Chapter 16

Chapter

16

"Wow." Hands on her hips to remind me of Jenks, Elyse stood on the sidewalk and stared at the university's ley line as I paid the cabbie. "It's bigger than I expected."

The cab drove off, and I smiled as I took in the familiar old buildings. I'd gone to the local college, but I still felt a kinship here. The campus was almost deserted, probably because Al had been out roaming the city last night, causing chaos in his effort to convince me to testify for him in a demon court. The nearby ley line was hard to see, its unusually wide size and length diluting the typical red haze to a faint distortion.

"Dali made it." I hiked my shoulder bag up, bulky with robes, sashes, and hats. "It took him a long time to punch through from the ever-after to reality. The longer it takes, the bigger the damage, the wider and longer the line." A shudder rippled through me at a memory. "I made the one out at Loveland Castle. Or I will, rather. I couldn't tap a line for a week."

Elyse's twisted her lips in a wry expression. "I was talking about the campus."

My lips parted. Bigger than expected? What, she thought we were a little hick town?

"I thought it was propaganda that demons made the ley lines," she continued, oblivious to my dark frown.

"No. It hurts like hell, and if you can't manage it or your gargoyle can't find you and pull you out, you die."

"No kidding," she said as if she didn't care.

Let it go, Rachel, I thought, head down, as I started for a quiet corner of the massive ley line. I didn't think anyone was watching us, but I didn't want to make it obvious that we'd vanished into the ever-after—seeing as voluntarily going into the demons' realm was a veritable death sentence at the moment. "Ready?"

"Sure."

She was down to one-word sentences. Either she knew she'd insulted me or she was scared. I was betting she was scared. "Hold your breath," I said as the tingling of the line found me, warm and welcoming. Mystics played in my hair, and I twiddled my fingers, seeing them dance about my nails like living glitter. Thank all that is holy they don't recognize me.

"Hold my breath?" she said as if I was being stupid. "You can't breathe while you're traveling a line. What difference is holding my breath going to make?"

Because you know all about that, I thought sourly as I tweaked my aura to match the line's resonance and vanished. I wasn't going to shift her. She could do it herself, burned synapses or not.

For a moment, I was in the All, existing everywhere at the exact same moment. Time was marked not from the spinning of the earth or the expansion of the universe but from the decay of energy. I hung there a telling moment, listening to the universe chime, feeling it pulse through me like a great bell. Images of Trent passed through me, of Jenks and Ivy. Kisten… And then I gathered my resolve and let my aura shift back to normal, pushing myself out.

I jerked, breath held as I hunched against the sudden stinging wind. Slowly I exhaled, and then the scent of burnt amber hit me as I breathed in, the smell chokingly thick. "Crap on toast," I whispered, having forgotten just how bad it had been. It was misery made real.

"Elyse?" She was coughing violently, waving me off as she tried to clear her lungs. But the more she coughed, the more she took in. It was a losing battle.

Next time I tell you to hold your breath, hold your breath. Hand over my face, I peered through the stinging dust to the bloodred sun. It mirrored the one in reality, hanging a good ten degrees above the horizon. Broken buildings surrounded us, dissolving and re-forming as if in some bizarre lava lamp in reverse; the ever-after tried to maintain a reflection of our reality…failing.

"Oh, my God." Elyse's eyes were damp with tears as she came to stand even with me, squinting at the broken landscape. "Vivian wasn't exaggerating. This is…"

"Hell," I said for her, stifling a shudder at the red-smeared nightmare. The demons had created the bubble of existence to mimic reality long ago, but time had separated the two realities so far that maintaining any semblance of reality was gone. The open spaces were better, but there was little if any rain, and the grasses were dry and the trees leafless. To be honest, it looked as if a bomb had gone off.

No, it looks as if a bomb is actively going off, I decided. Some sort of weird bomb that melted everything. The scent of burnt amber was faint but persistent, and my eyes burned.

"We can't stay out here in this," Elyse said, arms clasped around her middle as she cast about. "Maybe one of the buildings."

I dropped my shoulder bag, digging in it to find my sash. Bells tinkled faintly in the blowing grit as I wrapped my head and covered my face but for my eyes. Immediately my discomfort eased, and I took a deep breath. "Only if you want it to come down on you," I said as I put that flat-topped hat on my head to keep my sash from blowing off. "I know somewhere that's stable."

