frown crossed her face when her sister shouted again and Jenks flew up and away. Attention diverted, Ray toddled to Al as well. Ellasbeth stood alone in her uncertainty. The two girls were only a few months apart, acting more like three- or four-year-olds than the two they almost were. Elves clearly matured faster than witches. According to Jenks, I still wasn’t old enough to be on my own.
“I’m sorry,” I said as Quen joined us and we headed for the stairs. “I should’ve kept my mouth shut. But I couldn’t take it anymore. He said demons were messing with elven magic, and—” I stopped and glanced at Quen, now suspiciously silent. “What did I do?”
“Nothing I don’t approve of, Ms. Morgan,” Quen said, and Trent flashed him a dark look.
Trent hesitated at the top of the stairs, pulling us all to a halt. “Quen, would you mind taking Rachel downstairs? I want to get that tape if Mac is willing to part with it.”
Mistrust drifted behind Quen’s eyes. “I can get the tape, Sa’han.”
Trent’s frown deepened. “Let me rephrase that. I want a word with Landon. Alone.”
My fingers slipped reluctantly from Trent’s hand as Quen inclined his head, a wicked smile turning him from capable bodyguard to highly qualified thief. “Of course, Sa’han.”
Jenks, having been driven upward by Lucy’s noise, hovered close, and I twitched my head for him to go with Trent. With a cheerful thumbs-up and a bright sifting of dust, Jenks darted off. Trent jerked, surprised when the pixy landed on his shoulder, and then the two of them were gone.
“Thank you.” Quen took my arm in a formal gesture to “help” me down the stairs. “Trent deserves more freedom, but I always appreciate someone watching his back.”
“Tell me about it,” I said, pulling my arm from his as we descended the curving stairway. “Jeez, Quen. All I did was tell the truth, and Trent is acting as if I ruined his big plan.” My expression went empty. “Did I? Oh, God. He should have told me if he had a plan.”
Quen stopped my headlong rush of words with a slow shake of his head. “He was simply trying to keep your name out of the news. Landon agreed to not bring up your involvement if Trent said nothing contrary to Landon’s claims. That you survived the Goddess and made the new ever-after isn’t anything you really want publicly known, either. Still . . .” Quen smiled as if pleased. “Now that the truth is out, it’s going to get nasty. And real.”
More like real nasty, I thought as I saw the entire week in a new way. Each interview had been to goad me into breaking my silence. “But everyone knew I was involved,” I said, and Quen nodded, his eyes on Ray as we neared the last step. The little girl was on Al’s hip as he made colored bubbles. Lucy danced about, bursting them as she shouted out their colors. I would’ve thought it was very one-sided except that Ray was telling Al what color to make by pointing at the horses on the blanket tight in her grip.
“True, but Trent was halfway to convincing the city powers it had been Newt who made the new ever-after,” Quen said, clearly proud of Ray. The little girl was his daughter, and he and Trent were raising the two girls—who didn’t share a single drop of blood—as sisters.
My steps down the last few stairs slowed. “And now everyone knows it was me.”
“Exactly,” Quen said, and I finally got it. I had made the new ever-after. I was the one with the immense cosmic powers, and I lived on a boat in the Hollows, vulnerable to anyone who wanted to challenge that. It wouldn’t be a problem if those immense cosmic powers were actually mine, but they weren’t. I’d stolen them from the Goddess, and they were long gone.
“I should have kept my big mouth shut,” I said, and Quen chuckled.
“Perhaps. But hiding the truth behind a lie has its own liabilities. Trent was already beginning to rue his decision, and you’ll survive. You are the demons’ most powerful denizen.”
I gave Quen a wry smile as I took the last stair. “Seriously? I can’t even jump a line,” I said, remembering how vulnerable I had been just this afternoon in Ivy’s kitchen.
Quen drew me to a halt. “Any demon can jump the lines. You’re good at things they aren’t.”