Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

vision. Trent was yelling, the babies were crying, and my eye felt like it was going to explode.
    “And this is for the hell of it!” Nick whispered.
    I put a hand up to stop him, and he grabbed it. His other hand was coming at me, and I struggled, trying to get him off !
    But before his hand could connect, he was yanked backward and up. Knees going to my chest, I tossed the hair from my eyes at the sodden thunk of fist meeting flesh. Nick reeled into the counter, his feet slipping on the tile floor until he went down. Trent stood between us, his back hunched and shaking the pain from a bleeding hand.
    “Son of a bitch.” Touching his bleeding lip, Nick got to his feet. I could feel him begin to gather power, slowly but gaining momentum as a weird keening from the damaged line he was pulling on grew in the back of my head. I stood, so frustrated that I was almost crying. Nick had lied to Pierce and Ceri both. Told them he was helping when he was really setting them up. How could I ever forgive that?
    “Rachel!” Trent shouted as he dived in front of me. I jerked my attention from him to Nick. A ball of green-tinted aura was headed right at us. Without thinking, I flung up a hand.
    “ Rhombus! ” I shouted, and Trent stooped as Nick’s spell struck and slithered down to the floor where it bubbled into nothing.
    Nick was grinning when I brought my attention back up, and I felt sick. Now I’d done it.
    Trent was holding my arm. “Are you hurt?”
    I shook my head. “I just rang the doorbell,” I said, then added, glowering at Nick, who knew exactly what he’d been doing, “I tapped a line. Ku’Sox knows I’m here.”
    Trent stiffened, and then he spun as Lucy’s childlike voice rang out in delight. “Daddy!”
    Trent went down on one knee as if he’d been shot, his breath a quick gasp as he stared at Ku’Sox, Lucy on his hip. His expression was fierce with love and desperate hatred, and I don’t think I despised Ku’Sox more than at that moment. He was going to pay. Neither Ku’Sox nor Nick had ever loved anyone, and they would pay.
    My pulse thundered in my ears, and I forced my arms to remain at my sides as I backed up to stand by Trent. Dressed in a casual black kimono, Ku’Sox had misted into the room beside Nick before the nursery window. Lucy’s dress mimicked his, and her hand reached for Trent, delight in her eyes. Bis was with him, too, and my jaw clenched as the little guy launched himself toward me, only to be snagged by Ku’Sox and tossed behind him like a kite.
    The gargoyle spun through the air out of control, his eyes bright and cheerful as he found the wind in his wings before hitting the wall. I’d swear he was having fun as he changed his out-of-control spiral into a snappy landing on top of one of Trent’s machines where he perched, glowing a bright black. He was all right. He was all right!
    Guilt rose, and I shoved it away. I would not feel bad that I was happy for Bis when Ceri and Pierce were dead. Nick had betrayed them. Why? What had he gained?
    “You, stay where you are,” the psychotic demon said lightly to Trent as he rose, face awash with heartache. “I already took your second child’s mother. Make a move I don’t approve of and we will explore what else you hold dear. Understand?”
    The scent of cinnamon became strong as Trent struggled with himself. He had admitted that he couldn’t sacrifice his daughter. It made him both strong and weak. He knew what it was to love. Maybe he’d always known, and I had been too blind to see it.
    “Down!” Lucy demanded, looking sweetly petulant in her Asian kimono, and Ku’Sox shifted her into a football hold, her little feet kicking behind her and her hands pushing at his arm as she made a face and squirmed. “Da-a-a-ddy-y-y!” Clearly not liking Lucy’s frustration, Bis curved his tail around his feet, his ears going flat against his skull.
    Nick’s feet scuffed as he edged even with Ku’Sox, and the demon gave him a disparaging glance. “Wait your turn, Nicholas Gregory Sparagmos,” Ku’Sox said as he shoved Nick behind him with one hand splayed on the man’s chest. “You can beat Rachel when I’m done with her. Besides, I want to hear why she’s here. She might, I don’t know . . . want something?” Bis spread his wings, and Ku’Sox looked at him until the gargoyle eased back. “A cup of sugar? An egg, perhaps?” Ku’Sox said, struggling with an increasingly vocal Lucy. “Are you doing a