Hollows 11 - Ever After (8 page)

Tulpa sighed, making Trent shift his seat. “We can talk more about your conversation with Ceri if you like.”

Oh God. No.
“Sure. I’d love a horse,” I said, feeling the need to give Molly a pat. “I’m not really into the Hunt, though.” I remembered the sound of the hounds, the heart-stopping fear that they might catch me.
Is he nuts?

He nudged Tulpa into motion, and Molly followed. “If you change your mind, let me know. Ceri would love another feminine presence on the field. She says we men lack style in running down prey.”

I’ll bet. “I might just do that,” I said. “If only to get you to stop giving me Molly all the time.”

Trent’s smile warmed me all the way to my center. It was true and honest, and he was smiling at me.
Stop it, Rachel.
“What’s wrong with Molly?”

“Nothing, but you keep giving me a horse I can’t possibly win with.”

His face lost all expression as he thought that over. Then his eyes narrowed. “You can’t have Red. She’s not in the herd you may choose from.”

It sounded like a rather formal statement. The fiery horse was way out of my league, and I hadn’t even been thinking about her. “Why not?” I teased. “She’s sweet.”

Trent stiffened, but he wasn’t looking at me. Under him, Tulpa snorted, and with a sudden shock, I felt a huge drop in the nearest ley line.

Jenks pattered through the leaves, wreathed in a haze of silver sparkles. “Hey! Someone just made a huge bubble between here and the stables! It poked above the Turn-blasted trees.”

I stared at Trent. “Nick can’t make a bubble bigger than three feet.”

“Ceri . . .” Trent whispered. “The girls . . .”

“Trent!” I exclaimed, my hand outstretched, but he’d already wheeled Tulpa around. With a word I didn’t recognize, he urged him into a full gallop. In an instant, he was gone, the thudding of his hooves fading.

Molly snorted as I jerked her to follow, head tossing when I kicked her into a gallop. Hanging on low to her back and knees flexing, I pushed her down the trail.

I needed a faster horse.

Chapter Five

C
er-r-r-ri!”

Trent’s voice raised in summons jerked my attention, and I yanked Molly to a halt. Just off the path was a clearing, the winding, shaded stream we’d been paralleling beyond it. The fresher wind shifted my hair, bringing the scent of burned grass and decaying vegetation—and spent magic, tingling like ozone before a lightning strike.

There were two ugly burn marks and a large circle pressed into the tall grass, and the line I was connected to seemed to hum with the reminder of an energy draw. The fast-moving stream chattered among the rocks and tree roots, and I stifled a flash of fear when I saw Trent crouched over Quen, Tulpa standing a watchful guard. It was probably the same stream that I’d stumbled through once to lose the hounds chasing me.

“Hie!” I shouted, giving Molly my heels, and she jumped forward, neck arching and hooves stepping high when her footing unexpectedly turned spongy. The low-lying area surrounded by craggy trees looked as if it flooded often; the grass that wasn’t burned was tall. Three trees managed to survive the wet ground, but they were spindly and let a lot of light through, especially this early in the spring.

Jenks hovered over Quen, his dust seeming to melt into him as I came to a fast stop beside them. Ray sat in the crook of Quen’s twisted body, her little hands clutching her father’s jacket; she was too scared to cry. Quen was unconscious, no signs of attack but for a slight burn on his hands.

“His aura is intact,” Jenks said as he darted to me, “but it’s doing something really weird, shifting outside its normal color spectrum like it doesn’t have a clear connection to his soul anymore.”

Worried, I unfocused my attention to bring my second sight into play. Molly quivered as if feeling it, and I looked down. Trent’s aura was its usual gold with sparkles around his hands and head, a deeper slash of red running in the thin spots and a new shiny white at the center I’d not seen before. Quen’s was a dull green that mutated to red, then an orange as I watched.
Whoa.
Still holding my second sight, I looked away, shivering.

The sunbaked surface of the ever-after overlaid itself atop reality, a dry streambed and sparse grass running to the distant profiles of broken buildings where Cincinnati would be. There were no demons, no eyes watching, and I let go of my second sight, trembling as I maintained my hold on the ley line. “That’s not right,” I said, and Trent stood.

His eyes were haunted, and his hands cupped about his mouth. “Ceri!” he shouted again, but the silence was broken only by the sound of the water and wind. Ceri wasn’t here, nor were the horses.

Jenks rose up on a column of purple dust as I slid down, my knees protesting. “How bad is he hurt? Is he okay?” I said as I crouched beside them. Ray made a sob that was too old for her, and I reached out as she leaned toward me, falling into my arms.

“No.”

I froze where I crouched. Ray’s grip tightened, and she twisted on my hip to see her dads. Still she didn’t cry, red, wet cheeks under deep green eyes.
What had she seen?
Turning, Trent squinted into the surrounding woods. “Ceri!” he called again, his voice holding fear now.

I held my breath, listening. There was a burn mark on the closest tree, the part that hadn’t hit it spreading out behind in a long trail. There’d been a fight—short but powerful.
Demons . . .

