Chapter 27

Chapter

27

Panic froze me as Newt shouted curses at the fleeing shape of Adagio, his craggy silhouette a darker slash against the sunset-gloomed red sky. The ley line was right there. All I had to do was back into it and will myself across. Elyse, I thought as Newt howled in anger, a sparking glow rising from her when she drew heavily on that very same line. My resolve strengthened. In the past, surviving had taken everything I had. I would not allow it to take everything my friends had, and damn it, even if Elyse wasn't my friend, she had trusted me.

I wouldn't abandon her. If it's the last thing I do, I thought, hoping it wasn't a prediction as I fingered Quaere .

Exhaling, I centered my thoughts into the same ley line Newt was drawing on. Energy roared in and Newt spun as she felt it, her dark eyes wide when she saw I was still here and hadn't fled. A quiver of angst rocked me; I was standing up to Newt.

"You. Stay," she intoned. "I'll deal with you in a moment."

I took a breath to answer her, gasping when the ley line suddenly grew slippery. It was the same curse she had used on me before, and I gathered it to me, completely oblivious to the second spell barreling at me. Too late I saw the arc of black and red, and her spell struck, knocking me to my knees as it crawled over me, seeking a way past my aura. My breath froze in my lungs, knees pained on the cold red soil. Tighter, her grip wound, black bands crushing as I scrambled to maintain my hold on the ley line to break her spell, but it was as if it was made of sand.

"Ad coelum!" Newt shouted, her back to me and her arms out as energy ripped from her into the sky, where it exploded into an aurora borealis of red and gold to rival the sun. Spinning madly, the spell whirled the dust into a sparkling tornado about Adagio to bring him down.

I struggled to get free, but the more energy I drew in to break her spell, the more her spell crushed my lungs—until I finally figured it out and let go of the line.

With a ping, her spell broke.

I looked up, gasping for air when Adagio hit the ground with an earth-shattering thump, his chin plowing a furrow as he scraped to a halt before Newt.

The whirlwind dissipated and I stood, shaking as my eyes went from the dusty, disheveled gargoyle to the handful of surface demons scattering. I hadn't even known they were there, their auras ragged as they ran for cover. They didn't go nearly far enough, and even as I watched, they began creeping back like coyotes searching for scraps.

"Adagio," I whispered. Newt stood before him, hands on her hips as she stared up at his massive strength—an ant before a monster.

"You freed her?" she shouted, furious, and the enormous being clamped his wings about himself as if embarrassed.

"She found her own way out," he muttered, voice rumbling like distant thunder as he stared into the middle distance and lied.

I followed his gaze to the nearby line. He was telling me to leave, but I couldn't. I wouldn't abandon Elyse. I had to outsmart Newt, and my grip on Quaere tightened as my attention flicked from her to a surface demon, scuttling from rock to rock—ever closer.

"That works," I whispered, then used the transposition stone to make one look like me. Quickly I overlaid the image of myself into one of them. It might give me the instant of distraction I needed, and as the remaining surface demons began to stalk the disguised one, I fell into a hunch and scuffed closer to Newt.

Adagio pinned his ears, not at Newt still yelling at him, but at me as I began to use Quaere to scrape a circle, wide and perfect, around them both. It was a stupid idea, but it was the only one I had. I couldn't hold Newt in a circle. But maybe one drawn by Quaere could.

Until she spun on her heel, robes furling as she turned.

"And you!" she shouted, and I froze, breath held as she blipped right over me, her attention going to the disguised surface demon. "Implicare," she intoned, and the surface demon howled as a black mist tangled about its feet and sent it down.

Crap on toast, she was moving, and I skittered out of her way, my circle only half drawn as she stopped before the thrashing surface demon. Adagio clearly knew who I was, the gargoyle carefully stepping out of the circle as I finished scraping it. Only trouble was, Newt wasn't in it, either.

"You slipped my snare," Newt said, clearly thinking she was talking to me as Adagio vanished, the large gargoyle using the ley line to make his getaway. "And my oubliette," Newt continued, four steps from backing into my trap. "Perhaps you have some worth after all."

The surface demon writhed, puffs of red dust rising where it scraped and pawed to escape—and Newt frowned, the first inklings that something might be off pinching her brow. I stood with my larger circle between us, shaking. Once she figured it out, I'd have a split second to invoke it and snare her. I wouldn't have even that if she didn't walk into the circle.

"Still silent? That's a nice change." Newt shifted uneasily. "Elyse Embers can't keep her mouth shut to save her life. Literally. Don't you worry, I will have her soul by sundown. She as good as gave it to me."

