The Soul Bond (Rite World: Blackthorn Hunters Academy Book 3)

by Juliana Haygert

  My body stiffened. “Go where? You’re bruised and hurting. And don’t think I can’t see you’re hanging on by a thread. Just lay down and rest.”

  She returned her eyes to mine, so raw, it felt like a punch in the gut. “I don’t want to be here.”

  Ouch.

  “I understand that, but this is the best place for you right now.” I stood and took a step back from the bed. “If you prefer, I can leave, but please, just stay here and rest for a while.”

  Erin shook her head. “Ow.” She pressed her hands to her temples.

  “See? You’re still hurt.” I took another step back. “Please, go back to sleep.”

  Those golden eyes locked on mine. “For the record, I don’t like this.”

  I nodded. “I know. It’s fine. I’ll leave you alone.”

  Her brows curled down. I thought she would say something else, but instead, she lay back on my pillows and rolled to her side. She groaned, probably from pain, and I had to hold myself back because my instinct was to run to her and ask what the problem was.

  I exited the room and pulled the door until it was almost closed—I wanted to hear in case she called me—and went downstairs before I broke down and told her how I was hurting for her.

  Before I told her how much she meant to me.

  Erin slept through the afternoon and evening. I didn’t teach my class that day, but in the evening, I was itching to get out, though my reasons weren’t noble.

  I wanted to find the fucking bastard who had done this to Erin and break his face.

  My mind told me to hang on and stay quiet about this, that if I did anything, it would mess everything up, but I couldn’t stay still. My heart had been squeezed too fucking hard. It hurt too much and I had to make someone pay for it.

  I found Tom exiting one of the later classes in the Statice building with his friends. From there, he went to the cafeteria for dinner. I couldn’t beat the crap out of him in public. I had to wait until later.

  After dinner, Tom and his friends hung around the media room for a bit, then they went to their dorm rooms. I would have preferred to meet him outside, but if he wasn’t coming, I would go inside and kick his ass right in his bedroom.

  I was about to enter the lobby, when I saw Tom coming down the stairs. He had a cigarette and lighter in his hands. I scooted into the shadows and waited until he was out of the Snapdragon building, and had walked around the building so no one would see him.

  He lit the cigarette.

  And I rushed him.

  Gasping, Tom dropped the cigarette and the lighter as I pushed him against the wall, pressing my forearm to his throat.

  “You fucking bastard,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “W-what the … fuck?” he tried speaking, but I pressed his throat more. As a demon hunter student, Tom had increased strength, so he pushed against me. But that was no match for my demon side.

  “You deserve to die, do you know that?” I balled my free hand into a fist, ready to smash his face in.

  “W-why?” he croaked, his eyes wide.

  “You think beating up a half-demon is great? Think again!”

  Tom’s eyes widened. “Y-you’re defending … those mongrels?”

  Red tinted my vision. I raised my fist.

  And punched the wall, half an inch from Tom’s face.

  If it depended on me, I would have broken his nose, maybe even beaten him unconscious like he had done to Erin—or worse. But there were too many factors to consider here.

  If I beat him up, he could report me to Randall, and I would be fired, no doubt. And if I was fired, I would have to leave. I had seen what could be done to Erin if I wasn’t paying attention. What if I was far away? No, I had to stay.

  Moreover, I didn’t think Erin would forgive me for killing him. Even after what he did to her.

  Because of that, I nearly broke my fingers on the stone wall instead of his pretty face.

  “Be warned, bastard,” I snarled, my face inches from his. “If you touch her again, if you even look at her, I’ll kill you. Got it?”

  Tom nodded, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look me in my eyes, the little shit.

  I pressed him against the wall, making him gag, just to emphasize my warning, then I whirled and left before I regretted sparing his life.

  I didn’t go back to my townhouse that night. At least, not to stay. The most I did was leave some clothes for Erin outside the bedroom door—I had stopped by her dorm and gotten a clean uniform. After that, all I did was check to see if Erin was still inside and if she was doing okay, but I didn’t go in. I only watched her through the window like a fucking creep.

  I wanted to go to her. Every cell in my body pulled me to her as if she were a magnet. But I couldn’t, I shouldn’t.

  Because if I did, if I found her in my bed, with her shirt half undone, with those big golden eyes watching me, expecting more of me … I wouldn’t be able to resist her.

  I didn’t want to sleep. My stamina was high, but the emotions of the day had worn me out. Exhaustion screamed through every nerve of my body. Once more, I itched to go back to my house, but I stayed put.

  Instead, I went to my office in the Aster building. I lay on the small couch, half of my legs dangling over the arm, and tried to sleep. My mind raced, my heart squeezed, and my gut knotted every time I closed my eyes. I thought of Erin, of the way she had looked when her friends had brought her to me, of how I would have killed Tom if I had allowed myself.

  I thought of how stupid I had been all this time, thinking I was keeping her safe. She was in more danger than I had realized. It wasn’t only Crimson threatening her, or Randall’s leash around our necks. It was all the others who were against the half-demons, all the others who wanted to execute the demonic princess. I had to watch out for them.

  I had to keep her safe from everyone.

