Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)(91)
Author: Kim Harrison

Shit.

Her tiny hand gripped mine with a surprising warmth, and in a shocking wash of emotion, I felt everything I knew shift. The scent of cinnamon and baby powder hit me, and as my eyes widened, my heart melted, making room for her. As I gazed into Lucy’s green eyes, and seeing her pale hair and perfect face, it was as if something had flipped a switch in me. I’d held babies before. Hell, I’d babysat for my old friend at the I.S., but this small person holding my finger had looked to me for protection from the noise, the crowd, and the frightening sparkles of pixy dust. All of a sudden, I didn’t want to give her back.

My gaze came up, fastening on my mother. Unshed tears made her eyes dark. She was gazing at Lucy with longing, remembering Robbie and me. When she glanced up, I gave her a rueful smile. Damn it, she’d given me Lucy for just this reason. It wasn’t an elf thing, it was just…life.

"She likes you," Trent said again, but he was reaching for her, jealous maybe.

"Perhaps she knows you helped her survive," Ivy said from the background.

"Look at her ears, Rache," Jenks said as he returned to my shoulder, and I moved away from Trent. "You gotta look at her ears."

Her ears? Pulling her back to me, I leaned closer, breathing in cinnamon as I peeked under her bonnet. Trent’s jaw was clenched, but he let me do it. Lucy just cooed, and I stared as Ivy leaned close to me to see as well.

"You’ve got to be kidding," I whispered, my attention darting up to Trent as he frowned. "They’re pointy." Trent was annoyed, but I was almost laughing. "You guys have to dock your ears to fit in?" I said in a hushed voice.

"Not anymore," he answered, reaching to take her.

Lucy gurgled as I felt her almost-not-there weight leave me, kicking in frustration until her father-oh my God, Trent had a baby-took her. My shoulders slumped, and I felt her loss. On the stage, they were making motions to start the meeting, and Pierce was trying to get my mother and Ivy to sit down. "Is she really yours?" I asked Trent as they took their seats in the second row while he rearranged Lucy’s blanket around her.

He wouldn’t look at me. "In about six different ways," he said, and remembering how I’d felt after holding her for just one minute, I knew what he meant.

"Trent, why didn’t you tell me you were after your…child?"

All around us, people were settling in, hushing themselves, getting ready for a show. But he was oblivious to them as he looked at me, a mixture of embarrassment and reluctance in him that I’d never seen before. "I don’t know," he admitted, seeming more honest, more bewildered than he’d ever been before. "It sounded lame. Me? Going three thousand miles to steal a baby? I’m a product of the twenty-first century, not some elf with a title living in a castle with servants."

"Yeah, but it was your kid," Jenks said, having finally parked it on my shoulder.

Lucy was kicking at her blanket, and he tucked it back not even knowing he had done it. "She wasn’t mine until I saw her." His gaze was unfocused as he remembered. "She’s…" He stopped, unable to put it into words as he looked at her. She was entirely her own person but needed him for everything.

"She’s beautiful," I said softly.

Trent’s attention flicked to me, and his grip on her grew possessive. "I’d do anything for her. Risk anything. I never got it until now. I never understood true sacrifice."

Huh. Maybe Lucy was going to save us all.

Jenks clattered his wings, going to distract her and make her squirm. "Just like any parent, Trent," he said as he hovered over her, reminding me of who he was. "Think you can do anything for Rachel for the next hour? You owe her. I may have helped you get Lucy, but Rachel got you here alive to do it. Even with your help."

My chest tightened, and where I was came rushing back. Trent was nodding, and Vivian began tapping her amplifying amulet for attention. "Just about anything," he said, smiling with half his face. He looked at me, and even that vanished. "Rachel, it’s going to get bad. You’re going to have to trust me. You’ve got to lose before you can win."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense," I said darkly. "You aren’t old enough for wise-old-man crap. Even with a three-month-old in your arms."

He leaned close as Jenks zipped off to talk to my mother. "I mean it," he said, Lucy reaching up for my face. "Oliver is going to weasel out of his promise no matter what I say. He knows you’re not going to tell anyone that witches were born from demons. If you do, witch society will crumble in a century of witch hunts that will make Salem look like a puppet show."

"No," I said, but he wasn’t listening.

"You’re going to lose," he said firmly. "And when you do, I’m telling you, don’t do anything stupid. Go with it. Go to Alcatraz. Go with Al. I don’t care, but just go with it. It’s not over when that bell rings."

Trent’s gaze went to the silver bell on the coven’s table, and fear slid through me. I heard what he was saying. Oliver was scum. Trent didn’t see me walking out of here. He had me lost and was planning a comeback. I looked at Ivy, and her eyes dilated at my fear.

"Take your seats, please," Vivian said loudly from the podium, her words bouncing through the auditorium and silencing 90 percent of the noise.

Pierce was at my elbow, and he pulled me down the empty aisle of seats, putting us right in front of my mother and Ivy. Trent edged in next, and we all sat. On the stage, there were two empty chairs at the coven’s table, one for Vivian, one for Brooke. I could not lose. I couldn’t. I’d be in the ever-after, taking my sun in thieving snatches.

Vivian gestured at the silver bell, and it chimed, making me jump. A wave of force had echoed out of it, having the feeling of a bubble going up. The auditorium was closed for the duration. No one in or out. It had begun.

Chapter Twenty-One

I said pipe down!" Vivian said crossly when the room reacted to the doors locking. Trent tried to quiet Lucy with an offered pinkie, and she protested, refusing it. Behind me, my mother piled her stuff on the empty seat next to her and settled in, completely unfazed. Pierce ran a nervous hand over his soft curls, taking his hat off and dropping his hand to finger his stolen badge.

"You will shut up!" Vivian shouted, cheeks coloring when Oliver said something only those on the stage could hear. "As the junior member of the coven, it’s my responsibility to maintain order at these proceedings, and you will be silent or I’ll gag you myself!"

My mother leaned forward, between Pierce and me. "She’s a bit of a hard-ass," she said, and Jenks buzzed his wings.