by Kim Harrison
“You okay?” I said, then followed Zack’s wide eyes to Landon. One of the shards had hit him and his face was bleeding.
“Is that what you meant to do?” Zack said boldly, and with a gesture and a soft word, his own glow of light replaced the busted lamp.
Landon stared at it. “How . . . ?” His gaze went to Trent. “Your magic works. . . .”
“Have a seat, Landon.” Trent let his circle drop. “I could use your help in getting the elven community to accept the new constraints on our species’ magic.”
I felt the Order retreat as Landon slowly sank down. He touched his face when he realized he was bleeding, and I watched him use a napkin to dab it up, wanting it.
“You got our magic to work,” Landon said, voice wispy.
Trent leaned back, his fingers steepled. “Zack and I, yes,” he said, his confidence almost palpable. “He’s an exceptional student. I’d like to extend an invitation for him to work with me. Say, for a semester? Whereupon at the conclusion we can revisit his tutelage.”
Zack brightened. Clearly this was news to him, but Landon’s awareness sharpened.
“You think to add to your family by stealing mine?” he said, and I began to push the salt into radiating lines. “How very old-school, Trent, but your pathetic attempts to add to your lineage while you cleave to a barren woman will only show your shortcomings that much clearer.”
I looked up, feeling as if I’d been socked in the gut. Trent’s fist went white-knuckled.
“Yes,” Landon said, goading. “A barren, worthless woman who will drag you down. Rachel, has Trent told you that his Sa’han status will be restored if he marries Ellasbeth? He’d have a voice again. A thousand voices. I wouldn’t stand a chance. But he won’t because he’s a fool.”
I swallowed hard, finding it hard to breathe. It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know, but it was hard to hear it so openly.
“Zack, let’s go,” Landon said, and my chin lifted. I’d heard worse in third grade.
“Touch me, and I’ll show you what else I learned,” Zack growled.
“Now!” Landon barked, and from the ceiling, Jenks rattled his wings.
I’d had enough, and with a quick motion, I snatched Landon’s bloody napkin. “You don’t look good, Landon,” I said, and Landon’s face went ashen. “Open your soul and say ahhh. . . .”
“Give that back,” he said, reaching, and Trent grabbed his arm. Landon’s men pushed forward.
“Rhombus!” I exclaimed, and they slammed into the outside of my large imagined circle. It wouldn’t stand against a determined assault, but I only had to stop them for thirty seconds.
“Ta na shay,” I said, strengthening my hold on the line, and Landon pushed back in his chair, horrified at what I might do—a demon using elven magic. Hear me, you crazy bitch of a demon. I need your help. “Ta na shay!” I exclaimed as I smeared his blood on the table’s candle and lit it with a stray thought. “Obscurum per obscuris. Wee-keh Wehr-sah,” I said triumphantly, my words spilling over themselves as his security ran their fingers over my circle, shouting as they looked for a way in. Head high, I found Landon’s eyes and snapped my fingers. “Ta na shay.”
“Dude!” Zack exclaimed as the pentagon opened and twisted with a soft hiss, the flame from the smeared candle flickering into existence at all ten points. Landon’s eyes were fixed on the glowing glyph in horrified fascination. Trent’s sound of dismay and Jenks’s muffled “Holy shit” drew my eyes down, and I stared. All but three of Landon’s flames were black.
Lips parted, I met Trent’s shocked eyes. Behind him, the Order was taking note, but not one moved forward to stop me. Perhaps they were interested as well.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, meaning it, and then I jerked as something alien and wrong seemed to slip into me. Fumbling, I tried to push it away, physically shoving myself back from the table. Panic took me when it slithered past my mental barriers as if they didn’t exist.
Will you fall to me today? snaked through my mind, and I freaked. It wasn’t my thought. It was the baku, and I wasn’t asleep! On the table, Landon’s imagined candles flickered, a few of the flames regaining a healthy color as the baku tried to move from him to me.
Get out! I demanded, ramrod straight in my chair as I fumbled to control my thoughts. But it wasn’t like fighting the Goddess, who absorbed memories. It was trying to eat my soul!
