Page 5 (1/2)

Chapter Five

A narrow slice of early-afternoon sunon the open as driving-big surprise-and the wind had le that would take half a bottle of cream rinse to fix We’d stopped three hours out in the botto to eat and so to nap Elves had a si, it was obvious that Trent was getting sleepy, too, so I’d offered to drive

Actually, I lanced at a somnolent Trent, the last four hours had been nice Trent’s face was pleasant when he wasn’t scowling His jeans and shirt made him look dramatically different-more attractive than his usual suit somehow Accessible ainst the door, as far froht out and smack him if I wanted I hadn’t liked his quiet disdain of my mom’s car So it didn’t have a six-speaker system or power doors or s It wasn’t shiny, and the blue color didn’t do anything for me, either But I could do ten miles an hour et noticed It had lots of cup holders, too

Tucking a ard curl behind an ear, I eyed his sunglasses in envy, just sitting on the dash while he slept I bet they’d look better onme a headache, and I almost reached for them-until I noticed that Trent’s hands were clenched, even in sleep Okay, maybe he wasn’t as comfortable with this as he wantedthat he’d even fallen asleep

Looking back to the flat landscape we’d been in for the last hour or so, I wondered if I’d be able to fall asleep with Trent driving This eird, and not just because a witch, an elf, and a pixy were on the Great American Road Trip I still owed Trent that "freed falanced atwhere his curse was, then back to the road A quick look at the rearviewin the sun like a tiny winged cat in the backSighing, I returned my attention to the landscape I’d never driven like this, and the open spaces were getting to me The road had been built pre-Turn, and it was creepy driving past town after town that had been abandoned during the plague the Turn had been born of The trees growing through the roofs of abandoned buildings and the tall yellow M’s and old gas station signs high above new forests etation covering the old destruction was reht upover my skull toeverything in a sheen of red The sun seemed to cast two shadows, but apart from the road, which now looked broken and covered eeds, everything looked pretty rass stretched froated where the ley lines were, living under the to Al, the ever-after was a broken reality, unable to stand on its own, and was being dragged along behind ours, connected to and kept alive by the ley lines Energy flowed like tides between the the alternate reality a broken visage It was a reflection of reality but shattered So if Cincinnati put up a new building, a new one would show up in the ever-after, but would begin to fall apart even before it was coround We didn’t construct ed there but what the deoyles like fay deep into the earth to where they could use it

But here, out in the spaces between big conglomerations of ley lines where the cities were, there was a whole lot of red-sheened nothing: trees, grass, bushes You’d think that being an earth witch I’d like nature, but I didn’t Not like this anyway It felt broken It didn’t help that the ever-after looked almost nor, I tried to figure out what they were I’d never seen thelinted silver under the red-tinted sun, like a heatbetter with the tall buildings, even if they looked broken with the overlay of ht and twisted in otten a text froain when she’d landed We were going to ive her a call

"What were you just doing?" Trent said suddenly, and I jerked, droppinghave you been watching s shift and spill a silver dust as he slept on "I’ht bicep where his faet ot I was here," he said as he handed it to ? Before, I , and it wasn’t the view Your aura had a shadow on it I’ve never seen that"

Great He’d been watchingto thicken as we approached the city "Really?" I said shortly Jenks had said the saic I didn’t like that ht S, I tossed ht it "Will you call Ivy for me? Tell her where we are?"

He tossed it back, and it thumped onto my lap "I’ht, intentionally swerving froht lane to the left as I flipped the phone open

Trent clutched the door and the dash, and from the backseat Jenks shrilled, "Hey! Rache! What the Disney blasted hell are you doing?"

I was srowled, "Giveit into his hand and rolling up theso he could hear better He seemed harmless in his jeans and shirt, and I wondered how much of his charisma came from his wardrobe Jenks apparently appreciated the drop in wind, and he flew back to the front, looking rumpled and sleepy as he yawned and sat on the rearviewa hand over his wings to check for tears

"Still on I-70," I said as Trent scrolled through h when he found the mayor’s nu about her son a few years ago taken care of "We’ll be crossing the Mississippi in a ain, Trent hit a button and put the phone to his ear I wondered if he kneas doing it, rubbing his faoing to get you killed," he said softly

"Not today," I said, then watched Jenks peer behind us

"Huh," the pixy said, not sounding at all worried "They’re still there"

Nodding, I flicked old Cadillac a way back "Yup"

Phone to his ear, Trent turned to look "We’re being followed?"

"Relax, cookie s "They’ve been there since Terre Haute"

A knot of worry started to tighten Was itor Trent?

There was a faint hail on the tiny speaker, and Trent continued to watch the car behind us through the side mirror "Ms Tamwood," he said, and I marveled at his voice "Rachel would like to talk to you," he added as I held out led the phone to my ear "We’re alht?"

