by Linsey Hall
I liked the FireSouls.
I’d known for a long time I should have trusted them.
I just…hadn’t. Not enough. Which was my own fault.
“Don’t worry about it,” Del said. “You look like you’re about to apologize or something, and…well, don’t.”
She knew what I was going to say before I even said it. Because she’d been me, once. Hiding secrets from her friends. Feeling guilty about it.
“Yeah,” Cass added. “We’ve got your back. No explanations needed.”
Nix nodded her agreement.
Something loosened in my chest. A feeling of lightness came over me. Almost like freedom.
I’d always figured it was no harm done to keep this secret from our friends. That it was better this way. Safer.
It hadn’t been.
My fear had held me back, and I hadn’t even realized it. A weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and it was awesome.
“Thanks.” I looked at Mari, glad to see that she didn't look freaked out either. They didn’t necessarily know about her, but it would be easy for them to assume. They’d seen us both in action many times and knew how similar we were.
Probably easy for Acius to figure it out too, but I wouldn’t dwell on that. Not yet.
Declan and Roarke returned to the room, flying back through the broken window. Claire, Connor, Aires, and Aiden were rifling through the bodies of the fallen, no doubt looking for clues about what the hell was going on. Wally was eating a red cloak’s soul.
Reality called.
I turned back to everyone. “Let’s search the place. Because this isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
Epilogue
The next day, I sat in Potions & Pastilles, a proper martini in my hand. Finally, a good drink. Even better, I wasn’t wearing my ghost suit.
Instead, I wore my usual white silk pants and top with my hair properly washed and flowing over my shoulders in a smooth wave. No knots here.
It was the little things in life that kept a person feeling human.
Like the memory of Acius’s mansion ablaze.
I closed my eyes and savored the memory as I sipped the chilled martini. I could almost feel the heat of it on my face again. It drove away the fear and anger that he’d figured out what I was because I’d made to much new magic lately.
I’d been foolish. I’d needed that power, but still…
My actions had revealed me.
No. Focus on the victory.
Acius might have escaped, but after we’d searched the place, I’d lit his house up like a Fourth of July bonfire. His headquarters were toast, and we’d gotten all the evidence we could. There hadn’t been much of it, but we’d use it to hunt him down like the rat he was.
“You okay?” Mari’s voice sounded from above me, and I opened my eyes to see her sit down next to me.
She was dressed in her usual Elvira getup, with her sweep of black makeup and black bouffant. She had a Manhattan in hand, and the dark crimson liquid looked almost like blood.
“I’m great. Just reliving the blaze.”
“Bastard deserved it.” She shook her head. “Trying to take over Magic’s Bend. What a prick.”
“We’ll stop him,” I said. “He tried to get rid of us, but he’ll never manage it.”
Only now, he wanted to use me more than he wanted to get rid of me.
I’d never let him. I’d die first. He’d die first.
Mari shook her head. “The idiot doesn’t realize there are plenty of people to pick up the job if he actually did manage to take us out.”
And she was right. The FireSouls would fight for Magic’s Bend. Declan would. Even our friends in Scotland at the Undercover Protectorate.
Taking us out wouldn’t do a bit of good for him.
Not that I’d let him.
She reached for my hand and squeezed. “He may know what you are. Maybe me too. But we’ll deal with him. Like we deal with everything.”
I squeezed her hand back and nodded.
I sipped my martini again and looked around at the small crowd in Potions & Pastilles. Everyone was there—all the FireSouls and their guys, Connor and Claire. Even Aethelred the seer.
We hadn’t spoken about our true natures with the FireSouls again, but I felt more relaxed around them. It was weird, but nice. And we were here to celebrate our victory over Acius. It wasn’t a full victory—that would deserve a bigger party—but we had to take the good things in life while we could get them.
Because I was sure that bad news was coming from his quarter. There was no way he’d just disappear now. We’d pissed him off good and proper—and he knew that Mari and I were Dragon Bloods.
I shivered and pushed the thought away.
Across from me, Mari looked toward the door. Her brows rose. I turned to see Declan entering.
My breath caught. He was dressed in all black, his fallen angel beauty a contrast for his rugged form. He looked damned good.
As usual.
He looked right at me, and I smiled.
When I turned back to Mari, she was gone.
Declan took her seat. “You look beautiful.”
“Thanks. I clean up pretty nice. So do you.”
He grinned.
“So, uh.” I searched for the words I wanted to say. “This thing between us. I thought I’d give it a try.”
“I thought that’s what we’ve been doing?”
“Well…” He’d been doing it, maybe. I’d been hiding behind my nullification magic and any excuse I could get to avoid growing close. “I’m going to try. I’ve been practicing controlling my nullification magic.”
“Thanks.” He smiled. “I’d take you even if you couldn’t control it, you know.”
A warm flush of pleasure suffused me. He wanted to be with me even if I made him physically ill.
He must really like me.
Wild.
“I’m going to get a drink,” he said, acting like this whole getting close thing was totally normal. It probably was—to him. Maybe it would be for me, too. One day.