I licked my lips, hands shaking. "You will not have Elyse," I whispered.

Newt spun comically fast, a hand going to her flat-topped hat to keep it on. "You…" she stammered, black eyes shifting from the captured demon to me. And then her expression went virulent with anger, settling on the stone about my neck. Clearly she was seeing through the glamour. Al had said it wasn't foolproof.

"Accipe hoc!" she shouted, and the demon within her circle curled up, screeching as a haze spun it into a fist-size nothing and it vanished. "I will not be made a fool!" she shouted, and I quailed, backing up a step as she pulled on the line and my skin prickled. She was moving. Crap on toast, I had one shot at this.

"Rhombus!" I exclaimed as she crossed the scraped line, and Newt jerked to a halt, mouth open in utter shock when the circle invoked, carrying not just my aura but Al's, thanks to his knife having drawn it.

I flinched as Newt flung a surge of line energy at the circle—but it held. Al wasn't stronger than her. And the Goddess knew I wasn't. But Al had made Quaere , and I had used it to circle Newt. It would hold.

For a time.

"No one circles me!" Newt strode across the wide circle, halting when a black haze formed between us, the power of the circle condensing where she stood. "I will kill you a hundred times over for this!" Fist hazed with darkness, she struck the glittering barrier, only to be thrown back in a flutter of robes. Grunting, she planted a side kick on it, getting the same results. Frustrated, she howled at the sky…then threw her hat at me.

The hat, oddly enough, passed through, and Newt choked, almost choleric.

"What are you?!" the stymied demon shrieked, and I shifted uneasily.

"Lucky," I whispered, and Newt went utterly calm. It was worse than her ravings, and I stifled another shiver. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to circle you, but you won't listen. I am not a familiar and neither is Elyse. I already bought free passage for me and Elyse from you with a taste of my blood. Make good on that, and I'll let you go."

The barrier hummed between us as Newt's gaze dropped to Quaere in my frightened grip. "You are sorry?" Stymied, she retreated until the circle quit the annoying whine. "Gally's knife answers to you? Did you kill him?"

I shook my head. My God. Had I actually circled her? "No, but by my reckoning, I'm about ready to circle his ass and send him home, so let's make this quick. You have things to do. Like lock him up for uncommon stupidity so he leaves me alone."

Newt cocked her hip, her androgynous features sliding to the feminine. "More riddles," she muttered, then slowly pushed her fist into the barrier, pulling away when smoke began to rise from her knuckles. "Free passage, you say? Is that what we agreed upon?"

My lip twitched. "For both Elyse and myself. No reprisals."

Newt mockingly lifted a single eyebrow. "Wouldn't you rather have the mirror?"

"I want Elyse!" I shouted, my voice coming back hard from the surrounding rock and dirt. "And free passage. And her soul if you tricked her out of it!"

"That's three things." Newt hesitated, thinking. "Elyse Embers is not an option. So you get nothing. Further, if you won't be tamed, you will be killed."

My breath came fast as the demon again pushed a fist into the circle. Smut swirled from the surface to her point of contact, thinning the circle but for where she touched it. Oh, God, it wasn't going to hold, and I retreated, my gaze going to the blade in my grip as it began to warm, and heat…and burn.

I dropped it, yelping as my fingers flashed into pain.

Immediately my head snapped up. I had made a mistake.

Newt crowed in success as the circle dropped.

"No!" I exclaimed, scrambling for the ley line—just as the insane demon crashed into me.

"Thief!" Newt shouted as we went down, her atop me. "That curse is mine!" she exclaimed, and I gripped the glamour spell as she tried to pry it from my grip. "How did you prime it to you? Let go. It's mine!"

Raw energy poured into me as she dug at my fingers, and I gritted my teeth, my hold on the stone tightening when I funneled her raw torrent of burning energy into the earth. "No…" I ground out. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough. And then I gasped, back arching when Newt doubled the force. Pain raked my mind, became my entire world.

"This is mine!" Newt shouted again, black eyes wrathful as she pulled my closed fist to her. "How did you get it?!"

"Al!" I cried to make the pain go away, my voice echoing in the dark. "Al gave it to me. He helped me b-bind to it!" I stuttered, just wanting the pain to stop.

"How did you get out of my oubliette?" the crazed demon demanded. "Was it Adagio? Tell me, or I will burn you past all mending!"

My pulse hammered as I struggled not to answer. "Off!" I exclaimed, feeling my will splinter as the agony mounted. "Ta na shay, sisto activitatem!"

