Ever After (The Hollows #11)(123)
Author: Kim Harrison

Trent’s eyes met mine, and we both flushed.

Behind him, a rock exploded as Ku’Sox’s discarded magic rolled into a rock. The watching demons complained loudly, and I felt a dozen protection circles go up.

"Yes, yes, slave rings have a silver lining," Al grumped, holding his bound hands out. "If you two are done mooning over each other, I could use some assistance."

I started, and Bis giggled from my shoulder.

"They are charmed," Al said loftily, as Trent touched them and a strand of wild magic spun through my mind. The curse holding Al quavered, resisted . . . and finally fell when I gave Trent’s magic a push.

"Mar-r-r-rvelous," Al drawled, a dangerous light entering his eyes as he turned to the east, to Ku’Sox. His thick hands clenched, and my skin prickled at the energy he drew in from his line atop the valley overlooking the dead city. "You work well together. Good to know."

"Do we jump?" Bis asked, riding the high of the innocent.

I looked over the flat plain below us, seeing the world spread out, dim and red under the rising moon. It felt right that here, at the top of the world, it would end.

"We fight," I said, and Al chuckled, low and long.

Ku’Sox was pacing, his form low and hunched as he watched us in our bubble.

"Wear my ring," Al said, his glove gone as he held out one of his wedding bands. I didn’t think he’d ever wear them again.

Trent reached for it, and Al closed his fist. "Rachel is the fulcrum upon which all things will shift tonight. You, Trent are bound to her. She and I are bound together. Only Rachel can focus both our strengths. An elf’s drive for justice, a demon’s lifetime of skills, and Rachel’s strength."

I swallowed hard, flinching at a spark of energy cascading over our bubble. Al and I wearing his wedding rings? Now that I knew what they really were, it held an entirely different feeling.

"I’m okay with that," Trent said, and a slow smile curved over Al’s face.

Al looked at Trent for a moment as he remembered something, then his eyes rose to mine. "I never thought I’d work with an elf-again," he said, and he slipped his ring on my finger.

I wavered as his energy mixed with mine, Bis hissing as the strength of both men seeped deep, reading their own surprise as they found common ground within me. "Can I survive this?" I said, meaning to be flippant, but finding I really wanted to know. I was humming, overly full and both of them demanding I do something. It was too much. I looked past our bubble to see Newt standing next to Dali, watching without a hint of emotion showing.

"Prince of the elves, eh?" Al said as his heavy hand took my elbow and shifted me to look east.

"Yup," Trent said, and I shivered as his music fell through my mind. I knew what to do with it. I had only to speak.

"And you are the world breaker," Al said to Bis, and the gargoyle’s grip on me tightened.

"No!" he exclaimed, delighted. "Really?"

"And I’m your sword," I added. I had once been Trent’s sword, too, when he was on his elf quest.

"You still are," Trent whispered, reading my mind through the bond of the rings.

I sighed. "And what am I to you, Al?"

"My maid," he said brightly. "Shall we do this?"

I let the bubble fall. We would meet the next day free, or dead.

Ku’Sox snarled at us, and I thought he looked like a dog. "The moon is rising! Rachel, face me and die!"

"Quite right!" Al said. "Make war when the moon rises. Make love when it sets." He winked at me, and I gathered the line to me. "Ku’Sox, you slimy little worm! Now you will see what a demon is!"

"By the Goddess!" Trent cried as my knees collapsed and I fell, the serpent of black magic unwinding from my head. The power of the demon bands was twofold, not just each of us having our strength combined, but instinctively knowing what the other was doing. It was beautiful. It made us deadly. It was an ancient war machine. The rings were made for this. And now we had access to the weapons vault.

Chapter Thirty

Up! Stand up!" Trent muttered, his tight grip on my arm pulling me upright. Dazed, I felt Trent steady me as Al metaphorically cleared his throat, opening up his arsenal of black charms stored in the collective more than five thousand years ago during the bloody war between his people and Trent’s.

Ugly black monstrosities rose and fell in my mind, charms to mutilate, break, and destroy by playing upon the base desires, guilt, and fears of another. It was numbing, and I felt the alien desire to crush rise up in me. Al’s presence was smothering.

I leaned on Trent and opened my mind to him.

With a whimper, we both fell as Al’s bearing sucked in Trent. "Stand up!" Al demanded, and we did, overshadowed and panting. It was getting easier to bear. "We have a worm to crush!" Al cried out, his eyes alight with the promise of vengeance.

"I’m okay," I said softly, then lifted my chin, accepting who I was and the history of those who came before me. I may not have written these hideous expressions of hate, but I understood them, even as I shuddered at their monstrosity.

Ku’Sox didn’t have a clue or a prayer.

"Ku’Sox Sha-Ku’ru!" Al shouted, his voice echoing back from the broken earth. "Come forth and die!"

I took a deep breath as the painful, unharmonious jangle of lines merged into the collective. I felt Trent’s awe, and with the imaginary sound of sliding bolts and echoing thumps, an ugly curse grew as if rising from the depths. Al’s chanting pulled it into being, and I felt my face go ashen. It would do unspeakable damage, destroying Ku’Sox from his mind out, burning with endless fire and crushing his soul to nothing. That such things were possible seemed the worst kind of punishment.

"Terga et pectora telis transfigitur!" Al proclaimed, pushing out with both hands.

Trent jerked, and the energy of the spell pulled through me, burning my brain. The curse sped to Ku’Sox, unseen with a faint distortion as if the very air was recoiling from it.

Trent touched my arm, and I followed his gaze to the black haze coming at us. "Incoming!" I cried, and Al shoved me from him.

I fell on Trent, the ground slamming into us. A shimmer of a protection circle rose up, pulled into being by one or all of us. Al’s charm nicked the edge of Ku’Sox’s own circle, making an ear-numbing scream as it ricocheted to pinwheel erratically into a tall tower of rock.

I propped myself up on an elbow, jaw dropping when the mountain took the hit and collapsed inward, sucking into a loud bang that echoed to the black horizon.

"I’m not taking the smut for that," Trent whispered, inches away as the demons watching applauded. We got up, shaken as we looked across the space to see that Ku’Sox was staggering but upright, grim faced and determined.