Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

down!” I shouted, ducking to crouch next to the retaining wall as Ku’Sox swooped over us, his huge claws reaching. The memory of seeing pixies slip down his throat rose up, and I cowered, the wall pressing into me. Fire lanced my shoulder, and I screamed.
    “ Immuluate! ” Quen shouted, and I choked as the line raced through me, making the new rip in my shoulder burn like lava.
    And then Ku’Sox was gone, swinging around for another strike. Hand clasped to my shoulder, I stood, watching his dark shape against the sky. He was playing with us.
    “Rachel! Are you okay?”
    I looked at Quen sourly as his enthusiasm paled. It was all I could do to not yell at him that no, I was not okay. “Fine,” I said, pushing at the edges of the cut and seeing very little blood.
    “Maybe you’re right,” Quen said as we watched Ku’Sox turn and come back like a deadly pendulum. And then he brightened. “The line!” he said suddenly. “You can jump them. At least to the one in the garden. You can jump us both.”
    My eyebrows rose. “You want me to jump a line? Carrying you? That’s what got us into this in the first place.”
    “Down!” Quen said, his hand on my shoulder, and we flattened as Ku’Sox buzzed us again. I think he was enjoying himself, but he wheeled sharply, landing twenty feet away, wings outstretched and bill snapping loudly.
    “You can do it,” Quen said. “If we’re sharing mental space, you can carry me. You know the signature. You just dumped the imbalance there. Even if Ku’Sox follows us, the gargoyles will help.”
    Perhaps long enough for me to sit on him and make him take the slaver ring off. Beyond him, Ku’Sox snapped his beak and strode forward. I nodded—burning to death in the lines was better than being eaten.
    “Keep him off us,” I said as he took my hands and nodded. “And try not to hog the line!” I shouted, feeling it strengthen around me.
    Ku’Sox hesitated, head cocked as I tapped the line and my hair started to float. Letting out a murderous caw, he began to run, guessing our intent.
    “Now!” Quen shouted, and I bubbled us, shifting the hue and sound of it to that of the line ten feet away. I knew it by heart now, and it was easy.
    I heard Ku’Sox scream in defeat as the beauty of the line took us, and the swirling warmth of the line washed the ugliness of the grove away. Everything went silver in my mind. Quen snapped a bubble around his thoughts, making me wonder how often he’d traveled the lines before.
    Home, I thought, recalling the harsh jangle of the chaos I’d made of the line in the garden. It was a mass of orange, blue, black, and red, and though I could see it in my mind, I couldn’t shift the resonance.
    Home! I thought again, starting to panic. The damn slavery ring was interfering. Quen, help me tune the bubble to match my aura! I cried out, but he couldn’t hear me, and I couldn’t leave him there.
    Quen! I tried again, and a cool/warm thought slid into mine with the bright sparkle of butterfly wings.
    Got you! came Bis’s cheerful thought, and with a shimmer, Quen’s and my auras flashed to a strident purple.
    I was real. Stumbling, I sucked in a huge gulp of air, shocked when my boots skittered across electric-light-lit tile, not the starlit red slab of cement I was aiming for. I looked up, hearing a groan as Quen hit the floor behind me a second later.
    My face became cold, and Trent turned, his rolling chair making a clicking sound as he cocked his head at my battle-dirty clothes and tangled hair.
    “This isn’t my garden,” I whispered, and Trent’s smile chilled me to my core.

Chapter Twenty-Seven
    T rent stood, a hard eagerness obvious on his blond-stubbled, tired-looking face. Fear slid through me, and I hid my hand with the ring behind me. Quen could give him the master ring and, with it, me. Trent would be the most powerful elf in generations. He could save his people. Why would he ever take it off?
    “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow,” Trent said as he swooped to us, his lab coat billowing behind him.
    “The deadline was moved,” Quen said. “Sa’han, you were right. This isn’t working.”
    “Obviously. If it was, you wouldn’t be here.”
    He was reaching for me, and I pulled away, standing before he could help me.
    “I got you!” Bis almost sang, and my heart sank. We had left Etude alone with that monster. “I snagged you. Right. Out. Of. The. Line!” he crowed, his wings spread and his red eyes