“She’s not answering,” Trent muttered. His hair fell into his eyes as he looked down, cell phone in hand, and I stumbled to my feet when he shoved it at me. “Call the gatehouse. The number is there. Have them send the med copter. Stay with Quen. I have to find Ceri and Lucy. They could be hurt and unable to respond.”

His leaving wasn’t a good idea, and I resettled Ray on my hip when she reached for him, small sounds of distress coming from her. “Trent . . .”

Jenks’s wings clattered. “Stay here,” he said, hovering between both of us, Quen silent at our feet. “I can cover more ground faster than you can.”

Trent looked awful, his grace mutated by fear. “No.” Turning, he broke into a jog for the nearby trees. I took a hesitant step, but Jenks was faster, and before Trent could even get past the horses, the pixy was in his face, dripping a silver-tinted red dust.

“Hey!” the pixy shouted, and Ray’s whimpering cut off. “I said stay
put
! Whoever did this might still be out there, Mr. King-of-the-World, and I can cover ten times more ground than you. You got me?” Wings clattering, he stared Trent down. “Stay here and call your ambulance. Quen’s aura is freaking out. He needs help!”

My heart thudded, but Trent hesitated, and finally with a groan of frustration, he spun back to Quen, his head down to hide his eyes as he returned. He held his hand out for his phone, and I swear I felt a tingle of magic as he took it in his cold fingers.

“Do you know a healing charm?” I asked, not knowing one myself. I’d been afraid to learn, and Al wouldn’t teach me lest I do something worse to myself than the burn or cut I would use it to fix.

“I did it already,” he said, flipping his phone open as he dropped down to kneel beside Quen. “That’s when his aura started cycling, but it did get his pulse to even out.”

Not even a bird disturbed the silence, and, awkward with Ray on my hip, I knelt as well, reaching for Quen’s wrist. “His pulse is thready,” I said, and I shifted Ray’s weight when I leaned to pull Quen’s lids back. “Dilation is normal,” I said, at a loss. My hand was tingling, and disconcerted, I pulled back. Ray began to protest, and I stood.

“It’s Trent,” Trent said into his phone, his voice iron hard, all hint of his fear hidden. “We’ve had an accident. I need the med copter out at the stables. Now.”

“You have a medical copter?”

He didn’t even look at me, his eyes scanning the nearby trees as if wanting to be among them searching. “Inform the university hospital we might be bringing Quen in. I suspect a demon attack. Yes, in the daylight. Ceri and Lucy are missing. I want the dogs in the woods running a rescue pattern as soon as possible. Focus on the river path.” He hesitated, and I saw him struggle to keep his face steady. “I will be out of contact for several hours. Questions?”

He closed the phone, breathing raggedly. “Hurry up, Jenks . . .”

I stood, my shadow covering Quen’s pale face. It made his pox scars stand out. I couldn’t do anything. If he was bleeding, I could stop the blood. If he had a concussion, I could treat him for shock. If he was delusional, I could sit on him until help arrived—but this? I didn’t know what to do, and I found I was rocking back and forth with Ray. She was silent, her beautiful dark green eyes scared.

“Maybe Ceri made it back to the stables,” I said, turning to the burn marks. “The horses are gone.”

Trent was taking Quen’s pulse again. “I called before you got here.” His voice was even, distracted. “The horses came in riderless. Ceri never would have left Quen.”

And yet, she was gone. Damn it, Quen had tried to stop them. I should have been here. I could have helped. “It doesn’t mean that demons took them,” I said, flushing when Trent looked up, his anger obvious.

Ray turned, her eyes tracking Jenks as he darted back from under the trees. His dust was almost nonexistent. “I did a circle two hundred yards out,” he said. “No sign of them.”

“Then do a wider one!” I said, and he frowned.

“I didn’t go out any farther because there’s a circle burn. We’re in the center.”

Shit.
Quen couldn’t make a circle that big, even under stress. Neither could Ceri. It was demon made.

“If there’s a demon circle, then they’ve been taken,” he finished, and Trent’s hands clenched.

Ku’Sox. I needed to talk to Al, and I turned to the horses, thinking of my scrying mirror, hours away. I’d been promising myself I’d make a compact version, and I cursed myself for having put it off. I was completely out of contact with the ever-after. “It couldn’t be Ku’Sox,” I whispered, just wanting it to be anyone else. “It’s daylight, and he’s cursed to stay in the ever-after.”

“He’s working through Nick.” Trent stood up. “This is my fault.”

Fault? It was no one’s fault. “Don’t start,” I said harshly, and Jenks hummed his wings nervously. My tone brought Trent up short, and his eyes narrowed as he focused on me. “No, I mean it,” I said, jiggling Ray on my hip. “Ku’Sox could have as easily been going for you. Maybe he didn’t because I was with you, in which case it would be
my
fault they were taken.” Oh God, Ceri and Lucy with Ku’Sox was too terrifying to think about.

“You don’t understand. This is
my
fault,” Trent said, his voice angry. “I never should have left them. I thought I was his target. I sent them into danger, not away from it.” He looked at me, anguish in his green eyes. “He took them. Why? I was right there!”