Newt howled, her hands springing from my neck as the Goddess's magic arched through her. I bucked her off, hand to my throat as I spun into a crouch and stood, shaking. Spent magic hung between us, sparking as it sifted into the ground.

"Elyse," I rasped, shocked by my ragged voice. "Give her up, or this starts again."

Newt's black eyes narrowed on me. "You won't survive a second time."

"Stop!" came a faint voice, and we both started. It was Elyse, the young woman running toward us, the robes Newt had dressed her in fluttering blackly in the moonlight. She had my shoulder bag over her arm, and I stiffened. Adagio was behind her, his wings clamped in misery as he waited for his punishment for jumping her here.

"Newt, she won! She won!" Elyse exclaimed, her color high as she slid to a halt between us, my shoulder bag slipping from her. "We made a bet."

A bet? I thought, then ducked, yanking on the ley line when Newt's energy sizzled past my head.

"Which you lost." Newt's gaze went from one to the other as if deciding whom to pin first. "Adagio, you will starve for this."

"You made a bet with the coven leader," the gargoyle rasped, looking embarrassed. "It stands. Let the world breaker's sword go. Elyse Embers got the best of you."

Elyse? I thought, taking in the frightened woman's shaky confidence even as she backed up into his protection, my bag clutched to her chest. What did you give her, Elyse? I wondered, worried that she'd done something that would haunt her forever.

"We made a bet," Elyse said again, to make Newt grimace. "Now hold to it. Rachel escaped your snare; she goes free. She came for me; I go free. It's done."

I scooped up Quaere , uneasy. I was between the ley line and Elyse. To make a move toward one might result in losing the other. "You made a bet?" I questioned, and Newt dropped her head and beat the dust from her robe, her bad mood worsening.

Nodding, Elyse carefully inched toward me. "I did." Her gaze shifted. "You might break your word with her, but I am a coven member, and you will hold to it with me!" she shouted at Newt.

The insane demon fumed, her robe hem shaking and her bare feet red from the dust that was all that was left of the ever-after paradise. "I call foul. You used an elven spell," she spat, though I knew for a fact that she alone among the demons still tinkered with elven magic. "You broke my oubliette!" she added, her steps forward faltering when Adagio rumbled like an elephant, warning her. "That rubs out anything that scrawny coven member might gain."

"Rhombus!" I shouted, but Newt brushed my undrawn circle aside as if it never existed, grasping my robe front and dragging me forward as Elyse shouted a protest.

"How did you get out!" Newt raved, and I struggled, my hand atop Elyse's as we both pried at her grip on me.

"Quaere!" I said, my hands tingling as I dug at her fingers. "I used Quaere . Let me go or I'll stick you with it!"

"Stop!" Elyse shouted, frustration coloring her angry stance. "Both of you. We made a bet, Newt. She got free and she came for me. Now go away! Now!"

I gasped as Newt's grip vanished. Shaking, the demon stared at us, wrathful and angry with little sparks of energy moving like rills over her. Behind Newt, Adagio was gesturing at the ley line as if wanting us to make a dash for it. One of us might make it. Beside me, Elyse stood, elated that she may well have gained our freedom. And wary. And sore. And beat up. Actually, she looked like I felt. Newt gave her slippers?

"She circled you when she could have run," Elyse said, actually shifting to stand in front of me as if in protection, though I was the one with the magic dagger spitting sparks. "She circled you with the intent to force you to let me go. We made a bet, and bets made under the full moon cannot be broken."

Newt's expression was sour. "It's not a full moon."

"It is where I come from," Elyse said, throwing the agitated demon another curve. "She gets her freedom if she finds a way out of her oubliette, and I get my freedom if she comes for me." Elyse focused on the demon. "Well, she didn't abandon me, Newt. She circled you. Demanded you free me. You lose."

I wanted my bag, but didn't dare reach for it. "The circle didn't hold. I never got her to free you," I said, and Elyse smirked.

"Yeah. I figured you might not best her, so the bet was to try, not succeed."

I felt myself quail when Newt turned those black eyes to me, glinting in the moonlight. "And if I didn't?" I asked.

Elyse shrugged. "You die in the oubliette and she gets my soul," she said, and then louder, "but that's not what happened, so leave! I beat you at your own game, demon."

Newt seemed to shake where she stood. And then, without a single word, she vanished, red dust swirling in to replace where she had been.

I exhaled as the dust settled, and my grip on Quaere finally eased. Dirt stained my fingers red as I studied it, shoulders slumping. Maybe someday I'd figure out how to put the thing away.

"My God," Elyse said as she came forward and handed me my bag. It was heavy, and I looked to see not only my book in there but the one she'd stolen from Trent, too. "Rachel, thank you. I never want to do that again. I can't believe you got us free."

