Free The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison Page A

this time, I did nothing as he jerked me away. “Newt, we must go. Spells to weave, curses to twist. A student’s work is never done!”
    There was alarm under his cheerful words, but Newt gestured as if she didn’t care, turning to look at the red smear where the sun had once been. “Study hard, Rachel,” she said, her staff hitting the earth to pinch the rocks and make them skip. “Come again soon. I’m having a party next week when the purple grass flowers. It’s beautiful then, when the wave hits them and sends them all crashing into one another.”
    Al pulled me back another step, and I walked backward, watching Newt sketch out another circle. “How much power does it take to do that?” I asked, pitying her.
    â€œEnough to make you crazy,” Al said. “Go home and leave Kalamack alone .”
    My feet were edging my ley line, and I felt its warmth spill into me. “Yeah, whatever,” I muttered, deciding it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to tell him I needed to get home so I could pick out what I was going to wear tonight with Trent.
    â€œRachel.”
    â€œOw?” He was pinching my arm, and at my dark look, he let go. Anger had tightened the corners of his eyes peering at me over his blue-smoked glasses. His lips pulled back in a grimace, and I fidgeted, halfway home but realities away. “Give me a break, Al. If I alienate him, I’ll never get the countercurse so you all can escape the ever-after. You can understand he’s a little reluctant after you collectively suggested to off him for the hell of it.”
    Behind him, Newt gestured, and another demon contorted on the ground. Al squinted at me, clearly not happy. “You don’t have enough money to survive the fallout if you fail. And neither do I.”
    My heart thudded. “Tell me about it.” I stood, waiting for him to jump me home. I could shift realities by myself, but I’d be marooned at Loveland Castle and have to beg a jump home from Bis.
    Al shoved me into the line. My anger vanished, turning to worry as I felt the line take me. At least I knew no one was gunning for Trent or me. Almost I wished there was.
    Death threats I could handle. Saving the world had always been a little trickier.

Four
    I vy?” I shouted as I pushed my socks around in my top dresser drawer. “Have you seen my white chemise with the lacy fringe?” The black slacks and short, snappy matching jacket I’d picked out for tonight’s job needed something to alleviate the stark security look. Finding something that said work without tacking on fashion dork was harder than it sounded.
    Jenks flew into my room, his wings clattering loudly. “The last time I wore it, I put it back where I found it,” he said as he came to a pixy-dust-laced halt on my dresser.
    Eyeing him sourly, I held up a pair of big hooped earrings, and together we evaluated the effect. They got rid of a large chunk of security, and at Jenks’s thumbs-up, I slipped them on. Not only did they look nice, but with my shower-damp hair back in a hard-to-grab braid, Jenks could use them to do his pixy surveillance . . . thing.
    Ivy’s voice filtered back from the kitchen. “Your bathroom?”
    Scuffing my flat shoes on, I went to check. Even with a quick shower to get the stink of ever-after from me, I was doing good for time, but Trent was usually early.
    â€œAnd you think you don’t like him,” Jenks said as he followed me across the hall. “It’s just Trent, for Tink’s toes. Who cares what you look like? No one is supposed to notice you.”
    â€œI never said I didn’t like him,” I said as I remembered Al’s warning.
    Wearing security black hadn’t bothered me at first, but after three months of it, being professional had gotten old. If it had been a date, I’d wear my red silk shirt and maybe the jeans that were a shade too snug