“Ah,” Trent started, and I took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “Leave Cincinnati to Walter?” I said tartly. “Not happening.”

  Al shrugged, his teeth gleaming in his not-nice smile. “Walter Vincent’s goal is assuredly the focus, but that’s not my concern. Hodin’s student is. He is after you. You will be safe here.”

  I doubted that. The ever-after had its own set of dangers, and if I was here, Al’s kin would take a stronger interest in me. “Then he is going to fail,” I said, stiffening when my marshmallow caught fire. I jerked it free of the flames, accidentally flinging the burning wad right off the tip. Arching dramatically through the air, it hit the flattened grass with a splat. Ruined.

  Al nonchalantly grasped my stick, angling it toward himself as he stuck another marshmallow on it. “I’m not so sure,” he said as he let go. “David is a pillar of your three-prong power base. Hodin tried and failed to bring you down through the vampires. Now his student is trying the same with David. I’m betting he manages it, seeing as he has both grudge and aim. Congratulations, itchy witch. You are no one until you have a nemesis.”

  Trent snorted his rueful agreement, and my mood soured.

  “Gee, thanks,” I muttered as I bobbed my marshmallow in and out of the flame, daring it to catch fire. Which it did. I quickly blew the flame out, but the puff was too black for my liking.

  Al’s eyebrows rose at my slumping sigh. “If by some miracle you do maintain control of the Weres, I imagine he will try to use the elves next,” Al said. “Seeing as he’s likely an elf. The witches, though, might be a better choice. The witches never liked you. Odd, that.” Al’s expression became introspective. “Perhaps because they can see what they might be if they had the courage, and are pissed that they are afraid.”

  It was the same vibe I was getting from Vivian, and I sat before the fire, my ruined marshmallow hanging high over the flames. “Jenks never got close enough for even a sniff,” I said, wanting to show him the ring in my pocket. “I think he knew me, though.”

  “The mage? Everyone knows you,” Al said lightly. “Are you going to eat that?”

  He was eyeing my charred marshmallow, and I handed him the stick. “No wonder you’re all reclaiming your books,” I said as Al delicately nibbled the burnt marshmallow, his eyes closing in bliss. “Ever since you regained your ability to cross into reality, everyone seems to think they can do your magic. And who gets blamed? Me.”

  Al popped the marshmallow into his mouth and licked his fingers clean, apparently satisfied with the entire world. “Yes. It’s a problem. What do you intend to do about it?”

  Worried, I took the ring from my pocket and rolled it between my thumb and finger. “Will you look at this and tell me what it is? Walter used it to uncurse David.”

  Al’s gaze flicked from me to Trent and back again. “He’s awake? David is okay?”

  “Okay being a relative term,” Trent said.

  “They beat him near to death before uncursing him,” I said as my hand dropped, the ring heavy in it. “They wouldn’t have bothered to uncurse him at all, except the mage thought they couldn’t peel the focus off him if he was spelled.” Thank God I was there to stop that.

  “David can’t be awake,” Al said, sounding affronted. “I saw what happened at Eden Park.” And then Al sort of froze. “I made a mistake. David was not downed by a chakra curse.”

  Trent’s gaze flicked to me, the slant of his eyes telling me he’d heard the unusual tightness in Al’s voice as well. He made a mistake? “Fine,” I said. “Then tell me what this is.”

  I extended the ring again, and again Al didn’t take it, the very way he stared at it chilling me. “I am sure I don’t know,” he said as he focused on his marshmallow, now a perfect tan. “If David is awake, it wasn’t a chakra curse that downed him. There is no cure.”

  But his words were too fast and his voice too low. Trent shook his head, confirming it. Al was lying. To me.

  My jaw tightened as Al set his marshmallow aside and reached for the Piggly Wiggly bag, taking out a box of graham crackers and a chocolate bar. He really was making s’mores. “The hospital verified it,” I said, fishing.

  “The hospital is mistaken.”

  I made a fist around the ring. “I bet Hodin knows what it is.”

  It was an empty threat, but Al finally looked at me. “You are not talking to Hodin.”

  “That’s right,” I said in a huff. “I’m talking to you. Will you look at the stupid ring?”