The night was empty. All we had to do was walk to the line. Even Adagio had vanished. "I didn't make her hold to our deal. You did," I said as I slung my bag over my shoulder. It felt good there, and I finally began to think we might have done it. "How badly did she singe you?"

"She didn't."

I stared at Elyse, shocked. "How—" I started, and the young woman smirked.

"I said I'd be her willing slave if she wouldn't hurt me. But she'd have to win a bet first."

I closed my mouth, more than a little impressed. "Damn, girl. That was a good deal."

Elyse's smile faltered. "Thanks, but I don't think she would have agreed to it if she had thought she'd have to live up to it. You got out of the oubliette. No one has ever done that."

Go away, I thought at the dagger, shocked when it actually vanished. "Well, don't sell yourself short." I hiked my bag higher. "If you hadn't made that bet, she would have snared me as soon as she broke my circle." I squinted at the moon, placing myself. "You saved both of us. I thought I had this, and I didn't. Thank you."

Smirking, Elyse linked an arm in mine, shocking the peas out of me. "Biting off more than you can chew shouldn't be a reason for a lifetime of servitude."

"You say that now." I glanced over my shoulder before I started forward, squinting in the dark and the gritty wind. "You could have lost everything."

Her arm slipped from me. "Yeah, well, I thought it was a good bet. You said you wouldn't leave me, and you didn't." She dropped her head, focused on the slippers Newt had put her in, the red dust looking black in the dim light. "Hey, about the mirror…"

"I don't want to talk about it." Good feeling gone, I stomped to the ley line. I wasn't familiar with this one and had no idea where it was going to come out in reality. It didn't exist in the future, meaning it had been made by a demon long dead, the line lost when the ever-after collapsed and was never reinstated.

"Then let's talk about Vivian," she said, and my lips parted in surprise. "I know now why she trusted you."

Her cheeks were flushed, and mistrusting this, I eyed her. "Yeah?"

"Rachel, you are a good person."

My breath left me in a sigh. Crap on toast, I was tired. "Good never got anyone anywhere."

"When we get home, I won't be advocating that you be sent to Alcatraz."

"Yeah, you said that before," I muttered.

"The mirror wasn't the problem," she said, her young face and authentic demon robes making her seem naive. "Brad's curse wasn't the issue."

"Again, really bad timing on your part," I grumped as I stomped forward.

Elyse pulled me to a halt, mere steps from the ley line glowing in the dark, little trills of energy hissing about. "Will you listen? I'm going to make the argument to the coven that you cursed Brad by accident as you claim. God knows that you went to every length possible to secure his cure. You tried, Rachel, more than anyone has a right to expect."

My stomach hurt. I couldn't remember the last time I ate. "Okay. Great. But your threat of Alcatraz is not why I'm here. I need to uncurse Brad, and as much as I appreciate your trust, the rest of your club is convinced I'm demon slime."

"Perhaps, but it takes a unanimous vote to put someone into Alcatraz."

I laughed bitterly and started for the ley line. "Right. If you go to them with that, they will kick you out and replace you with someone who will vote the way they want." Mother pus bucket. Elyse trusted me, and I was still going to end up hiding in the ever-after. I knew it.

Elyse frowned as she followed. "They wouldn't dare."

"Don't be so sure." I stepped into the line, shivering at the sudden rush. I was ticked at her, at Newt, at the world. "I'm sorry about everything. I really thought I could outwit Newt."

"Rachel…" Elyse's eyes pinched in heartache as she stepped in beside me, shuddering when she found her place in the energy flow. "Brad's curse was an accident. You tried to make amends. Don't do it again. I'm not going to force you into anything."

"That simple, eh?" Hesitating, I immersed myself in the ley line and matched my aura to it. With a roaring rush, the energy stretching between our world and the ever-after ripped through me. Past the white noise, a chime rose, pure and heartrending. It was a reflection of the soul of whatever demon had made it, and this, more than anything else, was why I worked so damned hard to bring them back to reality. They did evil, but they were not evil. They were angry and had been for a very long time. So long that they thought that's all they were.

But I knew better.

My heart beat once, and I let go of the half-twist I'd put my aura in, stumbling as the ley line spat me out. The influx of energy vanished into memory, replaced by the shushing of distant traffic and the scent of wet cement. Downtown, I mused as I peered out of the alley, placing myself. The street was empty. It was too late for the light-challenged night walkers to be out, and too early for the human rush hour.

