“Hey!” I said as I reached after the candle only to slump back and let my hand fall. I’d never get it back. Landon knew what it was. Or, at least, he knew that it was important.
“Don’t listen to that slug snot,” Jenks said as he landed on Zack’s shoulder. “You got skills. You got skills leaking out of the tips of your hair. You’re the one doing magic, not him. He’s a hairy spider sack. Be a pal, will you, and open that honey pot?”
Clearly unhappy, Zack reached for it. It would take a long time to rub out Landon’s words, and as I sat there trying to find myself, I vowed that Zack would never go back to the dewar. I’d stood alone too many times when ugly words were said to me—words meant to crush my confidence because I had said no. You couldn’t stop people from talking trash, but Zack didn’t have to stand alone. I’d make sure he didn’t believe it.
The soft sound of sliding linen drew my attention, and I stifled a twitch when Trent sat down beside me and took my hand, holding it amid the spilled salt. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I can’t go into seclusion. Trent, we have to find a way to destroy it.”
“Agreed.” He took a breath. “It’s not true what he says,” he said, and I blinked, not a clue where his thoughts were. “My Sa’han status has nothing to do with you.”
Liar. And yet I nodded, my eyes dropping to our fingers twined together. It wasn’t often that Trent lied. He did it very well, but I could see through it, and maybe that was why he said what he did. “I know,” I lied back, pulling my hand from his.
The Order was dropping back to follow Landon. Weast’s warning to leave Landon alone aside, it seemed as if the Order didn’t want me. Yet.
The returning waitstaff was noisy after their unexpected break, and still shaky, I put the napkin with Landon’s blood on the table for them to take. There wasn’t enough remaining to do the curse again, but it was interesting that Landon’s aura had cleared somewhat when the baku had left him. It wasn’t too late, but by the looks of things, it was close. As close to taking him over as me, perhaps.
Bis felt my fear and tightened his grip on my shoulder. Trent settled back, his green eyes showing his worry as Jenks entertained Zack by belching his ABC’s and the waitstaff brushed the salt and glass shards from the table and refreshed our drinks.
Numb, I watched the city turn beneath us as the day brightened. All I’d learned was that the baku had nearly stripped me enough to take me. That I was “too fatigued” to kick it out, and “too alone” to hold it.
Hold it? I thought, shivering when the low morning sun found me. It was afraid of being captured, which meant there was a way to do it. Maybe if we talked to it again, it might let slip how. Clearly I could talk to it as much as Landon did.
Asleep or awake.
CHAPTER
25
Fatigue was a heavy, wet blanket as I got out of Trent’s sports car. Quen had driven it and me back to Trent’s house after meeting Ellasbeth and the girls at the front gate on the way in, and I jumped when his door slammed shut with an unexpected loudness.
It was nearing noon. I was finally waking up, but Trent looked awful as he got out of his big-ass SUV and began helping Ellasbeth with the cranky girls, his temper showing as the need to sleep grew. Zack stood beside them in his elegant suit, yawning and worrying his empty finger until Trent handed him the girls’ diaper bag. A bunch of store bags followed, all emblazoned with the names of upscale children’s clothing stores.
Their twined voices echoed in the low ceiling of Trent’s underground garage. Jenks was getting in the way, distracting the girls and making a nuisance of himself as Zack tried to handle the numerous bags and ogle Trent’s other cars shining under the garage’s artificial lights. Bis had opted to return to the church. “To keep the squatters out,” he had said, but as the high-pitched voices of the girls became louder, I thought he had other motives.
“Got that okay?” Trent asked Zack, and the kid nodded and fell into place behind Trent and Ellasbeth, each holding a nap-ready, sleepy girl