“You!” I exclaimed, and his eyes flicked to the ruination. But the glass had fallen inward. How could he have done it? Unless it had been a curse …

“I didn’t do it a’purpose,” he said, affronted. “I was aiming at the coven woman.” Turning from me, Pierce leaned close to Ivy, not afraid that she was a vampire and that her eyes were going black in pain. “Ms. Tamwood,” he said. “Thank you for taking the spells for me. I’m obliged to you.”

“Well, if you saved my life, I’d say we’re even,” she said sourly. “I have to get my arm looked at,” she said, her voice thready and her face pale.

I sat and twisted my knees to a more comfortable position, feeling the cool breeze coming in the shattered window and gaping door and wondering how I was going to get up. My knees were doubly in pain now that Ivy had my amulet, but I wasn’t going to ask for it back. It was so unfair. The coven could kill people using white magic with no reprisal, but I use a black curse to save someone and I get shunned.

Jenks hovered between us, flying in a slow arch and spilling blue sparkles. “Ivy, I’m sorry. Crap-for-brains is gone. Jax, too.”

I exhaled heavily and looked to the back of the church. Why am I not surprised?

“It means naught.” Pierce’s expression was grim. “He’s a no-account scoundrel, and we’re better off without. Mistress Ivy, can you stand?”

No-account scoundrel? Nick wasn’t the one who’d been buried alive, I thought, disgusted with myself while eying Pierce as he helped Ivy up. God, he looked good—capable and sure of himself even as my life twisted into a more complicated knot. A pang of fear hit me, unexpected and shocking as I remembered crying for Kisten. I can’t do this.

“Pierce, do you think you could drive if I coached you?” Ivy asked, long fingers gripping his shoulder with a white-knuckled strength.

Swallowing hard, I forced my thoughts from Kisten. Heartache echoed in me as I lurched upright, my knees protesting. “I can take you to the hospital. Where are my keys?” She needed to be checked out. Get a CT scan or something.

“Not your car,” she said breathily as she gazed at the floor. “It’s totaled.”

“Totaled!” I cried. “When were you going to tell me?”

Jenks sifted gold dust to make a temporary sunbeam on the old oak floor. “Some time between telling you David had to drop you from his insurance and that the state is taking your driver’s license. Something about a condition that causes you to vanish suddenly.”

I put a hand to my middle. I couldn’t take the bus for the rest of my life. This was so unfair.