I felt stupid, but I closed my eyes. The first thing I noticed was how uncomfortable this whole thing made me. The poor plants could be…
“Focus!” Elion’s harsh voice snapped me out of my mental complaints. “This is not a game.”
The hum from the spider plant fluttered in small fits of lackluster power. The energy pulse was a soft, sickly yellow. Without opening my eyes, I asked, “I see colors. Now, what do I do?”
“Look beyond the colors and find the threads of energy. Once you see them, you’ll have to carefully weave them back together. Tell me when you find them and I’ll talk you through the rest. But this time, do it with your eyes open.”
I was reluctant, but did as he asked. I imagined they’d look like tentacles floating through the colors. Creeping vines, waving around like searching fingers of energy. I was wrong. The threads were embedded deep in the colors. Almost as if the very fabric of the soul was coming apart, one thread at a time. “I’ve got it,” I whispered, excited and freaked out at the same time. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering. Maybe I was afraid I’d lose sight of the threads. I didn’t dare blink.
“Before you do anything, look at the soul’s pattern. Each soul has a different one. If you don’t thread it the same, you’ll damage it irreparably or kill the soul.” Elion sounded far more confident in my ability to avoid damaging the plant than I did.
“No pressure, though, right?” No one responded, which didn’t surprise me. I kept looking at the plant. I knew I should have paid more attention in home economics class. I’d managed to skate through the sewing portion with my mom’s guidance. That didn’t help me now.
“Don’t think about sewing,” Luna cut in, sounding a lot less sure than Elion. “How do you put your scents together? You find the correct recipe, right? Do it that way. Each soul has its own recipe. You have to get it just right, or it won’t turn out.”
I focused on the threads. Instead of a pattern, I imagined a recipe. I held the dagger between my teeth to keep my hands free. I felt my abilities come to life as I began methodically putting the threads back together. It felt surreal. My hands were moving inside the very core of the plant. Not on the physical plane, but deep within its aura. The energy was much heavier here, like my hands were wading through a substance made of equal parts air and water. It swirled around me, pressing and prodding, as if gauging my intentions.
I worked with slow, steady precision. I moved a single thread at a time, watching the spider plant’s energy change as I did. If the colored flickered and the energy felt heavier, I immediately backtracked. If the color shifted to a healthier glow and the energy danced, I moved forward. It took over thirty painful minutes. By the time I finished, I was shaking with the effort.
I dropped into a chair and set the dagger on the table while they inspected my work. A smile spread across Teryl’s face. “Holy shit. You did it.”
Luna didn’t look as happy as she put the plant back in the box. “That’s good, but it’s a plant.”
“The plants were your idea,” I pointed out, more than a little pissed at her quick dismissal.
“They were something to start with. It took you too long. Do you think you’re going to have uninterrupted time to do that?”
I didn’t understand her sudden agitation. “What do you want me to do? That’s the first time I’ve ever done that. Um…I mean the first time I can remember doing it. Besides, right now, isn’t it more important for me to learn how to unthread a soul? I need to kill Luke, and I need to kill Jedren. It’s simple. I need to undo damage that’s already been done, not risk screwing up more people by threading more souls. My father’s has to be taken apart.”
Elion gestured for me to stand and handed me the dagger, closing my fist around it and positioning me as if I were going to stab someone in the heart. “Killing a soul will be quick. You slice it with this. If your intention is death, the soul will die. If your intention wavers, the threads of the soul will try to attach to yours.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“If I don’t do it right, the soul will attach itself to me. Like a parasite?” The idea of my father’s soul attached to mine horrified me.
“Distractions will cost you,” Elion said. “You can’t lose focus for even a second.”
“All I have to think about is his death? I think about that right now, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” I was trying to reassure myself as much as my uncle.
Teryl’s cell phone rang. After a terse conversation, he hung up. “They have Gemma, but she’s in rough shape. She was alone and left for dead. We have to meet them at Cassie’s, but if Elle’s not ready…” he let his sentence hang, waiting for Elion’s direction.