"Lousy" Ivy sounded tired, but she’d been up longer than I had "I’m at the arch," she continued "Stay on I-70, then take the South Mee"

"Thanks, I already looked at the map," I said, mildly peeved The woman had not only laminated the map, but she’d used a marker to star where we could stop for Jenks

"Follow Meton," she continued, as if I’d said nothing "There’re signs everywhere to the parking structure"

"Okay, thanks," I said, exasperated, but Jenks was laughing as he landed oncloser," he said, pitching his voice so Ivy could hear hih the tiny speaker

I fluffed my hair to make Jenks take off Thanks a hell of a lot, Jenks

"So?" she said, loud enough for Trent to hear

"Long enough," I said "They aren’t that close Quarter mile"

"Two hundred feet, Ivy," Jenks said loudly, back on the rearviewwould pick it up "Three guys unless so that if they were that close, the car probably wasn’t bugged

"Maybe we should drive straight through Where’s theoff in a burst of sparkles and vanishing in the backseat

Trent stiffened, his gaze sharp on mine "We need to stop"

"I don’t need amore attention to the road We’d picked up a du croith se," Ivy said "I’ve got a rental car, and I’ll catch up, okay? Raain, looking militantly adamant Maybe he needed to use the little boy’s room after his nappies

From the backseat, Jenks chimed, "I found it! Trent, be a pal and open it for led the phone to my other ear, and the car swerved Ram them? Was she serious?

"Rachel?" came Ivy’s voice, and I putto ram them," I said, and Trent rubbed his forehead as if in pain "And we aren’t going to drive through We are co in I’d ratherThey probably already know you’re waiting for us"

Jenks darted up from the backseat, his hands on his hips "Trent, I could use so to sit there like a pile of fairy crap the entire way?"

"We don’t need thethrough We are stopping for Ivy!"

Fro, "There’s a bunch of kids here You really want to risk a fight with the coven?"

"The coven wouldn’t dare," I said as I started to wonder "Not with innocents around We can have an ice crea Make bunny-eared kisses at the doubtful "Call reement, I closed the phone and dropped it onto le warning flag went up, as smooth and sure as ice is cold I don’t knohy, because he was agreeing withto hide-was at co with soht back to whose idea it was to stop in St Louis in the first place Ivy’s, I think She’d bought a flight going there

The tires hue, and the world seee Word was that it pinned down one of the city’s ley lines, which I thought suspect Why would anyone do anything so stupid?

"You need the Meht past the park"

"Thanks, Trent," I said,lane," he added, and clenching my teeth, I wondered what he’d do if I just drove past the exit Watching his body language, I shifted even farther to the left to get around a black car Sure enough, he tensed

Interesting, I old car had done the sa theto the air as the steering wheel spun Trent clutched the dash, glaring at lasses slid off the dash and to ottento have to do a lotressively etas that gold Cadillac was a car length away Three guys All blonds Elves? Not the coven, then

My phone hu a new alaret off this road Now"

"Like how?" I snarled "Our exit isn’t for another two !" Trent exclai a spell"

My eyes flicked behind us, seeing the three heads clustered together The shoulder was on one side and that truck on the other as he tried to passwas ahead of me, full of people "Are you nuts? No one would et hurt And besides, I don’t feel-"

"Look out!" Jenks shrilled, and I gasped, jerking the wheel as a reddish-gold ball of so blossoravel kicking up underneath as I struggled to maintain control at a suddenly too-fast sixty-fiveahead of us, and I watched in horror as it turned sideways and spun, right into the path of the truck barreling down on it Sparks flew inside the s on the pave to get out of the way The little car spun into a roll, a protection bubble snapping into place, and I stiffenedto jackknife, and the rear of it o feet away, coly sounds of screeching tires and plastic crunching I didn’t dare look as we sped ahead, the truck now taking up three lanes as it slowly began to topple over The little VW had hit the wall, and I swerved into the path of the truck to avoid it There was a huge crash, and the sound of scrapingup behind it Three cars had on with a white-faced woold Cadillac My God What had they done?

"Go, go, go!" Jenks shrilled, plastered to the back"They got through! Go!"

I floored it, weaving through the cars ahead of us,to a stop and taking up the entire road Brake lights were going on, and h? I wondered, seeing that they had lost a fender but were stillThe VW had beco sick, I pulled my attention back to the road ahead of us No one does a hit on a busy road No one Who the hell did these people think they were? Or perhaps my question should be, who the hell did these people think ere that they would do such a thing?

"We need to get off this road!" Trent exclai

"Gee, you think?" I said, seeing the Cadillac clip another car as it tried to catch up

"Where’s theover the backseat to find it

Jenks looked scared, having moved to the front where he could stand on the rearview ht!" he shouted, and I jerked the wheel, looking back to see yet another ball of who-knehat headed for us

Trent yelped as the car swerved, his butt s the wheel "Trent!" I shouted, shoving hiet pasted here, and your ass in e blob hit the paveht into it The car flipped, and I started to get really scared What the hell were they using to throw theirover ninety!

Oblivious to it, Trent slid back into his seat with a huff, the ot any ideas?" I asked as Trent buckled hireen dust began spilling from him

"Maybe Trent should have married the bitch," he warbled, and I shifted into the far-left lane to get around a bus Sure enough, they stuck with ic and drive at the same time! Where the hell was Pierce when I needed him? No-o-o-o, the one time I have nonunion assassins behind us, I have a businessin’to look cool, but his grip on theducks on the expressway"

"Oh, thank you very much for that observation, Kalaet off the road And then what?"

"Just take South Memorial," he said, his eyes on thebeeps and flashing lights "We can lose them on the surface roads more easily than on the expressway Do what I say, and we’ll be fine" But he eating I couldn’t h it

Jenks darted down to land on the n "That’s the one you want, Rachel Right lane Right lane!"