Too fatigued to expel me, too alone to hold me, the baku thought, and I stiffened, feeling assaulted when it sank a long thought deep into my core. Panic swirled. I was awake. It couldn’t take me. Unless . . . it had eaten deep enough and I couldn’t stop it.
Not today, I thought savagely, and in a desperate effort to get it out, I touched my thoughts to a ley line and let it pour in, pushing the energy from my well-used channels and into the baku.
A laughing sensation rose as the baku rode the incoming tide of energy. But then its satisfaction faltered, and I felt a long finger of it pull free, and then another, and finally I took a breath as the first shimmer of nothing stood between it and my psyche. Not today, but soon, it agreed, and then I jumped, everyone crying out in surprise when Bis crashed heavily onto the table. With a burning pop through my thoughts, the baku was gone, and the line hung in me alone.
Immediately I dropped the ley line. My circle fell with an audible snap. Landon’s security rushed forward, pulling him to his feet and dragging him away until the man shoved them off. Trent stood tall over me, his expression grim as his hand rested on my shoulder. I didn’t think he knew what had happened, and shaking, I reached up and touched his fingers, grateful for him.
He was there, and the baku was gone. My soul was still strong enough to fight it off. That was four times now, each attack more effective. Sleeping under guard or charmed silver would only let it pare another layer from me. Maybe the demons were right.
“Thanks,” I whispered to Bis, and the kid sidestepped the scattered curse to hop to my other shoulder. That no-doze amulet was around his neck, and even as I watched, the sun rose and a rosy haze touched the tallest buildings.
“I didn’t do anything. You kicked it out on your own,” Bis said, his eyes squinting at the new light, and I gave his toes a squeeze as he slumped, clearly tired.
“Kicked it out?” Trent said, and I looked up at him, wanting to tell him but afraid.
But my cold face gave me away. His grip on me tightened as he turned to Landon and the delicious scent of angry elf flowed from him like a balm. Zack was ashen, and Jenks stood on the table with his sword in hand, ready to give someone a lobotomy. Failed attempt or not, it was obvious that the baku had come from Landon. But the proof was his word against ours. Worthless.
“You’ve been a bad religious leader, Landon,” I said. My voice was low to keep it from trembling and I didn’t dare try to stand. Not yet. “The baku has eaten you to a shell.”
“I have this under control,” Landon said, but he looked as shaken as I felt, and I frowned. Weast had said the same thing.
“Then you don’t understand what’s going on,” Trent said.
Landon pushed his security away. “You have to sleep sometime, Morgan,” he said, and a real fear zinged through me. “You. Stop being stupid and come with me,” Landon directed to Zack, and the kid twitched. “You aren’t equipped to function in the real world. What are you going to do? Get a job? You don’t know how to do anything.”
My lips parted at the insult and Jenks rose. But Zack was twisting that ring off his finger, gasping in pain when it pulled free. Chin high, he threw it at Landon.
Landon caught it with one hand, almost as if the ring had been magnetized. Expression sour, he put it on his finger next to its twin. “Your entire life will be a waste,” he said, and then he took the candle and strode away, his security hustling to keep up.
“Hey!” I said as I reached after the candle
only to slump back and let my hand fall. I’d never get it back. Landon knew what it was. Or, at least, he knew that it was important.
“Don’t listen to that slug snot,” Jenks said as he landed on Zack’s shoulder. “You got skills. You got skills leaking out of the tips of your hair. You’re the one doing magic, not him. He’s a hairy spider sack. Be a pal, will you, and open that honey pot?”
Clearly unhappy, Zack reached for it. It would take a long time to rub out Landon’s words, and as I sat there trying to find myself, I vowed that Zack would never go back to the dewar. I’d stood alone too many times when ugly words were said to me—words meant to crush my confidence because I had said no. You couldn’t stop people from talking trash, but Zack didn’t have to stand alone. I’d make sure he didn’t believe it.
The soft sound of sliding linen drew my attention, and I stifled a twitch when Trent sat down beside me and took my hand, holding it amid the spilled salt. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I can’t go into seclusion. Trent, we have to find a way to destroy it.”