“Let’s go. I can do it.” I think I surprised them all. Luna looked like she was about to argue, so I charged ahead. “Give me a chance. You organized all of this. It’s time for me to try.”
“You’re exhausted,” she said, in her blunt way. “Your abilities aren’t fully manifested, and you used up what little energy you had on the plant.” Unfortunately, they had a point. I had no idea what my limits were, and I wasn’t about to test them on this poor girl.
“Can you guys do anything for her? Until I can rest a little?” If I could nap on the way to Cassie’s, it should help. I hoped.
Luna shook her head, making her short curls bounce. “No. Not at this point. We have some healing ability, but it’s not our strength. When the soul has been wounded, it’s beyond us to fix.”
“Your mother and I had different fathers,” Elion added when I turned to him. “Hers was the weaver line. I know a little about it, but I cannot wield the magic with any success. The dagger wouldn’t work for me, either.”
“Damn,” I muttered, knowing we had no other options. Then I remembered something Jax had said. “What if Jax can amplify my abilities? He mentioned that gargoyles can—I don’t know what you call it—but they can add to a shadow elf’s magic, making it temporarily stronger. Would that work?”
Elion squeezed my shoulder as he considered it. “I believe it might. How do you feel right now?”
“Determined.”
Luna snorted and gave Elion a push with her hip. “Wrong question. Do you think you can do this without killing her or screwing up her soul so badly you have to put her out of her misery?”
That gave me pause. I looked to Teryl for guidance, but he seemed just as uncertain as I was. “I…Yes, I think I can. If I have Jax to help, I know I can.” As long as my abilities didn’t peter out on me.
Luna’s face hardened. “Either you can or you can’t. If you don’t think your abilities will hold, you shouldn’t try.”
I made my decision. There would be no more lost innocents if I could help it. “I can. But I don’t think it’s wise to just walk off the property. My father might not be watching closely, but that would still look suspicious.” And foolish. I knew I didn’t have enough energy to use the shadows to conceal us if I wanted to help Gemma.
Elion’s eyes gleamed with a fierce light. “They won’t know we’ve left, niece. Don’t worry about that.”
Cassie lived on the edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, about thirty minutes from my shop and apartment, but farther from my father’s. Though Luna and Elion appeared and disappeared at will, they let Teryl drive us.
When we drove past the gate guards without being stopped, Elion smiled and said, “You could say it’s shadowing on a larger scale.”
After everything I’d seen, I could buy that explanation. I was thankful when we arrived with no incident.
Cassie met us at the door. “They’re not here yet, but come on in. I made up the other bedroom for her.”
Cassie had Teryl’s warm brown eyes and charm. She was only about five feet, five inches, and as a runner, she had the nimble, compact body designed for distance. Just like Teryl, she had a lot of energy and a friendly personality. She had just finished nursing school, but also had a knack for customer service. I would miss her help at the shop when she finally found
a nursing position.
Cassie had somehow managed to score an apartment with two bedrooms for a reasonable rent. Roomier than my apartment, hers was decorated to reflect her quirky personality. Bright colors and wild patterns gave the space a surprisingly homey appeal. Luna looked around in approval. “Love the space. You could teach Elle a thing or two.”
Cassie beamed and offered us something to drink. We all declined. I was too anxious to drink much. I had rested on the way over, but couldn’t help but worry. Jax and MacLean should only be fifteen minutes behind us with Gemma. I couldn’t fail this girl.
Elion and I went back to the room Cassie had prepped. “You need to relax.”
I gave him a dirty look. “Gee thanks. That’s as helpful as, ‘you need to not kill her.’”
He sighed and sat on the small bed. “Let me rephrase my comment. You need to believe you can do this. You need to trust your abilities and your mate, because he’ll help. Your abilities aren’t fully manifested, yes, but you can do this. I suspect Jedren was telling the truth when he said you did it years ago. With your birthday in two days, your magic is much stronger.”
