His hand came up, and we touched. "In goodwill," he said, brow pinched.
Sidereal's fingers were too big around mine, and curiously rough. I felt like I was shaking hands with my dad. "And trust," I said and our hands parted.
The fairy smiled, making me shiver. Stepping back, he tangled his foot in the silken line, but then he paused. "When my people part, they say gentle updrafts."
"Gentle updrafts, Sidereal," I said softly. "I wish this hadn't happened, but maybe some good can come of it."
Long face quirking in a terrifying smile, he glanced up into the tree. "Who's to say why the Goddess chooses." He plucked the silken strand, and with the signal, he was hoisted up.
I didn't watch him go, instead turning to find Jenks. I was confident they'd go for it. All I'd have to do then was roll with the consequences of inviting dewinged, fanged fairies into Trent's backyard. God, they were savage looking. Served him right.
"Jenks?" I called, wanting to say good-bye.
Strands from my tattered braid flew everywhere when Jenks landed beside me. Clearly he'd been watching. His face was sallow, but anger still colored it.
"I don't like them creeping around the garden like spiders," he said, his feet still not touching the ground as he looked into the trees. His face turned to me, and the anger shifted, almost to panic, when he saw my expression. "You're leaving."
My heart gave a thump. "I'm just going to get big. I'm still here."
The winds of his emotions shifted, and his feet touched the ground. His eyes began to glitter, and he wiped them, disgusted with himself. "Tink's titties, I can't stop leaking dust." He took a breath and exhaled. Me getting big was going to be hard. I wished he'd come with me.
Heartache hit me again, and I gave him another hug, surprising him. His arms went around me, and I felt him hesitate when he didn't find wings at my back. The silken whisper of his brushed my fingers, and when he went to go away, I tightened my grip to linger a moment more. "I would have twisted a thousand curses to be with you today," I whispered.
Slumping, Jenks let his forehead thump into me. "It hurts," he whispered, his hands falling to his sides. "All the time. Even when I try."
Tears warmed my eyes, and I pulled back so I could look at him. "It will stop one day," I said as I gave his shoulders a squeeze. "Even without your trying, and then you'll feel guilty. After that, you'll wake up one morning, remember her, and smile."
He nodded, gaze directed down. God, it hurt to see him with such heartache.
"Are you sure you don't want to become big with me?" I asked again, and my hands fell from him as he wiped his eyes, shaking the glittering sparkles from himself.
"I don't like being your size," he admitted. "Nothing smells right. And my kids need me."
His kids needed him,
I thought, feeling the fingers of relief steal into my soul. He felt needed. It was a start. Damn it, Matalina was really gone. "Come with me to the church?" I asked rather weepily. "Just to the door. Those pill bugs scare me."
Saying nothing, Jenks stilled his wings and dropped to the ground. Side by side, we started through the shoulder-high grass to the looming presence of the church. The steeple stood out black and strong against the pale blue of the sunset sky, and I wondered how Bis would take it when he woke up. Must be a bitch to be out of it so deeply.
"I don't know how you do this," I said as we detoured around a rock that was probably only the size of my thumb.
Jenks's wings shrugged. "It's easier when you can fly. They'll have a hard time of it."
He was talking about the fairies. "Feeling sorry for them?" I asked.
"Tink's panties, no!" he protested, but it was wispy and drained. Jenks turned at a thumping of feet, and I wasn't surprised to see Pierce jogging to catch up with us.
"You're of a mind to untwist the curse?" he asked, face shadowed in the dusk and the fire behind him. His features were indistinct, and I shivered again. It was so cold.
Pierce was on one side of me, Jenks on the other, and it was the safest I'd felt in a long time, though a snake could eat me. "I have to talk to Ceri about the fairies. I asked them to live with her," I said, and Pierce started, a happy grunt coming from him.
"That's an all-fired good scheme," he said, and Jenks looked over my head at him.
"Of course it's a good plan. Rache doesn't come up with stupid plans. She's always got an out. You just think she doesn't know what she's doing."
I
wish.
I held the coat tighter, my feet numb with cold. I'd been thinking all day about how I might get the coven off my back. They seemed to think that Trent could control me, so if I could control Trent, I might have a chance. Not through the familiar bond, but good old-fashioned manipulation. The Pandora charm had reminded me of an old tradition, one I needed to start again.
