Ever After (Rachel Morgan) by Kim Harrison Page A

hiding.”
    Ceri held Lucy closer. “Quen?” she questioned, and he shook his head, clearly at a loss as he scanned the trees. I shivered, and the sun-dappled shadows became fraught with doubt. Reaching out, I tapped a line, filling my chi and then spindling enough energy in my head to make a circle around all of us.
    “It’s probably just Nick,” I said, but Molly had felt my tension and was now stomping.
    Immediately Ceri seemed to lose her concern. “The slimy little worm,” she said sourly. “Quen, call security to dispatch him immediately. The thought of him here makes me ill.”
    “Ah . . . I talked to Al last night about Nick,” I started.
    Trent bobbed his head as if not surprised, but Quen turned in the saddle to face me straight on, an accusing look in his eyes. “And?”
    “See, I was going to tell you all at once,” I said, fidgeting with Molly’s reins. Jenks had darted away, and both girls were wiggling to find him. “Ku’Sox owns him. Won him in a bet.”
    Tulpa pranced in place, giving away Trent’s tension. “I wondered,” he said softly, eyes on the canopy. “Nick gained the labs once. He could do it again. I know for a fact it isn’t HAPA. Damn. He’s making demons.”
    I didn’t often hear Trent swear, and I nodded uneasily. “That’s what I think, too,” I said quietly. “In twenty years Ku’Sox will have at least eight day-walking demons who look to him for their very survival.”
    Quen glanced at Trent, and Trent nodded. “It’s up to twelve now,” Trent said, and Quen took Ray from him, the little girl settling in before her birth father with a serious air about her. “This is what I was afraid of. Ceri, I’m sorry but we are cutting our ride short.”
    “Trenton,” she protested.
    “You and Quen head back to the stables with the girls. If Nick is here, Rachel and I will draw him out. I’m the one he’s after. I’m the only one who can make the cure permanent.”
    Ceri began turning her horse around, but Quen was unmoving, his horse blocking the path ahead of us. “It’s not your place to draw out danger, Sa’han.”
    I, too, wasn’t keen on this plan, but for another reason. “Ah, I don’t think the cure is what Ku’Sox wants.”
    Trent pulled Tulpa up short, the black snorting at the rough motion. “If Ku’Sox didn’t want the cure, Nick wouldn’t be in the woods,” he said, words clipped. “And yes, it’s my place to draw out danger, just as it’s Rachel’s expertise to crush it.” He looked at me. “We will continue on.”
    Oh, I was all for crushing danger, but this was moving too fast. Maybe I’d picked up more of Ivy’s cautious planning than I’d thought. “Jenks!” I shouted, and got a wing chirp back.
    “Quen, it’s only Nick,” Ceri said, clearly wanting to get the girls out of the woods and possible danger.
    But still Quen stood there. “This is an ill-conceived plan. We don’t know if it’s Nick. What if it’s someone else?”
    The corner of Trent’s eye twitched, and he looked irate as Tulpa trotted in place under him. “You don’t trust Rachel’s skills?” he said, and I winced. “You went behind my back to buy them, Quen.” Clearly angry, he added in a softer voice, “I can’t risk any of you. Go. Let me do my job. Rachel?”
    Easing up on his hold on Tulpa, he let the horse bolt. Quen jerked his horse back from following, his expression as angry and dark as I’d ever seen it. Before him, Ray was silent, but Lucy was wailing her distress. Shrugging, I gave Molly a nudge.
    I glanced behind us to see Quen turning his horse back to the stables, Ceri sitting tall in her saddle with Lucy, waiting for her love to join her. I agreed with Trent. They had a perfect life, a perfect love when they’d both resigned themselves to having neither. It needed to be protected.
    Trent was silent when I joined him, and we continued on. My shoulders were tense, and I listened to the wind in the tops of the trees, their new