Ever After (The Hollows #11)(65)
Author: Kim Harrison

Silent, I jiggled my foot as Trent went to the fridge. Jenks was on his shoulder pointing things out. Trent came out with the milk, surprising me. He likes milk with his doughnuts? You learn something new every day. No, hot chocolate, I decided when Jenks darted around the kitchen and Trent followed, collecting sugar, cocoa, and salt.

"You think I can move the entire wad of imbalance without Bis?" I said.

"The hell she can!" Jenks protested, but I sat up, pulse quickening. "She can’t line jump. That’s what started this!"

"She isn’t line jumping, she’s moving imbalance," Trent said to Jenks, waving the pixy’s dust from the two cups that Trent had pulled from my cupboards and filled with powdered cocoa. "She’s already proven she can do that."

I stood up, coming to stand with the counter between us. "I know the signature of the line in the graveyard. I can dump it all there."

Trent looked up from pouring milk into two mugs when Jenks whistled. "Newt is going to be pissed," the pixy said, and my enthusiasm faltered, but only for a moment.

"Ah, is one of those mine by chance?" I asked, and Trent’s smile widened.

"Yes."

Jenks hovered between us, a bright shimmer of red-tinted dust spilling from him. "I don’t like this," he said. "It sounds risky."

"It’s perfect," I said as Trent’s spoon clinked, stirring them both. "Once it’s moved, anyone can see the curse he used to break it."

"In which case he’ll just say you were backing out of a deal?" Jenks prompted.

My shoulders slumped, and I chewed on my lower lip. "Maybe I could borrow Al’s wedding rings and we could bind our strength together," I said hesitantly, and Jenks scoffed.

"They don’t work between demon and elf," Jenks reminded me, but Trent had set the spoon on the napkin beside his half-eaten doughnut and had gone to his coat.

"We have options," he said as he triumphantly slapped a museum brochure before me. "That is, if you can reinvoke them."

Eyebrows high, I pulled the colorful brochure to me with ELVEN ARTIFACT SHOW emblazoned on it in a metallic mythological script. I knew there was no such collection at the Cincy museum. There was none anywhere. The elves had just come out of hiding. It was then that it clicked and I looked for the date. Quen had mentioned a museum outing at the end of the week. Sure enough, it started this weekend and ran for three months before going on the road.

"Jenks, would you get this for me?" Trent asked, standing before the microwave with his two mugs, and the pixy darted away, hitting the door button with a two-footed punch. Apparently the afternoon they spent together stealing Lucy had changed both their attitudes toward each other. They almost looked like friends. Finally the incongruity of a pixy helping a multibillionaire figure out my microwave was over, and Trent came to the table, the microwave a humming background to Jenks’s wings.

I smacked the brochure down before Trent. "A museum show of elven artifacts? You arranged this?"

Jenks buzzed into the hall to settle another argument, and Trent ducked his head to look charmingly embarrassed. "Six months ago. As a show of solidarity and pride in our heritage. I’ve been slowly convincing the people I know that we need a public expression of our history, and it’s gratifying what they have kept. Most of the magic artifacts are defunct, but it is an amazing collection nevertheless. Cincinnati will have the show for three months, and then it will be touring for the next three years while I build a new wing."

Standing at the counter, I opened the brochure. Colorful pictures and descriptions of ancient artifacts met me. Suddenly it looked like a shopping catalog.

Trent leaned closer, close enough that I could smell cinnamon and wine under his aftershave. "Tell me what you think will work the best, and I can have it loaned to you for a few days."

My eyes came up to find him deadly serious. "They will just give it to you? They might not get it back."

He nodded. "But if it does, it will be working. They’ll risk it."

The microwave dinged, and needing a moment, I went to get it, eyeing the restricted library books in passing. Trent might be able to do that, yes. "You probably know better than I what these things can potentially do," I said as the scent of warm milk and chocolate hit me. My stomach rumbled when I reached for the two perfectly steaming mugs.

"Ah, I know what their owners say they’re supposed to do," he said, and I hurriedly moved the hot mugs to the counter, shaking the heat from my burned and sensitive fingers. Seeing it, Trent seemed to go still. "You’re burned?"

I hid my hand behind my back. "It’s nothing."

"Nothing, fairy farts!" Jenks said, and I scowled at him. "She burned it trying to get through Ku’Sox’s circle."

"It’s fine," I said, but Trent was reaching for me. I stiffened, but he already had my wrist in his grip. "It’s fine," I protested again, yanking away.

"Jeez, Rache. He’s not going to bite you," Jenks griped, and Trent sourly held out his hand, head cocked and challenge screaming from his confident posture.

I wasn’t going to show him, but as Jenks had said, he wasn’t going to bite me. Feeling funny, I extended my hand. My demon scar was obvious, and I flushed when his eyes lingered briefly upon it before bringing my hand closer to him. I cringed a bit as his breath met my raw skin and he frowned. "It will be fine tomorrow," I said, and I exhaled in relief when he let go. "Here, drink your chocolate."

I pushed his mug to him, and he took it. His missing fingers showed; then he hid them again. Silent, we both took a drink, thinking our separate thoughts. I held the hot chocolate to my face, breathing it in before I tasted it, debating telling him that Quen had asked me to accompany him to the show. It seemed almost petty now.

"What the artifacts actually do is in the books. Somewhere," Trent said, and I met his eyes over my mug. Hot chocolate, sweet, rich, bitter, and warm, slipped down, warming me almost as much as Trent’s sly smile. He was sticking me with the research, but I didn’t care. For the first time since losing Bis, I thought we might be able to do this.

Nodding, Trent abruptly put his mug down and reached for his coat. "Just so. I’ll leave the choosing to you then," he said as he gracefully put his coat on. "I need to get back. Thank you for the hot chocolate."

"You suck at research, too, huh?" Jenks said, perched on his mug and hazing the surface with his dust.

"Painfully horrible," Trent said, shrugging his coat over his shoulders and grabbing his hat and briefcase. His motion stopped, and he smiled faintly. "Let me know what piece you want."