He hardly even gave me a glance as he helped Felix to the door.
“Cormel!” I shouted, and he flung the door open. My anger evaporated. Ivy was there, Nina supporting her. Surrounding them were his men, all of them frustrated that they’d been commanded to stay out.
“Here is your token,” Cormel said, his teeth clenched. “We are done, Morgan. You and Ivy owe me nothing, and I owe you the same.”
Ivy hung in Nina’s grip, eyes dark as she took in my ragged state and Felix’s slumped weariness. The light of possibilities was in her eyes, and Nina was flushed and breathless. Buddy came from the bedroom at the sound of the door opening, and he trotted to Trent.
“Don’t come back to me,” Cormel said, his expression empty as he looked at Ivy, Felix hanging on his arm. “I will not see you.”
Ivy blinked fast, and Nina pulled her out of the way when Cormel gracefully carried Felix through the door. Immediately his aides descended upon them, and in a shockingly short time, they were down the stairs and gone.
“He has his soul?” Ivy finally asked, and I nodded, stiff as I forced myself to move. Where’s my bag?
“I’m so tired,” I breathed as I found it and shuffled to the door, not protesting when Trent scooped me up.
“I told you she shouldn’t do that dumb charm,” Jenks muttered, and I tried to focus. Bis. Where had Bis gone?
“She’s just tired,” Trent said, then more stridently, “No, we’re not taking the dog.”
“But he doesn’t have anyone,” Bis complained, then giggled as Buddy licked him.
My eyes are closed. How do I know Buddy is licking Bis?
“She’s just tired,” Trent said again. “Come on. We could all use a shower.”
I nodded, my head falling onto Trent’s chest. I was too tired to think, but a shower sounded good.
Chapter 10
I can’t. Allergies,” Nina shouted over the wind from the backseat of my MINI Cooper. It had been closer than Trent’s car at Eden Park, a relief to get back even if I wasn’t driving it.
Jenks’s wings drooped as Bis leaned to see the dog, wiggling on Ivy’s lap. “You don’t look allergic,” the pixy said, and Nina made a prissy, fake sneeze even as she rubbed Buddy’s ears. The top was open, and the dog was enjoying himself, tongue hanging out and his tail smacking into the back of my seat with a regular rhythm that nearly matched the clicking of the turn signal. We were almost to the church, thank God. Even with the top open it smelled like vampire, burnt amber, and stinky dog. Reason two for taking my car instead of Trent’s.
Nina was in too good a mood for my liking: too good, and too in control. I didn’t think Felix had the presence of mind to be dipping into her thoughts right now, but it felt as if the worst was yet to come. In contrast, Ivy was tense, her motions edging into that vamp quickness she always took great pains to hide from me.
Trent had driven us to the church despite my protests. I’d counted six yawns from him so far. Bis was on my lap, expression mournful as Jenks continued to try to get someone to take the dog home. Jenks was right. We had enough strays. Rex could take care of herself in a pinch, but Buddy was high maintenance.
“Carport?” Trent asked when we found our street, and he took the curve fast, shooting into the covered spot on momentum. The headlights flashed and bobbed as we careened to a stop, and I braced myself, startled when Bis jumped into the air. Trent wasn’t angry, he simply liked driving my car to its fullest extent.
Ivy and Nina didn’t wait, Nina swinging her legs up and over the side of my small car and to the cement before using her vampire strength to lift Ivy carefully to the walk. “This way, Buddy!” Bis called, and I heard the happy sound of clicking nails and jingling tags.
“This isn’t going to end well,” Jenks said sourly before he darted up and out. “Bis! Keep that dog in the garden until he pees on something! Tink loves a duck, you don’t bring someone into the garden who doesn’t know how to bury their own crap!”
I watched Ivy slowly manage the front steps with Nina’s help. Seeing me with Trent, she smiled softly as Nina yanked the door open, the woman’s chatter never stopping as they went in. Finally the door shut. We were home, but I was too tired to move. My smile faded.
The keys jingled as Trent handed them to me. “You want me to carry you in?”
His tone was amused, but the sad thing was, I was tempted. “Give me a minute. I’m just tired.” Tired and not wanting to have to go in and deal with the mess.
