“Thanks,” I said, words garbled as I juggled the pills around on my tongue. “You know there are a lot of people who need a medical copter more than me.” God, they tasted awful, and I swallowed them down and made a face.
“I’m sure there are,” Trent said as he kissed my forehead.
“Tink loves a duck,” Jenks complained. “You’re not going to sift your dust together right here, are you? Take me over to Edden. He’s warm.”
Edden was stuck in the middle of the floor, and I didn’t like the way he kept looking back at me or the shade of red his neck was turning. The Weres were beginning to leave, and Jenks’s wings tickled my neck as we both realized that every single one of them was running in the same direction the instant they hit the pavement. “What is going on?” I asked.
Jenks sifted a thin, frustrated dust and Trent fidgeted, his expression wary as we watched three more Weres run down the street. “Ah . . . I’ll be right back,” he said when Jenks began making a weird whine, Trent jiggling on his feet before lurching into motion and striding to Edden. The floor was clearing out—and it made me even more nervous than the crowded one.
“I don’t care if it’s the devil himself they got pinned down, you get your ass over there now and stop it!” Edden was shouting.
Jenks’s wings clattered, the barest hint of silver slipping down my front. “You just going to sit here?”
My leg was bandaged, and I held it as I moved it off the stool, teeth clenched as I tried not to use my leg muscles at all. My stomach lurched, and I almost lost those lame pills. I hesitated, the bar hard under my hand as I planned my way over, noting every handrail, every chair.
“Come on, Rache!” Jenks urged. “They’re almost done!”
I painfully hobbled forward, every step hurting. Trent caught sight of me, his expression shifting to annoyance, and he slid an arm around my back to hold me up as I made the last few steps to lean on the decorative side table. “What’s up?” I asked.
Clearly upset, Edden pointed at five more men, and they trooped out. Six more released Weres jostled around them and ran up the street in the same direction.
“Rachel, I’m sorry,” the captain said. “Get up to the roof and wait for Trent’s copter. I have to go. There’s a mob at Fountain Square, and without magic, we can’t stop it.”
“That’s like half a block from here,” Jenks said, and my eyes flicked to the door and the new night beyond.
“Which is why you are going to go to the roof until Trent can get you out.”
Get me out? Suspicious, I put a hand on Edden’s arm and stopped him cold. “Why?”
“Get her out!” Edden exclaimed, his eyes hard on Trent as he pried my fingers off.
Trent’s hold on me strengthened as he began to pull me toward the elevators. “Let’s go, Rachel,” he said, but his worry tripped all my warning flags and I dug my heels in—so to speak.
“Trent, what don’t you want me to see?”
Edden’s expression became almost panicked, and I squinted mistrustfully at Trent as he soothed me with a calm “It’s nothing you can do anything about.”
Nothing I can do anything about?
Jenks’s wings fluttered and he tugged on my ear. “Rache, they’ve got a demon pinned down in the square. My wings are broken, not my ears.”
“Jenks!” Edden exclaimed, and Trent, too, winced.
“At the square?” I looked at the doors, remembering the Weres running that way. Panic slid through me at the thought of what a human, what anyone, might do if they found a demon unable to do magic. My God. Al.
“Way to go, Jenks,” Trent grumbled.
“You said she couldn’t do anything about it!” Jenks shouted, hurting my ear. “Well, she’s not dead, is she?”
“And I want to keep it that way!” Trent argued.
I pushed up from the table, telling myself that my leg didn’t hurt that much now that I’d swallowed those pills. “Is it Al?” I asked, and Trent lifted his shoulders, unhappy. “You don’t know!”
Edden put a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off. “You didn’t think this wasn’t going to happen, did you?” he said, brown eyes sad as he looked past Trent to the dark street. “Demons have preyed upon humans and Inderlanders for thousands of years, and now that they’re helpless, what did you expect? That we’d take them to our bosoms and make cocoa?”
“Something a little better than this.” Teeth clenched, I shoved past Trent and headed for the door. It was only half a block. I could hear the noise from here.
“Damn it, Jenks!” Trent swore. “This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
“Rachel!” Edden called, following me. “You’re not in any shape—”
I took a step down, pain widening my eyes. Breathless, I leaned against the stairway railing. God help me, I had two more to go. “I just busted my ass getting them to reality. I’m not going to let a mob kill them! Now either get me over there or get out of my way!”
Both men were silent as they looked at me, both with regret.
“Well?” I snapped, pain making my words sharper than I wanted. “Just how serious are you about this, or is it all only if it’s convenient?”
“That’s not fair,” Trent said, and then I gasped when he scooped me up.
“Trent! Put me down!” I shouted. “You son of a bastard, put me down!”
But Jenks was laughing. “Relax, Rache. Look at his ears. He’s taking you to the square.”
“You are?” Blinking fast, I put my arm around Trent’s neck to distribute my weight more evenly. Sure enough, Trent’s ears were red with irritation and his jaw was set. “I knew I loved you,” I said, almost crying. “Oh God. Thank you.”
Trent’s gaze was fixed on the door as Edden dropped back in frustrated defeat. “I hope you still do by sunrise,” he said dryly. “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Kalamack, she can’t even walk!” Edden protested as I used my good foot to shove the glass door open.
The smell of the concrete night rose up around us, gritty on my tongue with the flashing lights and the sounds of an angry crowd. “You sure?” Trent asked.
The sound of gunfire popped. I thought of Al. I had no magic, no safety net, and I couldn’t walk well. “Yes.” I had to, even if fear had me so tense I felt sick.