by Kim Harrison
“Together?” I said, and his weight shifted as I leaned forward. “One, two—”
“Three,” Bis said, and together we blew at it.
The lumpy candle went out, and a thread of black smoke smelling of burnt amber rose.
“Well-done,” Hodin praised as he plucked the candle from the center and handed it to me. It was still warm, and I set it on the table. “Keep it safe,” he said, and I nodded. It burned with my aura and it could be used to target a spell or curse at me. A bullet with my name on it.
“Well, let’s see him do it,” Hodin prompted, and I grinned. I couldn’t help it.
Wings open, Bis eagerly hopped to the table. His tail smeared the pentagram’s lines, but it probably didn’t matter, seeing as Hodin was shoving things into his basket as he prepared to leave. “Make a circle, Rachel,” the kid said, and I nodded.
“Rhombus,” I whispered. The molecule-thin barrier rose up around me as usual, bisecting the floor and creating a sloppily made circle that was unlikely to stand anything that really wanted in, but that wasn’t the point. I nodded, and Bis extended a gnarly hand, finger pointed as he touched my circle . . . and passed right through without breaking it.
“We did it!” the kid crowed, jumping into the air with one downward thrust of wing and spinning madly. Sawdust flew, and I closed my eyes until he landed back upon my shoulder, tail whipping around my back and under my arm. Again the glory of the lines hit me, almost making me pass out, and I bubbled my thoughts to numb them. Yes, I had missed seeing all the lines at once like this, but they were overwhelming when I got them so clear and raw from Bis. But even more important, it was my freedom. For Bis, it was his reason to exist, his entire species having been created by demons with the sole intent to help them learn how to travel lines of energy. We had a lifelong bond, Bis and I, and now—we both felt complete.
“I can sing the lines to you,” Bis said joyfully. “Which one do you want to learn first?”
Hodin chuckled, the low sound cutting through my delight like a nightmare. “Yes, jump the lines,” he said as he ran a knife over the slate table to get the worst of the wax up. “Show everyone what you can do. How will you explain it? No one alive knows the curse to permanently shift a soul’s expression.” His eyes narrowed and he stood, waxy knife in hand. “We have a deal, Rachel.”
“You really suck. You know that?” I said, and Bis’s ears drooped. “I can’t help Al with what you’ve told me. What is your problem with him anyway? Did he sell you a bad familiar or something?”
Bis’s tail tightened around my arm in warning, but I didn’t care. I had risked taking instruction from Mr. Dark-and-Broody to help Al. That I might be able to jump the lines alone was secondary. And now . . . I had nothing but a promise to not tell anyone about Hodin and an ability that if I used it would lead to questions that would out him. Damn it, Al. I hate it when you’re right.
“My issues with Al are not your concern.” Clearly pleased with himself, Hodin ran a hand over his spelling robes and they vanished to turn him back into his dark, somewhat unkempt self. “You two aren’t going anywhere until I say, and most certainly not without a spotter. Which would be me.” He dropped his knife into the basket with the rest. “Line jumping is an art. Besides, aren’t you at all curious if the mystics are interested in you?”
Mystics, I thought, my fear cutting through my anger.
“Not that I can see,” Bis said rather grumpily, clearly not ready to let go of his anger. “At least, not out of the ordinary. They’re around like usual, but they aren’t swarming you.”
“What do you want for the rest of the curse, Hodin?” I said flatly. “I’m saving Al.”
“You’re a worthwhile student,” Hodin said, telling me he’d been judging me as much as I’d been judging him. “Too confident,” he added, looking lanky and slim in his black jeans and leather boots. “But I imagine that nearly killing yourself a few more times will curb that.”
“Yeah?” I flopped back into the chair. Bis left, his ears at a nervous slant as he returned to the sawhorse. “Well, you’re too close with information that could be the difference between success and failure, but I imagine that your student going to someone else for clarification and study a few times will curb that. If you ever get one.”
Hodin looked at the door behind me, and I leaned forward over the table. “Why are you even pretending to help me? Is it because you think I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut if you asked? Or are you trying to poach me from Al?”