“Agreed.” He took a breath. “It’s not true what he says,” he said, and I blinked, not a clue where his thoughts were. “My Sa’han status has nothing to do with you.”
Liar. And yet I nodded, my eyes dropping to our fingers twined together. It wasn’t often that Trent lied. He did it very well, but I could see through it, and maybe that was why he said what he did. “I know,” I lied back, pulling my hand from his.
The Order was dropping back to follow Landon. Weast’s warning to leave Landon alone aside, it seemed as if the Order didn’t want me. Yet.
The returning waitstaff was noisy after their unexpected break, and still shaky, I put the napkin with Landon’s blood on the table for them to take. There wasn’t enough remaining to do the curse again, but it was interesting that Landon’s aura had cleared somewhat when the baku had left him. It wasn’t too late, but by the looks of things, it was close. As close to taking him over as me, perhaps.
Bis felt my fear and tightened his grip on my shoulder. Trent settled back, his green eyes showing his worry as Jenks entertained Zack by belching his ABC’s and the waitstaff brushed the salt and glass shards from the table and refreshed our drinks.
Numb, I watched the city turn beneath us as the day brightened. All I’d learned was that the baku had nearly stripped me enough to take me. That I was “too fatigued” to kick it out, and “too alone” to hold it.
Hold it? I thought, shivering when the low morning sun found me. It was afraid of being captured, which meant there was a way to do it. Maybe if we talked to it again, it might let slip how. Clearly I could talk to it as much as Landon did.
Asleep or awake.
CHAPTER
25
Fatigue was a heavy, wet blanket as I got out of Trent’s sports car. Quen had driven it and me back to Trent’s house after meeting Ellasbeth and the girls at the front gate on the way in, and I jumped when his door slammed shut with an unexpected loudness.
It was nearing noon. I was finally waking up, but Trent looked awful as he got out of his big-ass SUV and began helping Ellasbeth with the cranky girls, his temper showing as the need to sleep grew. Zack stood beside them in his elegant suit, yawning and worrying his empty finger until Trent handed him the girls’ diaper bag. A bunch of store bags followed, all emblazoned with the names of upscale children’s clothing stores.
Their twined voices echoed in the low ceiling of Trent’s underground garage. Jenks was getting in the way, distracting the girls and making a nuisance of himself as Zack tried to handle the numerous bags and ogle Trent’s other cars shining under the garage’s artificial lights. Bis had opted to return to the church. “To keep the squatters out,” he had said, but as the high-pitched voices of the girls became louder, I thought he had other motives.
“Got that okay?” Trent asked Zack, and the kid nodded and fell into place behind Trent and Ellasbeth, each holding a nap-ready, sleepy girl as they headed to the underground entrance.
I sighed as I reached into Trent’s car for my bag before shutting the door by leaning back on it. Quen cleared his throat, and I met his accusing dark gaze. He hadn’t said a word on the long drive from Trent’s gatehouse, but I had a guess as to where his thoughts were.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I pushed up from Trent’s car and followed them in, low heels scuffing on the cold cement. “Zack isn’t spying for Landon. You should have seen how he treated him. He belittled him, Quen. Tried to bully him into slug paste. Trent knows what he’s doing.”
“He’s dangerous.”
Quen’s low, warning voice rumbled, darkness incarnate, as shadowy as the elf himself, and I stifled a shiver. “Trent knows that, too,” I said, eyes on the beautiful family making their way through the kitchen entrance, their finery looking at home among the subdued wealth.
“He’s not acting as if he does.” Quen frowned, watching them as well.
“Keep your enemies closer?” I offered, and Quen looked askance at me. “How are the girls?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “Is Ellasbeth . . . ?” My words trailed off as he quickened his pace and left me behind. Okay, touchy subject, I thought as he caught up with them and held the door as Buddy ambled out to greet me.
“Hey, Buddy,” I whispered, feeling alone as I came in last, which was about where I felt I ought to be. “How you doing, old boy?”
