Trent looked awful, his grace mutated by fear. “No.” Turning, he broke into a jog for the nearby trees. I took a hesitant step, but Jenks was faster, and before Trent could even get past the horses, the pixy was in his face, dripping a silver-tinted red dust.

“Hey!” the pixy shouted, and Ray’s whimpering cut off. “I said stay put! Whoever did this might still be out there, Mr. King-of-the-World, and I can cover ten times more ground than you. You got me?” Wings clattering, he stared Trent down. “Stay here and call your ambulance. Quen’s aura is freaking out. He needs help!”

My heart thudded, but Trent hesitated, and finally with a groan of frustration, he spun back to Quen, his head down to hide his eyes as he returned. He held his hand out for his phone, and I swear I felt a tingle of magic as he took it in his cold fingers.

“Do you know a healing charm?” I asked, not knowing one myself. I’d been afraid to learn, and Al wouldn’t teach me lest I do something worse to myself than the burn or cut I would use it to fix.

“I did it already,” he said, flipping his phone open as he dropped down to kneel beside Quen. “That’s when his aura started cycling, but it did get his pulse to even out.”

Not even a bird disturbed the silence, and, awkward with Ray on my hip, I knelt as well, reaching for Quen’s wrist. “His pulse is thready,” I said, and I shifted Ray’s weight when I leaned to pull Quen’s lids back. “Dilation is normal,” I said, at a loss. My hand was tingling, and disconcerted, I pulled back. Ray began to protest, and I stood.

“It’s Trent,” Trent said into his phone, his voice iron hard, all hint of his fear hidden. “We’ve had an accident. I need the med copter out at the stables. Now.”

“You have a medical copter?”

He didn’t even look at me, his eyes scanning the nearby trees as if wanting to be among them searching. “Inform the university hospital we might be bringing Quen in. I suspect a demon attack. Yes, in the daylight. Ceri and Lucy are missing. I want the dogs in the woods running a rescue pattern as soon as possible. Focus on the river path.” He hesitated, and I saw him struggle to keep his face steady. “I will be out of contact for several hours. Questions?”

He closed the phone, breathing raggedly. “Hurry up, Jenks . . .”