  Eyes narrowed to slits, he put out his hand and I dropped the ring into it. His focus went distant as he held it, but it wasn’t until he gazed at the moon through the battered circle that he exhaled. “Hodin indeed crafted this,” he said, worried. “I know his aura as well as my own, and it clings to his work like a disease.”

  Al blew through the circle to hear it ring, and my gut tightened. “What does it do?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Al said. “I should keep it.”

  Annoyed, I held out my hand, not liking his hesitation before he dropped it into my palm. Doesn’t know what it is, my lily-white ass. I’d seen David’s chart. He had been under a chakra curse, same as Cassie’s employees, and now he wasn’t. Walter had clearly used the ring to break the curse. Brad thought the ring was his, and seeing as Brad would be doubly stupid to buy a curse without the cure, he was probably right.

  “I’d help if I could,” Al said, and my eyes narrowed in suspicion. He’s offering to help?

  “Promise?” I said sarcastically, and he grimaced as he unwrapped the chocolate bar and broke it into four pieces with a disturbing reverence. He gave the first to me, ate the second himself, and squished the remaining two pieces into two thick, gooey sandwiches. Nothing for Trent, but that was par for the course, and Trent shook his head when I divided my piece in two and offered him half.

  “Rachel, I know you will not listen . . .” Al started.

  “Brad thinks it’s the ring he cursed Cassie’s employees with, not the cure for it,” I muttered, wondering what Al was trying to distract me from as the chocolate dissolved on my tongue. “The mage was furious, almost as if Walter had broken the ring itself, not just its hold on David. Said he made it useless.” Which sounded right if he had been Hodin’s student. Hodin had a nasty habit of leaving things out to keep himself above those he deemed a threat. That was how I had ended up cursing Pike’s brother in the first place.

  My head snapped up, a new thought trickling through me. “Unless the curse and countercurse are within the same ring?”

  “Ah . . .” Al’s posture stiffened.

  “Is that possible?” Trent said in excitement, and a soft groan slipped from Al.

  “Is that it?” I said, knowing I was right. “The ring is both the cure and curse? I didn’t think you could do that.”

  “That’s because we don’t,” Al said, his expression pained in the come-and-go firelight.

  “Because you can’t, or because you won’t?” I asked, and his breath escaped him in a worried sound. Crap on toast, there’s more to this than he’s telling me.

  “Won’t.” Al glanced at Trent as if reluctant to divulge demon secrets. “It would have to be crafted on a Möbius strip to hold both the cure and curse.”

  This was new. I was familiar with the twisted strip of paper that turned three dimensions into one, but had never heard of it being used to spell with. “A Möbius strip?” I questioned, and Al glared at Trent as if all the woes of the world were his fault. “You may as well tell us both. I’m going to tell him anyway.”

  “You would, wouldn’t you.” Mood bad, Al flung a log on the fire and the sparks flew.

  I jumped when Trent touched my shoulder. “It’s okay,” he said as he rose. “I don’t mind stepping away. I do this all the time to protect trade secrets.”

  “Sit,” I said coldly, my eyes narrowed on Al. If he didn’t want Trent to know, he shouldn’t tell me. If he didn’t tell me, I was going to find out some other way, probably hurting myself—and Al knew it. Most days Al probably wouldn’t care if I hurt myself, but lately I’d become a convenient buffer between him and his kin. “Well?” I added as Trent slowly sat.

  “You try me, itchy witch,” Al grumped. “If either of you use the knowledge, you are too stupid to live and therefore deserve to die.” He took a breath as he drew himself into a dignified stiffness. “A spell utilizing a Möbius strip base creates a self-renewing magic. Back and forth like the tide. Never-ending and therefore dangerous.”

  I’d always felt that love was a self-renewing magic. But then again, love was dangerous. “So, one side is the curse, and the other is the cure?” I guessed, and Al nodded.

  “Because of its never-ending capacity, a Möbius curse exacts a correspondingly high price for its construction.” Lip curled, Al glared at Trent. “Which is why the elves were the only people desperate enough to practice their creation,” he accused. “What you hold is experimental elven war magic. Something they tried to make work and couldn’t. Otherwise, they would have used it on us and there’d be a record of it. The only reason Hodin knows of it is because they tried it on him. Tried and failed.”

