Page 10 (1/2)

Chapter Ten

My grip on the wheel tightened untilinto anger, but it was hard Especially now that Trent ake "I don’t care how far we’ve not gotten," I said tightly, glaring at Trent by way of the rearview mirror "If we only make three hundred miles today, then we’ll deal with it They have to stop sometime"

"I understand you’re concerned about your partner," he said in that sa, "but I doubt they’re planning on sacrificing hiod You have a locator amulet You’ll find hi because they know you’re chasing the because of us They were running to so I wasn’t about to slon, and Ivy didn’t look up froht cross again

Vivian kicked the back of my seat as she tried to find a more comfortable spot On the other side of the backseat, Trent frowned out theOkay, soa huge, frustrating zigzag for the last four hours I had raced down I-40, then gone south on 602 to get in front of theht over the car and swear at us We spent another hour on 61, watching the us until we roared ahead to where 191 crossed their theoretical path They si arrows at us when I demanded they stop

Froet back to the interstate We didn’t know the next tias, and Ms Worries-a-lot in the front seat next to h data points to predict where they’d cross the road next I was hoping that if we could get far enough ahead of them in ti bubble Every tiht now, they were sohty and the pixies hitting a steady forty miles an hour It was their top speed-which -and-drag; pixies couldn’t go that fast for that long They were switching off and carrying Jenks Carrying Jenks who knehere

It was about two in the afternoon and hot I was frazzled and ready to snap Ivy wasn’tover the seat to shake Vivian awake every half hour in case she had a concussion-which was totally pissing off the coven woman Trent had been up for only a fewout theand clearly irate that the ti wasted It was all I could do not to reach over the seat and slap hieted, Ivy rolled her n to let in a war otten dark and her posture was tense She wasn’t hot, she was randy, and I rolled my n a bit as well

"I think they stopped," she said, eying the amulet "Somewhere by 180 See?"

She held out the map with her notations and calculations I didn’t look, teeth clenched as I blew past a van with a wizard painted on the side

"Rachel?"

"Just tell me what road to take," Ihair out of her lasses to hide her eyes "You’re going to have to go north for a few oes under the interstate"

"More backtracking?" Trent said, hardly audible

"Shut up! Just shut up!" I yelled, then exhaled, trying to relax "I et you to the West Coast in time if I have to buy a trip for you from Newt" If only Al would’ve jumped me there, but he wantedto pull this car over and shove you in the trunk!"

Trent sighed and shifted his knees, and Ivy looked up fro," I said softly to her "He’s got about as much empathy as a demon It’s always me, me, me What if it had been Quen as kidnapped? I bet he’d be all over that like pixies on elf trash"

Trent cleared his throat, and I huffed Point made

"You want me to drive for a while?" Ivy said "You need a break"

"No, I’ve got this," I said quickly, then added, "If I don’t do so, I’ll snap"

I waited for Jenks’s comment that I had already snapped, but of course it never ca the speedometer, I pressed the accelerator We had to stay in front of them, and there was a whole lot of distance left

"We’ll find hi dark as she set it aside to fold up the map

Silent, I scanned the distant horizon for cops, ht and shadow Jenks was out there somewhere My stomach clenched This shouldn’t have happened He didn’t need ht us all by surprise I should have made him take that curse

Ivy shook the le Vivian Ask her what her narumbled, clearly awake "And if you touch me, Kalamack, I’ll turn your hair pink I do not have a concussion! Leave me alone and let me sleep!" In a huff, she repositioned herself in the corner, her feet kicking the back of my seat as she shook out ed it over her head

"I think she’s fine," Trent said sourly as he looked out at the changing nothing

The car was full of unhappy people heading west It was the Great Aht Whaaa-hoo!

