by Quinn Loftis
Osiris’s eyes widened. He clearly hadn’t expected that. “You do not know what the consequences of your actions will be if you do this,” he said, staring at her as if Ra wasn’t even in the room.
“I will not allow him to give up his soul for me. I don’t care what the consequences are.” Shelly wasn’t going to lie to herself. She was terrified, but that didn’t change the fact that she wouldn’t let Ra make that kind of sacrifice for her. It wouldn’t be just his soul. He would suffer for all eternity when he died. She felt Ra take her hand and pull her to face him.
“I can’t let you do this,” he said, his voice quiet but firm.
“You don’t have a say. It’s my soul, my choice. Ra, if you give him your soul, I won’t leave with you.”
“Dammit, Mery,” he said in a strained voice as if she were torturing him.
“I accept your offer,” Osiris said.
“No,” Ra yelled, shocking Shelly with his reaction.
“Shelly’s soul will be mine. You will be bound together. Never to be parted. Neither of you can ever choose another,” Osiris said as he continued to stare at her. “If either of you gives yourself to someone else, your fate is with me.”
“You know what this means for her,” Ra snapped. “She can’t go back soulless. It will leave her open to the darkness.”
“So it will,” Osiris said.
Shelly frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Your soul is what maintains your moral compass,” Ra said. “Without it, the power that evil offers will be difficult, if not impossible, to resist.”
Shelly’s eyes filled with tears. She didn’t want to be evil. How could she view the world in the same way as Osiris? That would be unthinkable. “So, you would get me anyway?” she asked Osiris. “I thought you were giving me a choice.”
“Bind my soul to her,” Ra said, finally causing Osiris to look away from her. “If you bind my soul to her, she will be protected.”
“If I bind your soul to her, it’s not the same as an elemental binding you,” Osiris warned.
“I don’t care,” Ra said. “I won’t leave her vulnerable.”
“She’ll be vulnerable in a different way,” Osiris warned.
“How?” Shelly asked.
“If I bind his soul to you, essentially making you one with him, then not only is your fate tied to each other, the order of your fate will be the determining factor in your eternity.”
Shelly shook her head. “Please speak in simple, human terms. My brain is too tired to decipher demon legalese.”
“For you and Ra to escape eternity in the underworld, Ra would have to die first. You would die with him, but it will have to be his heart that stops first. It will be his sacrifice to fulfill his oath. If your heart stops before his, then you are both mine.”
The look on her face must have made it very clear to him what she was thinking.
“I told you, little one, there is nothing good in me. I am a selfish creature. I never pretended to be anything but what I am. I want you. I am allowing a way out for you, but it will be at a great price.”
“I accept,” Ra said. He looked at Shelly and lifted his hand to her face. “If you give your soul, you won’t have the life you want, Shelly. If you allow me to share my soul with you, then we both have a chance. Are you willing to do that? Please,” he pleaded.
Shelly hated the idea of Ra dying. Even if it was the fate of every human in the end, she hated the idea of anything happening to him. “Okay,” she said finally. “I’ll do it.”
Ra hated that he could not spare Shelly any pain, but this would at least protect her from the darkness she would be exposed to in his world. He would make sure he died first. Even if he had to stab himself in the heart, he would keep Shelly out of Hades.
Osiris walked over to Shelly, and Ra tensed. He didn’t like the lord of the underworld so close to her. He was a threat as long as they were in his domain.
“This is going to hurt. For that, I am sorry,” Osiris said as he placed his hand over her heart. His palm began to glow with a red light.
Shelly gasped in pain, and Ra wrapped his arm around her waist, pressing her back to him so she would know he was right there. He would take the pain from her if he could. He hated this.
A bright white light began to pulse from her chest. As Osiris pulled his hand away, the white light followed until it left her body completely. He closed his hand around it, and the light absorbed into his flesh.
Shelly sagged against Ra, and he held her tightly so she wouldn’t crumble to the floor. She began sobbing, and it broke his heart.