“I’ll be right back.” He got up and went to the bar.
I sipped my drink and watched him walk away, wondering where this whole thing was going between us. If I survived Acius and all the threats he posed, I knew I wanted to find out.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
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If you’d like to learn a little more about the FireSouls, you can join my mailing list to get a free copy of Hidden Magic, a story of their early adventures. Turn the page for an excerpt.
The next (and final!) book in Aeri’s series will be in mid-June.
Excerpt Of Hidden Magic
Jungle, Southeast Asia
Five years before the events in Ancient Magic
“How much are we being paid for this job again?” I glanced at the dudes filling the bar. It was a motley crowd of supernaturals, many of whom looked shifty as hell.
“Not nearly enough for one as dangerous as this.” Del frowned at the man across the bar, who was giving her his best sexy face. There was a lot of eyebrow movement happening. “Is he having a seizure?”
“Looks like it.” Nix grinned. “Though I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting this. We’re basically in a tree, for magic’s sake. In the middle of the jungle! Where are all these dudes coming from?”
“According to my info, there’s a mining operation near here. Though I’d say we’re more under a tree than in a tree.”
“I’m with Cass,” Del said. “Under, not in.”
“Fair enough,” Nix said.
We were deep in Southeast Asia, in a bar that had long ago been reclaimed by the jungle. A massive fig tree had grown over and around the ancient building, its huge roots strangling the stone walls. It was straight out of a
fairy tale.
Monks had once lived here, but a few supernaturals of indeterminate species had gotten ahold of it and turned it into a watering hole for the local supernaturals. We were meeting our contact here, but he was late.
“Hey, pretty lady.” A smarmy voice sounded from my left. “What are you?”
I turned to face the guy who was giving me the up and down, his gaze roving from my tank top to my shorts. He wasn’t Clarence, our local contact. And if he meant “what kind of supernatural are you?” I sure as hell wouldn’t be answering. That could get me killed.
“Not interested is what I am,” I said.
“Aww, that’s no way to treat a guy.” He grabbed my hip, rubbed his thumb up and down.
I smacked his hand away, tempted to throat-punch him. It was my favorite move, but I didn’t want to start a fight before Clarence got here. Didn’t want to piss off our boss.
The man raised his hands. “Hey, hey. No need to get feisty. You three sisters?”
I glanced at Nix and Del, at their dark hair that was so different from my red. We were all about twenty, but we looked nothing alike. And while we might call ourselves sisters—deirfiúr in our native Irish—this idiot didn’t know that.
“Go away.” I had no patience for dirt bags who touched me without asking. “Run along and flirt with your hand, because that’s all the action you’ll be getting tonight.”
His face turned a mottled red, and he raised a fist. His magic welled, the scent of rotten fruit overwhelming.
He thought he was going to smack me? Or use his magic against me?
Ha.
I lashed out, punching him in the throat. His eyes bulged and he gagged. I kneed him in the crotch, grinning when he keeled over.
“Hey!” A burly man with a beard lunged for us, his buddy beside him following. “That’s no way—”
“To treat a guy?” I finished for him as I kicked out at him. My tall, heavy boots collided with his chest, sending him flying backward. I never used my magic—didn’t want to go to jail and didn’t want to blow things up—but I sure as hell could fight.
His friend raised his hand and sent a blast of wind at us. It threw me backward, sending me skidding across the floor.
By the time I’d scrambled to my feet, a brawl had broken out in the bar. Fists flew left and right, with a bit of magic thrown in. Nothing bad enough to ruin the bar, like jets of flame, because no one wanted to destroy the only watering hole for a hundred miles, but enough that it lit up the air with varying magical signatures.
Nix conjured a baseball bat and swung it at a burly guy who charged her, while Del teleported behind a horned demon and smashed a chair over his head. I’d always been jealous of Del’s ability to sneak up on people like that.
All in all, it was turning into a good evening. A fight between supernaturals was fun.
“Enough!” the bartender bellowed. “Or no more beer!”
The patrons quieted immediately. Fights might be fun, but they weren’t worth losing beer over.
I glared at the jerk who’d started it. There was no way I’d take the blame, even though I’d thrown the first punch. He should have known better.
The bartender gave me a look and I shrugged, hiking a thumb at the jerk who’d touched me. “He shoulda kept his hands to himself.”
“Fair enough,” the bartender said.
I nodded and turned to find Nix and Del. They’d grabbed our beers and were putting them on a table in the corner. I went to join them.
We were a team. Sisters by choice, ever since we’d woken in a field at fifteen with no memories other than those that said we were FireSouls on the run from someone who had hurt us. Who was hunting us.
Our biggest goal, even bigger than getting out from under our current boss’s thumb, was to save enough money to buy concealment charms that would hide us from the monster who hunted us. He was just a shadowy memory, but it was enough to keep us running.
“Where is Clarence, anyway?” I pulled my damp tank top away from my sweaty skin. The jungle was damned hot. We couldn’t break into the temple until Clarence gave us the information we needed to get past the guard at the front. And we didn’t need to spend too much longer in this bar.