I shrugged into my robe and then handed Elyse her sash. She held it for a moment as if I was crazy, then began to wrap her hair, bells ringing. "No wonder they don't live on the surface," she said. "This is a nightmare."

I'd never worn a spelling robe in the old ever-after before, but the moment the cool silk hit my shoulders, relief spilled through me. The lightweight fabric billowed and snapped, but silk naturally protected the wearer's aura, and a feeling of separation between me and the gritty wind eased into existence as I tied the sleeves tight about my wrists. After a moment of consideration, I retied my sash about my waist to leave enough to go around my face as well. With the hat, I was protected.

Which would blow off if it was pointy, I realized, seeing the sense behind it now.

"Wow, that makes a big difference," Elyse said as she shrugged into her own robe. "This is awful."

Which was an understatement. But the sun was too close to setting for my liking, and I resettled my much lighter bag over my shoulder and pushed into motion. "We need to get to the Basilica before dark."

"Because of the surface demons?" Elyse followed, bells jingling as she held the tail of her scarf over her face.

"They won't bother you if they know you're strong enough to fend them off. We're dressed like demons, but that's no guarantee." I studied the broken buildings as we walked, but it was the lay of the ley line that told me where south was, and I nodded at the dry riverbed and a hazy spire beyond. "That way."

Elyse slipped on the dusty rock, then shifted to walk close behind me. "I never understood how the souls of the undead could hurt anyone," she said, and I stiffened at the sliding click of a rock. They were there. I was surprised they hadn't come out. Either they were waiting for darkness or our demon robes had scared them off.

"Souls have substance here," I said, wondering if I might find Kisten's if I hung around until after he died. But no. He died his second death too fast. His soul had been spared the indignity of the ever-after, at least. "We're headed for that building over there."

"That big church in the Hollows?" she said, and I stifled a grimace.

"It's a Basilica, not a church, and it's one of the few places here that holds together. The demons have a protected database there. If I ping it, Newt will show. Alone. I hope. Minias is busy chasing Al at the moment." Annoyed, I stomped along, the sand stinging my hand as I held my sash to my face. I'd lost my nail polish when I'd traveled back in time and it was irksome.

"Sorry," she muttered, and I eased my pace.

"No, it's me," I said, relenting. "You remind me of Trent's onetime fiancée, Ellasbeth. Like you, she has lots of potential. Lots of ability to make the world a better place."

"Yeah?" Elyse brightened.

"Lots of passive-aggressive put-downs to protect herself," I added, and her eyes narrowed. "Laser focused on making the world what she thinks it should be instead of creating a space where everyone can be themselves."

Elyse scowled. "Yes, because demons are so understanding of personal boundaries."

A laugh burst from me, honest and true. I think it shocked Elyse, and my mirth vanished as we slid down into what, in reality, was probably the Ohio River basin. "The demons are understandably angry. Frustrated," I said when we reached the bottom. "Wouldn't you be? Stuck here, unable to leave unless some idiot forces you out. And then you're in a circle listening to total egomaniacs prattle on about what they want you to do for them. Not to mention making you pick up the cost." I frowned, remembering the few times I'd been summoned. "With only this to come back to," I finished.

Elyse silently slogged on beside me, her gaze going everywhere. "Why did they let it get so bad? I mean, can't they fix it?"

My boots looked odd from under my robe, and I tugged the silken fabric lower to hide them. "No. Al said it was once a paradise, a beautiful trap of sunny meadows and shady forests to snare the elves, who simply wanted to escape having to deal with humans. It worked, but the elves spun the holding curse around the neck of the demons as well, trapping them both here. While humanity developed alone, the elves and demons fought for eons, ruining their tiny artificial universe with magical waste. The elves enslaved the demons, and then the demons got the upper hand. That was when the elves escaped back to reality, leaving the demons to rot in the magic waste they'd both created." I took a slow breath, my pulse quickening as we slogged up the other side of the dry riverbed. We'd hardly be halfway across in reality, but everything was closer in the ever-after because the universe itself was smaller. "And since magic is basically changing the laws of nature, the waste from it is just that. Change. Constant, ugly, too fast for anything to survive it. Unless you are the soul of an undead."

I paused at the top, waiting for Elyse.

"Which you fixed," Elyse said as she tightened the sash around her face. "I've seen it. Sun. Grass. Big-ass mountains. How did you do what they couldn't?"