Too bad this line doesn't exist anymore, I thought, giving Elyse a sidelong glance as she stepped from the ribbonlike haze of energy. Exhaling loudly, she gazed up at the tall black buildings to either side of us. Immediately she took her hat off and reached to unfasten her robe. It was a good idea. We already smelled like demons. No need to look like them.

"Vivian tried to tell me, but I didn't believe her," Elyse said softly.

"Tell you what?" I asked. The head of the coven appeared as tired as I felt, her hair mussed and the slippers Newt had put her in now red with ever-after dust. And still, success gave her cheeks some color and her eyes a bright shine. She had escaped a demon without so much as a sensory burn. I knew the feeling of exhausted exhilaration; I just didn't care anymore.

"That for all the trouble you cause and are mixed up in, the world is better with you in it."

I laughed at that. "Okay. Now you're just sucking up. I'm not going to leave you here to take the long way home. Relax."

"I'm serious," she said as she shook out her robe and we both cringed, holding our breath at the billow of dust. "I had no idea that the elves had to modify their children's DNA to such an extent for them to simply survive. Kalamack's labs alone…" She hesitated, thinking. "The scope of Kalamack's illegal genetic medicines is downright scary. No wonder he was trying to take over the world. He needed a country's economy to just keep them alive."

I reached for the hem of her robe and together we folded it. Trent had been a different person since I brought back a clean, pre-curse DNA sample to pattern a final cure upon. People changed when you took away their fear. "The elves are still trying to take over the world," I said as we made a neat package of her robe.

"Sure, but the desperation is gone." Elyse took the rolled-up robe and stuffed it into her hat. "The farther in the past their fears are, the less inclined they will be to make trouble. And then the demons…"

My motion to take off my robe fumbled. The demons.

"I still don't like that they can come to reality whenever they feel like it," Elyse said. "But you did get them to play by our rules. Sort of. This madness that's going on now…"

I shook out my robe and Elyse snagged the bottom hem. "That took a few times before it stuck," I said, remembering.

"Even I can tell that they aren't as angry. I mean, in the future. To be forced underground to avoid your war waste." Elyse's expression emptied as we folded my robe. "Don't tell anyone I said so, but you did a good thing there. They seem to be healing." She hesitated. "Any chance you can get the curse lifted that prevents witches from—"

"No." I took the stinky silk from her grip and rolled it up. The ever-after was for the demons until they opened the doors themselves. "And don't kid yourself. You still can't trust them."

"Perhaps." Elyse watched me stuff our robes, hats, and sashes into my bag to take to Sylvia, a half smile on her, content, tired, and satisfied. Sylvia was going to walk away with a net gain of one robe, seeing as Elyse's original robe was still in my bag, all of them now reeking of demons. "But I can trust you. Maybe if I'd trusted Vivian more, we wouldn't be here now." Her gaze went to the empty street at the end of the alley. "I am so hungry, I could eat three Burger Daddies."

I had no clue what a Burger Daddy was, but I was totally on board. "I've been thinking. Leaving a drawer empty at the morgue might not be a good idea. I want to move Kisten into it when we move John out. Exchange their appearances so it looks like nothing has changed. We can drop the robes off at Other Earthlings on the way." I squinted at the end of the alley. "These things stink. Sylvia will be thrilled. If we're going to move Kisten, we should do that right after we shower. It's going to be sunrise soon."

I took a step forward, and Elyse was quick to meet me, step for step. "Rachel, you can't help him. The spell doesn't bring him back to life. All you'd have is a ghost."

My chest hurt, and anger flashed through me. "A vampire ghost can hold the city while I go into hiding. Keep Constance safe. I promised to keep her safe."

"I'm not pursuing that anymore. You don't—"

I jerked to a halt. "Look. You might think you're the leader of the coven, but a vote put you there. Another can take you out." She started to speak, and I held up a hand for her to wait. "They can and will replace you with someone who votes the way they want. I have no mirror to uncurse Brad. I will have to go into hiding. The least you can do is help me get my house in order before I leave. I risked both our lives to get that stinking stasis charm from Trent's to get you home. You said you'd help me get a replacement body. So help me get a body."

Yes, we had the charm, but it wasn't reinvoked yet. She still needed me.

Knowing it, she twisted her expression up in distaste. Five feet past the alley, cars whooshed and people hurried to their jobs in the predawn light. Her gaze flicked to my pocket where Trent's stolen amulet lay, then up to the stone pendant about my neck. "I said I'd help you and I will," she said, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "But I want to see how you rekindle that ley line charm."

"Sure. Why not?" I said, and together we stepped out into the world, red dust on the soles of our feet, and reeking of demons.