Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “Then maybe you can believe everyone else,” I said as I gestured to David orchestrating the Weres to keep everyone at a safe distance.

            For an instant, I thought she might understand as she scanned the plaza—until her eyes narrowed on me. “Why is Kalamack just standing there? You want us to curse the demons? You’d be trapped in the ever-after as much as them.”

            “Ah . . .” I took a step forward, and her face blanked, her returning mistrust making her expression hard and unforgiving.

            “You want us to do the curse,” she said again, thinking. “Why?”

            Damn, she is smart. “Um . . .” I hedged. Then I shouted, “No! Elyse, wait!” when she spun, her black cloak furling.

            Mother pus bucket, can’t I catch a break? I thought, frantic as I imagined a circle around both of us. “Rhombus!” I exclaimed, trapping Elyse before she could reach the curb. The woman saw it go up, skidded to a halt, and spun. I was stuck in here with her, and the only escape would be to knock me out or throw me into the circle itself.

            “Elyse, we need to talk.”

            Her young features twisting in hate, she howled, hands dripping energy.

            Gasping, I darted around a car. Al! I threw the thought into the demon collective. Dali clearly wasn’t going to answer me, but Al would be there if the rest had agreed to share the pain of his burnt synapses. Yelping, I dodged another fireball. Grabbing an abandoned bike, I flung it at her.

            Do you have any idea . . . came drifting into my thoughts.

            It was Al, and I fastened on him in relief. “Stabils!” I shouted to curse Elyse, simultaneously throwing a distracting ball of unfocused energy at her. As expected, she focused on the glowing ball and my initial joke curse hit her square in the chest. With a yelp, she dropped, falling to the pavement in an ungraceful heap.

            The coven is bound and ready to curse us, I thought, even as Al’s surprise that I was in a battle shocked through me.

            Move, he advised, and I lurched to get out of Elyse line of sight. She was still spewing Latin, and anything she could see, she could spell. It’s too late, Rachel, he thought as a ribbon of white-hot magic arched from the enraged woman to hit the ground where I’d just been, bubbling and frothing to a black ash. Even if you lent your strength, we don’t have enough force to stand against them.

            Will you just listen! I yelled into the demon collective, frustrated as the huge circle before the fountain began pulsating a gold-tinted purple. Crap on toast, the sun was down, and Al’s bitter thoughts stained my excitement.

            Look, I thought as I scanned the sky for Bis, and the nearest demon within the collective began taking notice of our semiprivate conversation. We can’t stop the coven. It’s a thousand to our three hundred. But you don’t have to. They’re doing all the heavy lifting. Twist their curse back against them. Take it, and change its aim. Exile them to reality. All of them, not just the ones twisting the curse. My gut tightened as Elyse twitched. She was figuring out the stabils curse. It was, after all, just a joke curse. Bounce it back to every last one of them, I thought as Elyse shook herself and got up, hair in disarray and her black cloak filthy with street dirt.

            Curse the entire body of . . . Dali! Al thought, and then he was gone. I was alone in my mind.

            “Hey!” I shouted as Elyse crashed into me and we went rolling. “Ow!” I shrieked, jerking my arm close when my funny bone hit the curb and twanged. Eyes wide, I did nothing when she gripped my neck, her lips pulled back from her teeth as she dumped a massive wash of line energy into me. I took it all, funneling it into the circle imprisoning us to make it stronger.

            “You don’t deserve Alcatraz,” she snarled from atop me, utterly oblivious that I had taken everything she could dish out—and not replied in kind. Holy crap, is this how Al feels?

            “No one deserves Alcatraz,” I rasped, then brought up my arms to break her hold. Twisting out from under her, I found my feet. “Have you been there?” I said as she stood uneasily before me, watching my circle around us pulsating with our combined energies. “Perhaps you should do a walk-through before you start sending people to the island.”

            From behind her, a silver bell chimed. It was the start of the curse. Elyse turned in dismay. My circle still held us both, and I felt a twinge of satisfaction.

            “Lee! Stop!” she shouted, running to the barrier’s edge and punching at it. A bright pop flung her away, and she cried out as her butt landed on the pavement again.