The Witch with No Name

The keys jingled as Trent handed them to me. “You want me to carry you in?”

His tone was amused, but the sad thing was, I was tempted. “Give me a minute. I’m just tired.” Tired and not wanting to have to go in and deal with the mess.

“Me too.” He yawned again. “I’ll call a cab to get back to Eden Park. I don’t want to leave you without a car.”

“Thanks. Take Jenks with you, okay?”

His phone hummed, obvious in the midnight silence. Taking it from a pocket, he silently looked at it, sighed, and tucked it back. “Ellasbeth?” I guessed, and he nodded.

“If it’s important, Quen will call. Huh. I think I left my briefcase in the ever-after.”

He had, but I wasn’t going to suggest we go back and get it. I knew I should be in a better mood, but I was just so tired. “Do you think Cormel will hold to his agreement?” I asked. Maybe that was what had Ivy uptight.

“To the letter. He won’t go to the demons, though. He’s going to talk to Landon.”

“Let him. I’m done with it.” Expression sour, I pulled my shoulder bag from the floor. Landon’s charm had been perfect, but he’d known I’d have to make contact with the Goddess to finish it. That’s why he’d given it to me. Son of a bitch . . . “Trent, the mystics recognized me.”

Trent was silent for half a second, and then he moved, his motion fast as he got out. “I think I left my tablet inside. I should get it before I go.”

“You saw them, didn’t you?” I said, confused. He hadn’t ignored me, but burn my cookies if he didn’t look . . . scared. Our doors shut almost together, and I gathered my resolve. I wasn’t going to let this go and possibly fester. “You and Jenks both,” I said as I met him at the back of the car. “The mystics.”

Eyes on the street, Trent looped his arm in mine. “Yes.”

My pulse quickened. “Is it bad?” I asked, that same nauseous feeling clenching in my stomach as the memory of that black nothing I’d felt rose up. Jenks’s call and Trent’s arms had brought me back. It felt as if I had nearly fallen into shadow. “Trent . . .”

“They follow you like puppies,” Trent said softly, our steps slowing. “Ever since we captured Felix’s soul in the ever-after. Are . . . they speaking to you?”

He was afraid, and I shoved my own fear aside. I knew I’d seen Bis and Buddy with my eyes closed, both of them on the floor as Trent carried me out. It had been a compilation vision of at least a dozen mystics, cobbled together and presented to me in a way that my mind could interpret naturally—sophisticated and practiced. They weren’t the Goddess’s mystics, but the ones that Newt trapped in reality so they couldn’t poison the Goddess. They were alone and unable to become, but the alternative was their complete obliteration. But had I heard them? No, the connection had not been that deep.

“No,” I said softly, and Trent breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good,” he said, his fingers finding mine in the dark as we walked to the church, lights flickering on inside to show where Ivy was. “I don’t think you should do wild elf magic.”

I gave him a sideways look as I opened the door. “You think?” The warmth and light spilled out, and I squinted as we went inside. Trent’s hand was on the small of my back, and I listened for not-there voices telling me about the scatter pattern of the photons, but my thoughts were silent. Safe? I thought, then, with a touch of melancholy, a more certain empty.

“Oh, Rachel,” Trent said, somehow knowing as he pulled me into a hug right there in the foyer. “I’m so sorry.”

He wasn’t talking about tonight, and I tucked my head against his shoulder, breathing in the spicy scent of wine and cinnamon under the reek of burnt amber. I refused to cry, even though I ached. It was stupid to cry over something that would hurt me if I had it. It hadn’t been a choice between the mystics and Trent, though that’s how Newt saw it. Keeping them would have destroyed the Goddess and changed me beyond what anyone could handle.

“I’d give them up again in a heartbeat,” I said, and he tilted his head to give me a kiss. My eyes closed as our lips met. Tingles followed by a swath of warmth plinked through me, and I pressed into him as my arms went around his neck. Even if it had been a choice between them and Trent, I would’ve taken Trent. I didn’t have to explain things to him, and he knew how tight to hold, when to go along with an idea, and when to slow me down so I could think.

The vibrating hum of his phone was almost unheard, but I dropped back to my heels. Too bad I’ll only drag him down from what he could be.

Trent frowned, and from the hallway, Nina called to Ivy that she’d only be a few minutes. The bathroom door shut, and shrugging, I looked at his pocket and his humming phone. “You probably should take that. She’s going to keep calling.”

He said nothing, but his grip eased, and I found a smile. “You want some coffee? It’s going to take at least thirty minutes to get a cab out here.”