your demon. “But you were at the hospital the day my brother died. I know you don’t remember it, but he had the demon curse on him really bad, like some do. You tried to help him when no one else would. And now my son is growing up strong. He doesn’t have to endure what I did. He’s named after my brother.”
My lips parted at the heartache in Trent’s eyes as he touched the big man’s shoulder.
“What are you guys waiting for?” Jenks griped as he landed exhausted on my shoulder. “God to say go?”
“I can’t leave yet,” I said, and Trent jerked to a stop, his motion to break into a jog shifting almost comically fast. “Landon has my stuff.”
Trent’s lips quirked. “I’ll buy you a new stick of magnetic chalk.”
“He’s got my soul bottle,” I added, beckoning to Zack across the huge sanctuary.
“She’s right,” Trent said when Zack started back in a soft-footed run. “Landon can use it to target a noncontact spell to her.”
“And Hodin’s ring,” I added when Zack slid to a breathless halt, a question heavy in his eyes. “If he accidently called Hodin . . . or, worse, intentionally?”
Trent turned to Zack. “You’ve done enough. You too, Nash. Make yourselves scarce.”
“What? What’s going on?” Zack asked.
“We have to get Hodin’s ring and that bottle back,” Jenks said from my shoulder.
“But they’re going to wake up,” Zack said. “We don’t have time.”
“Which is why you’re going to hightail it out of here,” I said. “Trent and I will get my stuff, and if we’re lucky, Landon will still be in his rooms and I can pound him.”
But Zack shook his head, arms over his chest to become virtually unmovable. “Landon wouldn’t keep them there. If they were that important, he’d put them in the undercroft.”
“The what?” Jenks asked for both of us.
“The vault,” Zack whispered, turning to beckon us deeper into the back rooms of the sanctuary. “It’s a hidden room under the church. That’s where they put all the good stuff they moved with me. Let’s go!”
I looked at Trent, and he looked at me. Shrugging, Trent rocked into motion.
“How do you know about the undercroft?” Nash said, clearly shocked as he followed us.
“Homework,” Zack called over his shoulder.
But my unease grew as I followed Zack through the sanctuary’s back rooms full of folding chairs, tables, and stacked linens. There were too many of us. We’re making too much noise, I thought, jerking when I saw a booted foot poking out from behind a corner. Another slumped body lay behind a row of stacked folding tables. Zack’s work? I thought, remembering the sophisticated spells he’d thrown at me, failing only because the Goddess hadn’t been listening. She was now, apparently.
“Just tell us where it is,” I said when Zack stopped before a misshapen door that looked as if it belonged to the fifties. It was caked with paint and had old metal hinges. A dented brass knob handle spun when Zack tried to open it. It might have led to a broom closet or a tiny ugly bathroom, but Zack persisted, spinning the door handle to no effect.
“I know this is it,” Zack said, ears turning red as he tried spinning it the other way.
“Too late.” Jenks rose up, bent wing rasping. “Someone found us.”
“I got it,” Trent said, and my breath came in fast when he pulled heavy on a ley line.
“Watch your control!” I almost hissed as he paced forward, chin high, stance confident. But then the trio of hapless office workers saw him, and an almost comical panic spread among them.
“Entrono voulden,” Trent said, his hand glowing with power as he gestured at them. A thread of energy pulled through me, and my breath caught at the wash of power spilling from Trent. His bright glow of power circled the terrified trio twice to bunch them into a tight bundle . . . and then swamped them.
Their faces went slack, and all three dropped into an untidy pile.
“Nice,” I said, then lurched forward to help drag them out of sight. “When did you learn that?”
Trent grinned at me. His hair was tousled and his eyes sparkling. Feeling plinked down to my groin. He was everything I could ever want. Too bad Ellasbeth thought the same way. “It’s my mom’s,” he said. “I’m hoping I find more of her work in her lab.” His expression faltered. “Now that it’s open.”
“Guys!” Zack called, his hushed voice intent. “You got any ideas? It’s