“You think you’re worth that much?” he said, and I felt my face warm.
“Maybe Al and Dali are right,” I pressed, my anger and worry for Al bypassing my already thin filter. “That you’re dangerous and not to be trusted.”
Hodin frowned, mood clearly bad. “The two are not always synonymous. You yourself are dangerous and yet trustworthy.”
Flattery? I thought as I stood as well. “That’s just it,” I said, sash bells ringing as I put a hand on my hip. “I don’t trust you. Why did you bother to teach me this?” I gestured at the slate table. “To see my frustration at not being able to help Al? Is that how you get your fun? Seeing me try and fail?”
Hodin’s head came up, and my anger hesitated at the almost hidden desperation showing in his clenched jaw. “I . . . I want back in,” he finally said, and with that, my anger fizzled to nothing. “You did it,” he said, sounding hurt. “You not only used forbidden magic that called the Goddess to the very doorstep of your soul, but you have an unrepentant relationship with the elven Sa’han.”
“They barely tolerate me,” I said softly.
“But they do tolerate you,” he insisted. “True, your Kalamack elf is the self-styled prince of the elves, but he’s an elf!”
“And you were doing so well,” I said with a frown, and Bis made a rock-grinding chuckle of agreement from his perch.
“You fail to understand,” Hodin insisted. “You’re the only demon to whom I can say the Goddess isn’t evil and have anything but a frown thrown at me. Yes, she’s wicked,” he said, his words finding the cadence of an often-said statement. “And a trickster, and distractible, and flighty in her alliances. She is cruel, and spiteful, and jealous.” His head came up. “And powerful. We ignore her at our peril.”
My sash jingled as I clasped my arms around my middle. “To ask for her help is worse.”
“Perhaps.” He sat back down on the sawdust-laden couch, his knees spread wide and his back bowed over them. “But they haven’t imprisoned you for having done so, or the cautious acceptance you maintain of her. I’ve watched you enough to know it’s not because you’re no threat, and it’s not because you’re the only mature female demon. It’s because of something you are. I want that.”
“You can’t have it,” Bis said, his voice low in threat.
I stretched out a hand, touching him in reassurance. “I think he means he wants to learn what it is. It’s not anything you can take, Bis. It’s something you do.” My eyes went hard on Hodin. “Or don’t do.”
He stiffened, head coming up. “I can’t let them know I exist.”
Frowning, I exhaled my tension, letting myself forgive his stubborn refusal because I knew where it stemmed from. Bis grumbled as I came around the table and sat down on the couch beside Hodin, a careful three feet and an acre of silence between us. “So what do you propose we do?”
Hodin leaned back, gesturing with a ring-decked hand. “See? There it is,” he said, the tips of his black hair shifting about his eyes as he shook his head in disbelief. “You are foolishly risky. You don’t even know me.”
I smiled. It was exactly the same thing that Al had fixated on, causing him to risk and lose everything to save my life. And in return, I saved his. The “it” was that I didn’t see “demon.” I saw Al’s soul. It was jumbled, and broken, and fierce—desperately needing someone to believe in him to mend the
cracks even as he did ugly, mean things. And as I sat beside Hodin’s depressed slump, I saw the same.
“You should come out,” I said, looking at his ringed hands clasped between his knees. “Tell them you exist. I’ll stand with you. For what it’s worth. They don’t listen to me much.”
Hodin’s fingers stilled, and on his perch, Bis made a high-pitched squeak. My soft smile vanished. Did I just walk into his trap?
“If you help me save Al,” I added, and Hodin jerked.
“Never,” he said, then stood up.
I pressed back into the couch to look up at him. “Seriously? I hand you a get-out-of-jail card, and you throw it back in my face? What is it with you? God! It’s like you’re brothers or something.”
Hodin’s lip twitched, his expression stilted as he took his basket of spelling supplies in hand. And then my mouth dropped open in understanding.
“Oh. My. God!” I stood up fast. “No way. No friggin’ way!” I exclaimed, and Hodin flushed a dark red. “You have to let me tell him you’re alive.”
