“Maybe,” I admitted grudgingly. But their fear would eventually turn to anger, and then action.
“It’s late,” Trent said as he gave Ray to Quen, the little girl reaching to go to her other daddy. “I’m going to have a quick shower and catch up on my sleep. I want to be up an hour before sunrise tomorrow. Quen?”
“Yes, Sa’han,” the dark elf said, his manner subdued as Ray gave him a little-girl kiss.
I eyed him and Jon suspiciously. I wouldn’t have put it past them to sneak out of here on their own, direct request or not. “That’s it, then?” I said sourly.
Trent smiled, but I could tell he was dead tired. “Delegation, Rachel. It’s how things get done.” He hesitated, frowning. “Or forgotten. Which reminds me. Quen, could you move the horses in? Cormel threatened them.”
I could tell by Quen’s expression he was thinking the same thing I was. Busywork to keep him occupied until morning? “Credible?” he asked, craggy voice catching as he handed Ray back to Jon, putting her full circle.
“He’s going after Tulpa to cut off my access to the lines while underground, but he’ll take out the entire herd to get him. Chances are Cormel is going to be busy with the returning souls, but I don’t want to risk it.”
Quen was scowling, his midnight plans probably foiled. “Yes, Sa’han. I’ll forward all your calls to your secondary phone.” He turned to me, inclining his head with an unknown emotion darkening his mood. “Rachel,” he said flatly, and then he turned to the stairs, moving slowly to hide his limp.
I wished I had a secondary phone. Trent was standing a little too close, and I looked up. “Your bath?” he prompted.
“I can’t believe you’re going to take a nap,” I said as I glanced at the clock. “The only reason the dewar failed was because the sun was down and the lines were flowing contrary to shoving someone into the ever-after. Soon as it comes up, they’ll try again. And what about all the undead? We’ve got surface demons running around again. I can feel it!”
Trent’s hand went behind my back. I would’ve protested as he escorted me forward except I liked his hand there. “They didn’t fail because of the flow of the lines. They failed because of you,” he said, almost whispering it.
The nursery door shut with a soft and certain snick that Jon somehow made sound accusing. My steps into the lower living room slowed. Trent had asked Jon to put the little girl to bed to try to bring him down from his anger and rage. Suddenly I felt a lot more worried.
“Ahh,” I hedged, not wanting to call it a night quite yet. “Can I use your phone to call my mom before she storms the I.S.?”
Trent’s hand made tingles as it slipped from me. “Sure. Good idea.”
“Thanks. I’ll be right in.”
He gave me a faint smile, hesitating at the door to his rooms. “Take your time. I’ll be in the shower.”
The couch pillows were on the floor, and I picked them up, replacing them before I sat down with the phone. The memory of being attacked washed over me, and I quashed the surge of anxiety. Trent had left the door open, unusual for the privacy-loving man. It was a clear indication that he was on edge and didn’t want anything closed between us. The shower went on as I punched in my mom’s cell number, and the faint soft sounds of running water were soothing.
My eyes roved over Trent’s living room as I waited. It wasn’t that bad, especially compared to the ruination of my church, and as the call connected, I stood to fix one of the pictures. I took a breath as the line clicked open, but my mom was faster.
“Trent?” her voice came, worried and fast. “Where are you? Is Rachel with you?”
I smiled, feeling good all of a sudden. “It’s me, Mom. We’re good. Al helped us.”
“Your demon?” she blurted out, and my heart leapt as Jenks’s wings became obvious in the background.
“Mom? Is that Jenks? Can I talk to him?” Thank all that was holy. Something was going right for once.
“I thought the demons were pissed at you,” my mom was saying, but I hardly heard her. Ivy. I could hear Ivy! She was okay? She was with my mom!
“Thank God you called,” my mom was saying. “Ivy’s made an unholy mess of my front sitting room. Sweet Jesus, that woman has a temper when planning things. I don’t know how Nina puts up with her, the sweet dear.”
“Mom! Let me talk to Ivy,” I said, then lowered my voice before I woke Ray up. “Mom!”
But she wasn’t listening, hand over the phone with a muffled, irritated “What? No,” and then an indignant “Hey!”
“Rachel?” Ivy’s soft gray voice filtered through the phone, and I closed my eyes, holding the warm plastic to my ear and almost rocking in relief. Jenks was there, too, swearing at Tink, the sun, and her unmentionables.
“I’m fine. I’m at Trent’s,” I said, choking up. “I thought Cormel had you. They called on your phone.”
“I lost it at the square. David got us away. Why did you go to the tower? Rachel, you could have been killed.”
Tears warmed my eyes, and I wiped them away before they could fall. She was okay. I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt of her languishing in a cell because of me. “I thought they had you . . . ,” I said, sounding weepy. “Jenks couldn’t find you. We thought—” My words choked off, and I just smiled. Her phone. All they had had was her phone. Jenks’s wing clatter sounded like static over the line as he hovered by the receiver, and all I could do was grip the phone and smile.
“So you were going to rescue us? Of all the unplanned, thoughtless—” Ivy started, but I could hear the relief in her voice, and I picked up a vase of flowers, setting it upright.
“Yeah, I love you, too.” They were okay. All of them. Slowly my shoulders relaxed.
“Rache, we were coming for you,” Jenks said, guilt thick in his voice.
“You did good,” I said, reluctant to tell them why Al had gotten me out. “Ah, I’m going to stay here tonight if that’s okay.”
“Back off!” I heard Ivy admonish Jenks, and I knelt to pick up the scattered stack of children’s books. “At Trent’s?” she said, her irritation clearly not directed at me. “Good. Don’t come back into Cincy or the Hollows yet. It’s crazy here, and you can’t do anything. Now that I know you’re okay, I’m going to head back to my folks’ with Nina.”