  “Well, it worked on David.” I nudged the ring across my palm with a finger. “What does it cost to make it?”

  “The life of the one who twists it.”

  Trent jerked, his foot hitting mine with a tingling surge of energy. Suddenly the ring felt foul, heavy as it lay in my palm. It was dark magic, not just a curse, and I curved my fingers around it, hiding it. “Why would anyone . . .” My voice faltered. “You’d have to trick someone into doing it. Someone with enough skill to perform it and foolish enough to trust you. One death for a lifetime of magic.”

  Trent touched his chin. It was one of his tells that he was worried, and I didn’t see it often. “Hodin wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he whispered.

  “Mmmm.” Al tugged a colorful scarf from his sleeve and carefully wrapped the two s’mores. “Don’t tell Vivian. She might overlook spelling a vampire into forgetting his name, but not this.”

  Crap on toast, I didn’t have the cure for the chakra curse, I had the Turn-blasted curse itself. The former was legal; the second, not so much. “But a Möbius strip has only one side,” I said, wondering if this might be the mythos behind the coven using a Möbius strip as their emblem. “It’s safe, right? As long as we don’t say the phrase to invoke the curse?”

  “I don’t know,” Al whispered, the three words sending a chill through me. Shoulders hunched, he fell into a memory. “Möbius curses don’t expire, but flip from curse to cure and back again, and I don’t know what initiates that. My concern is that if the mage was upset that Walter turned it to uncurse David, it’s more than likely that it requires another death to flip it back to curse mode. Be glad that it’s presently set to cure and mourn its last victims.”

  He said it as if it was over. But it wasn’t, not with four of Cassie’s people still in a coma and the cure phrase out there somewhere. I stood, my knees wobbly as I looked down at Trent’s ashen complexion. I had to go. If the ring was set to cure, I could wake Cassie’s employees. I only had to find the right invocation phrase. Locating Walter was one option, but if Hodin had made the ring, the book and invocation phrase might be in his old room.

  Trent stood as well. “If it’s Hodin’s magic, then perhaps we should talk—”

  “Stop!” I said before Al could do more than take a breath. “Hodin would only lie. Getting into his room is a hindsight easier than finding Walter and beating what we need out of him. I bet Walter is kicking himself for uncursing David at all, but he clearly wasn’t planning on us interrupting his mage’s magic to pull the focus out.”

  “Mmmm.” Al peered up at us, a hand extended. “Perhaps I should hold the ring for you. You’re lucky that Walter knows David needs to be alive to pull the focus out, or they would simply shoot him.”

  My fist tightened, and I stuffed the ring into a pocket. “No,” I said, and Al’s eyes narrowed. “Tell you what. You can have it after I uncurse Cassie’s employees if you give Trent his books.” Head lifting, I peered into the firefly-filled night. “We have to go.” I stepped over the flat stones, eager to make the trek home—or at least get to reality, where I could call Glenn. He still had that finding charm sensitized to Walter. I’d have some time tomorrow after I watched the girls. Jenks and I could tour the city. Find him. Beat the cure’s invocation phrase out of him.

  But Trent’s hand pulled from mine as I moved away, his expression blank as he stood beside Al’s fire. “What?”

  “Ah . . . about tomorrow with the girls,” Trent said. “That mage might want that ring back, flipped or not. It’s the only thing that slows the focus down enough to best David.”

  “The ring he said was useless? That he couldn’t remake?” I said, quashing a twinge of worry as I recalled how the mage had thrown himself after it. “Go do your drug-lord golf outing. We’ll be fine.” It was the first time I’d have the girls alone, and I wanted to try out my mom skills—such as they were.

  “Mmmm.” Clearly unsure, Trent took my elbows. “I’m going to cancel.”

  My smile faltered. “I said we’ll be fine,” I insisted, eye twitching when Al nudged the fire with his foot to send more sparks flying. He was listening. “The mage is not about to crash a cider mill filled with kids for a ring he can’t use. If he wants it that bad, he’ll wait until I’m alone.”

