Ever After (The Hollows #11)(60)
Author: Kim Harrison

"Nicely done, Rachel." Smiling up at Trent, I accepted his hand and stood. Our pinkie rings glinted together in the light, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. My hands were shaking, but I was ready to put another imbalance back if Bis was.

Pulling my hand from Trent’s, I looked for Bis. "Another one?" I asked, my intention obvious, and he nodded from the retaining wall, his red eyes glowing in the lamplight.

Jenks’s wings clattered as he dropped down, shrilling something so fast I couldn’t understand him.

"You surprise me, Rachel," came an oily voice from the dark, and I spun, heart pounding as I turned to the river. Ku’Sox? Crap on toast!

"It’s Ku’Sox!" Jenks shouted, dripping an angry, frightened red dust. His sword was out, and his wings by my ear, harsh.

"Not in that you figured it out," Ku’Sox said, a small sphere of light blossoming in his hand to show his presence beside my screaming, damaged line, "but that you’re stupid enough to be out here alone."

Bis landed on my other side, puffing up as much he could by sucking in the moisture from the air. The size of a large dog, he crouched beside me with his tail thrashing.

"She’s not alone," Jenks spat, hovering at head height and brandishing his sword. "Back off, Cute Socks. I cut your nose off before, I’ll do it again."

Ku’Sox’s globe of light flickered, and with that as my only warning, I invoked my protection circle, still scratched in the dust around me.

Bis yelped at the energy I yanked through me, the gargoyle shrinking as a ball of greenish black bounced off Trent’s larger circle, invoked an instant before mine. Ku’Sox’s spell hit the nearby retaining wall and stuck, glowing a weird greenish light. I dropped my circle.

I stood, white-faced, and the ugly line hummed through me, harsh and dizzying as I pulled it in, trying to become stronger. "I cursed you!" I exclaimed as I stood behind a grim-faced Trent. "You can’t leave the ever-after!"

"I haven’t." Smug, he walked into the light of our hissing lantern, and my stomach clenched as my first thought was borne out. Nick. He had possessed him. A doppelganger curse was easy. Demons did them all the time. Al had once possessed Lee to walk about in reality in the daytime. "You’re fortunate that your boyfriend is rather light in the loafers when it comes to manipulating ley line energy," Ku’Sox said, confirming my thoughts, "or I would tear through your familiar’s paltry circle and be done with you right now."

"He’s not my familiar," I said as Ku’Sox halted before us. "And Nick is not my boyfriend. He is a mistake!"

Nodding absently, Ku’Sox poked at Trent’s circle, evaluating the dimple he made as Bis continued to hiss and Jenks landed on my shoulder in solidarity. The demon was in a three-piece suit, and it looked dumb out here in the weedy garden at the foot of a homemade castle, whereas Al’s crushed green velvet had somehow seemed right at home. The light coming from the spell that had hit the wall supplemented the lantern, showing his silvery-gray hair slicked back and reflecting off his shiny shoes. His expression was smug as he eyed me, running his eyes up and down my silhouette in a way I decidedly didn’t like. "This body I’m in remembers what you feel like. Inside and out."

Trent stiffened, and the psychotic demon turned to him. "Your whore and child are alive. Come with me now, and they will stay that way."

I gripped Trent’s arm, but he shrugged me off, the rising scent of cinnamon nearly overpowering the stench of ever-after Ku’Sox reeked of. "If you go with him, nothing will stop him," I said, and Trent’s frustration grew until his circle hummed with it.

"Don’t you think I know that?"

I wondered if he was wishing he’d never freed Ku’Sox. I knew I was.

Sighing dramatically, Ku’Sox rolled his eyes. "As entertaining as this is, would you mind if we flipped to the last page? I want that curse lifted you put on me, Rachel. I want Trenton Aloysius Kalamack to make me a brand-new generation of demons to play with, and I want the ancient demons dead. I want the ever-after dead so I may never be trapped there again, and I want it all in that order. Notice you are not on the list . . . yet."

His gaze traveled over the lines of my tattoo, and I stifled a tremor. Feeling it, Jenks lifted from my shoulder. "Are you fairy-farting kidding me?" Jenks said, and Bis’s tail lashed through my bubble. "Rache, you don’t actually believe this freak, do you?"

Ku’Sox almost snarled at the insult, but then his eyes lifted from Bis to Trent. "Working with elves . . . Really, Rachel. I think you should be commended for stretching your abilities, but Newt would be most displeased with you."

I pushed to the front of Trent’s bubble. "Here’s my list. We fix the line," I said as I carefully siphoned energy off the discordant line and filled my chi. "Then the ancient demons grow a pair and we all shove you in a little hole in St. Louis again. That’s my list. I don’t care if it’s in that order, either."

Ku’Sox dramatically rolled his eyes. "My God, you are so like a woman."

"That’s because I am one."

"Oh, this is tiresome," Ku’Sox moaned, and then he gestured, his hand glowing.

"Look out!" Jenks shrilled, shooting straight up. Both Trent and I instinctively crouched. Trent gasped as Ku’Sox’s spell tore through his bubble, breaking it, and I threw a wad of energy at the incoming ball, deflecting it. The night wind shifted my hair, and Ku’Sox’s energy pinged over my ley line and into the woods to die. There was a tug, and Trent’s circle was up again. Ku’Sox jerked to a halt, so close the circle hummed a warning.

Trent’s eyes met mine, and slowly we stood. I felt ill looking at the grim hatred in his expression. I didn’t think it was the rings that had saved our skins. We just knew what to do.

"Curious," Ku’Sox said, walking the edge of our circle like a lion in the shadows. "Both of you together? Unexpected." His eyes slid to the ley line. "And potentially troublesome."

Satisfied, I stood straighter. A drop of sugar-coated anger slipped through my fear. "We can prove you did this," I said, and he rolled his eyes. "I’m going to Dali and-"

My words cut off as a wash of energy made Ku’Sox flicker. Trent moaned when it melted away to show Ku’Sox holding Lucy on his hip. The fair-headed little girl was only a year old, innocent of the monster who held her and happy with the world. Her little mouth curved up in a smile when she saw me, and then she cried out when she saw Trent, reaching with her hands for him to come take her.

"Rachel, I can’t," Trent said, ashen. "She’s my daughter."