Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

would be cut down in seconds, helpless without his magic.
    Trent was writing in that book again, his numbers careful and precise. “Quen removed her body from my office,” he said dully. “Ku’Sox left her there for me.”
    I thought I was going to throw up. Trent was calm, but I could see the rage underneath. Lucy had to still be alive. “Lucy? Bis?” I asked, and his writing hand faltered.
    “Alive,” he said, and my rapid breathing sounded harsh. “For the time being. You should leave before he finds you. Our plan can still work. You’ll have to do much of it alone, though.”
    My anger bubbled over, and I pushed up from the machine, shaking. “Our plan ?” I shouted, and he looked up, his expression horribly blank. “How can you sit there making notations! They’re dead!”
    Trent looked down at the book, his mutilated hand showing strongly on the lined paper. “He has a book mirroring mine. If I don’t keep writing, he’ll know something has captured my attention, and he’ll come and see. You need to leave.” Numb, he wrote the time and initialed it. The pen hitting the paper sounded loud, and he turned to look at me straight on.
    Numb. He was numb, but there was a seething anger fueled by helplessness underneath. My mouth went dry as I realized he was on a knife’s edge. He could do anything. He had vowed to keep his daughter and Ceri safe, and now Ceri was dead.
    “Trent, I’m sorry,” I whispered, and his eye twitched. “This is not fair.”
    “Fair?” he said, his anger showing. “When has fair ever entered into my life?”
    I backed up as he struggled to take one careful, deliberate breath after another. “When fate levels the field,” he said flatly, “the rich man finds himself struggling to survive while the man plagued with bad luck his entire life is ironically strong enough to prosper. I’m both, Rachel. I’m both.” He hung his head, his fine hair hiding his eyes. “I wanted to believe that love could survive that which fate decrees, that love could remain when all is taken from you. But now . . . The Goddess has surely left me.”
    “I didn’t think you believed in her,” I whispered.
    His eyes were empty when they met mine. “Chance can’t build such a pit as I’m in. Only a god.”
    Trent rocked forward, and I jumped, startled. “There’s no reason you can’t carry on with our plan,” he said suddenly, his voice holding a frantic determination. “I can’t help you, even after you find something to bind multiple strengths together. I have to stay here and keep Lucy safe.” He took my shoulders and gave me a shake. “I will not leave her. I’m going to do everything he tells me to. You have to find what you need, get it, and make it work. Understand?”
    His resolve scared me, and I nodded. “Yes.”
    He let me go, and I breathed again. “Quen maybe,” he said. “He will protect you when you move the imbalance, show the demons what Ku’Sox has done, and if they do nothing, I will be here to kill him.”
    I blinked fast. “K-kill him?” I stammered, my thoughts flashing to Pierce. “Trent, you are not a warrior poet. If Ceri and Pierce couldn’t do it, what makes you think you can!”
    Trent turned, looking furious. “Don’t—” he shouted, a finger pointing to make me drop back, and he lowered his voice, his eyes still virulent. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” he whispered. The scent of spoiled wine and broken fern grew strong.
    Frustrated, I rallied my courage. “No one else will! I know you’re upset. I’m upset. But you can’t kill Ku’Sox!”
    He walked to the nursery wall and stood looking out at his handiwork. “Your morals are going to be the end of two worlds.”
    Morals? I could not believe I was hearing this, and I got in his face, standing between him and the nursery. “This has nothing to do with my morals, and everything to do with how strong he is ! You were there! You saw! I don’t care if the one ring to rule them all is in that museum, we can’t overpower him. You don’t have a plan, you have an obituary! Ceri tried with the help of an experienced, powerful witch, and now Ray has only one parent!”
    Trent’s hands clenched. “You don’t think I know that?” he shouted, and I could hear babies crying through the window. “Why do you think I burned out the fuse to the vault? You shouldn’t be here, either. Why are you here?”
    He was going to try to kill him. He was going to dump the