I sniffed, h food I was upset, but it was hard not to see the scenery and call it beautiful It was nothing but dirt and rock, but it looked clean, pure, the angles and gullies standing out in the strong sun I could tell that Trent was hot with theopen and the air-conditioning going full bore, but I was comfortable He’d have to suck it up

"That’s our exit," Ivy said suddenly, and I slowed, not wanting to take it at ninety ain, and I tapped the brake to shake hi the faded PETRIFIED FOREST sign "Maybe this is where they’re heading"

"The Petrified Forest?" Trent said, sounding interested "I read about this place"

Ivy leaned forward "Everyone who’s been to school has read about this place"

"I’ve never been here," Trent said, his words clipped as he tried to hide his interest "It’s not the kind of thing that-"

"They let you do, huh?" I finished for hi down my partner from kidnappers, and Trent’s more interested in chunks of rock?

Ivy handed the map to him over the seat "Now’s your chance, Johnny Boy Scout," she said, apparently not needing it anyave a thuer hut straddling the road Crap "Vivian? Are you going to give us any trouble? Tell run a paper that you’re a fucking angel"

"I didn’t know they let covento cover his curiosity, but he was leaning forward, wanting to see more

"Fuck you, Kalamack," the usually posh wo fun now

Ivy shrugged, so I pulled up and rolled mycompletely down

"Hi Can we have a day pass?" I asked after reading the rates painted on the brown sign

"That will be five fifty," the weathered woman said, and Trent shoved soet you a receipt," she said, ducking inside herto hit a few buttons "Are you ca?" she said as she leaned back out and handed est it this time of year And you’ll need to take a class before you can get your camp permit If you’re not prepared, the desert can be deadly The class just takes twenty ht Is that all? "We’ve got lots of water"

Seeing Trent’s eager hand on the seat, at my shoulder, I handed him the brochure, and he settled back like a kid with a new toy

"It’s not just the water, it’s the heat and elevation," the ranger said, her gaze on Vivian "Is she okay?"

The bar ahead of us was still down, and I took a deep breath

"Too ," Trent said over the crackle of new paper, surprising et out of the car"

The ranger sht If you change your mind about the class, they start every half hour"

"Thanks," I said, wanting to floor it, but she hadn’t given me our sticker yet

"Well, enjoy the park There’s a large group of Weres out at the hotel for a company retreat, but other than that, all the exhibits are open"

Finally the little yellow sticker was stuck to the inside ofI could bla, the woman went back into her air-conditioned hut, and I crept forward at the posted fortydown the interstate at ninety, it felt like I was crawling I started to fidget

"It says here the average person needs a gallon of water per day," Trent said, reading from the brochure "How much do we have?"

"None" I eyed the empty water bottles in the cup holders "It’s twenty miles to any road I think we’ll be okay"

"All I’ is if we have to walk, we don’t have any water"

Ivy glanced at hi in the car"

Fro to sleep! Will you shut up!"

Ivy settled back, and I said nothing, dividingdot of Jenks on the aled ravines and colors that were like nothing I’d ever seen before We passed pull-off after pull-off, Trent rolling his n, sucking the cooler air out of the car, the flat of his aret a look at the admittedly spectacular views It wasn’t until we found flat desert again that he sank back into his seat As expected, we crossed under the overpass and headed south

"Think we’ll get to the place in ti wildly between relief and iering the a anymore"

"He can’t fly Not at this altitude" Da his red," Ivy said, pointing out the sign for the auto tour It went into the desert, and Trent perked up, his gaze going up and down as he traced our path on his brochure "They ht have taken hi to help"

"Yeah, and that’s why they were swearing at us e caught up with them," I said Double damn, what if I found him, only to find that the size difference preventedlittle things big, not the other way around

Driving with one hand, I looked at , where my phone was If worse came to worst, I could call Ceri for the curse to make myself sain Trent put his n, and the dry sh my hair as we drove a level course on the top of the world, the canyons dipping an irays, and blues-like s We’dthe park, just seen a few ravens and buzzards Silence, still and unco withoutthe amulet

"Are we there yet?" Trent said sarcastically, and Vivian groaned, pulling the blanket over her head despite the heat

I drove past a sign about an ancient ruin, and Ivy stiffened "Back up Rachel! We’re close I think they’re at the ruins!"

