Shattered Souls

by Karice Bolton

  I swung open the large coven door and the smell of roses and freesia hit me.

  “They must have recently had a wedding here,” I whispered.

  “I wonder whose?” Logan slid his hands through mine as we walked toward the library.

  “It’s nice to have you with me,” I muttered. “In case any more books catch on fire or something. I don’t want to be responsible for any more damage happening at the covenstead.”

  Logan squeezed my hand and laughed as we rounded the corner to the library’s entrance. I always got excited by the idea of visiting the library and this time was no different. Logan and I walked through the entrance. There didn’t appear to be any other members around, unless they were upstairs. The smell of old leather bindings and dusty pages filled the air, and I loved it.

  “Too bad we can’t just hang out in here for the rest of our lives,” I whispered, scanning the shelves for the particular spell book. “It was one of the most blah books in here...”

  Logan slid the ladder out of my way as my gaze continued to hop from one spine to the next.

  “Aha,” I said, grabbing the book. “Not where I left it either.”

  “Of course not,” Logan said. “That would make things too normal.”

  I chuckled as I placed it on the table and opened it up. I grabbed the scanned version out of my purse and laid it next to the book. Whatever curse was on the spell book had already been used up, so that was a good thing, possibly. I flipped to the back pages and was relieved to see writing.

  “Voila,” I said, pointing. “Our luck might be changing.”

  “Let’s not get too excited,” Logan teased, leaning over me to read the page.

  I began reading over the missing pieces and my spirit felt charged with emotion.

  “This could change everything,” I whispered. “Our entire world.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Logan muttered, his hand rested on my shoulder as he continued to read.

  “But why was that portion erased when I scanned it?” I asked. “How could someone do that?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “But the fact that we have the information now is vital.”

  “It’s a real game changer,” I agreed. “I don’t think I want to take this information out of this room. I’m not gonna even bother trying to scan it again.”

  “For our eyes only,” he said. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to this.”

  “But if it does at least we’ll be ready,” I said, turning to face him.

  “Witches have been waiting for someone like you for centuries. It makes me wonder if they knew this type of threat was building all along,” Logan said.

  “Reading this kind of implies it, doesn’t it,” I replied, as he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “I hope I don’t let our world down.”

  “Impossible,” he brought his lips down to mine, and my pulse jumped as he kissed me tenderly before slowly pulling away. “I love you, Triss.”

  “I love you too,” I said, smiling. “Thank you for that.”

  “Anytime,” he laughed.

  Logan grabbed the book and put it back on the shelf and then joined his hand with mine. “Ready?”

  I nodded and we walked back out into the hallway of the coven, but something wasn’t as we left it. The hall was empty, but I knew we weren’t alone. I scanned the emptiness as we continued walking toward the main lobby, my hands gripping Logan’s. There was an eeriness surrounding us, as my vague premonition failed us.

  Reaching the front doors, I pushed them open as relief flooded me too soon.

  Ethan and another sorcerer were standing in front of us, a wolfish grin spreading across his lips. He was dressed in another exquisite suit, with a pressed white shirt underneath. Most people would be freezing to death.

  “Guess when you’re without a soul, you can’t get hypothermic,” I said, smiling, keeping the doors open.

  “Charming as always,” Ethan said. Rubbing his hands together, he brought them up to his mouth and gave them a quick blow. “See. I do have a soul. It just might be claimed already.” His grin turned into a sardonic smile, as he looked at Logan. His gaze tracing the length of Logan’s frame as if he were sizing him up.

  “What is it you want?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  “Well, during our wonderful little escapade, I learned some very interesting things,” he began.

  My heart stalled. What did I give away? I swallowed slowly, but I’m sure it looked like I was choking on my thoughts.

  “This is a wonderful colleague of mine,” Ethan cooed. “Very loyal. Very understanding of the grief I experienced when Lara didn’t come home.”

  Logan gently squeezed my hand. I watched the sorcerer as he tipped his head slightly as if to acknowledge his master’s plight. His dark hair was short, and his eyes brown. He stood a few inches taller than Ethan, but he looked wiry.

  “I can’t tell you what a mixture of emotions I felt when I realized what actually happened to Lara. I never wanted to believe that she just left me, but I did. I did believe that. And I blamed myself for that. You can imagine my surprise when I found out she didn’t leave me. Part of me delighted in this. I wasn’t as intolerable as I had talked myself into believing. She was taken from me. Murdered. She had no intention of leaving and never coming home.” He stopped talking and stared at me in silence.

  I knew what was coming and so did Logan. The sorcerer next to Ethan took a step forward.

  “Well, I think the best payback for my heartache, Triss,” he paused and looked at Logan, “would be for me to eliminate your beloved as well.”

  “Not going to happen.” I shook my head and turned my attention to the other sorcerer. He was armed. His belt displayed several types of knives, and I couldn’t help but notice the chain that was strapped through his belt loops.

  “I don’t want to be part of this, so I’m going to leave my colleague to take care of things. I fully trust that he will.” He winked at me. “And maybe when it is all over, you will have reconsidered my offer back at the house.”