“Me too.” He yawned again. “I’ll call a cab to get back to Eden Park. I don’t want to leave you without a car.”
“Thanks. Take Jenks with you, okay?”
His phone hummed, obvious in the midnight silence. Taking it from a pocket, he silently looked at it, sighed, and tucked it back. “Ellasbeth?” I guessed, and he nodded.
“If it’s important, Quen will call. Huh. I think I left my briefcase in the ever-after.”
He had, but I wasn’t going to suggest we go back and get it. I knew I should be in a better mood, but I was just so tired. “Do you think Cormel will hold to his agreement?” I asked. Maybe that was what had Ivy uptight.
“To the letter. He won’t go to the demons, though. He’s going to talk to Landon.”
“Let him. I’m done with it.” Expression sour, I pulled my shoulder bag from the floor. Landon’s charm had been perfect, but he’d known I’d have to make contact with the Goddess to finish it. That’s why he’d given it to me. Son of a bitch . . . “Trent, the mystics recognized me.”
Trent was silent for half a second, and then he moved, his motion fast as he got out. “I think I left my tablet inside. I should get it before I go.”
“You saw them, didn’t you?” I said, confused. He hadn’t ignored me, but burn my cookies if he didn’t look . . . scared. Our doors shut almost together, and I gathered my resolve. I wasn’t going to let this go and possibly fester. “You and Jenks both,” I said as I met him at the back of the car. “The mystics.”
Eyes on the street, Trent looped his arm in mine. “Yes.”
My pulse quickened. “Is it bad?” I asked, that same nauseous feeling clenching in my stomach as the memory of that black nothing I’d felt rose up. Jenks’s call and Trent’s arms had brought me back. It felt as if I had nearly fallen into shadow. “Trent . . .”
“They follow you like puppies,” Trent said softly, our steps slowing. “Ever since we captured Felix’s soul in the ever-after. Are . . . they speaking to you?”
He was afraid, and I shoved my own fear aside. I knew I’d seen Bis and Buddy with my eyes closed, both of them on the floor as Trent carried me out. It had been a compilation vision of at least a dozen mystics, cobbled together and presented to me in a way that my mind could interpret naturally—sophisticated and practiced. They weren’t the Goddess’s mystics, but the ones that Newt trapped in reality so they couldn’t poison the Goddess. They were alone and unable to become, but the alternative was their complete obliteration. But had I heard them? No, the connection had not been that deep.
“No,” I said softly, and Trent breathed a sigh of relief.
“Good,” he said, his fingers finding mine in the dark as we walked to the church, lights flickering on inside to show where Ivy was. “I don’t think you should do wild elf magic.”
I gave him a sideways look as I opened the door. “You think?” The warmth and light spilled out, and I squinted as we went inside. Trent’s hand was on the small of my back, and I listened for not-there voices telling me about the scatter pattern of the photons, but my thoughts were silent. Safe? I thought, then, with a touch of melancholy, a more certain empty.
“Oh, Rachel,” Trent said, somehow knowing as he pulled me into a hug right there in the foyer. “I’m so sorry.”
He wasn’t talking about tonight, and I tucked my head against his shoulder, breathing in the spicy scent of wine and cinnamon under the reek of burnt amber. I refused to cry, even though I ached. It was stupid to cry over something that would hurt me if I had it. It hadn’t been a choice between the mystics and Trent, though that’s how Newt saw it. Keeping them would have destroyed the Goddess and changed me beyond what anyone could handle.
“I’d give them up again in a heartbeat,” I said, and he tilted his head to give me a kiss. My eyes closed as our lips met. Tingles followed by a swath of warmth plinked through me, and I pressed into him as my arms went around his neck. Even if it had been a choice between them and Trent, I would’ve taken Trent. I didn’t have to explain things to him, and he knew how tight to hold, when to go along with an idea, and when to slow me down so I could think.
The vibrating hum of his phone was almost unheard, but I dropped back to my heels. Too bad I’ll only drag him down from what he could be.
