My breath hitched. He felt it too. I thought maybe it was my raging hormones and energy-addled brain, but I felt it too.
He doesn’t really know you. The voices chimed in. Always with the negative. I had to agree with them though. He didn’t know about my soul-stealing abilities, or my destructive potential in the Game. I hadn’t told him about Marc’s prognosis, that I could be used as a slave by other Players. A blood tie would condemn him to my fate.
“What is it?” he asked, frowning at my expression.
“Marc said I am a Soul-Eater. He also said I’m doomed to regress once I return to the Empire and, if that’s the case, I’d be taking you down with me.” I looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
“Marc also calls kangaroos ‘hoppity bunnies with long tails’. Sometimes he’s too blinded by his ego to see the truth clearly.”
I smirked. “He said that to you too?”
“I don’t know what your truth is yet, but I’m willing to bet my soul on it.” Without warning, he sliced the razor sharp blade across my Mount of Venus, deep. I hissed at the sting in my flesh. Blood welled from the wound and he quickly sliced his own palm and flattened it to mine. The wounds touched, blood mingling. A shiver moved like an avalanche through my body and tingling sensations prickled my palm as the wound healed.
“La Roux Urser, do you accept me, Cash Samson, as your mentor, teacher and confidant until you have completed your trials and are released into the Game?” he asked.
I didn’t need a magic key to tell me the answer. “Yes.”
He pulled his hand away and frowned at my healed palm. His still leaked. Why was he not healing? He sliced my palm again, and rejoined our hands, tightening the pressure to the stinging wound. “I pledge to be truthful, protect you and instruct you with the intent of success in all matters concerning the Game for the duration of your trials. May we be linked universally from this day forward.”
I felt awkward and glanced at my feet. “Is that it? Do I need to say anything?”
“No, our blood is shared, as is our life-force. We both agreed it’s what we want. That is enough for the universe to recognize the link.”
Our blood is shared. Momentary panic kicked in when I thought of sharing blood with the Grimoire, but remembered he hadn’t tasted mine.
“Did you do this with Marc?” I asked.
“No, he’s wasn’t my mentor.”
My head snapped up to catch his gaze. “But he said—”
“He lied. I’m on my own.” His expression darkened. “We’re a team now, you and I. We can’t keep secrets and we have to trust each other.”
I nodded. The souls inside me laughed, and I swallowed. The opportunity to confide about the voices in my head presented itself, but I couldn’t. Not now.
He picked up Kitty’s limp body and waited for me at the back door. When I held the door open, he exited without a word. I followed with an awful premonition creeping up my spine. The first escapee was to call for help, but none had arrived.
We rounded the corner of the building and found Petra, looking like Leila, behind the floor of sleeping bodies with a smug smile. She wiped long dark strands of hair from her eyes then rested her interlocking hands in front of her pale blue blouse. Her floral skirt swayed as she rocked forwards and backwards on her ballet-slippered feet.
Next to her, Jed’s shaky fingers grasped the hilt of a gun pointed at Tommy’s head. Jed’s uniform was darkly stained at the armpits and neck.
“Sister.” Petra’s laugh pitched so high it almost squeaked. “How delightful, you’ve finally decided to join us.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE RISING SUN cast purple and pink hues over the sleeping masses. I sensed anticipation, or fear, or dread—whatever it was—like a tangible thing. The wind whispered, and the ocean shushed each time a wave met the shore. The crowd murmured and breathed in sync with the surf, unaware of the unfolding disaster nearby.
“I’m sorry, Roo. We can’t help ourselves.” Jed’s wide eyes watered.
Tommy appeared to be holding his breath, clutching at the fabric of his gray checked shirt, his glassy eyes locked on me, his baseball hat crooked. My eyes flitted between the witch and her victims.
Petra stepped to the side, revealing an additional drama—Warren, with his gun pointed at Alvin’s head. Warren snorted like a caged bull. His neck tendons were taut as he tried to fight Petra’s hex.
