Kim Harrison - The Undead Pool

Trent leaned back, his hand still holding mine. “I thought so,” he said softly. “You gave that up. And Al.” He let go of me, his finger tilting my chin up to look at him. “I have my own guilt to chew on.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Sighing, he watched the girls leaping at Jenks’s shifting dust. “I wouldn’t change anything, though I’ll admit that my end of things is turning out to be more challenging than I’d anticipated. But there’s a definite upside that I hadn’t counted on.”

“Like what?” Jenks said as he dropped from his dust to the stroller’s bar. “Is Rachel so good in bed she’s worth losing a fortune?”

“Shut up, Jenks,” I said, and he laughed to sound like wind chimes.

“I don’t have to do what everyone expects anymore.” Smiling, Trent pulled Ray onto his lap and gentled the tiring girl to him. “I owe you. Forever, Rachel. You freed me.”

Jenks made gagging sounds when I flushed. Freed him? No. He’d freed himself. “You do know freedom is why I quit the I.S., right? And see how that turned out?”

He chuckled, but my smile faltered as I glanced at my wrist and the smooth skin there. My demon mark had vanished without fanfare last week, and with it, my last tie to Al. For some stupid reason, I missed it. Trent, though, was looking at Ivy and Nina trying on hats. “Oh, I think it turned out fine.” His eyes met mine over Ray’s tousled hair, and I felt warm. “A little tiring perhaps, but okay in the end.”

Beaming, I leaned in, hoping for a kiss. Jenks flew up and out of the way in disgust, but before our lips met, my eyes went over his shoulder to Jonathan. The distasteful man was not at the ATM. No, he was standing between us and Ellasbeth, striding forward under the shade with two men behind her.

Ellasbeth? I thought, freezing. Trent’s lips grazed mine before he realized there was a problem and drew back. Tingles raced through me, not all of them from the spark of wild magic. “Ellasbeth,” I whispered, and he turned, his jaw clenching.

“And she brought friends,” Jenks said snidely. “Trent, monologue or something. I have to cut the cameras or someone’s gonna be in jail tonight for assault.”

“Make it fast.” Trent set Ray in the stroller, buckling her in before standing.

Jenks darted up and away and wild magic prickled over my skin as Trent tapped a line. Pulse hammering, I stood as well. A lion roared as I tapped a line, my chin rising as the energy flowed through me and back to the line, connecting me to everything, to all, to the universe—even if I could only see a hairsbreadth of it now.

“Stop right there!” I said, but Ellasbeth never slowed, motioning for the men and women she’d brought to circle us. Shit, there were more than two. She’d brought at least eight. People in bright shirts and shorts were scattering, running for the edges. “I said that’s close enough!” I shouted as she kept coming.

Ivy and Nina tensed, but we all froze when Jonathan dropped out of the pergola, looking ugly and alien as he knocked the man behind her to the ground and crouching over him with a ball of black death in his hands. Trent grabbed my arm to keep me from moving, and I quailed when a half-heard whisper of promised death passed Jonathan’s lips.

“Give me the girls, Trent!” Ellasbeth demanded, and Lucy called for her mother in delight.

Ignoring Jonathan, Ellasbeth continued forward. The second man with her moved, and with a growl that chilled my blood, Jonathan grabbed him about the neck. Suddenly the three were on the ground, scrabbling like wrestlers for an advantage as they heaved and struggled. Wild magic skated over my awareness, and Trent’s grip on me tightened. There was an abrupt pop of magic, and the two men went still. Ellasbeth came to a shocked halt as Jonathan slowly got to his feet, the two men behind her unmoving.

“Holy toad shit!” Jenks exclaimed, and my pulse raced as Jonathan shook the lingering magic from him like water. His foot nudged a man back to the ground, and I breathed a sigh of relief. They were still alive. I hadn’t been sure.

“Don’t move,” Jonathan said to Ellasbeth, and the woman’s face became white. “I will bring you down.”

“What the hell was that?” Jenks said as he landed on my shoulder with the fading scent of burnt amber.

“That was Jon, defending me and mine.” Trent’s grim expression made me wonder how often he’d seen something like this. What did he need me for?

People were at the outskirts, watching behind trash cans and low walls. Stymied, Ellasbeth nevertheless took a step forward. “Give me my girls!” she exclaimed, flicking her eyes to Jonathan and back again.

There were Weres among the watchers I realized, circling behind Ellasbeth’s men. Ivy and Nina had dropped back, rightly worried about getting caught in the magical cross fire.

Trent made sure Ray was okay before he faced her. “Ellasbeth,” he said, her name holding a wealth of emotions: fatigue, disappointment, relief, and anger. “Were you waiting for the news, or did you feed it to them to hurry it along so you could make your flight out?”

“Give them to me!” she demanded, making a sideways step, closer to us and away from Jonathan.

“If you have to ask, you don’t deserve them,” Trent said, his bitter sarcasm clear.

“You’re destitute,” she said, her confidence wearing thin as she stood in the sun with her straw-yellow hair and perfect dress suit. “Or you soon will be. You can’t maintain custody, and if you don’t give them to me now, the accusations will become worse until you are in jail or dead. Save them the humiliation of seeing their father made a public ridicule.”

Trent shifted his weight, hiding me another inch behind him. “Father. Nice of you to admit that in front of all these witnesses.”

Her security had noticed the Weres. One of them motioned to Ellasbeth to leave, and she frowned. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

“Easy is tasteless and bland,” he said, and her expression twisted with anger.

“I will turn you into a pauper unless you give them to me!”

At that, Trent took a step forward. Lucy was fussing, trying to get to Ellasbeth, and I distracted her with a tiny globe of light. “Wealth is not a determining factor of parental fitness,” he said softly, his words reaching everyone. “Or are you calling a million parents unfit because they work for a living? Lucy is mine by right,” Trent said, his voice ringing out. “And again by ancient trial that you demanded. You stole Lucy from me, Ellasbeth. Slunk away in the night with her in your belly like a thief. I took her back. She’s mine.”

“You slept with that demon whore!” Ellasbeth raged, face red and arms waving. “How could you do that to me!”

My jaw clenched, but I stayed where I was. This wasn’t about me. It was about Trent and Ellasbeth.

“You slept with her!” she raged. “And you think anyone will still follow you? You are done, Trent. Done!”

Ticked, I focused on watching her security, every single one of them flanked by at least three Weres. The scent of broken heather grew stronger; Trent was pissed. “Read your history, Ellasbeth,” he said bitterly. “Demon and elf pairings happened all the time. It just so happens that both parties agreed this time. Get out of my city.”

She crossed her arms, then forced them down. “It’s not your city anymore.”