Ra leaned down and pressed his lips to her ear. “I’m so sorry, beloved. I would spare you this if I could.”
“Press your hand over her heart where my hand was,” Osiris said, his voice completely flat.
Ra obeyed. Then Osiris covered Ra’s hand, and the red began again. Ra felt a pulling from deep inside of him as if something were tethered to his gut and was wrenching it from his body. He watched as a white light from his chest expanded until it ran down his arm, into his hand, and then into Shelly’s chest. She sucked in a deep breath and leaned back against him.
Osiris dropped his hand and stepped back. “It is done.”
Ra could feel Shelly’s heartbeat even after he dropped his hand away from her chest. He could feel her inside of him. He focused on it, feeling her fear, her pain, and her love—for him. Then it was gone. His eyes snapped to Osiris. “What’s wrong with it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I could feel her, now I can’t.” He paused then suddenly he could feel her again. “Now, I can feel her again.”
“It takes more for a soul binding than just me putting your soul in her,” Osiris said. “For two to become one, you must join your bodies.”
Ra’s gut clenched. “What?”
“Do I really have to spell it out?” Osiris sighed.
Shelly was finally able to stand. She placed her hand on top of the one Ra had pressed to her stomach, keeping her against him. “I’m sorry, but what did you say?”
Osiris rolled his eyes as if he found it ridiculous that what he was saying was shocking them. “To complete the soul-bonding and make it stick, so to speak, then you must have sex. Is that clear enough? It’s a tale as old as time—as in, the beginning of time. The two shall become one. Ringing a bell?”
“Sex,” Shelly repeated. “Me and Ra.”
“No, little one, you and the mailman. I’m sure he can deliver Ra’s soul to you with two-day shipping,” he snapped. “Yes, you and Ra. I thought you were intelligent.”
“Dammit, I just had my soul ripped from my body and someone else’s put inside me. And now I’m being told to have sex when I’ve never even been kissed. And I haven’t slept in two days … and I want my mom.” Shelly breathed hard. And to Ra’s surprise, she turned in his arm and pressed her face into his chest.
Ra placed his hand on the back of her head and held her to him. Knowing that with Osiris, there was always a catch, he asked, “What’s the time frame?”
“Seven hours,” Osiris said. “If you are not one flesh in that time, her body will reject your soul and not recognize it as her own.”
“That’s oddly specific,” Shelly mumbled.
“Seven is a significant number to the supernatural world,” Osiris said as his eye wandered over her longingly. “Take her before I change my mind.” He raised his hand and a portal appeared. “It will take you to her home. A boon I will give her out of my infinite kindness.”
Ra nodded his head. “Thank you.”
“Goodbye, little one. I will not lie and say I hope you can have the ending you desire because that means I will not have you.”
“You have my soul. Isn’t that enough?” she asked as she turned to look at him.
“It is here, but I cannot feel it because it doesn’t belong here,” he said. “So, no, it is not enough. But even I have to follow certain rules. Unless I want to deal with the
consequences. For you, I just might.”
Ra didn’t wait for Shelly to respond. He walked through the portal practically carrying Shelly along with him, leaving hell and its lord behind them.
16
“Shelly,” Ra said gently as he pushed her back a little so he could look at her face. “I know you want to speak with your parents, but tonight, all I can offer is for you to see them from afar. There will be too many questions that we can’t answer right now. We need one of the heads of the academies to talk to them with us. Do you understand?”
She nodded even as tears streamed down her face. “I do. I get it. I just miss them.”
“I know you do, Mery, and I would give you this if we weren’t on a deadline.”
Her eyes met his, and he saw mixed emotions there: fear, desire, insecurity, and hesitancy. For a moment, he even felt them through their shared soul. He didn’t blame her. She’d been thrown into this against her will, and it wasn’t fair to her.
“I’m sorry,” he said again because he didn’t know what else to say.