"I didn't fix it. I made a new one." I pushed forward and she followed. "You know Zack, right? The leader of the elven dewar?" I asked, and she nodded. It seemed as if all of Inderland's conventional rulers were children these days. Not my fault. "His predecessor convinced the Goddess to break the ley lines. They are what connects the ever-after to reality, and breaking them would destroy the ever-after and the demons with it. Bis and I used the demons' accumulated smut to punch a new, smaller reality into existence, and the demons scribed new lines to keep it running." I hesitated. "Or at least they will."

"That's what Vivian said." Head down, Elyse trudged beside me. "She also said the summoning curse broke when the lines went down. I thought she was kidding."

I slowed our pace as we found ourselves among buildings again. They were holding together better, but it only made me more nervous. Solid buildings meant places for surface demons to hide, and I started at a soft clink of stone. "I was out for almost a week, but it was that or the end of ley line magic. Earth magic, too, would have faltered in time. There were too many ugly things being held captive by magic. I doubt we have caught them all yet." I squinted up at the spires of the Basilica, my thoughts on Bis. Some of his kin still remained in the ever-after, and I missed him. "Besides, the demons needed a place of their own where they wouldn't have to maintain their all-powerful image and just…live. It takes skill to fit in, and they are several thousand years out of practice."

The shallow, wide steps of the Basilica were before us, and Elyse looked up from her feet. "That detail is amazing," she whispered, her gaze running over the grapevines twining in stony relief across the door. "Is it like that in reality?"

"Exactly." But the doors were probably chained shut in reality, and I reached for the handle, anxious to get off the street. I still didn't see any gargoyles. Maybe they were hiding from the scouring wind. "Go," I prompted as I pulled the door open, and she hustled inside.

I gave the broken pavement and slowly dissolving buildings a last glance before following her in and shutting the door behind me.

It was dark, as the only light came from the setting sun through the stained-glass windows, and those were coated in grime. The tiny bells on our sashes seemed loud, and I stiffened, ire flicking through me when Elyse took a ley line charm from her pocket and pulled the pin, invoking a premade spell to create a globe of light.

"Where did you get that?" I said, thinking she'd stolen it from Sylvia. We hadn't gone anywhere else.

"Library," she whispered, holding the globe higher to throw the broken sanctuary into high relief. "What happened? It looks as if there was a bar fight in here."

"I don't know." I unwound my sash from my face and retied it around my waist. "No one is talking." I picked my way down the center aisle past the broken pews, the heavy benches jumbled into the alcoves and in corners as if they were toothpicks. The stonework was heavily cracked and the pulpit coated in what had probably been blood but was now a black, scummy mold. The only thing clean was the statue of Mary, and that, of course, was the entrance to the belowground database.

"Don't. Touch. Anything," I said as Elyse followed me, sneakers almost silent. "Especially the statue. It's spelled and it will knock you right through a wall."

It smelled like old dust, and my gaze went to the low steps as I remembered how beautiful this space had been when Trent had almost married Ellasbeth here. I think he had been attracted to me even then, but it wasn't me who had interested him but his love of the dangerous.

"How did you find out about this place?" Elyse said, and I stifled a shudder as her voice echoed back in half-heard whispers.

"I've been here before. Or rather, I will be?" I halted before the altar, not sure where I should make a circle for Elyse to hide in. I hadn't noticed a drawn circle two months from now when Trent and I had stolen his DNA sample, but it could have been lost in the clutter, and I finally decided to put it tucked out of the way in the shadows.

I dropped my bag beside the stairs, bending double to rummage through it to find my chalk. Salt made a good base on a variable surface, or blood, but I wasn't about to cut my thumb. Magnetic chalk would do. Al's memory potions brushed my fingers, and I took a vial, tucking it into my pocket for an emergency getaway.

"The demons keep a genetic record of every familiar and demon in existence under the Madonna," I said as I straightened. "My dad died trying to get a sample of elven DNA to help Trent's dad repair the elven genome, and when they failed, Trent and I do. Did. Will. Whatever."

But we wouldn't have managed it, either, without Jenks's help, and I pushed the broken concrete from a roughly circular area with my foot, grimacing at the grime. "I didn't realize it at the time, but giving Trent the way to save his people took a huge burden from him." Exhaling, I bent over and began to scribe a circle. "That was when he became gentler, less of a world threat. People change when their fear is removed. That's the only way they can."

Finished, I began to draw a second circle nested within the first. "You're welcome for that, by the way."