But Buddy left me, too, as I shut the door and sealed out the scent of damp cement. I’d been added to the house’s security ages ago, and I hesitated to code the system to lock. Trent stiffened at the audible thump of the house-wide defense falling into play, and then his shoulders eased.
Alone, I trailed behind them past the ground-level industrial kitchens that Trent used when entertaining on a grand scale. Deeper in was the bar hidden under a long overhang, and after that was the three-story ceilinged great room, still holding a sliver of moving sun. They were already on the stairs as I paused to take in the soft hush of the waterfall, audible through the enormous ward. The sound of Trent and Ellasbeth talking as they rose with the girls was beautiful, and I was glad that Ray and Lucy could hear it and know that they were loved. Quen had engaged Zack under the excuse of taking some of the packages, and the feeling that it was time to go grew heavy.
Except that the job wasn’t done yet.
If we couldn’t destroy the baku, we had to find a way to catch it, even if it meant jerking it out of Landon and—yuck—saving him. Trap it, maybe, in a bottle like a soul. There had to be a way, or the baku wouldn’t have been afraid of being caught.
My head jerked up at the sound of dragonfly wings, and I blinked, startled when Jenks was suddenly before me. “You okay for a few minutes? I want to check in with Jumoke.”
Quen had turned on the stairs, his thoughts unreadable as he waited for my response to the impatient pixy. “Sure,” I said, talking to them both, though Jenks didn’t know that. “I have to talk to Trent about something, but I’m going to wait until they go down for their naps.”
Jenks’s dust shifted to a bright, cheerful gold. “Okay, back in ten,” he said, and then he was gone, only his slowly drifting dust arrowing to the conservatory saying he’d ever been there.
Alone, I trudged up the stairs to the top floor, steps slow from more than fatigue, though there was plenty of that. By the time I reached the top, the girls were sitting in their high chairs, pulled up to the small table against the kitchen’s half wall. Ellasbeth was behind the counter pouring Cheerios into two brightly colored bowls as Trent sat between Lucy and Ray, “debriefing” their stay with their mom. Lucy’s voice was strong and clear as she told her dad about the park and the pirates they’d made of the ants they’d found. Ray stoically made a hat, or maybe a boat, of her napkin. Buddy sat panting under them, waiting for the inevitable fallout. It was beautiful, and I felt like an intruder, doubly so when Quen an
d Zack came out of the girls’ room, their hands now empty of bags.
“Have you had breakfast yet, Trent?” Ellasbeth said pleasantly as she puttered in the kitchen, and Trent shot a look at me, sandwiched between his two girls with his tie undone and looking so domestic, it made my heart hurt.
“Yes. We ate at Carew Tower,” he said, not a trace of anything in his voice.
Ellasbeth ran her eyes over his suit and loosened tie, gaze rising to Zack in his borrowed finery. Her attention landed on me last, and I flushed. “That must have been pleasant.”
“It wasn’t,” Trent said as he helped Ray with her napkin boat. “It was a business meeting with Landon.”
Ellasbeth’s motion to put the box of Cheerios away hesitated, and then she smoothly closed the cupboard door. “Did it go well?” she prompted, a fake smile in place.
God, no. I came in closer so it wasn’t so obvious that I didn’t belong. “We learned a lot,” I said as I half-sat against the back of the couch. “Trent, before I go, I want to talk to you about catching the baku.”
“Go?” Trent’s attention jerked up, completely missing Ellasbeth’s flash of unease. Not to mention Quen’s frown. “I thought you were going to . . . ah . . .”
I shrugged, smiling thinly at Ellasbeth as she brought the girls two small bowls of dry cereal. “I didn’t want to assume,” I said, and Quen snorted as he settled himself in the living room and brought up something security-related on his phone.
“You can’t leave,” Trent said, and Ellasbeth colored. “What if you fall asleep?”
“Why?” Ellasbeth said, still standing behind the girls. “What happens if she falls asleep?”
I ran a hand over my mouth, very aware of Ray watching me. “Perhaps we should . . . mmmm . . .” I turned to look behind me at the living room. It wasn’t so far from the table that the girls would feel alone, but distant enough that they wouldn’t be likely to listen in.