She cupped his face in her hand and shook her head. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. You saved me.” She inhaled deeply and then took his hand. “Let’s do this, and then can we go to Tara?”
“Of course,” Ra said without pause. He would lay the world at her feet if that was what she needed. He followed her to her house. There was a small gap in the curtains of the front window, and they could see into her living room.
Shelly’s mother, who looked very much like her daughter, sat on the sofa. She was holding her phone, staring at the screen as if willing it to ring. Her eyes were tortured, her body slumped forward as if all the air had been sucked out of it.
Shelly covered her mouth as she stared at her mom.
A man came up behind the couch and placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder. She reached up and covered his hand with her own. The couple held onto one another as if they were the only thing keeping the other from falling apart.
“I need to go,” Shelly said as she turned to him.
Ra wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tucked her close as he realized how cold she was. In fact, he realized that it wasn’t just her that was cold. The air was cold, too cold for late May in Kentucky. He walked her to the trees next to her house. He opened a portal that would take them to Terra Academy.
She stopped him before he could place his hand on the stone and knock, causing doors in the mountain to open. “Ra.” Her voice was small as she looked down at her feet.
“Yes, Mery,” he said as he lifted her face so he could see her eyes.
“I’m okay, with us,” she said, her face turning a soft shade of red. “I mean, with what has to happen, um, between, I mean the thing, the…” She stammered, and Ra forced himself not to smile because he didn’t want to embarrass her.
“If the cost wasn’t you being soulless, I would have courted you as you deserve. I would… have asked you to marry me once I’d made you fall in love with me, and only then would I have joined with you.”
“I guess we sort of did it backward,” she said with a small smile.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when two people marry, they become one, right? So, I guess we’re married because we share a soul. Now we date. Backward, but then I never have done anything normal.”
Ra leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead. He wanted to kiss her lips, but he didn’t want to have to rush their first kiss. “I’m honored to be married to you, to be one with you, and share my soul with you.”
Before Shelly could respond, there was a loud crack. Ra pulled Shelly back a few steps as they watched the mountain split, and then two stone doors opened.
“What the hell do you mean you’re honored to be married to my best friend, Ra? I told you to bring her back, not marry her. And if you tell me it’s because she’s knocked up, I might just open up a sinkhole and dump you in it,” Tara said as she glared at him. “I can do that, you know. Or at least I will be able to do it soon.” She looked Shelly up and down. “What on earth are you wearing?”
Ra glanced at Shelly and realized she was still in the gown and black robe. He wanted to know why on earth she was wearing it as well.
“I missed you, too, BFFF,” Shelly said as a smile lit up her face. “Hell’s kind of hot, so wearing flannel pj’s isn’t conducive to being comfortable.”
“I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I’ll let it slide.” Tara pushed Ra aside and wrapped her arms tightly around Shelly.
Elias, Liam, and Aston stepped out and behind them was Terrick and Iterra.
“Glad you’re back,” Elias said as he pulled Ra into a hug.
Liam was next, grinning like the Cheshire cat. “How was hell? Any hot women? Get it, hot? Because it’s hell?”
Ra chuckled. “I see no one has kept you in line while I’ve been gone.”
Aston stepped up when Liam let go. He hugged Ra and said, “I tried, but he’s just not intimidated by me like he is you.”
“Not to worry, I am back now,” Ra said as he looked away from his friends back to Shelly. He wanted to pull her to him, where she was safe. But she needed her friend, and he wouldn’t take that from her.
Tears ran down Shelly’s face as she held onto Tara. She wanted her mom still, but Tara was almost as good. She was home, a safe place, and, wow, she’d missed her best friend.
“I was terrified, Shell,” Tara whispered. “I thought I’d lost you.”
Shelly pulled back and wiped at her tears. “Sorry, babe, but not even hell could keep me down. I’m like the Energizer Bunny.”
Tara laughed. “Damn right. But seriously, don’t get thrown into hell again.”