Grit popped under her shoes as Elyse turned. "I thought you said Newt could take down a blood circle. What is that going to do?"

"Buy you ten seconds to say your prayers." I tucked the chalk into my sleeve pocket and held out my hand. "Give it."

Elyse's eyes widened as if surprised, but her neck was flushed. "Give what?"

"Whatever it is that you stole from Sylvia to snare Newt and demand a stasis curse."

Brow furrowed, she retreated a step. "I'm not going to stand in front of a demon in the ever-after totally helpless."

Too late. "Elyse, you already are." I wiggled my fingers in impatience. "Whatever that is, all it's going to do is piss her off. Give it. I'll find a way to get you home."

"No." Hand to her middle, she backed away, feet scuffing in the debris. "You walk around as if you have this golden shield around you. That nothing can hurt you. How do you expect to survive the coven if you can't even survive a demon?"

"Survive the coven?" I laughed, not liking how bitter it sounded. "Elyse, the coven has been nothing but a mild irritant compared to the crap I've had to deal with concerning the demons." I dropped my hand, seeing as she wasn't putting anything in it.

"Let's take this week, for example," I said. "And I don't mean me trying to purchase a mirror from a demon. Tonight, I watch the man I love die twice—in my arms—because his guardian gave him to another vampire to kill for the crime of saying no. Al is currently chewing up the best Cincinnati has to convince me to testify on his behalf, the damage of which I get blamed for somehow. Piscary has been released from prison to deal with him, but all Piscary wants is to kill me, or better yet, force Ivy to do it to prove her loyalty to him. In a few days, I'm going to nearly drive myself mad trying to control an ancient Were artifact so Trent doesn't get it and sell it to fund his secret labs. And while we're on the subject of Trent, he is going to be so pissed that I arrest him at his wedding tomorrow that he would cheerfully kill me himself instead of sending Quen to do it."

I took a step forward and she retreated. "You want to know how I survived? Not my skills, because my paltry few years of learning spells mean squat to someone who spent eons developing war magic. I survived because of my friends. My friends are my golden shield. They kept me together when Kisten died. They pulled the focus out of me before it could make me insane. Piscary…well, I didn't kill him, but Ivy suffered his abuse instead of killing me. I survived a dark coven by exposing it, and Trent by finding out who he was, what drove him." I took a slow breath, my pulse racing as I bared my soul. "And once I understood that everything he did was to save his people, I found a way to stop hating him."

I held my hand out for whatever she had stolen. "Which is what happened when I began to understand the demons. That's why I work so damn hard to give them a chance. The only reason I survived Al was because I trusted him." My voice almost broke, and I blinked fast as I remembered Vivian. "Vivian understood that," I added, whispering now. "I didn't invite you. You forced yourself on me. If you don't trust me to get you home, I can't stop Newt from snagging you as her familiar when you do something stupid. Give me the damn spell."

For three seconds, Elyse considered it, her jaw set. I didn't think many people had ever told her what to do. But that was her problem, not mine.

"Give it, or I will let her abduct you," I added, deadly serious. "I didn't ask you to come, but I'll keep you safe. I can't do that if you're slinging spells behind my back."

She lifted her chin. "I don't trust you," she said as she extended what looked like a mass-produced wooden amulet. It was probably unprimed, seeing as I felt nothing when she dropped it into my hand. "All it does is make a circle. I got it at Sylvia's."

My shoulders eased as I read the instructions and decided she was telling the truth. It was hard to function with your synapses singed, but this little baby would help make up for it.

Flustered, Elyse yanked her robes higher. "Like it matters?" she grumped. "If that demon snares me—"

"I will die trying to free you," I finished for her.

Her jaw tightened. "Which means pixy dust to me if you fail."

But I was feeling better. She stole an amulet to keep herself safe, not to blow anything up. Then again, Sylvia didn't stock destructive spells. "Your best option here is to keep your mouth shut and your circle uninvoked." I tossed the amulet to her, and she caught it. "The more powerful you seem, the more she's going to want you." I waited for that to sink in. "Go on. Get in the circle. It won't stop her, but you'll feel better."

She hesitated only briefly, then stepped inside. "It's not big enough for two."

I moved to get between her and the statue of the Madonna. "I don't intend to get in it. It will give you about ten seconds. It would be better if you don't invoke it at all."