  The words sunk in as I watched him turn around and get into his car. He turned on the engine and pulled out of the lot quickly. The sorcerer stood, squinting his eyes at Logan, as he traced his index finger along the knife holstered on his right hip.

  Logan’s hand was gripping mine tightly. I felt him take a step backward and I followed. Not turning away from the sorcerer, we quickly backed inside the coven. The man started laughing as I locked the door. We knew it wouldn’t do anything to keep him out, but it bought us time.

  “This guy’s not going to stop until he finishes what he was told to do,” Logan whispered. His hands reaching my shoulders, he balanced his forehead against mine. “No matter what you see, don’t step in. Stand against the wall. I’ve got this handled.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked apprehensively.

  “Because letting him win would mean I couldn’t come back to you,” Logan whispered, sweeping a quick kiss across my lips as the man blasted open the door. The gust of wind blew my hair back as he lunged toward Logan. I ran to the side of the hall and pressed my back against the wall as I watched Logan shoot out of the way. His body sailed across the room, landing on his knees. Logan closed his eyes briefly, opening them to reveal bright silver. He stood up, stronger and more powerful.

  I gasped as the sorcerer threw a shuriken at Logan. The spinning blade spun in the air with lightning speed, but Logan plucked it midflight with a speed I had never seen before. His reflexes were faster than I thought possible. Logan held the throwing star in between his thumb and index finger as he smiled knowingly. A tingle ran through my body as I felt the confidence level grow within Logan. We were sharing the heart of this combat, and it was coming through our nectunt fully. Every move Logan had I knew was coming before it was started. Our nectunt was connecting us in another way, a new way as he tapped into the forces from the underworld, and I wondered if my father had something to do with it
.

  I watched as the sorcerer flicked his wrist, releasing three more throwing stars, and my pulse quickened as I watched Logan climb up the wall with ease. My mouth fell open as I watched him cascade down at the same time as the blades clanked against the back wall.

  My senses began to numb as I tried focusing on the scene unfolding before me, but a pounding in my head was causing confusion. I shook my head, attempting to focus. Logan darted toward the sorcerer as the lights began to flicker. The sorcerer raised his arm in a failed attempt to block the blow from Logan’s fist. The anger driving the force of the hit made the contact a blood sport. The sorcerer’s cheek split open, and he looked startled.

  He grabbed the sorcerer’s arm and spun him, slamming his body against the ground. Logan landed on top of him, unsheathing one of the sorcerer’s own knives, running it along the sorcerer’s throat, light enough to not break the skin.

  “Do you want to keep trying?” Logan asked, his eyes narrowing on the man.

  My heart was pounding as I watched the events unfold. Logan wasn’t only harnessing his own strength. He had tapped into the underworld. A violent shudder riled my body, as I pushed away my fears that he wouldn’t be able to come back from his latest antics.

  I looked on in horror as the sorcerer’s hand freed. I let out a short scream as the sorcerer grabbed Logan’s hand that had been pressing the knife against the sorcerer’s throat. Logan struggled, attempting to free his own hand from the sorcerer’s before the sorcerer shoved it deep into his own throat. The blood immediately began draining from the self-inflicted neck wound. Logan hopped off the man and called me to help, but I could tell it was too late. The sorcerer knew what he was doing when he stuck the blade in.

  “He didn’t want to go back to Ethan shamed. He knew…” Logan stopped.

  “That you had help from the underworld,” I finished, watching the pool of red liquid extend beyond the sorcerer’s body. “It was a no-win situation.”

  Logan didn’t respond.

  “Self-defense,” I whispered.

  “I don’t know that this would fall into grey magic,” Logan’s voice was low. “But I thank you for trying to make me feel less monstrous.”

  “I felt something when you changed,” I said.

  “You did?”

  “You connected with my father through me somehow, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

  Logan’s eyes dropped to the floor. I walked over to the glistening, 8-point stars that had collected at the base of the wall and picked them up, bringing them back to Logan.

  “That’s how you managed this? I’ve never seen speed like that before. You’ve been fast before but not like that. Not that fast.”

  Logan took a deep breath in and brought his gaze to meet mine. He reached out and grabbed one of the shuriken from me, analyzing it closely.

  “Don’t be upset with me,” he said quietly. “I figured out how to do that in the store after we visited with Maddie. When you tapped into that guy’s mind, so did I.”

  “Whoa.”

  “We’ve got to get this situation resolved quickly before anyone walks into the coven,” Logan said.

  “Great this type of activity now falls into the situation type category.” I sighed. “I’ll give Trevor a call. It’s going to take quite a bit more than magic to make this right.”

  I explained the situation to Trevor, and he felt it was in everyone’s best interest to involve the fairies. They were masters at hiding themselves and hiding others. Trevor was sure it didn’t only include the living. I cast a sheet over the sorcerer, camouflaging his body. That should provide enough cover until Trevor gets to the covenstead, and in the meantime, we could get out of here.