I was too far away. There was no way I could reverse the hex without mixing my body fluid with theirs. I’d have to remove their weapons and hold them at bay until the effects wore off. While my mind raced, my body reacted; my breath became ragged, fingers tingled with heat and my muscles twitched.
Alvin glanced over my shoulder and I twisted to see Cash gently lower Kitty against the cracked glass door of The Cauldron’s entrance. Her bright green eyes were wide open.
“You okay?” I mouthed.
She nodded a fraction and shifted awkwardly on the hard floor. Thank the bloody stars she was awake.
Petra cackled, and ten or more crows on the skeletal branches behind her joined in with loud caws. Familiars. Petra’s aura oozed towards me.
“Let’s play a game shall we?” she said. “You should like games, Roo darling.” She smirked and waved her hands towards the boys like she was shooing them. “That’s right boys, over near the cliff’s edge.”
Tommy refused to budge and kept his eyes glued to mine. Jed moved jerkily, like a puppet, and shoved Tommy, forcing him to shuffle towards the wooden balustrade at the edge of the cliff. We needed help. The other escapees and Sabina had disappeared. The mob still slept soundly, and Meerkat Maggie and her fellow few protesters cringed in a corner, shielding their faces. Whatever happened before we got here must have scared them half to death. Finally faced with real evil and they had nothing to offer.
So that left me and Cash against the witch.
“You move, hunter, and they shoot.” Petra’s low voice held a warning. Arrogance, not witchcraft shone in her irises.
Cash froze beside me, fingers tapping at his side, probably itching to get at his gun.
“That’s better. Now, back to our game.” One hand absently tapped her clear bauble necklace. She’d worn that necklace as Aunt Lucy, as well. “There is a safe word and an execution word. I’ll give you three tries to guess the correct safe word. If you can’t guess by the third, then I’ll kill them myself.”
I chewed on my lip and played scenarios in my head. It was possible to remove the gun from the officers with telekinesis, but if I wasn’t quick enough, they might shoot. I could also attack Petra herself, but this could spark an undesired chain reaction, with no guarantee I would get to her before she triggered the kill switch.
“I’m not playing your silly game, Petra,” I said, hoping to buy some time. Cash shifted beside me.
Leila’s delicate face crumpled and, when Petra’s words came out, her voice became as dark as her eyes. “First, you wouldn’t share your secret with me, then you lied and tried to feed me to the hunter. Finally you killed my William and took my secrets. Don’t you see how selfish you are?” She stroked one of the glass spheres on her necklace. “It’s not always about you, sister. You need to learn to share.”
She called me selfish? It suddenly occurred to me how long she’d been meddling in my life, and how much of what had happened to me was by her design. I’d been living as a slave—hers. How dare she call me selfish?
“You’re behind all this aren’t you?” I spat. “The Inquisitor, the mob, Steve. You did it all, didn’t you?”
A smile slithered up one side of her face.
“You tried to kill me!” I shouted, unable to curb my fury. “You treated me like crap, and you’ve been ruining my life since before the trial. Hell, you might even be the reason my father left.”
“I’m not ruining your life. I’m cleaning house. There’s a difference.” Petra paused. “Yes, I tried to kill you, but I may have been a little hasty. Soon, it wi
ll make no difference and, if you want to be free from Him, you need to be free from all of your burdens before we return to Paradise. Come on. You and me, that’s all we need.”
“My friends aren’t burdens. But you wouldn’t understand that, would you?” While I spoke, I borrowed energy from the sleeping mob. My fingertips burned. I boosted my own soul and got ready to extend it, grab the guns and pull. I was awake, ready and alert.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” She waggled a finger. “Your eyes light up like Christmas when you channel, just like mine, sister.”
She flicked her wrist towards the victims and murmured a word I couldn’t hear. Jed and Warren pushed Tommy and Alvin backwards over the balustrade, tilting their jaws back with the barrels of their guns. The whites of Tommy’s eyes showed, and he yanked on Jed’s strangle hold, using his arm to stop himself from falling. His feet scrabbled on the dirt floor.