  Trent’s grip on my elbow tightened. “Perhaps you should stay at the estate tonight.”

  I leaned in to give him a kiss, the small smack of lips turning awkward when I began to smile at Al’s annoyed growl. “I’ll be fine,” I whispered, loving them both. “I need to go home and see if I can get into Hodin’s room. The sooner I can find the phrase to cure Cassie’s people, the better. I’ll see you tomorrow at eight thirty at Junior’s with the girls.” I could give him his present then, too.

  “Here.” Al handed me the silk-wrapped s’mores. “For the girls,” he said, and Trent sighed. “Rachel is right,” he added. “The ring is set to cure, and if the mage can’t turn it, it has no worth.”

  No worth for him, I thought. “So we’re good?” I said brightly. Get Walter’s finding amulet from Glenn, break into Hodin’s room for the cure’s phrase. Uncurse Cassie’s employees. Al gets the ring. Destroys it. Cincy’s power balance course corrects. Walter and his mage go home.

  Piece of cake.

  CHAPTER

  11

  The light from the church spilled out onto the cold ground to make confusing shadows on the street as I pulled into my carport and cut the engine. Stef’s electric car was not at the plug. She was at work, and I smiled, glad the woman had gotten her hospital job back. Smutty auras had traditionally meant illegal behavior, and I was pleased to see that inaccurate prejudice beginning to correct itself. Or maybe they simply really needed the help.

  “Tomorrow is going to be a killer,” I whispered as I stared at the car’s dash clock. It was almost two a.m., and though that wasn’t unusually late for a witch, I’d been trying to crash closer to midnight, when Trent went down. I could have gotten a few extra hours of sleep if I’d stayed at Trent’s—at least in theory—but I wanted a crack at Hodin’s door. Not to mention that Glenn had promised to drop off the finding amulet. Martie had been wearing it all day to no avail.

  I felt the late hour all the way to my bones as I dragged my shoulder bag across the seat, but before I could get out, my phone hummed. Vivian.

  For three rings, I debated letting it go to voice mail as I got out of the car, and then, reluctantly, I hit the accept icon. “Hi, Vivian,” I said, heart in my throat.

  “Where have you been?” she said, clearly tense. “I’ve been trying to reach you all night.”

  “The ever-after,” I said, not liking her tone. “Finding out all sorts of things about the ring that cursed David. It’s the same thing that hit Cassie Castle’s employees, and I’m this close to finding the cure. When I do, do you want to meet me at the hospital and see how it works?”

  “You were in the ever-after?” she said, voice tight. “Rachel, I can’t express how important it is you remain in Cincinnati.”

  My bootheels were a soft thump on the cement walk, and I tugged my jacket closer against the chill and waved to Bis. The cat-size gargoyle was perched on the roof, an eerie sentry with his red eyes glowing. He took to the air, his huge bat-like wings cutting a threatening shadow across the night sky as he dropped to me.

  “Why?” I said as Bis landed on my shoulder, his white-tufted tail wrapping securely behind my back to help cut his momentum. A faint rise in energy lifted through me at his touch. It was an echo of the nearest ley lines, and though it was only a hint of what I should be feeling through him, even that little was appreciated. “Am I a person of interest?”

  Bis’s red eyes met mine when Vivian didn’t answer. Worried, I stopped on the stairs, not eager to take this inside, where Jenks would complicate things. “Vivian?” I prompted, and she sighed. “Hey, I was there trying to find out how to untwist the curse, not skip town,” I said, feeling miffed. “Isn’t that a good thing? Finding the cure? Walter already used it to uncurse David. He’s going to be okay, by the way,” I finished tartly. She hadn’t even asked after him.

  “I’m pleased to hear that,” she said faintly. “I know how important he is to you. I agree that on the surface, you finding a countercurse seems positive. But it also links you to the initial chakra curse that much stronger.”

  Knowing how to twist a curse wasn’t the same as using it, and I felt myself warm. “You can’t put someone in jail for the ability to do something,” I said in my own defense. “They have to knowingly do it.” And get caught. They have to get caught, too. “Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?”