Hollows 11 - Ever After (45 page)

“Can we go?” Bis almost whined. “The sooner we fix another, the better I’ll feel.”

I took a deep breath and nodded my farewell to Quen. The sun would be up far too soon. I had to finish it by then. “Then by all means, let’s go.”

And we were gone.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

S
wirling, howling colors of noise beat at me as I floundered in a wide river of energy. It was so thick I could hardly think. Fatigue pulled at me. It was getting harder to keep myself intact.
Bis?
I thought, searching for something familiar, and his presence joined mine, a solid, soothing gray.

Trent?
I thought, and Bis brought to me his emotions of determination, surprise, and awe of the strength we were surrounded by. He was with us, but quiet, trying to take it in.

Find this!
Bis’s thoughts were laced with exhaustion, and I fastened on his low impressions of green, gold, and brown, swirling with a harsh slash of red and black. I fumbled through the jumbled imbalances, picking threads and bundling them until I matched what Bis was showing me, which was complex with incredibly high and low sensations. I vaguely felt the drive to breathe, felt the pain of oxygen starvation creeping up on me, making my thoughts slow.

Got it!
I thought, panicking when I found Bis struggling. This would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to do this on the run.
Bis, where does it go?
I thought as I bubbled the imbalance.
Where does it go!

His thoughts whispered in mine, singing a color I felt I should recognize. I tuned the bubble holding the imbalance to it, and with a ping of sensation I felt Trent notice, it was gone. A pure note joined the howling energy, ringing in the sound of hope.

Wrenching us together, I shifted the circle surrounding us to the taint of the imbalance I’d just replaced, feeling reality swirl and coalesce. The imbalance made each ley line unique—the key flaw that made traveling them possible.

I gasped as my air-starved lungs became real and expanded, pulling in the acidic taste of burnt amber. Face-first, I plowed into the red dirt, my eyes squinted shut and my elbows taking most of the impact. There was a pained grunt and sliding of rock, and I guessed Trent had made it. The wind was gritty and the sky was dark. Sitting up, I rubbed my chin and spit the dirt out. “Bis?” I croaked, realizing we were in the ever-after. “Shouldn’t this be getting easier?”

Bis was a hunched shadow next to me. “I thought the ever-after might hide us a little longer,” he said, his red eyes on the sky, the moon, half full and waning, just rising over the broken horizon. “He will find us soon. There’s not as much to damage here if he does.”

What he meant was fewer people as potential hostages, and I rose, extending a hand to help Trent up. He shook his head and refused, head bowed as he sat on the ruined earth and tried to catch his breath. Bis was getting the job done, but he clearly lacked finesse. Rubbing my scraped elbow, I looked out over a huge drop-off. Turning, I saw a large valley filled with slumps of rock; the edges had a red sheen from the moon, which showed their outlines facing the east. I made a slow circuit, recognizing where we were when I saw the shallow depressions and the broken bridge across it.

“Eden Park?” I asked Bis. “Whose line is this?”

Bis shifted his clawed feet nervously, jumping onto a rock that was probably mirrored in reality by the statue of Romulus and Remus and the wolf. “The only demon who isn’t gunning for us,” he said. “Al’s.”

My feet shifted in the dirt, and I looked down, thinking there should be something to differentiate this from everything else. We were standing on the very spot where I’d made my pact with Al to be his student if I could have Trent as my familiar. And there Trent was, coughing at my feet, wearing a ring that made him my slave.
Slaves could be freed, though.

As if sensing my emotions of regret and inevitability, Trent wiped the grit from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said as he stood gracefully, the red rock staining his lab coat like blood.

“For what?” Head down, I dragged my foot around us in a circle, rude but effective—my thoughts waiting for the twinge that would mean we were found.

“The sacrifices I asked of you.”

Surprised, I looked him up and down. “I’m not the one wearing the slave ring. Besides, I’d be content if I could get an apology for you slamming my head into a tombstone and choking me half to death,” I said, twisting the master ring on my finger. Either he knew me better than I thought, or he was getting far more through the rings than I’d gotten from Quen.

His half smile made something in me twist. “Then I apologize.”

“And I accept,” I said, tucking a rank strand of hair back. “It never happened. Thank you for saving the babies. That was important to me.”

His expression went blank. Silent, Trent put his hands on his hips and scanned the brightening skies, squinting.

