Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)(98)
Author: Kim Harrison

I felt sick, unable to move. It wasn’t the plastic straps with the charmed silver at their core that kept me from reacting; it was Trent. He had said to trust him. He had said I had to lose. He’d told me to go quietly, but I didn’t know why!

The light from above was eclipsed as security shoved me into a circle one of the junior coven members had sketched and I fell to my knees. Trent’s shadow lay heavily on me. I looked up, his stone-cold face scaring me. Lucy was bawling in someone else’s arms-her wailing giving my unvoiced fear a sound. "T-Trent?" I stammered. He could do it. He said he had a curse, and I believed he could do it. He’d been dropping elven wild magic the entire trip, and apparently he had a new trick to show me.

"Betray me, and I’ll never rest until you’re dead," I vowed, my hands bound behind me, kneeling before him and the entire witch council.

He grabbed my shoulder, hauling me up as the crowd shouted its approval. Not as far from our witch-burning past as I had hoped, I guess.

"I’ve got a demon curse to give you," he breathed for me alone, green eyes turbulent as his wild magic seeped from his fingers and sent tendrils of power I couldn’t use through me, tingling, warming, seductive. "I’ve been carrying it since the arch fell. Ku’Sox gave it to me. I had to take it to free him. It doesn’t do anything to me but give me a headache. You, though, I think it will work on."

Ku’Sox? I went cold, the memory of an elven assassin singing me to death rising high in me, pulled into existence by Trent’s magic seeping through me like a soporific, soothing even as excitement sparked from his touch. I’d almost died under wild magic. And now he wanted to give me Ku’Sox’s curse with it? I was a fool. Elves fought demons. He’d used me again.

Trent leaned in closer, his hand light on my shoulder. "Once I give it to you, you can-"

"No!" I cried, my bound hands coming up to shove him away, but Trent had grabbed me, his eyes looking behind me. "I’d sooner get a lobotomy," I said, scared. "You son of-"

Agony exploded in my knees as something hit me from behind, exactly where the guards in Alcatraz had gotten me. Gasping in pain, I crumpled, my knees exploding. I looked up, finding Trent staring down at me, his brow pinched, his unsaid words swallowed in frustration.

"Curse her," Oliver said as I tried to breathe. "And hurry up about it," he added.

Squinting in pain, I looked up when Trent’s shadow fell over me. "You not trusting me is going to get you killed," he said, his expression grim as he bent to lift me up, failing when I refused to cooperate. "As I was saying, take the bloody curse and give it back to Ku’Sox."

My muscles went slack, and my mouth opened in an O of surprise. Give it to Ku’Sox? That would mean I’d have to, like…touch him!

Seeing my understanding, Trent stopped trying to get me to stand up and turned to the audience. A gold-tinted wash of ever-after sprang up around us, and as the watching people chanted in unison to show their collective spirit, I felt the tingle of wild elven magic spark through me again, making me tremble. Ku’Sox wanted to dissect me. And Trent thought I could hold him still long enough to curse him? Was he nuts, or just tragically overestimating my abilities?

Trent was inside the circle with me, and I tried to get up, falling back against it when he shoved me back down. "No," I pleaded, my hands bound before me, but he began to chant, low and under his breath as he gathered his magic. I took a wild breath, collapsing slowly when a wave of lassitude spilled into me, carried by his music, circling over and over in my mind, becoming my world. Wild magic. Oh no…

It promised peace, and even as I tried to fight it, my eyes slipped shut against the harsh glare. My soul hurt and needed to heal. Too much had happened, and I wanted it all to be over. That’s what the magic promised, and I wanted it even as I fought its peace.

My head bowed, and Trent knelt before me, singing in words I couldn’t understand, his beautiful voice rising and falling so softly, it was only for me to hear. A tear slid down my face, a tear for all that I hadn’t done, that I should have done differently. Regret. But it didn’t matter now.

Trent’s energies prickled against me, and I suddenly realized he wasn’t singing anymore.

"Rachel?" he breathed, and I lifted my head, numb. "Si peccabas, poenam meres," he said softly, putting a hand on my shoulder, and I shivered as the curse slid gently from him to me, settling like tattered silk atop my aura.

"Why?" I pleaded, thinking I’d been stupid to trust him. My eyes met his, begging for mercy. It was just us, though we were surrounded by hundreds bearing witness to the event.

"Because you’re the only one who can," he said, and I stiffened as the curse began to soak in, making me want to scream. Like a thousand beetles boring into my skin, I felt the curse burrow into me, finding a place among my cells, wiggling, squirming maggots embedding themselves in my soul. A smut-tainted wash of ever-after coated me, and as I heard the howls of the crowd become muffled, I knew I was being pulled into a ley line. And yet Trent gripped my shoulder, not done with me yet.

"She’s still here!" Oliver shouted, his ugly face shimmering behind Trent’s circle.

"The first part shifts the curse," Trent said, talking to Oliver, but looking at me, his fingers pinching my shoulder so hard it hurt. "It’s the second one that severs it from me and banishes her."

He was telling me how to do the curse, but I could hardly focus on him, my drive buried under wild magic and my senses dulled. Somehow my gaze found my mother in the mass of howling people. She was crying, leaning on Ivy, who stood stoically as her heart broke. Seeing me look at her, my mom rallied, pushing away the man blocking her and striding forward.

"Give them hell, Rachel!" she shouted at the edge of the bubble, tears streaming down her face. "I’m proud of you!"

Trent yanked me up by the shoulder, and I staggered, my knees barely able to hold my weight. "I curse you, Rachel Mariana Morgan, to be fixed to the reality I banish you to. There you are cursed to remain until summoned, be it day or night, forever bound as a demon." His eyebrow lifted, mocking me. "You got all that? Want me to write it down for you?"

The curse. He wanted me to give it to Ku’Sox. Should I be pissed or marvel at his foresight? "Okay," I said numbly, and a hint of a smile flickered in his eyes. My jaw trembled, and doubt hit me. Why was I trusting him! "Trent? Wait!" I cried out, knees throbbing.

"Just so you know, I’ve trusted you since camp," Trent said, then shouted dramatically, "Facilis descensus Tartaros!"