Elyse was silent. She was braver than I gave her credit for, going into the ever-after with nothing but a stolen circle spell to protect herself. Exhaling, I glanced at the ring Trent had given me, then made a fist. It was a link between Trent and his mom. He had so precious few of those. I wasn't going to trade it to a demon, and I spun it so the stone was hidden against my palm.

I was already connected to a ley line, and with a whispered word, I invoked a small globe of light, just enough for the stage area. "Here goes," I said as I balled up some raw energy in my hands and flicked the tingling mass at the Madonna.

Even expecting it, I jumped at the purple and black sparks, taking a step back when black snakelike threads exploded from the statue with a slithering hiss, snapping through the air to search us out. "Fire in the hole!" I exclaimed, cowering behind a hastily invoked circle. "Elyse?"

"Good!" she shouted, and I risked a glance. She hadn't invoked her circle, but she was fine, and the black threads had already retreated.

Exhaling, I stood and dropped my circle. "That could have been nasty," I whispered. And then my attention jerked to the ceiling at the sound of a rasping scrape: two red eyes blinked at me, and a hint of leather rustled. It was a gargoyle, and a big one.

Alarm washed through me. "Ah, I intend no harm," I said, and the gargoyle's white-tufted ears swiveled at the chiming of my sash. "I only wanted to talk to Newt and didn't want to summon her." Great. If he hadn't been sleeping, he would have heard my pregame pep talk.

"And yet you summon her nevertheless," the gargoyle said from the shadows, his gravelly voice rumbling like distant thunder. "If you try to harm her, I will stop you."

Oh, really? My lips parted. Perhaps I had stumbled upon Newt's gargoyle. She had to have one. Didn't she?

"I only wish to bargain," I said, bowing my head in respect. He had a dented sword in his thick-fingered grip, making me wonder if he was the same gargoyle I'd run into before, or would run into. Whatever.

"That does not negate the possibility of harm," he grumbled.

"Oh, God," Elyse whispered, clearly scared as a smattering of rocks pattered down, and then I lifted my head at the faint hint of spoiled green. Burnt amber.

I followed Elyse's gaze to the center aisle. It was Newt in a gold spelling robe, a flat hat on her head, and a red sash with no bells. Her eyes were utterly black, even the whites. It was said she gained them by staring into the bottom of a ley line too long. Her bare, bony feet showed from under her hem, and suddenly I felt like a fool. What the hell had I been thinking? She would recognize me, forget curse or not.

But as she came forward, not a hint of recognition marred her smooth face.

"Are we matching our auras and robes today?" the demon said, her androgynous pitch of voice pricking down my spine to leave a body-wide shudder in its wake.

"Ah, hi, Newt," I said, too alarmed to care that my voice broke.

"Adagio likes you." A glimmer of energy washed over her to shift her gold robe to a stunning black. "He normally drops rocks on interlopers." She paused, eight feet back, head tilted as if listening. No hair, I mused. It was about fifty-fifty that she ever had any. "But you don't seem to be normal," she finished, voice low.

"Perhaps he remembers me." I couldn't beat her magic. I had to baffle her with bullshit.

"Remembers?" Newt's gaze flicked past me to Elyse, the young woman blessedly quiet for a change. "I don't remember you, but that's not unusual." She squinted. "Possibly because you are both…glamoured?"

Oh, yeah. I'm a blonde. I exchanged a nervous glance with Elyse before taking the purchased amulet from around my neck and tossing it to my bag. I wouldn't be able to reinstate Elyse's disguise until we returned to the library, but if we got what I came for, we could go home as soon as we got there. "Finis," I said boldly, and Newt's lips twitched.

"You dabble in demons, little witch?"

"No, but they tend to dabble in me." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, glad it was its usual color again. Now, if only I can get rid of this sequined shirt. "It's good to see you," I said, surprised to find it was true. I did miss her, as odd, dangerous, and erratic as she was. By becoming the elves' Goddess, she had saved my life. I could never repay her.

Newt glanced up at Adagio as she came forward another step to study Elyse behind her double circle. "I think you mean that. You brought me someone to play with?"

Elyse took a breath, and I put up a hand, wanting her to stay quiet. "You have something I need. I'm here to bargain for it. She's not for sale; she's here to hopefully learn something."

But Newt was shifting, her body growing smaller, thinner. A shock of red hair mirroring mine grew, and her robe vanished. Dressed in shorts and a white T-shirt, she leaned her scrawny arms on the railing circling the stage, freckles melting into existence as she grinned at Elyse. "Is she fun?" Newt said, her voice now high and young. "I'd give a lot for fun."