  In the end, I didn’t think I had slept more than an hour total. When the sun started rising in the distance, the office was inundated with dim light, and I gave up completely.

  I sat up and ran a hand through my hair. Fuck, I probably looked bedraggled, my professors’ uniform rumpled, and I hadn’t brushed my teeth in a while. Good thing I kept supplies in my office—toothpaste, toothbrush, and a black shirt.

  With time to spare before my first class, I took my time getting ready. The jacket of my uniform didn’t look good, so I left it behind. I didn’t think I saw any professor walking around without the full uniform, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now.

  Thankfully, no one seemed to notice in my first and second morning classes. But as soon as my second class ended and all the students had left, one of Randall’s secretaries entered the classroom.

  “The headmaster is asking for your presence in his office,” she said, sounding like a robot.

  “Now?”

  She nodded. “Now.”

  Fuck, what was it this time? Had I been reported for not wearing the suit jacket? That was ridiculous.

  But when I entered Randall’s office, I realized this was bigger than that.

  “Sit,” Randall said, his voice flat.

  I complied. “You called me?

  Randall nodded. “This morning, I received the visit from two worried parents. Apparently, a professor beat up their son last night.”

  Was he talking about Tom? “What the fuck?”

  “Tom Heyward claims you punched him in the face several times and threatened to kill him.”

  I gritted my teeth as rage rolled in my veins. “I did threaten him, but I didn’t punch him.”

  “I believe you, but his parents, and now the parents of other students who have heard about the incident, won’t. They are asking me to fire you.”

  My stomach dropped. I couldn’t be fired. If I was, then I wouldn’t be able to stay by Erin’s side—and I had just learned what could happen if I wasn’t there for her.

  I clenched my fists. “I didn’t punch him. But I did threaten him, and
I only did that because he beat up Erin. Actually, he pulled out his Dawnblade and was about to kill her when she was saved.” I didn’t tell him it hadn’t been me. I was already in hot water. No need to pull the others into the pot with me.

  “I see.” Randall furrowed. “I understand your position, and I also know Tom Heyward is prone to deceive, so here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll calm down the parents and I’ll let you go with a warning. But don’t let something like this happen again. I don’t know how long I can protect you.”

  Protect me. Randall thought he was protecting me. In this situation, maybe. But he had never raised a finger to help me before.

  “Is that it?” I asked.

  Randall nodded once. “You may go.”

  I rose from the seat, but didn’t move, as another matter itched at my mind. “Why aren’t you sending me out to find more members for the half-demon army? Did you give up on that?”

  He stared at me, his eyes blank. “I thought you would be busy with your classes this semester. But don’t worry about the Black Knight Unit. They are doing fine.”

  I frowned. I wasn’t worried about them. I was concerned why he was so quiet about it. Now that people knew about the army, I thought he would be flashing its members left and right. Or revealing that I was their leader, since I had always been his second.

  Not that I wanted to be the Black Knight Unit’s leader. I was relieved not to be included in all that anymore. But it brought many more questions to my mind. When he had saved my life and offered me the contract several months ago, I thought he would be using me by now for every little task, no matter how sordid, but he hadn’t asked me for anything the last five months.

  That was puzzling.

  “All right, then,” I said, before exiting his office.

  I let out a sigh of relief and started for the stairs.

  Like a creep, Professor Crimson was waiting for me at the staircase.

  “What did he want?” Crimson asked, his voice low.

  I considered whether to lie to him, but since he knew about the soul bond and how much Erin meant to me, I didn’t think it mattered. So I told him what Tom and his friends had done to Erin, and what I had done to Tom.

  “I was dismissed with a warning to not let it happen again,” I told him.

  “This is perfect,” Crimson said, a greedy tone to his voice.

  “It is?” I didn’t get why.

  “Because this shows the parents that Randall doesn’t have control over everything that happens at the school,” he said. “Parents will be worried that their kids are in here, with so many unstable half-demons on the loose, and they will start doubting Randall’s power and influence.”

  “If you say so,” I muttered, eager to get rid of Crimson and the crazed glint in his eyes. He was so consumed by his desire to be the headmaster, he seemed unstable himself.

  “Speaking of power,” Crimson started. “Randall is the only demon hunter with magic. I could believe he was a half-demon, but his magic isn’t dark, at least it doesn’t look like it is. But where does his magic come from? That’s your task now, Rey. Find out about Randall’s magic. I don’t care how. Follow him, break into his office or house after hours, anything. Just figure out where his powers come from.”

  I wanted to tell him “what if I don’t,” but I knew what he would say if I tried to rebel. That he would hurt Erin. And she had already been fucking hurt too much for a lifetime.

  “Fine,” I said through gritted teeth.

  7

  Erin

  On Saturday night, I waited about an hour after curfew to leave the Gardenia building to meet my mother in the Aster building.

  I wore all black, hoping it would help me blend in with the shadows as I crossed the short distance from one building to the other. I was trying to jog and go as fast as I could, even though the bruises on my stomach and chest screamed at me.

  It had been two and a half days since the attack, and I could honestly say I was feeling much better, but depending on how I turned or stretched, it still stung like hell.

