Ever After (The Hollows #11)(120)
Author: Kim Harrison

Trent turned to me, shock in his eyes. It was as if I’d never truly seen him, and it shook me to my core. I blinked fast, wanting to touch him but afraid.

With a pop of air, Ku’Sox was abruptly standing between us and the rising moon. Snarling, he took two running steps, throwing a black ball of hate like a pitcher. I stiffened, still lost in Trent’s mind. Ku’Sox hardly seemed to matter compared to the depth of connection the rings could foster. I’d felt nothing like this when Quen had worn them.

Trent looked to Ku’Sox. At the last moment, I pulled deeply on the line Trent and I were connected to, feeling our circle strengthen. Our shared emotion about Ku’Sox-neither entirely his, entirely mine, or entirely real-echoed through us as we stood unbowed as Ku’Sox’s magic sped forward, shedding silver sparkles like pixy dust, the very air hissing from the assault.

It hit our barrier with a shower of energy, lighting the inside of our circle with a black haze. Bis’s tail tightened, and I heard in Trent’s and my mind, the drums of his wild magic. They blended with the humming purity of Al’s line-and grew strong. There was no hesitation in Trent’s abilities as there had been between Quen and me, and a small part of me wondered why.

"No monologue," I taunted as Ku’Sox took in his lack of result. "I like that."

"I’m going to eat you from the inside out, Rachel Mariana Morgan," Ku’Sox intoned, his hunched form circling us like a big black cat.

His words iced through me, and Trent shuddered.

"Rachel?" Bis warbled, and I turned to follow Ku’Sox, backing up a step at Trent’s clenched jaw and pained expression. Ku’Sox was trying to use him.

"Fight it!" I said, grabbing his upper arms. "Trent, you can say no!"

"No, he can’t," Ku’Sox mocked, flinging his coat out of his way as he stalked closer, breathing on our bubble to make the black run to him. "Dolore adficere . . . Do it, slave!"

Trent shuddered under my grip. The music in his mind faltered, the rushing sound of the line in mine grew loud as Bis’s tail tightened. "I am yours," Trent gasped through clenched teeth, and my hand sprang from him, thinking I was betrayed. Trent fell to a knee, looking up at me, pleading. "I. Am. Yours. Claim me, Rachel! Damn your morals and claim me!"

Breath held, I spun to look at Ku’Sox, my hand falling to touch Trent’s shoulder. "Mine!" I shouted, feeling Bis’s weight light on my shoulder and the slave rings burn between us. I fastened on the wild music, remembering the rings’ creation, the ugly promise of domination they held, and I claimed it. Black filth roared in as the rings found their purpose and came truly alive-smut for this ancient magic of stream and wood, song and deviltry. "He’s mine!" I shouted again, and Trent’s head snapped up, his eyes wild as my will dominated him.

Fear slid through me, but the music had grown stronger, not less, and Trent panted, blood leaking from his nose. I didn’t know if I had him or not. "You’re bleeding," I said, wiping it away with my scarf. His eyes met mine at the soft touch, and a chime seemed to shake the ley line, realigning the universe.

He was mine.

"No!" Ku’Sox raged, hammering on our bubble.

Trent was mine, and scared out of my socks, I extended a hand to help him rise. I was responsible for him, and I didn’t want to be. Was this what Trent felt for his people? He was stronger than I.

"You can back off now," he panted, and I hastily lifted my domination from his thoughts until Trent sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"Sorry."

"You will not take him from me!" Ku’Sox raged. "I will eat all that you hold dear, I will swallow the sun. I will burn the moon!"

Making a pair of horns with his pinkie and thumb, Trent showed Ku’Sox the back of his hand.

Ku’Sox’s eyes widened at the ancient elven insult. With a cry of outrage, he slammed his foot into our circle, bouncing back and screaming when it repelled him with a burst of ozone-tainted energy. "Mine!" he screamed like child in a tantrum.

"Not anymore," I whispered, wondering if we should jump out. We were kind of stuck in this circle. The half-moon was rising. If I remembered right, it would be almost straight overhead at sunrise. We had hours to finish this, or Newt would kill me herself.

"Perhaps we should circle him?" Trent suggested, and I wiped my palms on my pants.

"Good idea," I said, wanting to leave our circle as much as I’d want to jump into a bath of ice. "Pound him into the earth. It’s elven charms he doesn’t know. After you."

Trent looked at me, and it was all I could do but not laugh for crying. He had the drive, I had the strength, and neither of us had the skill. What in hell had Al been talking about?

"I’ll go," Bis said, and I reached out after him, cursing my hesitation.

"Bis, no!" I shouted, his tail a whisper across my neck, and then he was through our bubble, darting madly to evade Ku’Sox’s thrown charms.

"Hey!" I cried, and Trent dove through the bubble as well, rolling to a stop behind a slump of rock. I was surprised that the circle around me hadn’t fallen. Perhaps the slave rings enabled us to share the same energy fields.

My head snapped up as wild magic coursed through me and Trent threw a charm. "Adsimulo calefacio!" I shouted, sending my own curse hot on the heels of Trent’s.

Bis flipped in midair to avoid Ku’Sox’s strike, his wings gray in the moonlight. Trent’s spell hit the demon’s raised shield, and the hazy black shattered with the sound of glass. Unhurt, Ku’Sox turned, his eyes widening as my incoming curse hit him square in the chest.

"Yes!" Trent exclaimed, elated as Ku’Sox was thrown back, an ugly gold and black crawling over him, making his back arch. But I wasn’t so confident, and I pulled heavily on the line, stockpiling energy until my head hurt and Bis’s hair stood on end as he landed on a crag of stone.

"Again!" Trent shouted, his face grim, and together we struck.

Ku’Sox jerked, a haze covering him for an instant as he jumped out of the way, and our combined curses hit the empty ground and exploded, light seeming to splinter and fly.

I ducked, throwing myself behind a rock as our curse flew like shrapnel. Fire burned in my mind, and I rose up, horrified. Trent had taken refuge under a bubble, and since our broken curse held his aura, the energy tore right through it.

He was down, his lab coat filthy with rock, the gritty wind shifting his hair about his closed eyes. But he breathed.

"Rachel! There!" Bis shouted, pointing, and I spun, my breath catching as I saw Ku’Sox leaning against a boulder the size of a small car. The demon smiled, hurt but alive.