He isn’t telling me something
. My nose wrinkled at the stench and gritty wind, remembering when we’d walked from the church to the basilica in the ever-after. There were no surface demons here now, and I wondered where they were. “It’s awful,” I said softly. “It used to be woods, springs, and fog. All of it, the entire ever-after.”

Trent’s attention fell to me. “How do you know?”

I shrugged. “I eavesdropped on one of Al’s dreams. I think I know what they used to look like, too.” My head turned. “They were the slaves of elves once, weren’t they? And they rebelled. Got the best of you.”

His expression went empty. “Rumor has it.”

“And you tried to destroy them.”

Trent took a slow breath. I could feel Bis paying attention. “I wouldn’t argue with that.”

“And now you’re helping me save them.”

Nodding, he smiled with half his mouth again. “My goal was to save you, but yes, I suppose I’m saving them as well.”

Bis jerked. An instant later, I felt it too. Someone was coming. With three wing flaps, Bis was on my shoulder, the healed line singing. I pulled heavily on Al’s line, and it hummed through me, drowning out the damage we had yet to repair in other lines. Trent’s head came up in shock, feeling it as well.

“Okay, time to see if these rings were worth lying to me about,” I said, putting my back to Trent’s and readying myself.

“Time to see if you’re as good as I think you are,” Trent whispered, and I blinked as he raised a circle with the line I had drawn in the dirt. The energy didn’t exactly flow through me, but I felt it as keenly as if it had. In my mind, whispers of spells I’d never heard of breathed and glowed with the sound of distant music. My lips parted in awe. Trent’s magic. And if I was seeing his internal spell book, he was probably seeing mine.

Along with his wisdom came Trent’s desire for Ku’Sox’s end. His anger and hatred flooded me, almost sending me down. Trent was driven, and through the rings, I saw the depths of depravity that Ku’Sox subjected him to, what he had casually threatened his child with, and the extent Trent would go to in order to stop him. His emotions joined mine, Ku’Sox becoming ugly and sordid in our shared view as our comparisons made a more perfect picture of his broken, lacking soul. My eyes welled, and Bis touched my cheek in concern.

Trent turned to me, shock in his eyes. It was as if I’d never truly seen him, and it shook me to my core. I blinked fast, wanting to touch him but afraid.

With a pop of air, Ku’Sox was abruptly standing between us and the rising moon. Snarling, he took two running steps, throwing a black ball of hate like a pitcher. I stiffened, still lost in Trent’s mind. Ku’Sox hardly seemed to matter compared to the depth of connection the rings could foster. I’d felt nothing like this when Quen had worn them.

Trent looked to Ku’Sox. At the last moment, I pulled deeply on the line Trent and I were connected to, feeling our circle strengthen. Our shared emotion about Ku’Sox—neither entirely his, entirely mine, or entirely real—echoed through us as we stood unbowed as Ku’Sox’s magic sped forward, shedding silver sparkles like pixy dust, the very air hissing from the assault.

It hit our barrier with a shower of energy, lighting the inside of our circle with a black haze. Bis’s tail tightened, and I heard in Trent’s and my mind, the drums of his wild magic. They blended with the humming purity of Al’s line—and grew strong. There was no hesitation in Trent’s abilities as there had been between Quen and me, and a small part of me wondered why.

“No monologue,” I taunted as Ku’Sox took in his lack of result. “I like that.”

“I’m going to eat you from the inside out, Rachel Mariana Morgan,” Ku’Sox intoned, his hunched form circling us like a big black cat.

His words iced through me, and Trent shuddered.

“Rachel?” Bis warbled, and I turned to follow Ku’Sox, backing up a step at Trent’s clenched jaw and pained expression. Ku’Sox was trying to use him.

“Fight it!” I said, grabbing his upper arms. “Trent, you can say no!”

“No, he can’t,” Ku’Sox mocked, flinging his coat out of his way as he stalked closer, breathing on our bubble to make the black run to him. “
Dolore adficere . . .
Do it, slave!”

Trent shuddered under my grip. The music in his mind faltered, the rushing sound of the line in mine grew loud as Bis’s tail tightened. “I am yours,” Trent gasped through clenched teeth, and my hand sprang from him, thinking I was betrayed. Trent fell to a knee, looking up at me, pleading. “I. Am. Yours. Claim me, Rachel! Damn your morals and
claim me
!”