"Fairies in his garden," Jenks said, clearly liking the thought. "And wingless ones at that? Trent is going to be more unhappy than a skunk in a troll's garden."
Seeing him nearly smile, something went to my heart and twisted. God, I hoped he found a new love. But where? In a few years, he'd be the oldest pixy to ever live. He wasn't going to find anyone with the emotional experience he now had. He'd need that. Deserved it.
We reached the steps, and I looked up. It was only four steps, but they looked huge. Turning, I found Ivy watching. Ma-a-a-an, I did not want to be carried in like a baby.
Jenks's arm slipped around from behind me, and I gasped when my toes lifted and I was airborne. In three seconds flat, my bare feet were stumbling on the faded wood of the stoop.
"Holy crap! How about some warning?" I exclaimed, but I turned in his arms, not letting him go. This might be my last chance. "I'm sorry, Jenks," I said, giving him another hug. "Take what time you need. Ivy and I can finish this coven thing. I've got an idea."
He gave me a squeeze, then space appeared between us. "Just tell me where to fly, Rache. That's what I'm here for. I'll be ready."
Ivy was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, her hand on her hip. She could just stand there for a few moments more. Pierce, too. "This is hard," I said, sniffing.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said, his roving eyes returning. "You're going to be all right?"
Jenks looked across the garden to the sound of his children. "I think so. I've never done anything like this before."
I touched his arm, trying to smile. "You're good at doing new things."
Finally he looked at me, and the full force of his heartache hit me. My smile faltered, and tears threatened. "I... I'd better get Pierce," he said, and in a clattering of wings, he was gone.
Blinking hard, I looked at the fastened cat door.
Where's Rex?
The stairs shook, and I stumbled when Ivy clomped up them. "You changing?" she asked quietly, but before I could answer, she opened the screen and interior door both.
An exuberant howl pulled my attention up to see Jenks flying past with Pierce dangling.
"That's something you don't see every day," Ivy muttered as they vanished into the hall and presumably to my bathroom where Ivy had put his clothes.
My kitchen looked awe inspiring from my new vantage point, and Ivy stayed behind me as I hugged the wall to my room. "I've got this!" I shouted, and she looked at me.
"I lost track of Rex," she said, not hearing me, but my waving hands were clear enough.
"Oh." Suitably subdued, I waited by the nicked floor molding while she pushed my door open and did a quick look for felines. "Uh, she's under the bed!" I exclaimed when a pair of yellow eyes looked at me from beside the laptop Ivy had given me last summer.
Ivy didn't hear, her head in my closet, and panic iced through me when the cat stood and started pacing forward.
"Non sum qualis eraml"
I shouted.
The breath in me turned inside out, and I reached for something, anything. Dizziness roared in, and I was already mumbling, "I take the smut, I take it," before even the hint of it could lay me out. Unlike an earth charm that changed a person, a demon curse didn't hurt—unless you refused the smut. My vision swam in a nauseating swirl, and I took another breath, my lungs starved for air as they formed, empty and slack.
"You okay?" Ivy asked, close and worried.
Blinking, I found she was holding my arm to keep me upright. Rex was at my feet, tail twitching in confusion. And I was stark naked, as hairy as an orangutan. "Oh, for God's sake," I muttered as I snatched my pillow and covered myself.
Eaten by a cat. Wouldn't the coven love that?
Ivy grinned, her eyes black because of the emotions I was kicking out. "Welcome back," she said wryly, letting me go and sauntering out my door. I heard a thump and a sigh as she leaned her head back against the wall in the hall next to my door, and when I went to shut the door—which she'd left open—Ivy put a long hand in the way. "I want to talk to you," she said from the hall.
I hesitated, then tossed my pillow back on my bed before I yanked my top drawer open and pulled out a bright red pair of undies. Yeah. Red would be good today. Rex jumped up on my bed, chirping for attention, but I couldn't bring myself to touch her yet. A soft bong from the belfry told me the sun was down. Bis had taken to tapping it when he woke. My thoughts drifted to having gotten my own summoning name back, and I smiled. I could lounge around in my robe, or shower, or even shave, maybe, without worrying about being jerked out. Slowly my smile faded.