Hodin took a breath, but his wrathful expression hesitated at a soft scuff at the front of the church. Head cocked, he turned to the door, now open to spill sunlight over the dusty floor.
It was Zack, a plate of food from the steps in his grip, and I stared as the young elf froze, lips parted as he took in my spelling-robe finery. He clearly hadn’t expected to find anyone here, and I felt a flush of anger. It might be full of holes and sawdust, but it was still my church.
“Uh, sorry,” Zack said as a hundred things fell though my mind.
What is he doing here? Working for Landon? Is he here getting something to target the baku’s next attack with?
But what came out of my mouth was an indignant “You! I want to talk to you!”
CHAPTER
16
Zack spun, bolting to the wide church doors.
“Don’t let him leave!” I exclaimed, but Hodin was faster.
“Clausus!” Hodin shouted, flinging a hand extravagantly, and Zack skidded to a halt as the doors slammed shut in front of him, the boom shaking the walls.
Plate somehow level in his hand, Zack turned, staring at us for what could have been a fatal three seconds if I’d wanted to hurt him. I strode forward, my spelling robe snapping about my feet. Zack dropped to the floor. Plate at his heels, he spun, scribing a circle with what looked like a big black Sharpie.
“Ita prorsus!” he exclaimed, and I halted as a greenish purple barrier rose around him, glistening like a soap bubble.
“Hey! That’s a permanent marker!” I said, ticked as I halted before him.
Zack rose from his crouch, that plate of what looked like lasagna held close. His face was pale, and his cropped ears looked wrong after seeing Trent’s untouched ones, especially with Zack’s elven white hair and green eyes. He was too young to need to shave, but a faint fuzz showed it wouldn’t be long.
“What do you want?” I said, then jumped when Bis landed on my shoulder, tail wrapping tightly across my back and around my arm. I wavered as the lines sang in my head, and then I bubbled my thoughts, muting the glory of them. “Are you here spying for Landon?”
“Landon is an ass. He’s not in charge of me.” His voice was young, but deep, having that same musical element that I’d noticed pure elves were blessed with.
“No? Then explain to me why he knows you and Trent doesn’t,” I said, testing his circle with a cautious finger. His greenish purple aura would have looked better with a little demon smut on it. As it was, it looked kind of thin. “You don’t need to hide in a circle. I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, feeling an odd quiver in the energy. It would fall, given half a reason.
He glanced at Hodin behind me and shook his head.
I don’t have time for this. “Interrumpere,” I said, flinging a hand out, and with a little pop, his circle vanished.
Zack’s eyes widened, and he bolted, heading for that window in Ivy’s room, no doubt.
“That’s a good one.” Hodin leaned against my chair and watched him run past.
“I got it from a ghost,” I said as I gathered a handful of raw energy from the line and simply threw it past Hodin to explode in the hall.
Zack yelped, predictably skidding to a halt and darting to slide under Ivy’s baby grand. When he rose, there was a ball of energy in one hand, that plate in the other.
“He didn’t spill any of his lasagna,” Bis said in admiration, but I was getting annoyed.
“Landon knows you,” I said, then raised my hands in the hopes that he would stop trying to flee. “Landon wants Trent dead,” I added as I eased forward. “Convince me why I shouldn’t hit you with a binding charm and drop you in the I.S. lobby for trespassing.”
Zack looked at the plate of food in his hand, and I made a warning sound when he moved as if to set it on the piano.
“Landon wants Kalamack dead,” Zack agreed, his green eyes darting from me to Hodin. “But I’m not Landon. I want to talk to Mr. Kalamack, not kill him.”
His cheeks were red and his chin high with rebellion, and though he was clearly hungry, it was just as obvious that it was a fairly new sensation. His fingers cradling that raw energy were strong with youth, not work, and I could smell the same hint of cinnamon on him that Trent always came out of his spelling hut with. Landon’s student? I wondered, remembering Landon’s annoyance with Al when he thought the demon was Zack.
