Still sitting on the edge of the bed, Newt tucked the covers to his chin. "Good thought, bad implementation."
It looked as if he was going to be okay, and I wondered if Newt had seen the bottom of a purple line once and survived. "Can I do anything?" I asked.
"You? No," Newt said. "But I have an aura that I can give Al if-"
"No!" both Al and I exclaimed, and she looked insulted, standing up to smooth her robe.
"No need to shout. You'll just have to wait until you heal, then. Here, in Rachel's bedroom." Her eyes went over the ceiling. "Where all your safeguards are."
I started to relax. It lasted all of three seconds until Al pushed Newt's hands off him again, muttering, "Ku'Sox did it." I stiffened, and he added, "The entire leaking line is a ruse to get us to kill Rachel for him. A very expensive, chancy ruse." He made a wry face at me. "Maybe you shouldn't have cursed him."
"It was him or me, and I like where I live," I said loudly, and Al winced.
Newt gave up on Al and stood with her arms crossed before herself. "I saw to the bottom of that purple line," Al said. "His aura signature is down there. He caused it, whatever it is."
I lifted the mass of my tangled hair and let it drop, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and a carton of ice cream. "So we can go to the collective and make him fix it, right?" I said, feeling good for the first time in . . . hours? Had it only been that long?
Newt had drifted from the bed, tidying little things here and there, snooping, and my hackles began to rise. "If he caused it, he can fix it," she said. "But he'll wait until after you're dead, then 'save' us so we are more indebted to him."
Al snorted. "A brat after my own heart. Minus the killing Rachel part, of course."
"But you know he did it!" I said. "We found the proof!"
Al said nothing, and my smile faded. "Al?" I questioned, and he sighed. Even Newt was avoiding me, and a spark of anger grew. "We can make him fix it, right? Al, you saw his signature in the leak."
"Unfortunately-" Al started, and I got in his face, waving my hand under his nose.
"No, no, no!" I exclaimed. "There is no unfortunately in your next sentence. We make him fix it! I'm not going down as the one who broke the ever-after!"
Al heaved a sigh, then shivered when a black-smeared coating of ever-after slithered over him. It fell away to leave him clean, the soft shape of an old-fashioned nightdress showing between his skin and the coverlet. Newt, obviously. "Rachel," he said as he studied his bare hands. "My aura is burned down to my soul. Will you wait a few days? Then we can go in, accusations and hidden barbs flying, okay?"
I scrunched my nose up, hating Newt when she laughed at me. "Ah, the vigor of the young," she said, making things worse. "If it were me, I wouldn't go even then."
"Why not?" I said, feeling another unfortunately coming on.
Newt touched a hand mirror that looked identical to the one I'd seen Ceri use. "Al's testimony will be suspect, even if he did nearly kill himself. No one will risk verifying the truth of it after seeing what it did to him. Al would be dead now if not for . . . you pulling him out."
She had been going to say "those rings," but I kept silent. Her word choice was telling. Frustrated, I loomed over Al, and he closed his eyes, ignoring me. "Al," I said forcefully, and he opened them. I hesitated at his black orbs, then rushed ahead. "I am not going to take the curse off Ku'Sox. It's the only reason I can sleep at night. Besides, I don't think he simply wants me dead, he wants all of you dead, too, or why bother with the Rosewood babies?"
Newt looked at Al, an unusual trace of fear in the back of her eyes. "I believe you," she said, her fingers tracing over the few things on the dresser. "But no one is going to help you."
"Why not?" I said in frustration.
"Because we know we can't control him, and we are cowards," she said. "It was your familiar who freed him, and thus it is your responsibility to control him. If you can't, we will give him you to placate him and save ourselves."
This sucked. "I got him back in the ever-after," I said, and she took up the hand mirror.
"Where we didn't want him," she said, and I slumped. "Best him, or we will kill you so he will save us. I'm surprised the collective gave you any time at all. They must like you."
I couldn't get the frown off my face if I tried. Like me, huh? Funny way to show it.
