I stood, my shadow covering Quen’s pale face. It made his pox scars stand out. I couldn’t do anything. If he was bleeding, I could stop the blood. If he had a concussion, I could treat him for shock. If he was delusional, I could sit on him until help arrived—but this? I didn’t know what to do, and I found I was rocking back and forth with Ray. She was silent, her beautiful dark green eyes scared.

“Maybe Ceri made it back to the stables,” I said, turning to the burn marks. “The horses are gone.”

Trent was taking Quen’s pulse again. “I called before you got here.” His voice was even, distracted. “The horses came in riderless. Ceri never would have left Quen.”

And yet, she was gone. Damn it, Quen had tried to stop them. I should have been here. I could have helped. “It doesn’t mean that demons took them,” I said, flushing when Trent looked up, his anger obvious.

Ray turned, her eyes tracking Jenks as he darted back from under the trees. His dust was almost nonexistent. “I did a circle two hundred yards out,” he said. “No sign of them.”

“Then do a wider one!” I said, and he frowned.

“I didn’t go out any farther because there’s a circle burn. We’re in the center.”

Shit. Quen couldn’t make a circle that big, even under stress. Neither could Ceri. It was demon made.

“If there’s a demon circle, then they’ve been taken,” he finished, and Trent’s hands clenched.

Ku’Sox. I needed to talk to Al, and I turned to the horses, thinking of my scrying mirror, hours away. I’d been promising myself I’d make a compact version, and I cursed myself for having put it off. I was completely out of contact with the ever-after. “It couldn’t be Ku’Sox,” I whispered, just wanting it to be anyone else. “It’s daylight, and he’s cursed to stay in the ever-after.”

“He’s working through Nick.” Trent stood up. “This is my fault.”

Fault? It was no one’s fault. “Don’t start,” I said harshly, and Jenks hummed his wings nervously. My tone brought Trent up short, and his eyes narrowed as he focused on me. “No, I mean it,” I said, jiggling Ray on my hip. “Ku’Sox could have as easily been going for you. Maybe he didn’t because I was with you, in which case it would be my fault they were taken.” Oh God, Ceri and Lucy with Ku’Sox was too terrifying to think about.

“You don’t understand. This is my fault,” Trent said, his voice angry. “I never should have left them. I thought I was his target. I sent them into danger, not away from it.” He looked at me, anguish in his green eyes. “He took them. Why? I was right there!”