“Stop!” I called and let my cached energy dissipate. “You win. What do you want?”
Her mouth twisted. “I want you to have nothing left. I want to be your whole world, so you will take me to Paradise. You’ve been there; you just don’t remember it. But you will return. And when you do, you will take me with you.” She smoothed her skirt. “So, what is your first word?”
I rifled through my brain for a word she might have used. When sirens wailed in the distance, Cash made his move. He tore his gun from his waistband and angled it at Petra the same instant I threw up my hands and said, “I don’t know, William?”
The voices inside me snickered.
Petra cocked her head, and the crows squawked, lifting their wings to hover in the air. “That’s four words, my dear, and none of them were correct.”
I gasped, heart pounding in my throat.
Cash jerked his weapon. “I’ll shoot you Petra. That will ruin your plans, won’t it?”
She smirked, a finger seeking her bauble, sending the alternates clinking. It was Leila’s delicate face twisted into something unrecognizable. “Even if you shoot me, hunter, you won’t be quick enough to stop them.” She flicked her inky gaze to mine. “It was so simple. The safe word was ‘sister’. It had no effect coming from my mouth, so I programmed them to need it from you. If you had only called me by that name… well, they would’ve died anyway, sister.”
Time slowed down. She murmured something inaudible. Tommy and Alvin struggled, and a deafening crack ricocheted through the parking lot like thunder. Alvin and Tommy fell backwards over the balustrade.
My insides clenched. The power I’d let go had been waiting, quivering beyond the physical barrier of my body and I recaptured it so rapidly, my hair blew up. My arms flew out, and I reached for my falling friends. Thousands of static sparks crackled through the air as energy rocketed from my fingers. I aimed for their bodies as they fell and connected with Alvin but my power flew through Tommy as if he were invisible.
“No!” I cried, remembering: he was immune, just like his brother. Tommy sailed over the edge, leaving a misty blood stream trailing from his chest wound.
Someone screamed.
It was me.
I dug in my heels as I yanked on Alvin. My power was a lasso and it caught around his body almost sending me flying from the weight. But I poured more energy into the hold and stood my ground. His neck snapped back and, when I pulled, he fell to the dirty floor in front of the balustrade. It all happened in a matter of seconds. Cash dropped his gun and flew past me in a blur, hopping the gaps between the sleepers to launch himself over the edge of the balustrade. I followed him as far as the railing and leaned over.
Cash slid down the rocky embankment, all hands and feet, kicking dirt and rocks into the air. He landed in the white sand beside his brother’s twitching body.
My chest constricted painfully. “Tommy.”
Denial pumped in my veins, he couldn’t be dead—I could fix him, couldn’t I? With everything I’d learned, surely I had the knowledge to save him. I was half a fucking god, wasn’t I?
Cash tried to scoop up his brother but Tommy shook his head. A red river leaked from his mouth. My throat closed up and I couldn’t breathe.
Jed mumbled beside me, “I’m so sorry Roo, I couldn’t stop myself.”
His voice cracked, the stains running down his pants showed the toll it had taken.
I twisted to face Petra and my foot connected with something on the floor—Tommy’s baseball cap.
My body burned and my fingertips seared with power. I didn’t care whose life-force I took, nothing stood in my way. I swiftly pulled on the surplus energy around me and turned to locate Petra’s dirty soul. I felt her energy but, in my heightened state, I could actually see it as well. Darkness twisted and writhed around Leila, like tentacles on the head of Medusa.
She was only steps away when I sprang at her. My fingers connected with her chest and I released the power, feeling it vibrate like a plucked, electrified string. Her body fell in a sizzling heap at my feet, stunned, perhaps burned from the inside.
I turned and thudded down the concrete steps, never taking my eyes off the two hunched figures at the bottom of the cliff. I couldn’t lose Tommy. He cared for me. He cared so much that he wanted me to go home with him. And I had led him into this death trap.
I fell to my knees beside him, racked with sobs. Stricken with grief, I ached all over.