Al reached out to take the mirror Newt had brought to the bed. "Send her home," he said, sounding tired, and then he started at his reflection. "What the devil happened to my eyes?"
Newt took the mirror back despite Al's protests, oddly sexy as she sashayed across the bedroom to put it back on the dresser. "Will they return to normal?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"No!" I said loudly, and Al looked at me. "This is bull crap!" I added so he'd know I wasn't talking about his stupid eyes. "Ku'Sox is going to own up to this!"
"He'll say you went in on it together and are now backing out, love," Newt said.
My zeal evaporated at the moniker, and cold, I slowed my anger. I didn't like being "love" to a demon. It meant I was being stupid and foolish.
"Newt, send her home, please," Al said, his voice low in fatigue.
The demon inclined her head, and I waved my hands in protest. "Hey! Wait! Who's going to watch you?"
"I don't need watching," Al mumbled, burrowing deeper into the folds of goose down and silk. "Go home. Call me in three days."
Three days?
Al smiled, his eyes closed. "Newt?"
"Damn it, no!" I shouted, but my words caught in my throat as I was suddenly wrapped in Newt's awareness. I snapped a bubble of protection around myself before she could. Send me home like a little girl, eh? I thought, steaming in anger.
But, as reality swirled around me and I found myself standing in my sunlit graveyard, my church before me in the late afternoon light, I sobered. Ku'Sox could show up in my church day or night thanks to Nick. And there were Ceri and Lucy to think about, hostages in the extreme. I couldn't risk Ku'Sox taking revenge out on them, turning my potential win to a personal loss. Getting him to admit that I had nothing to do with that ugly purple line sucking in ever-after without compromising Ceri's and Lucy's safety wasn't going to be easy.
Immediately I found my phone, scrolling until I got to Trent's number. I ought to put him on speed-dial or something. Pixies were coming from everywhere, and I waved them off as I began walking to the church's back door, my head bowed as I waited for someone to pick up. "Your dad is fine," I said, glad when Jumoke chased most of them back to their sentry duty.
Three rings and a click, and my feet stopped when I heard Ray crying through my phone. It was a soft, heart-wrenching sob of loss that no ten-month-old should even be aware enough to make. Jenks was singing to her about blood-red daisies. "I'm back," I said even before I knew if it really was Trent. "Don't summon me."
"Did you see them?" Trent asked, his voice shockingly stark. I took a breath to tell him, my throat closing when I couldn't get the words out. My eyes welled up. For three heartbeats, neither of us said anything, and then softly, Trent added, "No, I guess you didn't."
"I think they're okay," I said, but it sounded like a thin hope even to me. My chest hurt, and I began to weave through the grave markers, one hand wrapped around my middle so it wouldn't cave in. In a soft sound of wings and dust, Jumoke sat on my shoulder. "Ku'Sox has them. He's going to use them to force you and me to do what he wants. Trent, give me some time to find a way to get them back. Ku'Sox can't do this. Ceri is a freed familiar. All I have to do is file the right paperwork."
"I don't have time for paperwork," he said bitterly, and then I heard him sigh as Ray finally stopped crying. I could hear her little-girl snuffles, and I figured he'd picked her up.
"Give me some time to talk to Dali then," I said. "I need a chance to explain what's going on to him, and then maybe he'll help."
"Why would a demon help me?" Trent said, and I looked up at the church, squinting to try to find Bis. There was another huge gargoyle up there, and I frowned.
"He'd be helping me, not you. And I'm not going to ask him to do it for free," I said, then softened. "Give me a few hours. Can you bring Jenks home for me? And maybe my car? Say after midnight? I should be done by then and will have more information for you."
"Midnight!" I heard Jenks shrill, then I frowned when Trent covered the phone. "Fine, midnight," the pixy said sourly when I could hear again.
"Trent?" I said cautiously.
"I'll see you at midnight," Trent said, and then the phone went dead.
Startled but not surprised, I closed the phone and tucked it away. Arms wrapped around myself and my head down, I stomped up the back porch and wrestled the screen door open. This was going to take a lot of planning.
I should have called Ivy.