  But what really stung was when I woke up in Rey’s bed in the middle of the night and found him nowhere in the house. I thought he was watching over me, making sure I was okay. But no. My friends had taken me to him, probably thinking they were pretty clever, and in the end, all they did was make sure Rey fled and didn’t come back to his own house until I was gone.

  More indication of that was finding clean clothes neatly folded outside his bedroom door. It was like there was a note saying “get dressed and get the fuck out of here.” It read loud and clear. So, at three in the morning, I hugged my clean clothes—I would wait to change into them after a nice shower in my bathroom—and left his house. Thankfully, I didn’t bump into anyone and wasn’t harassed.

  But I almost had a heart attack when I saw my face in my bedroom mirror. My cheek was dark purple, there was a small scratch on my chin, and my lower lip was split and swollen. My chest and stomach were also purpling from the hits I had taken there.

  The next day, I stayed in bed, in an attempt to speed up the healing process. Claire showed up to see me and brought some kind of healing concoction she had found in one of her father’s spell books. The thing tasted horribly, but by the end of the day, the bruises were mostly red and quickly disappearing.

  My mother had also showed up to see me. She gave me a long lecture about not walking alone, or only with poor Claire, and how I was an easy target, and things like that would keep happening if I gave them opportunity. Of course, we ended up arguing, but she seemed satisfied when I told her I was fine enough to meet her as we first agreed.

  I entered the Aster building and went to the top of the south turret, where my mother waited for me. The tower had a big open room at the top, with thin, long windows, and a door that led to a small stone balcony. It had been here my half-sister, Brianne, had been killed almost a year ago. Everyone thought it had been a suicide, but those who knew what the mark on her wrist—on my wrist—meant, knew a demon had come for her and killed her.

  In the near dark, my mother looked me up and down. “How are you feeling?”

  I rolled my shoulders. “Fine. As long as we don’t run a mile or spar, I think I’ll be fine.”

  Shaking her head, she turned on a small lantern she had brought with her. The place gained a faint, warm light. “It won’t be anything like that.”

  I walked up to her. “So, what are we doing, then? You mentioned something about magic, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Yes. I’m going to teach you some spells I think you’ll be able to do because you’re … well, because you’re the daughter of the supreme demon.”

  I crossed my arms. “What are you saying?”

  “That you’re probably more powerful than any other half-demon at this academy, or anywhere else for that matter, and you should be able to do things no one else can do.”

  I frowned. “And what is that?”

  “I’m going to teach you to syphon power from death,” she said, as if it was a normal subject in the academy program, just like demon history or magic spells. “If I’m right, you can take energy from dead bodies and use it to strengthen your magic.”

  My jaw fell open. “You want me to do what?”

  “I know it sounds gruesome, but think about it,” she said, her hands moving rapidly. “In a battle, you’ll be killing demons. There will be bodies all around you. All you have to do is syphon their residual energy, or life source. That should give your powers a boost.”

  I shook my head. “That sounds more than gruesome.”

  “Well, it’s a dark spell, so I would say that it’s strictly forbidden, but it’s a card you can have up your sleeve, just in case.” She went to one corner of the room, where there was a big cardboard box. “Here.”

  She opened the box, and I heard squeaks coming from it.

  “What the hell is that?” I approached the box. Several mice ran around the box, trying to get out. I wrinkle
d my nose. “What are these for?”

  “You’ll kill them and syphon the energy from them,” my mother said.

  Staring at her, I took several steps back. “No, I won’t.”

  “What would you rather do? Go after demons? Kill some innocent people? Or perhaps some rabbits?” She pointed to the box. “These are better for practice.”

  “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to do that,” I whispered. My stomach twisted at the thought.

  “Erin, listen to me.” My mother plodded to me. “You need to have an advantage when you fight the demons coming for you. When you fight against your father. This is your advantage. I know it’s not ideal, and I know it’s nasty, but it’ll be useful.”

  “Even if it is, I can’t do it right now. Like you said, in the battlefield, there will be corpses. I can’t save those, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to do it. But you’re talking about killing mice right now.”

  “What’s the big deal? They are just mice.”

  “That’s still killing!” I almost yelled. Since we shouldn’t be meeting so late, and talking about something so dark and forbidden, we didn’t need unwanted attention.

  “Fine, I’ll kill them for you.”

  Without any hesitation, my mother summoned her Dawnblade. She plunged her hand into the box, grabbed a mouse, and then slice her blade across its back.

  I turned around as my stomach rolled. Holy shit, I would be sick.

  My mother laid five dead mice in front of me. “There. Now do this—”

  “Are you serious?” I pressed a hand over my stomach. “I’m about to throw up and you want me to steal the rest of their lifeforce.”

  “They are already dead,” she insisted. “Now all you have to do is take it before it’s completely gone. You only have a small window.”

  Was she this cold and uncaring? It sickened me.

  “This is crazy,” I whispered, retreating.

  “Crazy is the fact that you’re hesitating to kill mice. What will happen when demons come for you?” She crossed her arms. “Oh, I know, you’ll let them beat you up like you let Tom Heyward.”