The reminder made my stomach plummet in a sickening lurch. I had no problem trusting Jax, and I believed I could do it. My worry was that I had little control over my abilities until my birthday hit, at which point I wasn’t sure what would happen. They could fizzle out at the wrong moment, but for now, I had to hope they’d hold.
“Close your eyes,” Elion instructed, after pulling me onto the bed to sit beside him. “One thing to remember when working with souls is to listen. You’ll know when the soul wants to heal itself. It will help you. If the soul refuses to knit back together, it’s time to let it go. You have to be able to tell the difference. Look at my soul.”
My eyes flew open in alarm. “No way. There’s nothing wrong with your soul. I’m a big fan of the motto ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’”
“You can’t hurt me. All I want you to do is look, and see the difference between the soul of a god, and the soul of a plant or oracle. You need to understand the nuances of the souls, and the life energy of each. Then you can focus on how the process of threading and the end result can be similar.”
I didn’t want to. Not even a little bit. “Shouldn’t I conserve my energy?” Poking around in someone’s healthy soul sounded like a very bad idea. Especially because I was so nervous.
He smiled a little, seeing right through me. “Looking at the soul isn’t what will drain you. It’s only when you start moving things around that you lose strength. This will be simple. Look, but don’t touch.”
“Of course it’s simple. I’ll take a quick peek at your soul, no big deal,” I muttered, but settled in and took a deep breath. The familiar hum of energy teased the edge of my awareness. Elion’s was much stronger than the plants. He had a different feel, now that I focused on him. His energy seemed more elemental. Just as scents had different notes, so did souls. The plants had been what I would call green notes, which made sense. Elion’s was old. Earthy, but also otherworldly. And strong. Strong enough, I wanted to take a big step back to give him space.
“What do you see?”
“Vitality.”
That earned me a rusty laugh. I had a feeling he laughed less often than Jax did. “No, niece. What do you see in my soul’s threads?”
“It’s complete.”
“Anything else?”
I wasn’t sure what he was asking. There wasn’t a thread out of place. The energy of his soul was full of vibrant energy. “What else am I supposed to be looking for?”
He didn’t get a chance to answer.
“Elle!” Teryl stuck his head in the room. “They’re here. Are you ready?”
Elion and I stood, making way for MacLean, who strode in holding an unconscious woman in his arms. Her dark-blond hair spilled over his shoulder as her head lolled at an awkward angle. He placed her gently on the bed, one of her slender arms hanging limply off the edge. Gemma was in bad shape.
She looked to be in her early- to mid-twenties. Her skin was far too pale, making her freckles stand out in sharp contrast to her sickly pallor. Someone had wrapped her in a blanket, but I could tell she was small. Not as petite as Luna, but close.
Jax walked into the already crowded room and met my worried gaze. “Luna filled me in. I can help you. Let me know when you’re ready.”
I moved back to the bed and knelt beside her. Jax placed his hands on my shoulders and leaned down. “You’ll feel energy through the bond.” I touched his hand briefly and nodded. I could do this.
“Ahem.”
We all turned to glare at Luna, who had her dagger out. She glared right back. “Clock’s ticking. Gemma doesn’t have all day.”
“Why are you so worried about this one woman, but no one else?” Teryl’s frustration was evident in the stiff way he paced around the small room.
Luna’s gaze fixed on the prone figure on the bed. “She’s my relative.”
“Your relative how?” Elion’s voice was cold.
A sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Great-great-niece. Not my child, Elion.”
A look I couldn’t decipher passed between them. Oh, boy. There was a lot more to that story than we had time for.
I wanted to get back to Gemma. I could already tell her energy was ebbing. I knew she was worth saving, but I needed to know if she ought to be saved. “Okay, Teryl, what do you see?”
“Uh, give me a sec.” Teryl knelt beside me, looking Gemma up and down. “The soul looks bad. Strange. I know the threads are your thing, but I can see that her mind is there, too. Buried deep, but it’s there. I’ve never tried to find something like this, but going on my oracle gut instinct, I’d say her soul wants to be saved. Her fate wasn’t supposed to end this way.”
