Miserable, I turned back to him. He thought I was honorable? “That’s not it. I can’t draw on a line through Nick anymore. The demon broke my link with him.”

Trent went ashen. “But you gave me a shock in the car. That was too much for what a witch can hold in his or her chi.”

“I’m my own familiar, okay!” I said. “I made a deal with a demon to be its familiar so it would testify against Piscary, and I had to learn how to store ley line energy for it. Oh, I’ve got tons of energy, but a circle requires you stay connected to a line. I can’t do it.”

“You’re a demon’s familiar?” His face looked horrified, frightened, scared of me.

“Not anymore!” I shouted, angry to have to admit it had even happened. “I bought my freedom. Okay? Get off my case! But I don’t have a familiar, and I can’t tap a line over water!”

From my bag came the faint sound of my phone ringing. Trent stared at me. “What did you give it for your freedom?”

“My silence.” My pulse hammered. What difference did it make if Trent knew? We were both going to die.

Grimacing as if having decided something, Trent took off his coat. Shaking his sleeve down, he undid the cuff link and pushed his sleeve past his elbow. “You aren’t a demon’s familiar?” It was a soft, worried whisper.

“No!” I was shaking. As I watched in slack-eyed confusion, he grabbed my arm just below the elbow. “Hey!” I shouted, pulling away.

“Deal with it,” he said grimly. Gripping my arm harder, he used his free hand to force me to take his wrist in the same grip acrobats use when working the trapeze. “Don’t make me regret this,” he muttered, and my eyes widened when a rush of line energy flowed into me.

“Holy crap!” I gasped, almost falling. It was wild magic, having the uncatchable flavor of the wind. He had joined his will to mine, tapping a line through his familiar and giving it to me as if we were one. The line coming through him and into me had taken on a tinge of his aura. It was clean and pure with the taste of the wind, like Ceri’s.

Trent groaned, and my eyes shot to his. His face was drawn and sweat had broken out on him. My chi was full, and though the extra energy was looping back to the line, apparently the stuff I had spindled already in my head was burning through him.

“Oh God,” I said, wishing there was a way I could shift the balance. “I’m sorry, Trent.”

His breath came in a ragged gasp. “Make the circle,” he panted.

Eyes jerking to his timepiece swinging from its fob, I said the invocation. We both staggered as the force running through us ebbed. I didn’t relax at all as the bubble of ley line energy blossomed about us. I glanced at his watch. I couldn’t see how much time was left.