Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

flung back, sliding to a halt against the machines, his expression showing his pain and one hand clenched into a fist against his chest.
    “What are you doing!” Trent shouted at me, pushing me off him as he stood, and I backed up onto my knees before spinning to face Ku’Sox.
    “You might hurt the baby!” I yelled back at him, hunched and ready for the next attack.
    “That child is already dead!” Trent shouted, furious.
    “Put the baby down!” I exclaimed at Ku’Sox, moving to stand between him and everyone behind me. I didn’t know how I was going to stop him, but I was having a much easier time now that I was a slave with no master. Can I trust him? asked a small voice inside me, and I ached at the coming betrayal.
    “This child?” Ku’Sox said, swinging the screaming baby like pendulum, tossing him into the air to land in his arms. Behind him, Bis tensed, too far away to snatch him to safety. His eyes went behind me. “ Dolore adficere, ” Ku’Sox whispered, his fingers moving.
    I tensed, but all Ku’Sox did was smile as the child in his arms wailed even louder, hardly able to breathe.
    Fire suddenly erupted against my back, thought-stealing pain radiating out from my spine. I couldn’t breathe, and I collapsed to the floor, my fingers scrabbling behind me to find what it was. The heat spread to my hands, and I cried out, pulling them to my front to see that they were covered in a burning, golden-hued aura—burning me from the outside in. Ku’Sox’s curse had come from Trent.
    “ Valeo, ” I gasped to counter it, flooding my mind with a numbing cold, sucking in the air as I heard Ku’Sox laugh and the baby scream. His shoes were crunching on glass, and fear gave me the strength to force my head up, seeing him past my strands of hair. Heart pounding, I scuttled backward. Quen was struggling to stop Trent. Trent had hit me. He had cursed me. But by his frustrated, pained expression, he hadn’t done it by choice. My God, Ku’Sox was nuts. He was laughing, knowing full well I’d rip his head off if I could. But maybe he knew I’d never get even half a chance.
    “This is not me!” Trent shouted, his face creased and sweat darkening his hair as he shoved Quen off him. “It’s not me!” he said again, grunting with the effort to keep his hand from rising. His eyes widened in a sudden fear. “Flee, Rachel . . .”
    “Sa’han!” Quen cried out, ducking behind a bubble when Trent threw another spell. It was aimed at me, and I threw up a circle, but my reaction was too slow and it tore through it, the spell hitting me square on before my barrier could fully form.
    Pain crawled over me like ants, skittering from my chest and working its way through me, and I screamed. If it reached my mind, I was dead. “ Valeo, ” I sobbed again, curled on the floor within my bubble, shaking as the pinpricks faded and died.
    “Interesting,” Ku’Sox said, that baby still wailing in his arms as he sat on the broken window frame and crossed his ankles to watch. “Do that one again. I want to know if she can do it any faster.”
    “Damn it all to hell!” I shouted at Trent as I looked up, seeing Ku’Sox’s frown; he was not entirely pleased that I could counter that one. “You do that again, and I’ll smack you!” I said to Trent as I trembled with adrenaline.
    “I can’t help it,” he rasped through gritted teeth, and then he dropped to one knee, groaning as he fought whatever Ku’Sox was making him do next.
    “Yeah, well, sorry then,” I said, gathering my will. “ Alta quies simillima mort! ” I shouted, flinging half of the curse at Trent, holding the rest in my palm, burning. The curse tore through my bubble, absorbing it and pulling it over and around me like a dirty shirt. It smacked into Trent, and the man went down, his neck nothing but cords of muscle. He gave one spasm, then lay still, his chest rising and falling peacefully.
    “You struck him!” Quen said, clearly shocked.
    “He hit me first,” I said, then flicked the rest of the charm at Ku’Sox.
    The demon deflected it with a hasty pop. I knew it wouldn’t land, but at least he had stopped laughing. Trent lay unconscious. It wouldn’t last long, and I got up, hurting, tired, and pissed. Flee, Trent had said. It sounded like a good idea. If Bis could snatch us from a ley line, then he could by God jump us out as he had the babies.
    “Rachel?” Bis said, looking scared as he landed beside me on the rolling