Chapters (42)
- Title Page
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Acknowledgements
- Also by Kim Harrison
- Copyright
- About the Publisher
- Cover
I rubbed my wrist where he had grabbed me, feeling it as if it had just been today. He’d violated my person to see if I was as dangerous as his father had warned him—and I had thrown him into a tree the next day, proving it. He was good and bad all at the same time. God, I hated Trent. Or maybe I just hated that I didn’t know if I could trust him or not.
“I opine it wasn’t a curse,” Pierce said as I fingered the smooth rope. “It was a spell crafted to not cleanly break. Death by something designed as innocent so as not to invoke your lethal-charm amulet. Powerful tricky. But you didn’t make a die of it, and that’s what matters.”
My eyes went to his, and Pierce dropped his attention to the hat in his hands, his ears going a faint red. “Thanks, Pierce,” I said softly. “I owe you. Big.”
Jenks snorted and Ivy sighed, making motions to try to leave. Sheesh, Pierce had pulled a line through me to burn the malfunctioning charm to nothing. No wonder he was embarrassed.
His eyes met mine. “It was what any decent man would do. You owe me nothing,” he said, and Jenks groaned from the overdone drama. But Pierce had probably saved my life.
Orange dust falling from him, Jenks dropped to my knee. “Well, what did you remember?” he asked, wings going full tilt. “Hope it was worth dying for.”
Ivy crossed her arms over her middle to look both aggressive and pensive. “This was my fault. I convinced her to try the charm, thinking it might tell her if she didn’t trust Trent because of a grade-school tiff or because he’s a bastard.”
“I think we can safely answer that now,” Pierce muttered, but I wasn’t sure, and it made me angry.
“It was just something from the Make-a-Wish Camp,” I said, and Jenks buzzed his wings for more, but I wasn’t talking. I was remembering all sorts of things now. Stuff like Lee being trapped in the cistern for three days shortly afterward. He was half dead when they found him, suffering badly—apparently Trent had taken my advice with an overly aggressive vengeance. And Jasmine finding flowers on her pillow every morning in contrast to the fox scat I kept finding in my shoes. I’d thought it was cabin razzing, but now I wondered if it had been Trent trying to get his hoof pick back. My stuff kept going missing that year, invariably showing up a few days later in the cabin toilet. Uncomfortable, I swung my feet to the floor, and Jenks took off. “Yes, he’s a bastard all right,” I said softly, not meeting anyone’s eyes.