Del glanced at her watch, her blue eyes flashing with annoyance. “He’s twenty minutes late. Old Man Bastard said he should be here at eight.”
Old Man Bastard—OMB for short—was our boss. His name said it all. Del, Nix, and I were FireSouls, the most despised species of supernatural because we could steal other magical being’s powers if we killed them. We’d never done that, of course, but OMB didn’t care. He’d figured out our secret when we were too young to hide it effectively and had been blackmailing us to work for him ever since.
It’d been four years of finding and stealing treasure on his behalf. Treasure hunting was our other talent, a gift from the dragon with whom legend said we shared a soul. No one had seen a dragon in centuries, so I wasn’t sure if the legend was even true, but dragons were covetous, so it made sense they had a knack for finding treasure.
“What are we after again?” Nix asked.
“A pair of obsidian daggers,” Del said. “Nice ones.”
“And how much is this job worth?” Nix repeated my earlier question. Money was always on our minds. It was our only chance at buying our freedom, but OMB didn’t pay us enough for it to be feasible anytime soon. We kept meticulous track of our earnings and saved like misers anyway.
“A thousand each.”
“Damn, that’s pathetic.” I slouched back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling, too bummed about our crappy pay to even be impressed by the stonework and vines above my head.
“Hey, pretty ladies.” The oily voice made my skin crawl. We just couldn’t get a break in here. I looked up to see Clarence, our contact.
Clarence was a tall man, slender as a vine, and had the slicked back hair and pencil-thin mustache of a 1940s movie star. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on him. Probably because his stare was like a lizard’s. He was more Gomez Addams than Clark Gable. I’d bet anything that he liked working for OMB.
“Hey, Clarence,” I said. “Pull up a seat and tell us how to get into the temple.”
Clarence slid into a chair, his movement eerily snakelike. I shivered and scooted my chair away, bumping into Del. The scent of her magic flared, a clean hit of fresh laundry, as she no doubt suppressed her instinct to transport away from Clarence. If I had her gift of teleportation, I’d have to repress it as well.
“How about a drink first?” Clarence said.
Del growled, but Nix interjected, her voice almost nice. She had the most self control out of the three of us. “No can do, Clarence. You know… Mr. Oribis”—her voice tripped on the name, probably because she wanted to call him OMB—“wants the daggers soon. Maybe next time, though.”
“Next time.” Clarence shook his head like he didn’t believe her. He might be a snake, but he was a clever one. His chest puffed up a bit. “You know I’m the only one who knows how to get into the temple. How to get into any of the places in this jungle.”
“And we’re so grateful you’re meeting with us. Mr. Oribis is so grateful.” Nix dug into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled envelope that contained Clarence’s pay. We’d counted it and found—unsurprisingly—that it was more than ours combined, even though all he had to do was chat with us for two minutes. I’d wanted to scream when I’d seen it.
Clarence’s gaze snapped to the money. “All right, all right.”
Apparently his need to be flattered went out the window when cash was in front of his face. Couldn’t blame him, though. I was the same way.
“So, what are we up against?” I asked.
The temple containing the daggers had been built by supernaturals over a thousand years ago. Like other temples of its kind, it was magically protected. Clarence’s intel would save us a ton of time and damage to the temple if we could get around the enchantments rather than breaking t
hrough them.
“Dvarapala. A big one.”
“A gatekeeper?” I’d seen one of the giant, stone monster statues at another temple before.
“Yep.” He nodded slowly. “Impossible to get through. The temple’s as big as the Titanic—hidden from humans, of course—but no one’s been inside in centuries, they say.”
Hidden from humans was a given. They had no idea supernaturals existed, and we wanted to keep it that way.
“So how’d you figure out the way in?” Del asked. “And why haven’t you gone in? Bet there’s lots of stuff you could fence in there. Temples are usually full of treasure.”
“A bit of pertinent research told me how to get in. And I’d rather sell the entrance information and save my hide. It won’t be easy to get past the booby traps in there.”
Hide? Snakeskin, more like. Though he had a point. I didn’t think he’d last long trying to get through a temple on his own.
“So? Spill it,” I said, anxious to get going.
He leaned in, and the overpowering scent of cologne and sweat hit me. I grimaced, held my breath, then leaned forward to hear his whispers.
As soon as Clarence walked away, the communications charms around my neck vibrated. I jumped, then groaned. Only one person had access to this charm.
I shoved the small package Clarence had given me into my short’s pocket and pressed my fingertips to the comms charm, igniting its magic.
“Hello, Mr. Oribis.” I swallowed my bile at having to be polite.
“Girls,” he grumbled.
Nix made a gagging face. We hated when he called us girls.
“Change of plans. You need to go to the temple tonight.”
“What? But it’s dark. We’re going tomorrow.” He never changed the plans on us. This was weird.
“I need the daggers sooner. Go tonight.”
My mind raced. “The jungle is more dangerous in the dark. We’ll do it if you pay us more.”
“Twice the usual,” Del said.
A tinny laugh echoed from the charm. “Pay you more? You’re lucky I pay you at all.”