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
Jenks landed on my shoulder. “Talk about a hard-ass.”
“Yeah, and he’s telling me what to do again.” Shaking, I yanked the other shoe off and threw them both back at my mom’s car. Slowly I turned to follow Pierce, wincing as ice-cold muck squished into my socks.
Fine, I’d do what he said, when he said. For now.
Thirty-two
Thirty-two
My head was above water. Barely. There wasn’t ice on the river, but there might as well have been. I was so cold, I wasn’t sure my legs were moving. Numb, I forced myself to keep kicking. Jenks was my guide, and his dust lit the way. If not for that, I was sure I would’ve gotten lost trying to cross this dumb, stupid, cold river. What a good idea, swim the Ohio River. We couldn’t steal a boat or anything. No-o-o-o-o, we had to swim it.
“Almost there, Rache,” Jenks said as he darted back from the soft splash of Pierce confidently moving forward. His wings were a worried green. “Get your witch ass moving!”
“Go to hell,” I gasped. My lips were inches from going under, and I got a mouthful of river. It went into my lungs, and I panicked.
“Rache!” Jenks shouted as I stopped swimming and tried to breathe. The current took me, and I floundered. Jenks’s shouts became muffled, turning into a black swirl of bubbles. Coughing, I clawed my way to the surface.
“Pierce!” Jenks shrilled, and I went down again.
My arms were leaden. A blessed warmth was stealing into me, and I listened to the rumble of the water. Numb, I drifted, letting the bubbles slip out. At least the water had gotten warm. The last time I’d fallen asleep in the Ohio River, it had been warm then, too.
A sharp pain in my scalp jerked through me, and I gasped as the cold air hit my face.
“Rachel!” a high-pitched glow was screaming, but I couldn’t move to smack it away.
I was still in the water, but stars were playing hide-and-seek among the black leaves overhead. One of them kept moving. It was swearing, too, spilling a glow all over my face. Confused, I felt the ground scrape under my back. Water flowed over my legs, but someone was whispering, covering me up with something heavy and wet.
“I’m not of a mind to understand,” the voice was saying. “It’s not that cold, and she’s a considerably skilled woman. Fit as any.”
“She’s sensitive to the cold, you ass,” the star was saying, dipping close, and the slits of my eyes closed again. “You’re going to kill her! Look, she’s blue. She’s freaking blue again!”
“She’ll be fine,” the low voice said, and something cold shifted my head and breath touched my cheek. “Stop acting like an old woman. I’ve seen worse. Rachel? Open your eyes!”