Ever After (The Hollows #11)(73)
Author: Kim Harrison

"Then I guess we ought to just duke it out now," I said as I reached out with my thoughts and tapped the line. It filled me, screaming a discord that melded with my thoughts and flashed through me like grief. God, please give me another way out.

"I would consider giving you Lucy, though," Ku’Sox said, glancing at Trent’s pinkie ring, and I froze, not believing I’d heard him right. Trent looked up, hope so deep in his eyes it hurt.

Nick stiffened in his corner. "L-Lucy?" I said, a part of my mind realizing that the scum bucket was afraid of me. He was afraid! My air came in with a rush, and I dropped the line, pulling myself straight and seeing Ku’Sox’s fear in the way he held his head, squinted at the light. Lucy for his freedom? Two days ago I would have spit in his face, but now . . .

My gaze shot to Trent, his grip on his child almost frantic.

Smiling as if giving benediction, Ku’Sox inclined his head. "I will give you Lucy," he said softly, but his hem was shaking. "That is"-he looked at Trent, silent across the room with Lucy in his grasp-"if Trenton Aloysius Kalamack agrees to take the place of his daughter as my familiar, and you take that curse from me so I might see the sun again. I do so miss the color yellow."

Trent stood ashen-faced as Lucy softly complained of nothing. He knew what it was to be a demon slave. I had rescued him from it, and he had saved my life. Now he was going to give his own again to save his daughter, to save two worlds.

"Done," Trent rasped, his expression riven with grief as he pushed Lucy into my arms. "Take her, Rachel," he said, his arm stretched out to touch his daughter’s hand as he stepped back, his eyes fixed to the little girl reaching back to him. She leaned toward him, whining, and I held her close, smelling the clean scent of her hair under the stench of burnt amber.

Take the curse from him? He could go anywhere . . .

"I say, done!" Trent shouted. "Send them home!"

Ku’Sox seemed shocked. I know I was. Things were moving too fast, and I jiggled her weight, settling her to me until it felt natural. "I thought elves were known for their patience," Ku’Sox said, and my gut twisted when he looked at me. "Rachel, is this acceptable to you, providing the elf holds to his end and I have him, body and soul?"

Crap on toast. If Trent was his familiar, he couldn’t help me. That wasn’t even considering that Ku’Sox would have access to everything on my side of the lines. But with Nick, he had that anyway. Torn, I jiggled Lucy. Oh my God. I was going to do it, and I felt light-headed.

"Take her, I beg you." It was Trent, and I took in his hope, his grief. "Take her," he whispered again. "I need to know they are safe, my girls."

"Oh, they will never be safe," Ku’Sox said, and Trent stiffened.

"They will, or I will not agree!"

Eyes rolling to the ceiling, Ku’Sox idly pushed his rolling chair back, gesturing lightly. "As long as you serve me faithfully, why not?"

Trent’s grip on my shoulder tightened, his breath coming fast in the moment of success, but I was having doubts. My eyes slid to Nick, sullen in the corner. I took a breath to answer. Ku’Sox waited, poised. Nick was tense behind him, looking like a spider. Trent was energy chained-frantic. And Bis . . . I held my breath, trying not to be obvious as I watched him signal me to fly, go, flee . . . no, I think that particular motion meant fall back and circle around.

My heart pounded. Bis was learning how to line jump. And with Lucy safe with me, there was only Trent’s life in the balance. He clearly was ready to sacrifice it. The question was, did I trust him enough to give him a chance to kill Ku’Sox? I needed help with my plan, and Quen and Al were still out of commission. I didn’t know who to ask.

"Throw in a trip home for Lucy and me, and you have a deal," I whispered, and Ku’Sox clapped his hands, springing to his feet to make me drop back several steps, awkward from Lucy’s weight. "But you will stay out of my church and the environs. Swear to it, Ku’Sox."

"Capital! I agree! I swear!" Ku’Sox said, looking amused, but seeing a black haze blossom on his hand, I bubbled us. Lucy and I weren’t his target, however.

I spun as Trent hit the floor, choking as he grasped his throat. "Hey!" I shouted, backing up with Lucy, the little girl frightened and growing heavy. "You kill him, and all your demon babies are going to die!"

Ku’Sox strode over, and I backed up, breaking my circle. "That is my foot you feel across your neck," the demon said, leaning over Trent as he gasped. "Serve me without elven trickery, or it will crush your throat, and then I will move on to your children, your family, and everything you hold dear. Do you understand?"

Sprawled, Trent nodded, hatred burning in his eyes, his hand splayed out to show the missing digits that Al had taken from him. "If you harm them, nothing will save you," he rasped, and Ku’Sox straightened his kimono with a soft hush.

"Good," he said, looking down at him. "You have spirit. I’ll enjoy it after the ever-after no longer occupies me." Making a sudden puff of distaste, Ku’Sox reached down, yanking Trent’s pinkie ring off. My eyes widened when he made a fist, opening it to let a shapeless mass of black char ping dully on the tile floor. He’d melted it. Two in a row. "Get up."

His attention shifted to me, and I held Lucy closer, turning her so she couldn’t see her dad pick himself up off the floor. My feet moved uneasily. I still needed to get home.

"My freedom?"

My eyes flicked uneasily between Trent and Ku’Sox. Lucy felt heavy in my grasp as she cried for Trent. It wasn’t as if I could just pop out and conveniently forget to free him. The curse had been embedded into his DNA and wouldn’t lift easily. The best I could do was modify it. Swallowing hard, I reached out and tapped the line again. I could feel the collective, hovering just outside my awareness, and I let a small portion of myself slip into it. I’d need the strength of them to make any changes, and I was disgusted when I found them waiting, quiet and still in a watchful unease. The sons of bitches knew. They knew.

My head began to throb behind my right eye as the discordant twang the collective had absorbed from the broken lines soaked into everything. Lucy’s crying stopped, and I wondered if she was picking up more than she should. "Si peccabas poenam meres," I whispered, the faint memory of a beating drum and stomping feet drifting through my memory as I began the curse anew. Tingles of wild magic sparked through me, and a hazy lassitude dulled my headache. There was an odd pulling sensation as the curse gathered itself within Ku’Sox.