"I can't!" Ivy shouted, making me jump. "Look at me! If I touch her…"
Eyes wet, I looked up. A shiver ran through me as I saw her before the broken fridge, spent CO2 dripping from the shelves. Her eyes were full, vampire black. Her hands were clenched with repressed need. Instinct triggered by Rynn Cormel earlier tonight warred with her desire to comfort me. The instincts were winning. If she made one move to help me, she'd end up at my throat.
"I can't touch you," she said, tears slipping from her, making her look beautiful. "I'm so sorry, Rachel. I can't…"
Jenks darted to the ceiling when she shifted into motion. She was fleeing, and in an eyeblink, the kitchen was empty. Wobbling, I got to my feet. She had fled, but I knew she wasn't leaving the church. She just needed the time and space to find herself again.
"It's okay," I whispered, not looking at Jenks as I lurched to my feet. "It's not her fault. Jenks, I'm going to take a shower. I'll be better after a hot shower. Don't let your kids near me until the sun comes up, okay? I couldn't live with myself if Al snatched them."
Jenks hovered where he was as I used the counter and then the wall for balance to stagger to the bathroom, my head down and my eyes unseeing. Behind me, I left the wreckage of the kitchen. A shower wouldn't help, but I had to get out of the room.
I needed someone to hold me and tell me it was going to be okay. But I was alone. Jenks couldn't help me. Ivy couldn't touch me. Hell, even Bis couldn't touch me. Everyone else I had come close to was dead or not strong enough to survive the crap my life dished out.
I was alone, just like Mia had said, and I always would be.
It had been hard staying asleep with Ivy's crashing around this morning, coming in about ten, showering, by the sound of it, and leaving an hour later. Jenks's kids hadn't helped either, flying up and down the hall playing tag with Rex. Nevertheless, I buried my head in my pillow and stayed in bed as seven pounds of kitty fur slammed into walls and knocked over an end table. I was tired, aura sick, and depressed—and I was going to sleep in.
So several hours later, when Jenks locked Rex in my room to get his kids to shut up for their noon nap, I barely heard the front door open and the soft steps pass my door. Ivy, I assumed, and I sighed, snuggling deeper under my coverlet, glad that she'd found a shred of kindness and was going to let me sleep. But no. I was never that lucky.
"Rachel?" came a high-pitched whisper, and the sound of dragonfly wings susurrated into my dream of amber-tinted fields of grain. Pierce was stretched out in them, a stalk of wheat between his teeth, gazing up at red clouds. "You can't kill me, mistress witch," he said, smiling before he vanished with my conscious thought and I fully awoke.
"Go away, Jenks," I mumbled and pulled the blanket over my head.
"Rache, wake up." There was the scrape of my drapes being opened and the harsh clatter of Jenks's wings. "Marshal is here."
"Why?" Lifting my head, I squinted through my hair at the sudden light.
The memory of steps in the hall resurfaced, and I rolled to see my clock. Ten after one. Not much of a sleep-in. The sun was bright through my stained-glass window, and it was cold. Rex was a warm puddle at my feet, and as I watched, she stretched, ending it with an inquiring trill to Jenks, now standing beside the stuffed giraffe on my dresser.
"Marshal is here," he repeated, his angular face looking concerned. "He brought breakfast. You know, doughnuts?"
I propped myself up on an elbow and tried to figure out what was going on. "Oh yeah. Where's Ivy?"
"Out pricing new refrigerators." His wings blurred into motion, and he rose, his reflection in the mirror making twice the glow. "She spent the morning at Cormel's, but she came back to shower before she went out. She told me to tell you that since you're not in the ever-after today, she got an appointment to see Skimmer at six."
Six? After sunset. Nice. I had wanted to have lunch with my mom and Robbie today, but I could postpone it a little. "I heard her come in." I sat up and blearily looked at the clock again. I didn't like that Ivy had been with Rynn Cormel, the pretty monster, but what could I say? And why does my mouth taste like apples? Leaning over, I pulled Rex across the mounds of covers to me for a cuddle hello. I liked her a lot more now that she would let me touch her.
"Are you going to get up?" Jenks added, his wings hitting a pitch akin to nails on a chalkboard. "Marshal is in the kitchen."
Doughnuts. I could smell coffee, too. "I'm not even dressed," I complained as I let go of Rex and swung my feet to the cold floor. "I'm a mess." Thank God it's daylight, or Al might come over and decide to take him, too.