Fine white grains of sand covered Tommy’s face and hair, and tears made dirt tracks down his cheeks. His eyes searched the dawn sky and when I put my face in front of them, he exhaled, shooting blood droplets into the air. His pupils dilated and contracted.
Cash cradled his brother’s head with one hand supporting the neck, the other trying to staunch the flow of blood from his chest. Blood bubbled between Cash’s fingers.
“You can heal him, right?” he asked desperately.
My hands hovered over Tommy’s broken body, trying to find a purpose. The gun had been pointed at his neck, but somehow he’d been shot in the chest. He’d managed to jerk back to avoid a bullet to the brain, but had suffered internal injuries from the fall. I wanted to help him, but couldn’t feel his energy. The crippling realization weighed me down. I couldn’t save him.
“I can’t,” I said. “He’s immune like you, Cash.”
“Probie,” Tommy gurgled and reached for me. His fingers were cold as he pulled my hand to rest against his cheek. He sighed, wheezed. His eyes fluttered closed.
The sun’s first rays hit the ocean behind us, painting the water gold. A figure ambled down the sandy steps. The illuminating sun created a giant, twisted shadow on the sand near my feet. Petra was coming.
“I won’t lose you Tommy,” I said. “You need to hold on. Can you hear the sirens? Help is on the way.” His lids opened then lowered to cover his achingly blue eyes. I couldn’t let him sleep, not yet. I wasn’t finished with him. “You have to take me home remember? To visit your mother. You promised me.”
“I’m so tired.” His teeth chattered. His eyes flew open, glassy with terror. “Don’t let me go to sleep. Please, the nightmares. Please.”
My lungs squashed my fragile heart inside its cage, and my breath escaped in tiny bursts.
“Do you want me to sing to you?” I asked, and stroked his hair, thinking about the lullaby he’d sung to me. Maybe it would make him think of home. “Everything’s all right,” I crooned and ran my fingers down the side of his cheek. “Everything’s fine…” My throat constricted and the words wouldn’t come. I hummed, the tune broken by sobs.
“Probie?” A tiny crease formed between his eyebrows.
“I’m here, Tommy.” I cupped his face between my hands and leaned closer.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he mumbled. The flicker of a smile danced across his features and his gaze locked on mine. “Kiss me?”
My tears landed on his cheeks and I kissed him gently, ignoring the blood running from his lips.
And then I felt it, sensed it—smelled it.
My eyes flew wide, and I pulled back.
Rain.
It wasn’t his coppery blood that surprised me, but the scent and taste of rain. That earthy, wet smell, fresh and full of life. My gaze shot up to meet Cash’s. I grabbed his hand. His ritual wound still glistened. I looked down at my own pink scar, and willed it to reopen. With a red slice, my skin obeyed. I slammed my palm on top of Cash’s and leaned toward Tommy. Our lips touched, and I pulled on his dying essence with all my might. It was hesitant, but it responded. His immunity to witchcraft wasn’t a genetic thing after all; it was a soul thing, and that was my thing.
He was Cash’s missing soul tripartite.
Tommy’s essence resisted. It wanted to follow the course of nature and dissolve into the atmosphere.
But I had other intentions.
I convinced his recalcitrant life-force that I was nature, that I gave the orders and had found it a new home. I funneled it through my body, a trickle that grew into a driving flood. The current rolled down my arm and, sensing the proximity of its missing piece, the entire essence slammed into Cash. My eyes bulged with the sudden expulsion and I cried out. My insides cramped as though I conducted lightning.
Cash roared and flew back into the sand, face red, eyes white. His body convulsed, the muscles in his neck protruded with the force of his grinding teeth. Spittle flew from his mouth with each sharp breath.
Tommy had stilled beneath my hands, just a body. That was all that was left.
Cash writhed in pain. My hand covered my mouth, and I bit my finger. I’d made a mistake. My skin prickled with doubt.
What had I done?
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“OH SISTER, YOU’VE really done it now.” Soft footsteps approached. “You always try to do it alone, but”—she leaned forward and stage whispered—“you should’ve asked for help.”
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