Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “You’re—” he exclaimed, and then he yelped, cowering as he flung up a protection against Vivian’s white-hot stream of unfocused energy.

            I staggered back, my feet slipping on the ugly ash lines. My grip on Al’s dagger tightened as Vivian’s energy flowed over his circle, eating away at it layer by layer. I could barely see Lee within it, cowering as he frantically etched symbols into my floor, trying to stave her off.

            “He’s the mage!” I said, so grateful that she believed me, I could have cried when Vivian’s magic faded to a flicker as she nodded sagely. “I have to save Trent. Do you have this?” She must have come to the church to find me, ream me out about standing her up. Thank God she had hidden in the shadows, listening to Lee’s confession as we fought.

            “Go,” she said, and I swear I heard Lee whimper, whispering his words that might or might not save his ass. Vivian had been born to the coven. She had skills Lee had never dreamed of. I almost pitied the man. She was practically floating over the wooden-plank floor. “And thank you.”

            I shifted my books higher up on my hip, and Al’s dagger hissed in the highly charged air. “For what?”

            She shrugged, confusion pinching her brow. “You gave me this chance to make things right. Go save Trent,” she said, her smile now a benevolent knowing. “I have this piece of slime. Oh, and, Rachel? Don’t you ever feel guilty for putting him in the well. Jasmine says he deserved it for killing her duckling. It wasn’t an accident. He did it on purpose.”

            How did she know? I thought, then looked at my pinky ring. The pearl was still white.

            “Go!” she shouted as she faced Lee again. “He’s treading water.”

            I had no idea how she knew, other than it had been raining for three solid days, and I stood for one horrible moment, fixated as Vivian threw ribbons of blue and gold energy at Lee. The bands crackled and popped, tightening around his protection circle, squeezing them until his bubble began to warp and twist. The energy distorted, and Lee screamed.

            “Thank you,” I whispered, then I ran out the door, hardly slowing as the rain pelted down, cold and stinging. Vivian was here. Everything was going to be okay. She knew the truth. The coven would disbar Lee. Put him in Alcatraz. The charges against Trent would be dropped. Everything would return to normal.

            Books still tight against me, I ran for the ley line out back. I needed a line jump. No, I needed three.





CHAPTER


            25

            My entire library tingled a warning as I ran for the ley line, shoving through the gate and racing into the garden. I didn’t need my second sight to find the glowing haze; I was the one who had pushed the shimmering band of energy from the middle of the sanctuary out into the garden where it belonged. Behind me, Lee howled in anger, or maybe fear. No doubt. I’d learned the hard way that you didn’t piss off Vivian.

            A soft rattle of windows sounded—and then a brilliant light flashed through the stained-glass windows to set the garden in high relief. With a silent boom, darkness returned. I jerked to a halt, pulse fast as I stared at my church. At least the windows are still intact.

            “Rache!” Jenks shrilled, and I spun. His dust was an unreal dark red—the color of old blood. “I thought you were still in the car! Did you go in there for your books? I finally found Getty. She’s six feet under the ground. All those times I couldn’t find her she’s been hiding with Constance. You won’t believe what she said Lee did.”

            “I heard. He put Trent in the well at camp,” I said, and Jenks’s wing pitch shifted, his eyes widening as he saw the dagger still in my grip.

            “He did what?” the pixy said, and I pushed past him, looking for the ley line.

            “Jenks, you got the con. I’m going to buy a couple of line jumps from Dali to get him. Stay out of the church until Vivian brings Lee down.”

            “Vivian?” he questioned, flying backward before me as I trudged through the gravestones. “Ah . . .” Still flying backward, he lifted his gaze from the dagger in my hand to look to the church to the garden and back again. “Getty said that Lee—”

            “Is a coven member. I know. Jenks, I have to find Trent,” I said shortly as I stepped into the ley line and a wash of tingles rose up through me, warm, like a puddle long under the sun. I squinted at the church, curious. Seeing it from within the line, it almost had an aura, as if it was a living thing. I’d never seen that before, and I’d stood in the line hundreds of times. That’s weird.