Page 134 of Demon's Bluff
“Elyse, about your promise to stand up for me.”
Elyse’s expression went empty. “Eden Park,” she blurted, grabbing myhand and pulling me to the door. “We have to get to Eden Park! We have to stop them fighting.”
“Elyse…” I glanced at Kisten, unwilling to just leave him there. Jeez, he still had Johnny’s toe tag on him.
She flung open the door, and we hesitated for a moment, half expecting to see Scott and two I.S. witches. But it was only an empty room. “We have to call a car!” she shouted, tugging me into motion.
My hand slipped from her as she raced to the end and blew through the double doors.
“Holy shit!” Iceman bellowed faintly. “Who the hell are you? You’re not an undead.”
“Be right back,” I said as I shifted Kisten to look more comfortable, arranging his hair and giving his cold forehead a soft kiss. “I have to stop the coven from destroying itself.”
I stood, gathered myself, and strode out into the receiving room with a confidence I did not feel.
Iceman might let me borrow his car. Maybe.
Chapter
32
Iceman’s car was a burnt-orangeDodge Charger, immaculately clean and smelling faintly of morgue disinfectant: sunroof, heated seats, monster hemi, stick shift—no problem. It cornered like a Thoroughbred and was just as fast. Elyse had grabbed the chicken strap at my first quick start and hadn’t let go as I wove through Cincy’s streets, taking the fastest, but not necessarily shortest, route to Eden Park.
I wasn’t sure when we had arrived exactly as the car clock was clearly not set right, but it was dark and the streets were moderately busy. I used the stick shift with an aggressive force, finding relief in the extra task. Motion, motion, motion. It was the only thing keeping me halfway sane at the moment. I couldn’t believe I had left Kisten in the morgue—even if it was the best place for him.
Elyse fidgeted as she scanned the sky for Slick. Ten minutes ago, it had been late July. Now it was November, and I was cold, having left my jacket at Sylvia’s two years ago.
A faint boom echoed between the buildings, and I looked up through the tinted windshield. A pale glow of magic had blossomed over Eden Park. My grip tightened on the steering wheel as Elyse studied the light slowly fading on the cloud bottoms.
“That was Yaz,” she said in excitement. “I’d recognize her magic anywhere. Her spells always have that faint purple haze.”
I nodded. One’s aura invariably colored one’s magic. It was how theI.S. caught illicit magic users. I had brought us to the right day, the right time, but my worry grew no less as I made a tight right and entered the park, heading for the overlook. Trent was up there. And Ivy. Al, Jenks, Bis. Everyone I cared about was fighting to give me the chance to find that damned mirror so I could stay in reality—and I had returned with nothing. Less than nothing, seeing as Elyse was going to ruin her career to keep me out of Alcatraz.
A deep foreboding took root as she gripped the strap and leaned to peer out the window in anticipation, waiting for the next blast of magic. “Ah, Elyse, it might be better if you don’t spring your decision to ignore me on them right away.”
She lifted her gaze from the road. Her face was a little leaner, a little more careworn, but all I saw was the same enthusiastic young woman who, for all her wisdom and knowledge, didn’t yet understand how fear rules most people, makes their decisions.
“I’m the lead member,” she said confidently. “They’ll listen.”
But she’d been leading children and hotheaded teenagers, not peers whom she had spent a lifetime building trust with.
“Elyse…”
She stiffened, pointing into the park. “There they are. Merlin’s beard, they’re still at it.”
“Whoa, wait!” I protested, pulling to the curb when she reached for the door, forcing me to halt as she got out.
And then my heart seemed to stop. Ivy was down, kneeling under Trent’s protective bubble as she tried to shake off a spell. Al was with them, but neither of them could effectively fight from inside a circle. Magic hazed Trent’s hands, and Al was grim, that cane of his held at the ready, the length of wood clearly an oversize wand holding a spell or two.
Scott, Orion, Yaz, and Adan stood at the four corners, the haze connecting them probably something to destroy Trent’s circle. Scott might appear like a towheaded child under his curse, but power dripped and hissed from him, embers of energy pinging off Trent’s bubble like sparks from a stirred fire as Orion, Yaz, and Adan supplemented his spell. If therehad been five, they might have managed it, but as it was, Trent was holding his own thanks to Jenks and Bis dropping squawking, wing-flapping ducks on them.
Even as I watched, another hapless animal struck Yaz, and the young woman’s arch of magic went wild, hitting an overhanging tree, where it exploded. Sparkles sifted down, burning when they touched Trent’s bubble. But Trent’s circle remained secure and the duck half flew, half ran away.
“New target!” Scott shouted, a new spell forming between his hands as he followed Bis’s looping, erratic flight.
Oh, hell no…“Bis!” I flung the door open, watching Scott’s charm arch through the air after Bis as the gargoyle spun wildly to avoid it. A thin trail of pixy dust from him said Jenks was with him.
Cold. It was too cold for Jenks out here. If Bis was hit, they might both die.