BooksBarbecue
Back Black Magic Sanction Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Title Page
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-one
  23. Twenty-two
  24. Twenty-three
  25. Twenty-four
  26. Twenty-five
  27. Twenty-six
  28. Twenty-seven
  29. Twenty-eight
  30. Twenty-nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-one
  33. Thirty-two
  34. Thirty-three
  35. Thirty-four
  36. Thirty-five
  37. Thirty-six
  38. Acknowledgements
  39. Also by Kim Harrison
  40. Copyright
  41. About the Publisher
  42. Cover

My lips curved up, but inside I was shaking. I’d done it. Holy crap on toast. I wish they’d hurry up and leave. I was going to pass out. Trent opened the door, and the sounds of the FIB spilled in to replace him.

“See you around, Trent,” I whispered, falling back in my chair. My attention dropped to the little slip of paper. “See you tonight …,” I murmured, reading, TONIGHT. STABLES. WEAR YOUR BOOTS.

Jenks buzzed in, and I crumpled it.

Thirty-six

Thirty-six

The slamming of my mom’s car door was loud, echoing in the moist, sunset-gloomed air from the distant forest. My gaze lifted across the pastures, and I pulled my jacket tighter around my shoulders. The dogs on the hill were silent, and I shivered when I realized they weren’t in their kennel.

Okay, I didn’t have a valid driver’s license anymore, but no one had stopped me, and I wasn’t about to ask Ivy to drive me out here to Trent’s stables. It had been hard enough slipping out of the church without Jenks knowing. Trent’s note hadn’t said to come alone, but the fact that he’d written it down, not said it where Jenks could hear, was telling.

Arms swinging, I walked silently across the sawdust parking lot to the stables. Ivy would say I was a fool for coming out here. Jenks would have a fit. Pierce … I smiled as I fingered the contraception amulet around my neck in case shifting twice in quick succession hadn’t prevented pregnancy. Pierce would have wanted to come with me, and he had a grudge against the man. I was trying to see Trent as an adult, and for some reason, it was easier now that I remembered him as a kid.

Hoping I wasn’t being more of an idiot than Ivy would say I was, I pushed open the stable’s door. The scent of clean hay and oiled leather spilled out, and my shoulders relaxed. I couldn’t help but wonder what Trent wanted. Band together to get Nick, maybe?

“Hello?” I called, seeing the stables dim but for the usual security lights.

“Back here,” Trent’s voice rose softly, and my gaze shifted to midway down the long stables where a lanternlike flashlight hung in the aisle.

We’re alone? I could tell just from his voice that we were. Unsure, I stepped inside and shut the door. The air in here was warm, a sharp contrast to the cool, damp air rising into fog in the pastures. My boots clunked as I walked past the empty stalls, and I felt a flush of embarrassment when I found Trent in with Tulpa over the trapdoor to his tunnel. He was brushing the horse down, and Tulpa shuffled forward, hanging his head over the side and shoving me. “Hey, big guy,” I said, rubbing his neck in self-defense, almost.