  Logan and I secured the area as best as we could and took off. We couldn’t afford to be caught around this situation, self-defense or not. The construction workers weren’t on-site any longer, and I felt a tiny shred of relief. But then that relief turned to suspicion.

  “Logan, what time is it?” I asked.

  He grabbed his phone. “2:30.”

  “Don’t you think the construction workers should still be here?” I asked, glancing at the unattended area. “Especially since their cars are?

  “Good point.”

  Running to the far end of the building, words didn’t even come when we got to the construction site. The workers were there but barely surviving. I ran to the most critical of the men and began immediately working on his wounds. The superficial bruising was nothing compared to what I saw under his flesh. I worried about internal bleeding.

  “We’ve gotta call an ambulance,” I said.

  “But the situation inside,” he said, his eyes widening.

  “It will be fine,” I said, continuing to work on the man.

  “Self defense,” I said. “You get out of here, and I’ll take care of everything.”

  Logan nodded slowly and gave me his phone to make the emergency call. But I called Trevor first, letting him know the plans had changed.

  I heard one of the men groan and realized it was the guy who had waved at me earlier. His left cheekbone was completely destroyed, an endless amount of blood spilling from various gashes.

  “Help is on the way,” I said in a hushed voice. I heard the sirens in the distance, and I only hoped they would arrive in time.

  I looked around witnessing what Ethan was willing to do to innocents not even involved in our world. He had to be stopped. One way or another.

  Chapter 23

  I pulled into my aunt’s driveway and found myself sighing. Logan was walking slowly toward the car as I popped it in park. I saw my mom, Ellsy, and my aunt peering at me through the living room window. They were so predictable.

  Logan opened the driver’s door and helped me out, pulling me into him. “How are you doing?” he whispered.

  “Not so good.” I took a deep breath as he held me. The images of the men we found flashed through my mind, and I shivered. “He’s got to be stopped.”

  “I know,” Logan said, sliding his arms down mine and stepping back. My mom and everyone had already left their peering station and were at the front door waiting for me.

  “Oh, dear,” my mom gasped. “You’re covered in blood.”

  I looked down at my sweater, spotting dried blood plastered into the fibers. I hadn’t even noticed. I reached up to my hair and felt the same crust outlining strands that I must have touched while helping the guys. I couldn’t even imagine what I looked like, but I was sure it wasn’t any better than I felt.

  I walked through the door at my aunt’s house and beelined toward the kitchen chair, falling into it with a thump.

  “We’ve had the tea going since Logan arrived and told us what was happening,” my aunt said, shaking her head. “You just never get a break.”

  “Did everything go okay?” Logan asked, widening his eyes at me.

  I nodded and reached for the cup of liquid goodness, feeling it coat my throat on the way down.

  “Yes, everything went just fine. A couple of the guys were able to give testimony that aligned with what happened…” my voice trailed off, and I avoided Logan’s gaze.

  “How’d that work?” he questioned, his voice lowered.

  I looked at him and whispered. “I think you know exactly how that happened.”

  He quirked his brow and nodded in surprise.

  Not feeling quite right about implanting and shifting memories of the construction workers, I looked away quickly as the guilt settled in.

  “I’m going to go up and shower, if that’s okay,” I said, turning to my aunt who nodded.

  “I’ll bring some of my clothes in for you while you’re in the shower,” my mom offered.

  “Thanks,” I called, climbing the stairs two at a time.

  I wanted to rinse away the horrors of the day and get on with our plan. I even felt the buzz in my fingertips; that aching, subtle craving for something I couldn’t have but wanted so badly. I wanted normalcy. I wanted the
Praedivinus and Demoniker Orders to be nothing more than a blip in the history pages.

  I turned on the water and stripped my clothes off. I tossed them in a pile and knew I never wanted to see them again. They could go in the trash. Climbing in the shower, I let the warm droplets canvas my body. I turned and faced the spray, feeling the warm beads hit my skin. I turned back around and let out a deep sigh, closing my eyes. It felt so good to feel the heat soak into my bones as I stood under the spray.

  After seeing how eager Ethan was to bring in innocents, I couldn’t stop thinking about how quickly we could get the trap set back East. Thinking about it again tensed my shoulder muscles, and I caught the scattered change in my breathing.

  “Putting the clothes on the vanity, honey,” my mom’s voice startled me. “Doing okay?”

  “Yeah,” I lied. “Thank you.”

  She closed the door, and I opened my eyes to see the steam rolling over the top of the shower curtain. I squeezed the raspberry shower gel onto my washcloth and attempted to scrub away whatever evil might have attached itself to me by being around Ethan. Noticing there wasn’t any shampoo in the shower, I squirted a glob of the shower gel in my hair. It would have to do.

  I rinsed the soap off my body and stood in the shower a few minutes longer, partially dreading having to act alive and alert, and like I didn’t really want to crawl under a stump somewhere, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I put all the rambling thoughts aside, turned off the shower, and dressed quickly.