Trent glared up at the circling copter, ignoring me. How would they even know where to land? “Ceri knows demons,” I said. “She will keep Lucy safe. She has her soul, and that makes all the difference. I promise I’ll find out what happened. We have a space. We need to think. Please give me a chance to do something.”
He wasn’t looking at me, his jaw set and his manner closed. I didn’t know if I’d made things better or worse. “Jenks,” he said suddenly. “They will have to land in the pasture and walk in. You’re the fastest person here. Will you tell them where we are?”
Frowning, I shifted Ray higher. We didn’t have time for this. I didn’t know what Quen’s aura was doing, but it wasn’t normal. “Are those trees important to you?” I asked Trent suddenly, and he looked at me blankly. Even Jenks hesitated. “Your dad didn’t kiss your mom under them or anything?”
Trent shook his head. “No.”
Jaw clenched, I pulled heavily on the ley line. Ray jumped as if smacked, but she wasn’t crying so I narrowed my focus and pushed it into my hand. “Adsimulo calefacio!” I shouted, throwing the curse at the nearest tree, superheating the sap in an instant. The tree exploded, and I spun, shielding Ray with my body. Bits of bark and sharp splinters struck my back.
The horses scattered with the muted sound of hooves. “Hey! Give me some warning!” Jenks shrilled as the last of the branches fell back to earth, and Trent looked up from where he had hastily covered Quen. The tree was scattered over a twenty-foot circle, the last pieces still falling. It had only been Molly that had run away, and Tulpa stood at a four-posted stiffness, his neck arched and his eyes wild. He snorted at me, shifting his skin to shake off the bits of bark and leaves.
“Consider yourself warned,” I said grimly, and after seeing Ray wide-eyed and quiet, I shifted her to sit more firmly on my hip and blew up two more trees. It was an ungodly mess, but there was room now, and better yet, the ambulance would know exactly where to land. Growing more angry, Tulpa withstood it all, held to the spot by Trent’s will alone.
Trent was silent as he joined me in the new sun, squinting up as the sound of the copter blades grew closer. I felt ill as the imbalance for the curse rose up, lapping about me. I could feel it cresting, and with no regret, I lifted my chin. I pay the cost for this, I thought, feeling the smut slither across my soul. The sun didn’t seem any dimmer, the sky was just as blue, but looking at the shattered stumps and splintered branches and wilting leaves, I knew my soul was a little bit darker.
But what was the point of a clean soul if Quen died and I could have helped?
“Thank you,” Trent said, and then he darted back to Quen as the long medical helicopter began to land. What wasn’t nailed down blew to the edges—and there was a lot. Ray began to wail, and I held her face to me, covering her head as I turned my back on the copter. Swearing, Jenks tucked in at my collar, and I stood there hunched and shaking, feeling as if I were at the center of a tornado.
Finally it was only bits of grass striking me, and I turned to see three men in scrubs jump out of the side, a stretcher between them. The blades slowed but didn’t stop, and Trent stood over Quen, his worry coming back threefold.
“No spinal damage,” one said, squinting at an amulet held against Quen’s temple. “We can move him,” and the other two manhandled him onto the stretcher, starting an IV and taking vital signs.
“Sir?” the one with the amulet asked, and Trent pulled his attention from Quen’s face. His eyes looked better.
“Treat it as a demon attack,” he said, voice raised against the wind. “Yes, it’s daylight,” he added when the man looked doubtfully at the sun. “He was possessing someone.”
Jenks left me, Ray starting as the silver sparkles sifted down. “His aura is wonky,” the pixy said, standing on Quen’s chest to garner everyone’s attention for a brief instant. “It’s cycling through shades like it’s ringing. It’s getting worse, though. Five minutes ago, it was taking thirty seconds to cycle and now it’s down to twenty.”
Brow furrowed, the man put on a pair of glasses another handed him. His eyes widened, and his motions took on a new urgency. “Get him in the chopper. Now!”
“I didn’t see it happen,” Trent said as they counted to three and lifted the stretcher, the first man holding the IV bag high. “Morgan and I were out on another trail and felt the disturbance. I think they took Ceri and Lucy,” he said, fear crossing his face before he tried to hide it. I could see it shimmering behind his every move.
With an efficiency of motion, they loaded Quen, the sound of the blades drowning out the new conversation between the two techs. Jenks had darted in with them and out of the wind, and Ray was watching for him to come back out—silent, so silent. Still beside us, the head guy looked at the pilot, motioning for a moment of time. Concern showed in his eyes as he leaned in to be heard. “Sir, I don’t know what this is. We have to take him to the university hospital.”
Trent looked up at the whirling blades, and I held Ray tighter to me. “Are you sure? I don’t want a media circus.”
But the man was shaking his head. “We’re running out of time. He needs to be in a desensitization tank, and you don’t have one. We can try a quiet room—”
“No.” Trent looked inside, fear flickering over him like a second aura. “Go. Take him.”
The man made a motion to the pilot, and through the glass, I saw him grab a radio. “We’ll call ahead,” the tech shouted. “They’ll be ready for him. I think we’re in time, but we have to move fast to stop the damage. I have room for one more.”
Trent spun to me. His face was riven with a worry he was trying to hide with a cool efficiency. It all fell apart when he looked at Ray, then me and whispered, “Rachel . . .”
I couldn’t hear him, but I could read his lips. Something in me twisted, and I shoved it aside. “Go!” I said, propelling him toward the door as the wind whipped my hair around. “I’ve got this! Call me when you know something!”
He kissed Ray’s fingers, looking her firmly in her eyes. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” His eyes rose to mine as the blades shrieked in the air. “Thank you.”
I held Ray closer, letting her see as we backed away. Trent effortlessly got into the medical copter. Jenks darted out just before the door closed, whipped downward and out as if he were on a roller coaster. He streaked past me, swearing at Tink, but I figured he was okay.
One hand supporting Ray, the other holding my hair, I watched the pilot do a check before lifting up. Squinting, I held my ground as more sticks and leaves blew. Blades thumping, the copter gained altitude and vanished beyond the trees, heading for Cincinnati.
Slowly the leaves settled. Shaking, I looked to where we had found Quen. The grass was flattened. Ray’s grip on my hair tugged, and I disentangled her, letting her soft, damp hand hold my fingers as I listened to the quiet, my ears ringing.
Jenks’s wings sounded muffled as he started to land on my shoulder, then thought better of it and hung where he was, dust sifting from him in the leftover breeze. “He’ll be okay. We got to him in time.”
I didn’t know. But I had an unusually quiet toddler on my hip and no horse. Tulpa had vanished. I didn’t blame the animal, but I needed to get back to the stables. I heard the hounds bay in the distance and shivered.
“Quen is strong,” Jenks said, his words fast as he fell into place beside me as I picked my way through the shattered vegetation. One of the trees I’d taken out had been damaged by magic, all evidence of it destroyed. The I.S. would have a cow. Either that, or blame me for the attack.
“He’s going to be okay,” Jenks said again, and I walked into the shade on the path. Hoofprints were a sad reminder of how fast life could change, the marks going both ways and crisscrossing