I wiped my palms on my thighs. “Okay, let me look.” I focused as I had with Elion and immediately wanted to recoil. Teryl hadn’t been kidding. I expected her soul to be splintered or broken into fragments, and I’d be able to piece them back together like a puzzle. No such luck. Her soul was frayed in so many pieces, I had no idea where to start.
“What happened to her?” Luna’s voice was the hardest I’d ever heard it.
“That’s what he does to them,” Teryl answered. “Jedren uses their abilities, and it slowly eats them up from the inside.”
I held Jax’s hand, needing his strength. Gemma’s eyes flew open, and she stared straight at me with royal purple eyes, like Gwen’s. I wondered if purple eyes were a seer trait.
She reached for my hand, gripping it with surprising force. “Weaver. She’ll come for you. Take care.”
“Ah…okay. Gemma, I’m going to try and help you.” I floundered, not knowing what else to say. Her energy flickered and sputtered in an alarming way.
“Listen!” she hissed, trying to sit up. Jax and Teryl eased her back down, but she retained her grip on my hand. “She’ll come. Find the ward and use it.”
I looked over my shoulder at Luna, who seemed just as shocked and even a little worried. Great. When the crazy one was worried, what did that mean for the rest of us?
I patted her hand in an awkward motion. “Thank you, Gemma. I…um…I need you to relax. Jax and I are going to help you.”
She lay back down, obviously exhausted, and murmured something I couldn’t hear. Teryl was closer to her head, reminding her in a soft voice to relax. When she drifted out of consciousness again, he whispered, “Elle? Did you hear that?”
I swallowed, feeling more and more out of my element. “No.”
“She said to mark every soul you thread so you remember who to kill.”
I wanted to write her words off as the ranting of a dying woman, but I couldn’t. Her eyes had been aware and lucid when she’d looked into me. Not at me, but into me, as if seeing into my past, present and future all at once.
I put the dagger between my teeth and bit down hard, trying to stay grounded. My hands shook with apprehension
the entire time I worked on Gemma’s soul. It took me a little over two hours. Elion murmured words of support as I worked through each thread, while Jax maintained my energy through the bond. It was a painstaking process. Gemma’s soul’s energy was heavy and fractured with the torture she’d endured. The threads of her soul didn’t come together easily, more like a puzzle that didn’t want to be solved. Still, the colors of her aura flickered and waned, helping to guide me.
After I secured the last one, I sat back in an exhausted heap. My hands continued to shake as I pushed a few strands of hair out of my face. “I think it’s done.”
Teryl had stayed at the head of the bed the entire time. He kept his gaze on Gemma’s face, which looked a little less pained than it had when MacLean first brought her in. “Congratulations. You did the best you could with it.”
My vision blurred as I fought to stay awake. The window above the bed gave me a glimpse of the cloudy night sky. I struggled to my feet. “Luna, will she be okay?”
Luna flicked her fingernail over the tip of her blade. The overconfident posture she normally used was gone as she leaned against the far wall, watching everything with slumped shoulders. I didn’t think she’d answer me, but after another minute, she said, “I hope so.”
“I tried! If I could have done it after my birthday, I know I could—”
“Stop.” Elion interrupted my defensive rambling. “Teryl’s right; you did the best you could. Now her soul has to decide if it wants to heal. You have no control over that.”
Luna pushed away from the wall and walked out of the room, calling over her shoulder, “You need to get Buttercup back to the guesthouse.” And then she was gone.
“She’ll be fine,” Elion said to me, reading the question on my face. “And she’s right—you need to get back. Cassie and Teryl will stay with Gemma, and she’ll be in good hands. We’ll talk later. Meet me tomorrow night at your shop. I’m sick of standing on Jedren’s land.”
I didn’t have the energy to argue as they ushered me out to MacLean’s car. Elion came with us to make sure we weren’t detected. I fell asleep long before we got back.
Stone Cold Revenge (Set In Stone, Book Two) Page 19