Shelly saluted. “Sir, yes, sir.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “Don’t start that again.”
“It sort of fits. I mean, you’re in cargos, for goodness’ sake,” Shelly said as she pointed to the pants Tara was wearing.
“I’m sorry to interrupt this reunion, but we should take this inside,” a tall man said from behind Tara. He looked at Shelly and his kind eyes smiled. “Welcome back to Terra Academy, Shelly. I do hope you will stay longer this time. We are so very glad that Ra was able to bring you back. I am Terrick, the headmaster.”
Shelly’s mouth made an O shape. “You’re like Dumbledore,” she said in awe.
The group around her laughed.
“I suppose so, in some ways,” he said.
Tara grabbed Shelly’s hand to pull her inside. But before she could take a step, Ra suddenly had her in his arms, and Elias had grabbed Tara.
The others had moved into what could only be called fighting stances as they faced the forest. Ra pushed her behind him, and wicked-looking swords appeared in his hands. Shelly looked around his broad shoulders and saw a woman and a man step out of a portal.
“Stand down,” Terrick said. “It’s Miles and Josie. They are hydro warrior elementalists. They must have received the call to come in.”
“Why are they here and not at Hydro Academy?” Elias asked as everyone relaxed.
“Probably because, now that I remember, they are a soul-bonded pair.”
Shelly looked over at Tara and met her friend's eyes. “You get a two-for-one special today, BFFF. Me, back to bless your life with my glorious presence, and peeps in the know to ask about your sexy time with your soul mate,” Shelly said with a grin.
Tara narrowed her eyes on Shelly and glanced at Ra. He sheathed his blades and put one arm back behind him so his hand was pressed to Shelly’s back, keeping her pushed against him. “I have just as many questions for them as I do you. I haven’t forgotten what I overheard. Married, Shell? Really? Only you could go to hell and come back married.”
Shelly felt her face heat up as she glanced up at Ra. “Not going to lie, BFFF, hell sucked. But, I did get something amazing out of the whole experience.”
“We need to speak with the soul-bonded couple, Tara and Elias,” the wom
an, Josie, who’d come through the portal said, interrupting Tara’s interrogation.
“Time is of the essence, Terrick,” the man Terrick had called Miles said.
Shelly shivered at the ominous tone and also because she realized that it was freaking cold.
“Why is it so cold?” she asked out loud to no one in particular.
“That’s why time is of the essence,” the man repeated. “The world is beginning to freeze.”
Tara frowned. “I thought the problem was global warming?”
Shelly shook her head. “Nope. That totally doesn’t happen. No zombie apocalypse either.”
“What? How do you know? What the crap did you do in hell? Learn stuff?” Tara asked with a deep frown.
“I’ve got so much to tell you.” Shelly sighed.
17
“Thank you for the information you’ve shared, Collin. It is very helpful,” Nasima said. “You will stay here, in my home, and my household staff will get you settled.”
“You’re leaving?” Collin asked.
“We cannot allow a demon as powerful as Dolion to continue to consort with covens and dark elementals. It is our duty to protect the humans and all of the realms,” Avuir said. “You will be safe here.”
Nasima truly hoped that would remain true. If Viscious and Dolion were working together, along with the other dark elementals, then things were going to get worse before they got better.
Kairi opened a portal that appeared as a whirlpool floating in the air. With one last look at Collin, the three royals stepped through the portal.
Nasima felt herself slam into something hard. She was violently thrown backward. Then she felt a hand around her arm. She turned to see Aviur pulling her and Kairi into a different portal.
They hit the ground hard. Nasima was on her feet an instant later. “What in Gaia’s name was that?”
“I opened the portal to the earth realm so we could check on Dhara,” Kairi said.
“Something has managed to close the realm,” Aviur added.
“Something evil,” Kairi said. She had been the first one to step through the portal. “When I touched the boundary it felt like oil and smelled like sulfur.”