"Sweet mother of God," Elyse whispered, and I grimaced when she pulled the pin on that over-the-counter spell and a flimsy circle rose up around her. Great.

"She's not for sale," I said again. "She's here to learn how to stay alive while dealing with demons."

Newt laughed, the high giggle changing to a mature chuckle as she pushed off from the railing and became herself again. "How is that going?" she asked coyly.

"So far so good. But she imagines she knows more than she does. She doesn't speak for herself. I speak for her. And I will continue to do so until she stops thinking that the best way to deal with a demon is to circle him and make shitty demands."

Newt cocked her head at my obvious bitterness. "Mmmm. And what do you think?"

I dropped back, inviting her up onto the stage. "It's complicated, but as you see, she's the only one in a circle."

Newt eased up a step and halted. Her black eyes narrowed, and I felt my heart stutter. "That's my book," she whispered, and I followed her gaze to my shoulder bag tucked behind me.

Pulse fast, I snatched it up, scrambling to catch the book when it fell free. "It's not yours yet."

But Newt had moved, and she now stood on the stage, her hem shaking. Unfocused magic snapped in her robe, and it was only the unknown of my talents that kept her from spelling me. "You stole it," she intoned, a black haze spilling from her fingers. Mystics sparkled at her fingertips, and I felt my face go cold. "Give it back."

"It's still on your shelf," I said, refusing to move. "It's yours until you give it to me. Finder keeper, writer weeper."

Newt's jaw clenched as I tried to confuse her. "Indeed…"

"This isn't working," Elyse whispered.

"Are you alive?" I muttered. "It's working."

A patter of stones fell from the ceiling, and Newt glanced up at Adagio. "I will consider the incongruity that my book can be in two places at once as a possibility. What do you want?"

My grip tightened on the book. That she'd recognized it would help if I needed to give it up. I think. "I, ah, twisted one of the curses in it in error. I need an Atlantean mirror to break it."

"And a stasis charm," Elyse blurted, sash bells jingling.

Newt's lip curled up in a smile. "All that for a book I apparently still have?"

I shook my head. "I'm keeping the book. You don't need two, and this one is mine. The stasis charm isn't a must-have, but the Atlantean mirror is."

"It sure as hell is necessary!" Elyse exclaimed, but Newt had dismissed her, her expression calm as she leaned against the Madonna statue.

That is, until a high-pitched whine sounded, and the demon's aura flashed into existence.

Newt pushed from the statue, little arcs of black lightning popping as they snapped around her. "I don't remember you. I'm done here."

"Wait! Newt, the mirror," I blurted.

"Make your own mirror." Head bowed, she stomped down the stairs.

"I don't know how." I reached out after her, jerking to a halt when a stone cracked at the ceiling. "Newt, tell me where one is. I can tell you the future!"

"Blah, blah, blah." Her gaze roved over the sanctuary in horror as if only now realizing it was in ruins. "I can tell the future, too. It's easy when every day is exactly the same. You don't belong here and you will die before you escape it."

"I know what you were trying to find in that church!" I shouted, and Newt spun.

She started for me, arms swinging. Panicked, I retreated, only to trip on my robe and fall against the steps. "Tell me now! No deal. Tell me!"

"Me!" I squeaked out, flat on my back on the stairs. "You were looking for your memory of me!"

Newt jerked to a halt, pain in her eyes. The book against my chest sparked, and uncertainty lit through her. It didn't want her, and that, more than anything, I think, was saving my ass.

"Minias is destroying your mind to keep you pliant," I said, thinking the information wouldn't change anything since she eventually figured it out for herself. "He's been writing down everything you remember, then making you forget."

"This is a different kind of future," Newt said, jaw tight as she stared at me with those black eyes. "Who are you?"

I slowly sat up, my book clenched to me, scrambling for anything that would satisfy her and not give too much away. "You will ride across the paradise you destroyed," I said, and confusion flickered, familiar and hated. "And though you will not see the ever-after renewed, your horse will run across it through amber fields and cool forests. You will see the elves reborn and the demons saved, and they will both fear you for your greatness."

"I will ride?" she said wistfully, and from above came the crack of a rock—warning me.

I sat up more, finding strength in her bewilderment. "A mare so fiery that even the finest elven horseman can't break her. A gift from a hated name." Yeah, that was vague enough. If she ever figured it out, it would be in hindsight.

