remembered I was kneeling on the cold wooden floor, my knees the size of grapefruit and aching. Ivy was going to be okay.
"Ivy!" Jenks exclaimed, hovering by her nose and jabbing it with his foot. "Wake up!"
Ivy gasped, and I jumped as Jenks darted up, wings clattering. My hand went out, and I reached for her, jerking back when she yelped as I touched her shoulder.
"You said she was all right!" I exclaimed, horrified, and Pierce looked mystified.
"Broken," Ivy said, breath hissing when she tried to sit up. "I broke my arm when I fell."
"Ivy! You almost died!" Jenks said cheerfully. "Pierce saved you!"
Ivy glanced at him, holding her arm and pain etching her features. "Thanks, Pierce," she said dully. "Did she get away?" she asked as she took in the broken glass, smoldering couch, and burnt pool table.
Thank you, God, I thought, trying to calm myself so Ivy wouldn't know how close it had been. "Of course she did." I awkwardly took my pain amulet off and looped it over her head.
"Ow," Ivy hissed through clenched teeth as she looked at her arm and turned gray.
"Yup, that's broken," Jenks said, hovering over it and dusting heavily. "Just like the window. She broke my window, Ivy!"
"The woman didn't break the window, I did," Pierce said, looking embarrassed.
"You!" I exclaimed, and his eyes flicked to the ruination. But the glass had fallen inward. How could he have done it? Unless it had been a curse...
"I didn't do it a'purpose," he said, affronted. "I was aiming at the coven woman." Turning from me, Pierce leaned close to Ivy, not afraid that she was a vampire and that her eyes were going black in pain. "Ms. Tamwood," he said. "Thank you for taking the spells for me. I'm obliged to you."
"Well, if you saved my life, I'd say we're even," she said sourly. "I have to get my arm looked at," she said, her voice thready and her face pale.
I sat and twisted my knees to a more comfortable position, feeling the cool breeze coming in the shattered window and gaping door and wondering how I was going to get up. My knees were doubly in pain now that Ivy had my amulet, but I wasn't going to ask for it back. It was so unfair. The coven could kill people using white magic with no reprisal, but I use a black curse to save someone and I get shunned.
Jenks hovered between us, flying in a slow arch and spilling blue sparkles. "Ivy, I'm sorry. Crap-for-brains is gone. Jax, too."
I exhaled heavily and looked to the back of the church. Why am I not surprised?
"It means naught." Pierce's expression was grim. "He's a no-account scoundrel, and we're better off without. Mistress Ivy, can you stand?"
No-account scoundrel? Nick wasn't the one who'd been buried alive, I thought, disgusted with myself while eying Pierce as he helped Ivy up. God, he looked good - capable and sure of himself even as my life twisted into a more complicated knot. A pang of fear hit me, unexpected and shocking as I remembered crying for Kisten. I can't do this.
"Pierce, do you think you could drive if I coached you?" Ivy asked, long fingers gripping his shoulder with a white-knuckled strength.
Swallowing hard, I forced my thoughts from Kisten. Heartache echoed in me as I lurched upright, my knees protesting. "I can take you to the hospital. Where are my keys?" She needed to be checked out. Get a CT scan or something.
"Not your car," she said breathily as she gazed at the floor. "It's totaled."
"Totaled!" I cried. "When were you going to tell me?"
Jenks sifted gold dust to make a temporary sunbeam on the old oak floor. "Some time between telling you David had to drop you from his insurance and that the state is taking your driver's license. Something about a condition that causes you to vanish suddenly."
I put a hand to my middle. I couldn't take the bus for the rest of my life. This was so unfair.
"Ow, ow! Don't touch it, Pierce! You idiot!" Ivy shouted as he probed her arm. "I told you it was broken!"
Pierce pulled his hand away, glaring right back at her black-eyed stare, and I jerked when there was a scuffing of shoes on the stairs outside.
"It's Glenn," Jenks said, head cocked as he listened to his kids. "I think he just noticed the broken window and the open door cause he just un-snapped his pistol."