The Witch with No Name

Jenks wants me to leave? Maybe it was worse inside than I imagined. My gut said Ellasbeth wasn’t doing anything other than trying to roll with the punches, but logic said otherwise. The chance to look her in the eye might tell me more.

“Thanks,” I said as I turned to the stone walk that led to the front. “I’ll take you up on that.” There were huge boot prints in the mud where there’d never been mud before. It made me feel violated in a way the missing kitchen didn’t. “Ivy knows I’m not dead, right?”

Jenks’s wings clattered as he left Trent. “Yep. She’s at her folks with Nina.”

“Everything okay?” I questioned.

“You think I’d be hanging out here waiting for you if she wasn’t?”

True.

“Cormel knows you’re not dead, too,” Jenks added, and I jerked to a stop. Mr. Fish’s water sloshed and Trent almost ran into me, his attention fixed on his phone. “Don’t look at me!” Jenks shouted. “I didn’t tell him! He came over about an hour ago. Told me to tell you not to interfere with the undead souls.”

The unsaid “or else” was obvious. My frown deepened as Trent’s phone went dark and he slid it away. “If you didn’t tell Cormel I was alive, who did?” I muttered.

“Your mom?” Jenks hovered just a little in front of me as I headed for the tall gate, his eyes darting nervously to Trent and back again. “She’s having too much fun arranging your funeral. The news has a wake watch going. Tink’s tampons, she’s a little scary, you know?”

Yeah, that sounded like my mom. Frustrated, I shoved the gate open with my foot. Bis left, making widening circles until he found the steeple. Jenks went with him, the pixy talking so high and fast I couldn’t follow it.

“Landon isn’t going to be happy you’re still alive,” Trent said softly.

“Too bad,” I said, tired, and Mr. Fish shuddered at the bottom of his glass.

“One thing an elf hates more than giving something for nothing is when a plan falls apart—and it’s falling apart. I doubt freeing the real demons from the ever-after was his intention. Cormel saw what we had to do to keep Felix’s soul bound. He knows this spontaneous melding isn’t going to stick.” He hesitated as I dug my car keys out. “Rachel, you’re not a tool.”

I jerked to a stop, shocked at the quick topic shift. Trying to smile, I met his eyes. “I know.” But my heart ached, and seeing it, he pulled me close, careful not to spill Mr. Fish.

His arms were warm, and he smelled of burnt amber. Tears threatened as his hand found the back of my head and he held me close, sighing heavily. “Al is trying to drive us apart,” he whispered, and I nodded, needing this. “He’s jealous that we made a stand and he didn’t.” He leaned back, smiling at the track of a tear on me. “I’m not going to walk away from you. I never wanted to see the elves destroy everyone, just not go extinct.”

“I know,” I said, voice wobbling. The “I’m not going to walk away from you” hit me hard. “But Landon does.”

“What Landon wants doesn’t mean anything. He’s not the Sa’han.”

I was starting to wonder if Trent was either, anymore. Maybe that was why he’d agreed to reopen relations with Ellasbeth. Damn it, he wasn’t using me, but I wasn’t going to come out of this where I wanted to be either. He couldn’t be both.

Jenks rose up from the carport, his dust an impatient red. I swallowed down my heartache, disentangling us and starting back to the front walk. Trent’s hand stole into mine immediately, and my chest hurt. “Thanks for coming back with me,” he said. “I know it’s going to be hard with Ellasbeth there, but I love you, Rachel, not her. This is for the girls, not me.”

For the girls? Yes, I’d put up with Ellasbeth for the girls. Somehow I managed a smile.

“And don’t worry,” Trent said, his hand trailing deliciously along the small of my back as we passed the untouched trash cans, “I won’t make you cook or anything.”

“I can cook,” I said, then louder, “I can so!,” when he arched his eyebrows.

“I’ve never seen it,” he muttered, and Jenks darted to us.

“Hey! You mind if I ride over with you?” he asked. “Jumoke, ah, he said I could bunk with him and Izzy. This is so weird.”

He was leaving the garden unguarded? I turned to look behind me at the destruction. Oh God, is it over?

“Bis is going to watch the church along with Belle,” he added, and my breath came rushing back. “He wants to talk to his dad if that’s okay with you.”