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

by Juliana Haygert

  I swooped over the academy one more time before retreating for the night, my mind reeling with what I had seen. What the hell had I witnessed? Why was Randall covered in blood?

  There was only one way to find out.

  I would have to follow Randall again.

  11

  Erin

  I hadn’t slept well since my mother told me I would have to participate in the Shadow Trials next semester, and that was over a week ago. Well, not that I ever slept well, but it was even worse than before.

  And the freaking nightmares didn’t stop. More than before, I saw Brianne and Cindy in my dreams, asking me to help them, to save them, to come with them. Once or twice, I thought they were trying to tell me more, but since I couldn’t walk to them, they couldn’t utter the right words. And the dream still ended the same way.

  During our third meeting, my mother noticed I was having problems focusing.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, standing right beside the dead mice, as if it was as normal as standing in front of the whiteboard in her classroom.

  I let out a long sigh. No reason not to tell her now. “I can’t sleep well because I keep having nightmares about Brianne and Cindy.” I went on and explained the nightmares to her: Brianne and Cindy showed up in normal places, but they always looked like zombies. They begged me to help them, but I couldn’t move a muscle. Demons came for them and there was nothing I could do. “I always wake up when the demons turn to me.”

  My mother frowned. “This nightmare … it might have a meaning.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe they are trying to tell you something. You should try asking them.”

  “They can’t seem to say anything other than to ask for help.”

  “The dream is yours,” my mother said. “You should be able to manipulate it a little.”

  “Easier said than done,” I muttered.

  “Speaking of telling something …”

  My back straightened. This couldn’t be good. “What?”

  “It occurred to me that you might not know that King Brikan has more children out there,” she said, as if it was a big confession.

  “Well, he had Brianne, Cindy, and me.” And Tanner. But I didn’t tell her that. Not yet. “Are there more?”

  My mother nodded. “Many more. I … I found out King Brikan was always very busy taking the form of a human man and seducing women. As far as I know, he wanted to create as many children as he could.”

  My stomach tightened. If I felt a little nauseous about it, I couldn’t imagine what my mother thought. What she felt. But this was an opportunity. Brianne and Cindy were gone, and Tanner was a guy, which meant I was alone to fulfill a prophecy that said three of his daughters would step up and take his kingdom.

  “How can I find them?” I asked.

  My mother’s eyes rounded and she recoiled as if I had slapped her. “What? Why would you want to find them?”

  “Because!” I let out another long sigh, not really sure about this, but the time for lies was over. “I found a legend, sort of like a prophecy. It’s called the Demon Kissed Queens, and—”

  “I know what you’re getting at,” my mother said, interrupting me. She raised her index finger. “I know you think you’re one of these queens and you need to find the other two, so you three can defeat the supreme demon, but let me tell you, it won’t work like that. He was too damn powerful to be stopped by an old legend like that.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I gestured to the dead mice behind her. “Why not believe that, when you believe I can syphon the energy of dead bodies to help defend myself against him?”

  “Because this spell is a last resort, your last line of defense so you can run from him,” she barked at me. “I’m not going to help you march toward him, Erin. In fact, sometimes I think we should pack and run.”

  I gasped. “Run?”

  “Yes. Think about it. He knows you’re here. And as I keep saying, it’s only a matter of time until he shows up. If we run, we can hide. He won’t know where you are. If we keep running, if we are careful and don’t stop, he won’t find you.”

  I shook my head. “I’ve already moved too many times in my life, and even then, I had stopped for a while. Run until the day I die? No, I won’t do that. I’m not a coward.”

  My mother groaned. “Erin, just think about it. There’s no way to locate them. How you’re going to do it? Go around the academy asking if someone else is the daughter or son of King Brikan? Or maybe around Chasseur Ville? It’ll be impossible to find them. And let’s say you did find them, do you think all of them know who they are, what they can do? Do you think they will want to join you and fight against the most powerful being in existence?” I averted my eyes. Damn it, she had a point. A long breath escaped her lips. “You should focus on things we can control, like practicing spells that will make you more powerful.”

  “Like killing innocent animals and syphoning their energy?” I asked, the sarcasm clear in my voice.

  Ignoring my tone, my mother pointed to the dead mice again. “Yes. Now focus and try again.”

  I rolled my shoulders. I wanted to argue more, but I knew she had a good point. Searching for my half-siblings was an impossible task, and convincing them to join me would be even worse.

  I archived that in the back of my mind—I would think more about what I could do with this information later—and turned to the dead mice. I might not like this, but I understood why I had to do it.

  Though, I hadn’t been able to kill the mice yet. Once more, my mother had sliced through them and placed them on the ground for me. Right on top of the bloodstain from the previous two times we had practiced.

  Inhaling deeply, I channeled my magic. I imagined I had a knitting needle and I used it to find the corners of dark magic hidden in my veins, tugging at them, pulling them to me, knitting them together to create something more, something I could control, something I could use.

  When I felt a heavy mesh of dark magic swirling inside me, I sent it out, toward the mice. My magic enveloped them like a net, seeking the little energy they still had within. I felt it when my magic found it, a tiny ball of life. Not sure what I was doing, I raised my arm in front of myself and hooked the air. My magic dipped in and hooked the energy.

  I closed my hand and pulled it like a rope.

  The magic tugged at the energy.

  The damn energy was more stubborn than I thought.

  I sent more dark magic to the dead mice. I swirled it around them.

  Around us.

  Around the tower.

