“Ku’Sox told me they tried to kill him in his sleep and that in retaliation he had every right to burn Pierce alive with their own joined curse,” he said, his tone frighteningly empty. “I have no reason to doubt that’s exactly what happened. If Ceri thought she could take him, she’d try. Especially if he had been threatening Lucy. Ceri died several hours later. As best as I can gather.”

I could hardly breathe, my chest hurt so badly. I wanted to rage that he was wrong, that Ku’Sox was tricking him into giving him what he wanted. But the memory of Ceri and Pierce working together to twist a black curse to kill fairies in my garden rose up, making my stomach sink. She’d been impressed with his skill, and Pierce had been trying to kill demons half his living existence and all of his dead. It had been all I could do to keep Pierce from trying to attack Ku’Sox yesterday. Had it only been yesterday? I thought, gazing at my burned fingers.

A tear brimmed and fell, splashing on them, and I made a fist. I didn’t love Pierce, but it still hurt, still ached. And Ceri. She had been so happy, so alive. She finally had the family that she thought she never would. Now it was gone? She was dead?

My grief began to shift to anger. I could do things when I was angry.

“Ellasbeth didn’t tell me any of this,” I said, and Trent looked up, blinking as if he was rearranging his thoughts.

“Ellasbeth doesn’t know,” Trent said, his chest heaving with a sudden breath.

“Quen?” I asked, my voice rising at the end into a squeak. “Does Quen know?” Ellasbeth said he was in the basement trying to get the vault door open. If he managed it, he would be cut down in seconds, helpless without his magic.

Trent was writing in that book again, his numbers careful and precise. “Quen removed her body from my office,” he said dully. “Ku’Sox left her there for me.”

I thought I was going to throw up. Trent was calm, but I could see the rage underneath. Lucy had to still be alive. “Lucy? Bis?” I asked, and his writing hand faltered.

“Alive,” he said, and my rapid breathing sounded harsh. “For the time being. You should leave before he finds you. Our plan can still work. You’ll have to do much of it alone, though.”

My anger bubbled over, and I pushed up from the machine, shaking. “Our plan?” I shouted, and he looked up, his expression horribly blank. “How can you sit there making notations! They’re dead!”