I was not feeling bad for Al. No freaking way.
"Can I come in yet?" Ivy asked from the hall.
I pulled a camisole over my head, red to match my underwear. "I'm not dressed."
The click of my door closing pulled me around. "I said I'm not dressed!" I exclaimed, seeing Ivy with her back to it, her eyes a nice steady brown, but her expression grim.
"I, ah, looked Pierce up on the Internet," she said, and my anger shifted to worry.
Oh.
Avoiding her, I dug around in my top drawer for a pair of ankle socks. My feet, once cold and dirty, were clean. My scars were gone again. Apart from the hair thing, demon curses were better than a shower. I glanced at my snarled hair in the mirror over my dresser.
Almost.
The neurotoxins from my vampire bite were still there, and the tweaking to my mitochondria, too. My ears, too, needed piercing. Again.
"How bad is it?" I asked, yanking open a lower drawer and pulling out my TAKATA STAFF shirt. I figured she would look him up, and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear this. I was starting to like Pierce, which meant he was bad news. "Bad enough."
The shirt scraped my nose as I pulled it on, and feeling a little less exposed, I went to my closet for a pair of jeans. Ivy was sitting on my bed with Rex, her long fingers between the smiling cat's ears. "He told me he's a former coven member," I said, shoving first one leg, then another into the fresh cotton and zipping it up.
Much better.
"Once a member, always a member," Ivy murmured when I turned around with my socks and sat on the end of my bed.
"Even when they kill you for knowing black magic." Sure, you could kill a busload of people by perverting a white spell, but they'd shun you for doing a harmless black one. Damn hypocrites. Twisting my foot up, I marveled at the pristine smoothness of its underside. "Pierce told me they blew his cover because they didn't like him summoning demons, but he was doing it to kill them."
"That's what I found," she said slowly, "but there's more."
There was always more. "He knows about the demon thing," I said, seeing her eyes downcast and clearly reluctant to say anything. "He's not going to hurt me."
But my confidence trickled away at her expression. "Ask him about Eleison."
I bent to reach my running shoes, under my bed. They'd cost me a fortune, but were the most comfortable pair of shoes I had since Alcatraz had one pair of my boots and my other was split between here and the ever-after. I had to talk to Al, tell him the gun wasn't my idea.
What an ass, shooting at Al.
"Is Eleison his girlfriend?" I asked. Dead girlfriends, I could handle.
Looking ill, Ivy shook her head. "It was an eighteenth-century southern town."
Was? Oh.
My eyes went to the wall as if I could see through it to where Jenks was with Pierce. My breath tight, I asked, "What did he do?"
Ivy let Rex drop to the floor, and the cat waited impatiently under the doorknob. "He used black magic to vaporize it while trying to kill a demon."
"Mmmm."
Good thing I didnt like the guy.
"Are you sure it was him?"
Ivy nodded. "Four hundred innocents. Dead."
My fingers tying my shoes were slow. "I guess putting four hundred people in the ground might explain why he was in purgatory."
I looked up when Ivy shifted closer. "Rachel, I don't care if you sleep with the guy, but do it fast and get it over with. He's going to get you killed. He won't mean to, but he will. People die around him."
People die around me, too.
Depressed, I let my foot hit the rug. "I'll be careful." Eyes rising, I found hers pinched in an inner pain. "I'll be careful, okay?"
She stood up as I did, her smile thin. "Okay."
Vll ask him about it. Get the whole story,
I thought, feeling refreshed in my clean clothes and the entire night spreading out before me.
I'm in control and not upset. I can work with this.
"Do we have anything to eat?" I asked, thinking about the now-useless sleepy-time charms I'd made last night. "I've got spelling to do tonight." Maybe find one that lowered your blood pressure. "I have an idea of how to get Trent
and
the coven off my back."
Ivy gave me a look before opening my door. "The coven isn't going to give up on you."
"I have to try," I said as I followed her down the dark hallway. Pierce was talking to Jenks behind my closed bathroom door, and my chest tightened. Good thing I didn't like him.
"I'll talk to Rynn," Ivy said, her voice wispy as she entered the kitchen and thunked the light on with her elbow. "Maybe he'll help now. Sending fairies to burn our church isn't right."