My heart pounded as I jerked the car to a halt so fast that Vivian hit the back ofVivian’s snarl, I flung my arm over the back of the seat and put the car in reverse Trent’s eyes widened as I whipped the car around, landing it between thite lines and jaine off and bolted out of the car,on the pavement as it threw up a wave of heat

The silence hitout here, initude The hot wind shifting my hair had been init a slippery feel as it nizingdue to their own limitations for the first time in my existence It wasi even the shadows hot I sentout over the purples andin the feel of the air, listening for the hu e of faded nothing, like hints of what had once been but was now gone E was empty

My head ached fron, a breath, a wing chirp Every chip of rock, every shadow stood out in sharp relief as I searched for hie of the desert almost scratched on the inside of es of ley lines that no longer existed They whispered, hinting at a tie ani with the ley lines I wondered which had disappeared first

Al had once told me that demons made the ley lines in their efforts to escape the ever-after, butnow the faded reinal source of ic in their attemy awareness around an empty shell of a scratch between the present and the past, finding no energy but only the lingering idea that power had once run here, now gone, leaving only the skeleton, dry and dusty, to hint at what had been It made me feel so daht heavy in my heart "Get back in the car," I said to Trent, and Ivy slowly got out, her head bent over the amulet in her hand

Trent looked me up and down, his expression closed "It’s an oven in there," he said, turning to the map on the brochure "And besides, it’s a bunch of pixies How bad can it be? Just go and get him You’re a thousand tiainst and squinted atwith his wispy hair, and the heat, made him look tired "I’ll stay here unless you scream for me Promise," he said sourly

Yeah, like that will happen Jittery, I looked at thethat there was a quarter- to it, about four hundred people had once lived here, alo

Ivy shut her door with a backward kick, the thu before the silence soaked it up "You should listen to Quenup froht rise of land before us "Pixies are deadly"

Trent frowned at the sky, and I ran a finger between my ankle and the heel of my boot "A clan of wild pixies kidnapped an experienced runner," I said "They live in the desert What does that tell you?"

"They aren’t sust Ivy headed for the narrow footpath of paved asphalt, and I turned to follow According to the plaque, archaeologists had begun to reconstruct the village site, but there were no walls higher thanht once have been ley lines, I tapped the nearest real one My eyes closed as I found hundreds of them, some as far away as the next state The lack of water had extended ht Having so , and I quickly spindled a wad of ever-after energy inthis was not going to be easy I didn’t want to resort to o, I wasn’t sure if I could force the the was loud as I started out after Ivy, but she was only propping it open to get a cross breeze

Yeah, there was the Vivian angle to consider, too Anything I did was going to land in the coven’s ears Frowning, I picked up the pace until I caught up with Ivy, ht rise The altitude was getting to me I tried to walk softly to listen for the clatter of pixy wings, but there was only the wind

How anything could survive out here was beyondpixies The only plant life I’d seen was tough and herbaceous, solance at if I was hoh to make me want to cover hihtly as we passed down a narrow alley, slumps of rocks to either side

Ivy didn’t look up from the amulet, too worried to notice the stark beauty around her It felt good to bedown an abandoned alley lost to history was creepy I didn’t like the fatigue creeping up s We’d walked only twenty yards, but it felt like a mile in the heat and elevation No wonder Jenks couldn’t fly

The path turned, and we halted at the end of the village, looking over as once probably the refuse duures etched into the rock, the dark surface chipped off to show the white stone underneath Most of the glyphs were indecipherable circles and spirals, but the one with the bird holding a yptian, and I wondered if des," I said, pointing out the one with the storklike bird

"They’re called petroglyphs" Ivy didn’t even look at thee bird is eating that lanced up

"I think it says ’stay close to the village, or the boogie et you’"

I liftedlike ere being watched

"Right," I said, not convinced "And those little tally edto screae to take the a better Ivy felt helpless, too

"I can’t tell" Ivy turned in a slow circle, her expression one of the lost "I know they’re watching us" Pursing her lips, she whistled

Below us in the parking lot, Trent pushed from the car I waved hi lot to crouch and feel the dirt between his fingers

Ivy and I strained to hear so, but not even an insect broke the sound of wind on stone I didn’t like this If they took Jenks to ground, we’d never find the