Newt's focus sharpened in distrust. "I see what you want me to believe, but you are no one. Nothing. I killed all my sisters."

"I saw Ku'Sox dead," I said. "Poor child."

"Ku'Sox is not dead," Newt said, and I put a finger to my nose.

"It depends on when you look." She was scrambling now, and I felt a flicker of hope.

"My sisters all have mirrors. You are not my sister."

"No," I admitted. "As you say, I'm nothing." I had to keep her talking, thinking, interested until she gave me what I wanted out of sheer confusion.

"I don't remember," Newt said. "Was I there when Ku'Sox died?"

I slowly got to my feet. "You will be," I promised. "Do we have a deal?" I asked, though no deal had been made.

Newt's mood shattered. "An Atlantean mirror for a delphic vision of my future? No." Her black gaze flicked past me. "For her, maybe. So many spells, I sense, and not a whisper of hesitancy to use them. No wonder you singed her before dragging her to market."

"Rachel…" Elyse warned, and I grimaced as she named me.

"Not nothing. You are a Rachel ," Newt said coyly as if having gained points.

"You can't have Elyse," I said, using her proper name, seeing as she'd used mine, and the woman flushed, only now seeing her mistake. Demons could use your name against you, but she wasn't getting all three so it was a moot point. "She doesn't wear my smut. She has her soul," I added, and Newt smiled to show perfect white teeth.

"Then nothing will stop me from taking her."

Book in one arm, I fingered the forget potion in my pocket. "I will," I said boldly. "And as you say, I'm nothing." Little ribbons of hair that had escaped my hat were floating in the mystic-charged air, magic discharges snapping. Maybe this was why Newt chose to rock the bald look. "Don't press me, Newt. If I tell you too much, you won't survive what's coming."

Newt sent her gaze to my hand in my pocket, not a clue as to what I held. She could best me, but she hesitated, lest she ruin exactly what she coveted. "And what is that?" she asked.

My pulse was fast. "Freedom."

"From this hellhole?" she said dryly, and I shrugged. Bored now, Newt considered me. "Perhaps. I will give you a mirror, but I want something in return."

She had one, and I stifled my excitement. "What?" I asked, and Newt smirked. The expression seemed surprisingly right on her.

"A night away from this," she said, rubbing her fingers together to sift dead magic from her like pixy dust. "You summon me to reality, and I will tell you what you want to know."

"What about my stasis charm?" Elyse said, panicking.

"Okay," I said, and Newt batted her black on black eyes at me. "But I don't need to summon you. You can take us there right now."

Newt stiffened, her entire demeanor shifting. "How do you know that?" she said, almost frightened. "I hardly know that."

"I told you. I am the future."

She went still, so still I wasn't sure she was breathing. "I won't deal with those who don't trust me. Drop your circle," she said, and I followed her gaze to Elyse standing under the utterly useless protection of a ley line circle charm.

And yet Elyse shrank in on herself, clearly frightened. "No."

"Humm." Newt adjusted her sleeves as if preparing to leave. "You are not serious." Glancing at the book in my arm, she sauntered down the stairs. "Maybe you are nothing."

"Wait!" Elyse was pale and shaking. Damn it to the Turn and back… "I told you not to come," I said, cross. "Take it down, or I will embarrass you and take it down for you."

"Oh, I'd like to see that," Newt said, hesitating at the bottom of the stairs.

Elyse shook her head, and I glared at her. "Vivian trusted me," I offered.

"And it killed her," Elyse shot back.

I exhaled slowly, marveling at Newt's craftiness. She was getting a lot from this conversation. "That's not what killed her. What killed her was me not trusting her. Don't make the same mistake I did. Please. Let it go."

Chin high, Elyse gathered her courage and stepped forward. The charm broke as her aura hit it, shimmers of energy flaring before they disappeared.

Newt chuckled, and the young woman went pale. "Nicely done," she said, voice sly. "You took her circle without magic. Are you sure you're not one of my sisters?"

"No." Newt had killed all her sisters. It was a sorority I did not want to be included in. Worried, I dragged my bag sitting on the top step closer and put my book into it. That I hadn't brought that glamour stone had probably been a good choice, even if Elyse and I looked like ourselves again.

"You both need a change of clothes," the insane demon said, and then I gasped as I felt all three of us wink out of existence.