Trent frowned, and from the hallway, Nina called to Ivy that she’d only be a few minutes. The bathroom door shut, and shrugging, I looked at his pocket and his humming phone. “You probably should take that. She’s going to keep calling.”
He said nothing, but his grip eased, and I found a smile. “You want some coffee? It’s going to take at least thirty minutes to get a cab out here.”
“Sure, thanks.” Pulling his phone out, he looked at the screen and dropped it back again. “I need something to wake me up,” he said, then yawned. “Sorry.”
My hand found his fingers, and towing him almost, I headed for the back of the church and the scent of brewing coffee. The sound of the shower from my bathroom was obvious, and I winced, thinking I must stink with burnt amber and vampire fear.
Jenks, Bis, and Buddy blew into the hallway from the back living room, and I jerked into a hunched duck. “No!” Jenks said, his dust an irate red. “Someone tell Bis he can’t have a dog!”
“We already have a cat,” I said, and Bis’s wings drooped as he hung upside down in the doorway to the kitchen. Buddy stood under him, tail waving and neck craned. “They won’t get along.”
“I’ll take care of him,” the little gargoyle pleaded, and Jenks made a harrumph, fists on his hips. “I’m fifty years old and I’ve never had a pet,” Bis complained.
Shaking my head, I ducked under him and went into the kitchen. “He’s awake in the day, and you’re not.” Ivy smiled at me from her usual chair before her computer. She liked normal, and we’d had precious little of it since most of Jenks’s kids had left.
“He’s up now! I can train him in the dark. He already knows how to use the cat door.”
A soft smile curved the corners of Trent’s lips up as he crouched to fondle the dog’s ears. “I’ve never had a pet either, Bis. Inside pet, I mean.”
“See?” Jenks crowed. “Even Trent knows it’s not a good idea.”
Trent eyed the pixy, his expression making it obvious that hadn’t been what he was saying. Bis did a front flip from the top of the doorway to land right on Trent’s shoulder, startling both him and the dog. “We can’t take him to the pound.”
Why am I the boss all of a sudden? I went for the coffee, hoping it’d all just go away, but Jenks’s wings rose in pitch, making my teeth hurt. “Trent can take him,” Jenks said suddenly.
“Ah, no.” Trent rose, his hands up in protest. “I can’t take care of a dog.”
Bis lightened to his usual pebbly gray, and Jenks bobbed up and down like a yo-yo. Even Buddy seemed to like it as he waved his tail, responding to Jenks’s excitement. “Tink’s titties, you can so. You got a pack of them. What’s one more?”
Again Trent’s phone hummed, and I held out his coffee to him as he frowned. “He’s a mutt, not a hound. He needs more attention than I can give him.”
All true, but I’d go along with it just to get the dog out of my church.
Trent set his coffee on the table so he could look at his phone, and Jenks dropped down, sparkles floating on the black brew. “Ellasbeth will hate him,” he enthused. “Come on. The girls will love him.”
I leaned to see it was Ellasbeth. “She’s just going to keep calling.”
Trent sighed. “Do you mind?” he said, face twisted up unhappily, and when I shrugged, he answered the call. “Ellasbeth. Yes. Just finished. I’m getting a coffee while I wait for a cab.” He hesitated. “Eden Park. We drove Rachel’s car back. Are the girls okay?”
I took my coffee to my usual chair. Jenks, though, hot on a chance to get Buddy out of our church, remained by Trent. “You can take him for walks,” the pixy prompted. “And he pees on your plants to mark your territory for you. What more could you want from a best friend?”
“It sounds like you’ve done your research,” Trent said. “Will you excuse me?” Turning away, Trent headed out of the kitchen and to the back living room. “Ellasbeth? Yes, I’m here. Can I talk to Quen?”
Buddy, Bis, and Jenks trailed after him, and I smiled at Ivy in the new peace. She rolled her eyes and I pushed my untasted coffee to her. “Thanks,” she said, her long, pale hands slipping around the porcelain. “Just as long as the dog doesn’t end up here,” she added, and I nodded, getting up to pour myself a new cup.
Hesitating, I took only half a cup, leaving the rest for Nina. Warm cup cradled in my hands, I leaned against the counter. “So . . . how does it feel?”