Page 136 of Demon's Bluff

“And did she?” Scott asked as if already knowing the answer.

Elyse scuffed to a halt, the two of us making the tip of the triangle as we all faced off. “She did better than a mirror,” she said, and Bis’s wings slumped. Jenks, too, made a small sound of worry. I hadn’t gotten the mirror, and now everyone knew. “She saved my ass, Scott.”

“And Elyse saved mine,” I added, touching Bis’s foot in reassurance.

“Huh.” Al glanced at Trent for a telling moment. “You saved a coven member’s life, itchy witch?”

“It happens,” I said, and the demon guffawed as he cautiously eyed Elyse beside me, his opinion clearly wait-and-see.

Scott shook his head, his hands confidently on his hips. “Nothing has changed.”

“Everything has changed.” Elyse looked away from Al’s goat-slitted eyes. “Let go of the line, Scott. I just spent three days with Rachel. We are dropping our case on her.”

“Tink’s teacups, Rache. What did you do?” Jenks asked.

Orion stiffened. Yaz, too, obviously disagreed, but Adan seemed relieved. Scott, of course, shook his head.

“That man is going to be the death of us all,” Elyse said darkly. “Okay. I’m going to talk to my guys. You talk to your guys. Maybe we can all go home tonight. I am so sick of sweats, I could scream.”

“Right there with you,” I said, and her expression brightened. Besides, if they were talking to Elyse, I could talk to Trent and Ivy, and I desperately needed to.

“Good luck.” She touched my elbow and walked away—far too confident. She was headed for a fall.

Al was hunched when I turned to him. “I know how you work, Rachel, but you can’t make friends with the coven,” he muttered as Trent helped Ivy limp closer. She’d taken a beating in the fifteen minutes I was gone, and my guilt doubled as I remembered leaving Kisten slumped on the morgue floor.

Bis shifted to Al’s shoulder when I reached for Trent, but Jenks refused to leave, swearing as Trent yanked me into a hug.

“You’re okay,” I whispered, glancing over his shoulder to the nearby ley line. It wasn’t safe for him to be here. But even that thought vanished when his arms went around me, holding me to him with a fervent relief. His grip shook as he caught his emotions, and his eyes were wet when I pulled away to give him a quick kiss.

“If you hadn’t come back…” he whispered, and I nodded, not surprised when he shrugged out of his coat and draped it over my shoulders, surrounding me in his warmth and the electrifying scent of spent magic. Never again. I would not move through this world alone. I would face my trials with him, and he would face his with me.

“Tink’s tampons, Rache,” Jenks grumped as he made the quick, scarf-fluttering flight to Bis. “You were gone fifteen minutes.”

I stifled back any hint of tears and let Trent go. “Try three days,” I said, then spun to give Ivy a hug. Her arms were cold, and her grip was fleeting for all the unsaid questions in it. “We, ah, landed two years ago, not five.”

Her expression went still as she thought about that. “Two…”

“That explains a few things,” Al muttered. “Let me guess. The span of days I spent in Stanley Saladin’s body? Perhaps Newt was not as crazy as we believed.”

I felt my face warm. “Elyse interfered with the spell. I had to stop early.” I fumbled in my pocket for the spent stasis charm and handed it to Trent. “Ah, this is yours. Thanks for letting me borrow it. I think the coven might have one of your books, too.”

Trent took it, a proud smile quirking his lips as he recognized it. “That was you? My God. Quen was furious. That was when I put the door in. What good is a vault if your security is too afraid to use the door when someone else breaks in?” He fingered the charm. “Not that I blame them. Demons would have snagged them halfway there.”

“Yeah, um, I only took it because I knew you’d want me to,” I said, and he grinned, fingering the defunct circle of metal. “It was the only way to get Elyse back safely.” My gaze went to Ivy, not sure how I should break the news to her. She’d dealt with Kisten’s death, but now he was here and she would have to do it again.

From the coven, Scott exclaimed, “And you trusted her?”

“She didn’t spell me,” Elyse tried to explain, and everyone sort of zeroed in on her. “She saved my life. Got me out of the ever-after twice.”

But Scott was putting it all together, and his stare at me was cold. “That was you,” he said, and then spun to Elyse. “And you. It wasn’t a look-alike. It was you.”

She was going to get kicked out of the coven. I knew it.

“No, listen. It was Elyse!” Scott said, shutting down everyone’s questions. “Two years ago, right here in Cincy. Remember when I was called in—”

“That was when you cursed yourself,” Orion interrupted, and Al stiffened, knowing I had lost my book, not just tucked it somewhere to take the long way home.

“You did that toyourself?” I said, and Scott flushed, angry and embarrassed. “You tried to follow us, didn’t you.” And then I went still. Crap on toast. He’d tried it right after I’d set that magic-knotting curse on him. Nowonder his body was moving through time with the sun.Is this my responsibility or his?