“Because you’re an emancipated familiar,” I said, numb and almost sick to my stomach. “Ceri was freed, but you were emancipated. The papers had been filed and there was no way he could get away with it like he can with Ceri. Trent, give me a chance to look into it and get Ceri’s papers signed and filed. Lucy is my godchild. I think that comes under the leaving-me-and-mine-alone deal we have.”
I hope.
“We can get them back.”

Teeth clenched, he turned away. Another look of guilt slithered over his face. “I’m the only person who can make the Rosewood cure permanent,” he said, head down so the sun couldn’t reach his eyes. “It should’ve been me. I was ready if it had been me.”

His voice cracked and he stared at the river. It flowed uncaring before us, like the chaos that was running through his mind, always moving, never silent. I hovered over Quen as I remembered that hug last night. It had been unusual, especially in front of the newspeople. Had Trent known this might happen and had been trying to keep me from being a suspect? Up until recently, I would have loved to see him in jail.

“He took her to make me comply,” he said flatly. “Rachel, I can’t do that. I vowed to see to the survival of the elves. A resurgence of demons might be our end.”

“Maybe not. There’s the—”

“I can’t!” he shouted, and I became silent. “I was ready to give my life to keep the secret of the demons’ survival out of their hands. I was not ready to give theirs.”

“We’ll get them back,” I said as I shifted Ray’s weight, but even I knew it was only something to say. The doing would be harder. A faint thumping of a helicopter’s blades sounded in the late morning air, and Trent looked at his watch, then the woods. I touched his shoulder, finding it rock hard. “It’s going to be okay.” He jerked from me, and my resolve strengthened. “I’m telling you, if Ku’Sox has them, they will be okay!” God, please let them be okay.

He spun, the sound of the chopper blades growing. “How?” he barked. “The demon is sadistic and psychotic! He does things because he enjoys it, not for power or money, but because he enjoys it!”

Then maybe you shouldn’t have let him go from under the St. Louis arch,
I thought, but to say it wouldn’t do any good; he’d freed Ku’Sox to save me. “Trent, I’ve been where you are now. It’s going to be okay. Give me a chance to talk to Al. We’ll get the papers filed and get them back. In the meantime, they will be safe. Will you look at me?”

He finally looked up, the anguish he was trying to hide stopping me cold. I held Ray tighter, and the little girl began to fuss. “Pardon me if I don’t share your trust of demons.”

“Trust has nothing to do with it!” I shouted, and Tulpa flattened his ears. “I know he’s psychotic, but he is not stupid, and he’s not going to eat his bargaining chip!”

Trent glared up at the circling copter, ignoring me.
How would they even know where to land?
“Ceri knows demons,” I said. “She will keep Lucy safe. She has her soul, and that makes all the difference. I promise I’ll find out what happened. We have a space. We need to think. Please give me a chance to do something.”

He wasn’t looking at me, his jaw set and his manner closed. I didn’t know if I’d made things better or worse. “Jenks,” he said suddenly. “They will have to land in the pasture and walk in. You’re the fastest person here. Will you tell them where we are?”

Frowning, I shifted Ray higher. We didn’t have time for this. I didn’t know what Quen’s aura was doing, but it wasn’t normal. “Are those trees important to you?” I asked Trent suddenly, and he looked at me blankly. Even Jenks hesitated. “Your dad didn’t kiss your mom under them or anything?”

Trent shook his head. “No.”

Jaw clenched, I pulled heavily on the ley line. Ray jumped as if smacked, but she wasn’t crying so I narrowed my focus and pushed it into my hand. “
Adsimulo calefacio!
” I shouted, throwing the curse at the nearest tree, superheating the sap in an instant. The tree exploded, and I spun, shielding Ray with my body. Bits of bark and sharp splinters struck my back.

The horses scattered with the muted sound of hooves. “Hey! Give me some warning!” Jenks shrilled as the last of the branches fell back to earth, and Trent looked up from where he had hastily covered Quen. The tree was scattered over a twenty-foot circle, the last pieces still falling. It had only been Molly that had run away, and Tulpa stood at a four-posted stiffness, his neck arched and his eyes wild. He snorted at me, shifting his skin to shake off the bits of bark and leaves.

“Consider yourself warned,” I said grimly, and after seeing Ray wide-eyed and quiet, I shifted her to sit more firmly on my hip and blew up two more trees. It was an ungodly mess, but there was room now, and better yet, the ambulance would know exactly where to land. Growing more angry, Tulpa withstood it all, held to the spot by Trent’s will alone.

Trent was silent as he joined me in the new sun, squinting up as the sound of the copter blades grew closer. I felt ill as the imbalance for the curse rose up, lapping about me. I could feel it cresting, and with no regret, I lifted my chin.
I pay the cost for this,
I thought, feeling the smut slither across my soul. The sun didn’t seem any dimmer, the sky was just as blue, but looking at the shattered stumps and splintered branches and wilting leaves, I knew my soul was a little bit darker.