“Al, you’re hurting me! It’s probably just Ivy or my mom!”

His grip loosened, but he didn’t let go. “I asked you, who knows your curse allows you to be summoned during day hours?” he demanded, and I pushed his hand off me, feeling the pain of an ignored summons.

“Everyone who was in the auditorium when Trent cursed me,” I said. “Jeez Louise! I think you bruised me.”

Al’s eyes narrowed. “Trenton,” he growled, thick hands clenching.

“If I’m lucky,” I said, wondering if Trent even knew my summoning name. Probably. “I need to talk to him and get the Latin for sliding Ku’Sox’s curse back onto him so I can walk free again. I did it wrong the last time.”

I could almost see Al’s understanding hit him when his expression went blank. “You tried to slide his original curse back onto him?” Al said in wonder. “At the restaurant? And I stopped you? Sweet mother pus bucket!” he exclaimed, and I swear, dust sifted from the ceiling. “Rachel, we have to work on this communication thing.”

Hand around my middle, I bent almost double. “I gotta go,” I panted. “Trent knows the curse. I have to talk to him. If I’m lucky, it’s him.”

Again Al touched me, but this time, his hand was gentle on my shoulder. “And if you’re not, it’s Ku’Sox. He knows you’re too protected here, and you’re a threat to him. He’s summoning you. He’s summoning you to where I can’t follow. He’s going to try to kill you!”

I panted, feeling my muscles shake as the pull worsened. God, I felt like I was being split in two. “Can’t be him. He doesn’t know my name.”

“Trent does,” Al said, his grip on me tightening into pain for an instant. “I told you to take that elf firmly in hand. Trent let Ku’Sox out. They’re working together. They want you dead.”

Holding my breath, I managed to look up, feeling a wash of betrayal. It couldn’t be Trent. I’d just gotten the Latin wrong. Right? “I gotta go,” I wheezed. “This is shitty, you know? How do you live like this?”

“Rachel!” he cried, but it was too late, and I let go of my hold on the world. The pain subsided, and the comforting gray of Al’s kitchen vanished as I found myself yanked into the ley lines. Fear, hope, and anticipation rose high. If it was Ku’Sox, he was in for a nasty surprise. I was a self-pro-claimed demon, and I should start acting like it.

But even as I thought it, my throat closed, and I felt a pang of homesickness. Ivy. Jenks. What would I tell them? Pierce, how could I explain what had happened? Trent…how would I kill him if he had betrayed me?

Okay, so it might not be all bad.

Twenty-seven

The discordant jangle of San Francisco’s broken ley lines flooded my mind, and I watched as they all cycled down to one, foremost in my thoughts. I tried to listen to it without looking past the bubble of awareness that I was cocooned in, but without Bis to safely bring the sound in past my bubble, they all tasted the same.