Breath held, I spun to look at Ku’Sox, my hand falling to touch Trent’s shoulder. “Mine!” I shouted, feeling Bis’s weight light on my shoulder and the slave rings burn between us. I fastened on the wild music, remembering the rings’ creation, the ugly promise of domination they held, and I claimed it. Black filth roared in as the rings found their purpose and came truly alive—smut for this ancient magic of stream and wood, song and deviltry. “He’s
mine
!” I shouted again, and Trent’s head snapped up, his eyes wild as my will dominated him.

Fear slid through me, but the music had grown stronger, not less, and Trent panted, blood leaking from his nose. I didn’t know if I had him or not. “You’re bleeding,” I said, wiping it away with my scarf. His eyes met mine at the soft touch, and a chime seemed to shake the ley line, realigning the universe.

He was mine.

“No!” Ku’Sox raged, hammering on our bubble.

Trent was mine, and scared out of my socks, I extended a hand to help him rise. I was responsible for him, and I didn’t want to be. Was this what Trent felt for his people? He was stronger than I.

“You can back off now,” he panted, and I hastily lifted my domination from his thoughts until Trent sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

“Sorry.”

“You will not take him from me!” Ku’Sox raged. “I will eat all that you hold dear, I will swallow the sun. I will burn the moon!”

Making a pair of horns with his pinkie and thumb, Trent showed Ku’Sox the back of his hand.

Ku’Sox’s eyes widened at the ancient elven insult. With a cry of outrage, he slammed his foot into our circle, bouncing back and screaming when it repelled him with a burst of ozone-tainted energy. “Mine!” he screamed like child in a tantrum.

“Not anymore,” I whispered, wondering if we should jump out. We were kind of stuck in this circle. The half-moon was rising. If I remembered right, it would be almost straight overhead at sunrise. We had hours to finish this, or Newt would kill me herself.

“Perhaps we should circle him?” Trent suggested, and I wiped my palms on my pants.

“Good idea,” I said, wanting to leave our circle as much as I’d want to jump into a bath of ice. “Pound him into the earth. It’s elven charms he doesn’t know. After you.”

Trent looked at me, and it was all I could do but not laugh for crying. He had the drive, I had the strength, and neither of us had the skill. What in hell had Al been talking about?

“I’ll go,” Bis said, and I reached out after him, cursing my hesitation.

“Bis, no!” I shouted, his tail a whisper across my neck, and then he was through our bubble, darting madly to evade Ku’Sox’s thrown charms.

“Hey!” I cried, and Trent dove through the bubble as well, rolling to a stop behind a slump of rock. I was surprised that the circle around me hadn’t fallen. Perhaps the slave rings enabled us to share the same energy fields.

My head snapped up as wild magic coursed through me and Trent threw a charm. “
Adsimulo calefacio!
” I shouted, sending my own curse hot on the heels of Trent’s.

Bis flipped in midair to avoid Ku’Sox’s strike, his wings gray in the moonlight. Trent’s spell hit the demon’s raised shield, and the hazy black shattered with the sound of glass. Unhurt, Ku’Sox turned, his eyes widening as my incoming curse hit him square in the chest.

“Yes!” Trent exclaimed, elated as Ku’Sox was thrown back, an ugly gold and black crawling over him, making his back arch. But I wasn’t so confident, and I pulled heavily on the line, stockpiling energy until my head hurt and Bis’s hair stood on end as he landed on a crag of stone.

“Again!” Trent shouted, his face grim, and together we struck.

Ku’Sox jerked, a haze covering him for an instant as he jumped out of the way, and our combined curses hit the empty ground and exploded, light seeming to splinter and fly.

I ducked, throwing myself behind a rock as our curse flew like shrapnel. Fire burned in my mind, and I rose up, horrified. Trent had taken refuge under a bubble, and since our broken curse held his aura, the energy tore right through it.

He was down, his lab coat filthy with rock, the gritty wind shifting his hair about his closed eyes. But he breathed.

“Rachel! There!” Bis shouted, pointing, and I spun, my breath catching as I saw Ku’Sox leaning against a boulder the size of a small car. The demon smiled, hurt but alive.

“This is only making your sunrise harder, love,” he said, and I ran to Trent. I could feel Bis following above.

I slid to a stop, my mind delving deep into Trent’s, running the counter curses before the damage could seep in any further. Trent came to with a snort, jolted to full awareness by my stinging mental slap. The rings made it possible. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have done that,” Trent said, and I helped him up again, dragging him back into our uninvoked circle.