whispering something in his ear. It seemed to work, as Trent glanced at me and slowly exhaled. I’d have given a lot to know what he’d said.
“I should be the one to talk to the baku,” Quen said, and I gave him a long sideways look as he stood at the outskirts and tried to pretend their argument had never happened.
“I’m the Sa’han whether they like it or not. I do it.” Trent came back to sit across from me. Seeing the magazines, he picked them up and set them aside.
Quen’s hands clenched and released. “It wants you dead so its proposed long-term host will have more power. The risk is too high.”
Trent looked up, his face lined with worry and fatigue. “It is attracted to Rachel’s aura. Mine is closer to hers than yours. I’m the clear choice. Rachel can’t do it.” I took a breath to protest, and he added, “Or we could do a spread on both our souls and see whose is the least damaged.”
I shook my head and pressed into the couch. No way. If Trent saw, he would freak.
“Okay, then.” Trent dusted his hands and pushed forward in the chair, his feet squarely on the floor. “You should zip-strip me just in case.” Zack bobbed his head, his eyes wide and scared. I felt sick, and when no one moved, Trent faced Quen. “You generally have a zip-strip or two on you, don’t you, Quen?”
“This is a bad idea . . . ,” Quen said as he reached into his pocket.
Trent held his wrist out. “If Rachel kicked it out, I can. I won’t let it go too far. This is the best way to learn about the baku with your memory gone.”
Quen’s jaw clenched and I winced. Harsh but true.
Motions rough, Quen fastened the charmed silver about Trent’s wrist and ratcheted it closed. Trent shuddered as his contact with the ley lines was cut off, and I winced in sympathy.
“I’ll snap you out of it if you turn violent,” I said, and Quen’s mood darkened even more. Arms behind his back, he fell into parade rest behind Trent’s chair.
“God, yes.” Trent jiggled his wrist to adjust the strip. “A light trance should be enough.”
“Landon meditated when he talked to it,” Zack said.
“See?” Trent half-turned to give Quen a dry look. “Not a problem. I meditate all the time. If Landon can do this without being stripped to his core, I can.”
But Landon’s soul looked like decayed pus, and I fidgeted, nervous.
“Rachel, it will be okay,” Trent said, and my eyes met his across the low table. “The baku is bound to be lurking around, waiting for you to fall asleep. I merely have to contact it and dig for answers.”
I took a slow breath to steady myself. “Don’t fall asleep,” I said, remembering the terror of the baku digging deep, eating the best parts of myself—the parts that made living with the things I had to do to survive tolerable. “You can’t kick it out if you fall asleep.”
“No worry there.” Trent settled his hands in his lap and closed his eyes.
Jenks took to the air and flew to Zack. “I’ll keep an eye on his aura,” he said as he settled on the kid’s shoulder. “You smack him if he starts to talk in tongues.”
This was my idea, but I didn’t like it, and as Trent’s breathing slowed, Quen jolted into motion. “What are you doing?” I whispered as he took what I guessed was a bag of salt from a nearby desk drawer and began spilling it into a circle around Trent.
“Fortune favors the prepared,” Quen muttered as he edged between Trent and the table.
“He’s strapped,” I protested.
“Landon was never violent,” Zack added.
“Landon wasn’t trying to piece together how to capture it.” Quen finished the circle and tossed what was left of the spelling salt to me.
“Trent can be circumspect.” I set the bag down, and Trent sighed and cracked an eye open.
“It’s hard to meditate when you’re all talking.”
“Sorry,” I said, and he closed his eyes again.
Zack settled back in his chair with Jenks, both of them watching Trent. Quen moved so his shadow fell across the table, making it clear that he didn’t approve. I sat and waited, fidgeting. Slowly the ticking of the clock on the enormous mantel became obvious. The huge, empty fireplace sat behind Trent, and I again wondered if they’d used it to brick up an entire wing. There was nothing behind it but the