“Right now, I probably could,” Trent said.
“I’d like to see you try,” Al taunted.
“Stop it!” I shouted as Trent made a fist. I could feel the wild magic streaming into him. Al took an eager breath, and I dove for Trent, plowing into him and knocking him down. The red earth slammed into us. My shoulder twinged, and I flung a hand out. “Rhombus!” I screamed, cowering as Al’s magic slammed into the barrier.
My heart thudded. Beside me, Trent rolled to a crouch. He was pissed.
“I will not be bullied,” Trent snapped as he pushed me into my circle and the barrier fell, tingles of magic exploding into cramps until the force ran back to the line. And then he was gone as Al physically grabbed him, yanking him up and away.
“Stop it! Both of you!” I shouted as I rose. They were grappling, waves of energy sparkling in the ever-after sun. He wouldn’t be bullied. Damn it, I was the one who taught him to stand up to bullies, ages ago at camp. And now it was going to kill him.
Trent screamed in pain, and then Al flung him away, his own cry of agony lost in the gritty wind. Magic exploded in a white-hot flash of silence between them, and I cowered, hands over my head.
An eerie stillness fell. Ten fingers, ten toes, I thought, lifting my head at the moan of pain.
“That is quite enough,” Newt said, and I looked up to see her back to what passed for normal for her. Lips pressed, she walked through a field of open jars, hesitating to frown at the one I’d broken. “Are you okay?” she asked as she extended a hand to help me up.
I looked at it for a second, and after tightening my grip on my energy balance, I put my hand in hers, wondering if it was the first time I’d ever voluntarily touched her. I didn’t think so, but she looked at her hand before hiding it in a wide sleeve when I let go.
Al was on his back, choking. Trent looked about the same. They were both breathing though, and I stifled a shiver. That last blast had come from Newt.
“Rachel, love,” Newt said softly, pulling me so I couldn’t see them. “Remind me why Gally is trying to kill your familiar?”
My arm hurt, and I rubbed it. “I’m not sure.”
Newt looked over the jars, sad when her gaze came back to me. “Sometimes it’s better to not remember.”
From the dirt, Al choked out, “He’s teaching her wild magic! She’s already sensitized to it. Waves of it are coming out of her line. He’s going to enslave us again. He needs to die. Now!” He was enraged, staring at the sun as if it was all he could do to speak. Slowly he turned himself over, grunting from the effort. “Oh God,” he moaned, his words making puffs in the dust. “I’m going to die.”
Newt blinked her black eyes at him. “Not today” was all she said as she looked at Trent, silent but unmoving. I jumped when she put an arm over my shoulder and turned our backs on them. “Rachel, dear, we need to talk.”
I looked over my shoulder at Trent. “But . . .”
Newt waved a hand, and I froze, terrified, when both Al and Trent vanished. “Just us girls.”
“Newt! Where are they!” I cried, and the crazy demon sniffed.
“Somewhere safe.”
Eyes wide, I stared at her. “Tell me before you forget?”
Again, the demon seemed annoyed at herself, and she tapped the butt of her staff into the dirt as she thought that over. “Perhaps you’re right,” she muttered, and I breathed a sigh of relief when they popped back into existence. Al was white as he sat on the dry earth, and Trent’s eyes were wide, but at least they could move now.
“Behave yourselves!” Newt said, clearly ticked. Nose wrinkling, she looked over the rain-starved ground. “I feel wild magic. Who pulled this? You?”
She was talking to Trent, who was currently wedging a rock out from under himself. “No,” he croaked, hand to his throat. “But I intend to find out who did.”
“He lies!” Al raged, then slumped back when Newt glared. “He’s going to seduce her and enslave her, and us with her!” he added.
“Nonsense.” Newt gazed at Trent, the elf still preoccupied with trying to breathe. “You’re not going to have sex with Rachel, are you?”
Trent’s head came up, and I could do nothing when his eyes met mine. “Ah, what does that have to do with it?” he said.
Newt spun fast enough to make me jump. “There, see?” she said triumphantly to Al, her psyche beginning to slide back toward instability. “He doesn’t know the only way to enslave her is with sex. Now sit there and have your demon-to-elf chat. We’ll be right back. Behave, or I’ll put you back somewhere safe until we’re done.”
Numb, I stayed pliant when she linked her arm in mine and began picking her way through the rubble to one of the larger slumps of rocks.
“Rachel, love,” she murmured as she caught sight of the glass jars. “What on earth are you and Al doing up here with all these jars?”
I gave her a sidelong glance. “Collecting fireflies for when the sun turns black. Your words, not mine.”
Her pace bobbled, and then she renewed it with a firm determination. “Would you care for some tea?”
The idea of eating anything out here in the baking sun and gritty wind was repellent, but I nodded.
“I’d suggest something with a lot of rosehips,” she said, grimacing as she elegantly sat on the wire-rim chair that suddenly appeared. “It masks the taste of grit.” A matching chair misted into existence, and then a white cloth-covered table and sunshade. The billowing shade was a relief, and I sat, shifting my chair so I could see Al and Trent, both of them staring at me in anger as they got to their feet and brushed the ever-after dirt from them. If the only common ground they could find was anger at me, then so be it.
“Now,” Newt said primly, reminding me of Ceri as she poured out the tea into red-dusted cups. Tea in the Sahara. “It’s high time we talk about the birds and bees. Lovey, have you had sex with Trenton Aloysius Kalamack?”
Startled, I reached for the cup. “No.”
Newt eyed me, making no move to her cup. “You have had that elf as your familiar for over a year, and he’s not put the sparkle in your scrying mirror even once?”
Embarrassed, I took a sip, then spit it back in the cup. “I didn’t even like him until recently.”
“Like?” Newt waved a hand in the air, and hair spun down from her head in a wave. “When does like ever enter into good sex?”