Hands falling, I closed the gap between us. My touch was light among the ley lines as I stopped well back from the piano. “Maybe I should take you to Landon. He might get off Trent’s case if I bring his runaway back.”
“Rachel!” Bis warned, but I’d seen Zack’s lips move.
The energy in Zack’s hand flashed white, and with a shouted “Dilatare!” he threw it.
“Adaperire!” I exclaimed to trigger a flash of expanding air before it could hit me, but the kid’s white spell fizzled before mine could act on it, and with a boom, the church’s door slammed open instead.
“Sorry,” I said as Zack yelped, his ears red as he yanked his zipper back up, but I didn’t know if it was because his spell failed to act, or because I’d inadvertently unzipped his pants. For being Landon’s student, he wasn’t doing very well: his circle had been flimsy and what should have been an easy, powerful charm had failed to act.
“Perhaps I should leave . . . ,” Hodin said.
“Will you help me catch him?” I said, exasperated when Zack ran for the open door.
“If only to see what you will do with him.” Hodin gestured, and Zack stumbled, going down with a haze about his feet. He hit the floor with a muffled “Ooof,” taking it on the chin in the effort to keep his plate level.
“Semper apertus,” Zack gasped from the floor, his eyes on the light past the open door as he half-crawled to it. The spell, if it worked, would prevent another charm from closing it again. This was just sad, and I waved a hand with a whispered word to break Hodin’s binding.
“Zack. Relax,” I said, but the instant Hodin’s hold on him vanished, he scrambled up, that plate somehow still level as he backed away. “I won’t take you to Landon. Why do you want to talk to Trent?”
“Landon said your pixy would kill me if he found me in your church.” Zack’s eyes darted between Hodin and me.
“Jenks?” Bis said with a laugh, and Zack paled. I could understand why, seeing as Bis’s laugh sounded like rocks in a blender.
“Only if you tried to hurt me,” I said, then stopped when Zack put up a warning hand. I was eight feet back, and I didn’t like that that hole in the floor was right behind him, the plywood having slid halfway across the room thanks to my “open” spell. “Are you trying to hurt me?” I asked, and Zack’s gaze flicked to Hodin, who was clearly interested in his answer as well.
“I’m not,” Zack said, implying that someo
ne was. He turned to leave, and I gasped a warning, but it was too late and Zack dropped right into the hole in the floor with a little shriek.
“Not very bright, is he?” Hodin came over and together all three of us looked down into the crawl space. Elegant swearing in the elven tongue was rising up, the unending flow enough to impress even Bis.
“Ah, are you okay?” I called into the depths, then stumbled when Hodin jerked me back. A green-tinted bolt of energy boiled up from the crawl space, hitting the underside of the roof and rolling like purple clouds.
“Curious.” Hodin reached a hand into the fading stream of power, rubbing his fingers together to rate it. “That should’ve been a rather nasty but white curse to blind you for three days.” His thin lips quirked. “It was twisted correctly, but the Goddess isn’t listening and it fizzled.”
“Like everything else he tried,” I said, pity rising up. It sucked when you reached for your tools and they didn’t work. “I can’t leave him down there,” I said, venturing a peek over the edge.
“Why not?” Hodin snapped his fingers and the basket on his arm vanished. “I could fix the floor right now, and no one would know. Every demon needs an oubliette with someone in it.”
Bis’s grip on me eased, his wings spreading behind my head to inadvertently focus the faint sounds of misery coming from the hole. Apparently Zack hadn’t been able to save his dinner. “I’ll get him,” Bis said as he jumped from me. “I’m coming down,” he said loudly as he landed at the edge of the hole. “If you hit me with anything, I’m going to slam my fist into your skull and it’s going to hurt. Got it?”
Silence rose, and taking that as a yes, Bis gave me a black-toothed smile and dropped into the dark.
“Stay back!” Zack shouted. “I said stay away from me!”
“What the lily-white fairy shit is wrong with you?” Bis yelled back, and I blinked, never having heard that particular one from him before. “You came to us, beetle brain. All she’s done is ask what you want, and you keep throwing shit at her? And it’s not even good shit. Knock it off!”