Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

brushing him off and getting in his line of sight until Bis backwinged into the bubble, landing on my shoulder, his red eyes wide in excitement.
    Trent was a moment behind, slipping through the protection bubble and sliding to a sudden, awkward halt inches from Al—far too close. Al smiled down at him with his thick, blocky teeth, and Trent smiled right back, more than a hint of deviltry in his green, green eyes. Trent was humming, and my thoughts hummed with him. I was alive with him, and it was glorious. Indescribable.
    Trent’s eyes met mine, and we both flushed.
    Behind him, a rock exploded as Ku’Sox’s discarded magic rolled into a rock. The watching demons complained loudly, and I felt a dozen protection circles go up.
    “Yes, yes, slave rings have a silver lining,” Al grumped, holding his bound hands out. “If you two are done mooning over each other, I could use some assistance.”
    I started, and Bis giggled from my shoulder.
    “They are charmed,” Al said loftily, as Trent touched them and a strand of wild magic spun through my mind. The curse holding Al quavered, resisted . . . and finally fell when I gave Trent’s magic a push.
    “Mar-r-r-rvelous,” Al drawled, a dangerous light entering his eyes as he turned to the east, to Ku’Sox. His thick hands clenched, and my skin prickled at the energy he drew in from his line atop the valley overlooking the dead city. “You work well together. Good to know.”
    “Do we jump?” Bis asked, riding the high of the innocent.
    I looked over the flat plain below us, seeing the world spread out, dim and red under the rising moon. It felt right that here, at the top of the world, it would end.
    “We fight,” I said, and Al chuckled, low and long.
    Ku’Sox was pacing, his form low and hunched as he watched us in our bubble.
    “Wear my ring,” Al said, his glove gone as he held out one of his wedding bands. I didn’t think he’d ever wear them again.
    Trent reached for it, and Al closed his fist. “Rachel is the fulcrum upon which all things will shift tonight. You, Trent are bound to her. She and I are bound together. Only Rachel can focus both our strengths. An elf’s drive for justice, a demon’s lifetime of skills, and Rachel’s strength.”
    I swallowed hard, flinching at a spark of energy cascading over our bubble. Al and I wearing his wedding rings? Now that I knew what they really were, it held an entirely different feeling.
    “I’m okay with that,” Trent said, and a slow smile curved over Al’s face.
    Al looked at Trent for a moment as he remembered something, then his eyes rose to mine. “I never thought I’d work with an elf—again,” he said, and he slipped his ring on my finger.
    I wavered as his energy mixed with mine, Bis hissing as the strength of both men seeped deep, reading their own surprise as they found common ground within me. “Can I survive this?” I said, meaning to be flippant, but finding I really wanted to know. I was humming, overly full and both of them demanding I do something. It was too much. I looked past our bubble to see Newt standing next to Dali, watching without a hint of emotion showing.
    “Prince of the elves, eh?” Al said as his heavy hand took my elbow and shifted me to look east.
    “Yup,” Trent said, and I shivered as his music fell through my mind. I knew what to do with it. I had only to speak.
    “And you are the world breaker,” Al said to Bis, and the gargoyle’s grip on me tightened.
    “No!” he exclaimed, delighted. “Really?”
    “And I’m your sword,” I added. I had once been Trent’s sword, too, when he was on his elf quest.
    “You still are,” Trent whispered, reading my mind through the bond of the rings.
    I sighed. “And what am I to you, Al?”
    “My maid,” he said brightly. “Shall we do this?”
    I let the bubble fall. We would meet the next day free, or dead.
    Ku’Sox snarled at us, and I thought he looked like a dog. “The moon is rising! Rachel, face me and die!”
    “Quite right!” Al said. “Make war when the moon rises. Make love when it sets.” He winked at me, and I gathered the line to me. “Ku’Sox, you slimy little worm! Now you will see what a demon is!”
    “By the Goddess!” Trent cried as my knees collapsed and I fell, the serpent of black magic unwinding from my head. The power of the demon bands was twofold, not just each of us having our strength combined, but instinctively knowing what the other was doing. It was