what surprised me most: that the toddler knew how or that Trent was clearly proud that she was seeking help from someone who, until just this year, had been the elves’ sworn enemy. Still was in most circles.
“I think it’s more her trying to use a ley line that is alerting him,” Trent admitted, but the pride was still there. “It shocked the peas out of me the first time he showed up when she threw a tantrum. We’ve since chatted, and Al has agreed to leave the parenting to me.”
My grin was unstoppable as I bent over the counter, flats of my arms on the stainless steel, and held the phone as if I could touch Trent through it. I’d be willing to bet that Trent wasn’t the only one surprised to suddenly find an uptight, supercilious demon in crushed green velvet in his rooms demanding to know why his elfling godchild was screaming holy hell.
“So, long story short, unless Ellasbeth does something dreadful over ice cream, she has the girls until Sunday night. My schedule is clear. How about yours?”
My smile widened at the change in his voice. “Nothing pressing.” My focus blurred at the thought of two entire days with Trent with minimal disruption. Though in financial straits due to fighting off the numerous—and true—accusations of being a bio-drug manufacturer, the man still owned a considerable number of high-tech, low-employee farms and most of the train runs east of the Mississippi. Occasional questions cropped up. Oh, and the illegal Brimstone trade. No one was going to call him out on that, though, seeing as if that went, the undead would be looking to humans to round out their needs. “The last thing on my list this week is making a scrying mirror, and then I’m all yours.”
“It needs a circle, right?” he said around another yawn, and I nodded.
“Yep.” It was a demon curse, and he knew it. Didn’t care. Understood I needed it to do my job. Reason number eight hundred and sixty-five that I love you.
“I’ll let you go, then,” he said reluctantly. “See you at four. Al’s line.”
“Al’s line,” I said softly, loving him even more. He’d said Al’s line, not the Eden Park overlook, though they were one and the same. “You bet. Bye.”
“Bye.”
There was a long pause, a sigh, and then a click. Only then did I allow that same happy, wistful sound to pass my lips and set the phone down on the adjacent counter outside of the circle. An incoming call might be enough of a connection for something nefarious to get through, and if I did this right, I’d be without my aura for a brief time, vulnerable.
Talking to Trent had gone a long way in rubbing out Edden’s bass-ackward request for me to troll the demons for who was responsible for the murders, and in a much better mood, I took another bite of that elephant cookie before setting it outside of my proposed circle as well. A pot of salt water waited, and I dunked my hands, drying them on the silk with an unexpected feeling of confidence. I’d done this curse several times now, but whether I was confident or not, the same quiver of expectation echoed in my belly as I looked over the assembled supplies. There wasn’t much, but a good curse was like that, relying on actions stored in the demon collective to make it work, invoked by a phrase or hand gesture.
“Okay . . .” I reached a sliver of my awareness to the nearest ley line. Immediately a scintillating power poured in, tasting of lightning and burnt ash. Most ran in well-used channels through my body to fill my chi and then to a spool in my head until I shunted it back to the line. Some energy, though, danced randomly through me in a sparkling wash.
I knew now that the tingle pricking through me was actually free-ranging mystics, the Goddess’s uncountable sentient eyes/energy—the source of all magic, be it ley line or earth. That I could again use the ley lines and not be swarmed by them was a huge relief. I wasn’t sure if it was because Newt had shifted my soul so my aura resonated at a frequency they didn’t recognize, or that the mystics simply weren’t interested in me anymore since Newt had taken my place, bringing the knowledge of life with mass to the mystics, something they had been so keen to learn that they would