the small compact mirror.

Winona scrambled to her feet, wobbling as she came closer to the light, her attention on the mirror. Her eyes widened as she saw herself, and she put a hand to her face, feeling the new outline of her jaw. Al grunted when she stuck her tongue out, and Winona smiled when she saw it was normal.

"Close enough," she said as she felt behind herself. "Thank God that tail is gone."

"Are you sure?" Al purred. "Should we check?"

"Stop it," Ceri muttered, her jaw clenched in the dim light.

Close enough? "What about your eyes!" I exclaimed. "I don’t understand. They should have changed. Why didn’t they change?"

She looked at me and burst into tears.

"Oh, Winona," I said, reaching out for her and starting to cry myself. "I’m so sorry. I’ll try again. I’m sure I can fix them."

"No," she sobbed, stepping back. "It’s okay. I’m crying because I’m happy. I don’t care about my eyes." She looked at Al fearfully, then back to me, starting to cry even harder. "Thank you. Thank you, Rachel. I never thought I’d have feet again. I don’t care what my eyes look like!"

I patted her back, glad she was happy with the results and horribly relieved that I did the curse right – mostly – but I was still puzzled about the eyes. "Are you sure?" I asked again, and she pulled back, taking the linen handkerchief that Ceri handed her and wiping her nose.

"Absolutely," she said and sniffed, her face glistening in the dim light from the lantern. "I kind of like them."

"I thought you might," Al grumped, checking his watch again as he sat down at one of the chairs before the table. "You women are all demons in disguise."

Ceri gave Al a long look, up and down, reading the tells a thousand years of servitude had given her. "He didn’t know how to do it, either, did he?" she said, and Al frowned.

"No." I felt good, and I began to smile, feeling the fear of the last month finally start to dissolve. I’d been hiding from myself for a long time, thinking that by ignoring the parts I didn’t like and couldn’t change, I could deny them. Even when I’d admitted they were there, I hadn’t accepted them. Only now, when I understood who I was and took responsibility for my mistakes, did it all feel balanced, and as I looked at the faces around me, I felt a kinship that I’d never felt before – even if I didn’t trust Al.

I had stopped a human hate group from gaining demon magic and the potential threat that had been. I’d found a way to work with the I.S. and the FIB both, though they were still yammering about that stupid list. I had saved Winona. With Trent’s help, I’d even found the courage to tell Al I was alive and that I would fix the damage I’d made in the ever-after. Hell, I’d even discovered a new secret force and gotten on their watch list. Ivy and Jenks were slipping from me, but we had right now and I was going to hold on to that as long as I could. But perhaps what made me smile was the simple pleasure of having had pie with Trent – it felt good knowing that there would always be someone ready to do risky things with me, right down to taking on HAPA or the-men-who-don’t-belong.