  The dark magic filled me up, giving me strength, making me powerful. At that moment, I was sure I could do anything. I could face Brikan and win. I could even face Randall at the same time.

  There was so much power thrumming inside my veins. A shift in the magic jolted over me. It took over my muscles and my lungs. I felt I was drowning in a black river.

  “Erin!”

  I released the magic, and it ricocheted like an elastic string. I fell on my knees, gasping for air.

  My mother reached for me, holding my shoulders up. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded. A little out of breath, and a little shaken by what I had just done, but otherwise okay. “Yes.” I coughed, then inhaled deeply, trying to calm my racing heart. “I’m sorry. I lost control of my magic.”

  “Dark magic,” she whispered. “I know. It’s harder to control. It’s like it has a life of its own. I've heard that before.” She held on to my hands and helped me up. “You just have to keep practicing. That’s the only way to get better at this.”

  I stared at her. “You want me to keep doing this? Didn’t you just see what I did? I could have killed you?”

  “But you didn’t. You stopped before you could harm me.” She patted my hand. “I believe in you and I know you can control your dark magic.”

  I pulled my hand away from her. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

  She nodded. �
��I understand. Then we can try something else.”

  Didn’t she hear me? “Something else?”

  “Yes.” She stood beside the dead mice again. “Instead of syphoning their energy, you can do something like necromancy and reanimate them.”

  “W-what?”

  “Imagine on the battlefield, lots of bodies around you. If you can’t syphon their life source and become stronger that way, you can reanimate them and have an army to fight alongside you.”

  I blinked, sure she didn’t hear herself. “That is insane. I won’t reanimate dead bodies!”

  My mother’s face turned into a scowl. “Don’t you get it? You have to be able to do things no one else can in order to survive.”

  “I won’t compromise my morals in order to save my life! I would rather die than have a dead army beside me.”

  My mother advanced a step, and for a moment, I thought she would hit me. She halted and clenched her hands. Her knuckles turned white. “I’m done with you tonight. Just go.”

  “Gladly,” I said, before scurrying out the turret.

  Did she really think I liked this? Stealing lifeforce and bring back the dead? That was straight out of a horror movie. So not me.

  Besides, messing with dark magic like that? I didn’t like it. I felt like someday I would lose control over it and I would hurt her, my friends, hurt myself. And I really didn’t want to hurt anyone.

  Once out the Aster building, I paused.

  Speaking of hurting … ever since the incident with Tom, I had been very wary of walking around campus, even when I was with Claire and Harper. But right now? It was freaking late. The campus was dark and eerie, and I was alone.

  I didn’t like this.

  I shook my head once and ran from the back of the Aster building to the Gardenia building. At least they weren’t too far apart, and running made feel like I could escape if someone came after me.

  I didn’t even want to take the time to appreciate the beautiful and warm night sky, and the waning moon, and the stars. Soon enough, it would be too cold to enjoy nights like this. Not that I could enjoy them right now. It was just freaking dangerous for me, no matter where I went.

  I slowed down when I arrived at the front door of the Gardenia building. A shadow cut over me. My heart stopped and I looked up. A raven flew by and perched atop a tree at the corner of the building.

  “Shit,” I muttered, letting out a long breath. The freaking bird had scared me to death.

  But after the first scare, I looked at the bird. The raven was a silhouette in the dark, but I couldn’t stop thinking it looked pretty. I envied this raven. It was free to fly anywhere it wanted to. It could go far away, not afraid of anything.

  Unlike me.

  Shaking my head, I entered the building and went to my bedroom.

  It was almost midnight, but two seconds after I closed my door, a knock echoed.

  Knowing who it was, I opened the door again. “Hey, you.”

  Claire held up two steaming mugs and smiled at me. “I come bearing gifts.”

  I ushered her in and locked the door behind her.

  She handed me one of the mugs, filled to the brim with tea, and sat down on my bed. “So, how was practice tonight?”

  I wrinkled my nose and sat down beside her. “Ugh, my mother now doesn’t just want me to kill mice and steal their energy, but she also wants me to try to reanimate them.”

  Claire’s head jerked back. “What? That’s hardcore dark magic!”

  “I know,” I said with a sigh. “As usual, we argued more than practiced.” I sipped from my tea. “But I found out something interesting.”

  Claire blew on her mug, cooling her tea. “What?”

  “Apparently, King Brikan has many children, which means I could find them. I could get them together and we could fight him. We could win.” Never mind the fact that some could not want to join me. This was a wishful thinking more than anything.

  “That’s a great idea, but …” Claire pouted her lips before continuing, “It would be too hard to accomplish.”

  “Yeah, my mother already mentioned that. Some of these children could be old or really young. Some of them won’t know what they are or whose children they are. And most won’t want to join me. Don’t worry, my mother already lectured me about that.”

  “Not only that, but to go after them, you would have to leave the academy,” Claire said. “And you know you’re safer here. If you leave, you’ll be in terrible danger.”

  I snorted. “Safer here? You did hear the announcement about the Shadow Trials, didn’t you? That’s a deadly contest. You know I’ll have to take part in that.” I tried not thinking about that too much, because it only added stress to my already huge list of problems.

  “Well, we still have to figure something out for that.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Are you planning on stopping an entire contest? Or maybe hide me away so I don’t have to take part?”

  She chuckled. “Maybe. I don’t know. I’m just saying. We have done some pretty amazing things in the last year. I bet we can do some more.” She winked.

  I shook my head. “If I didn’t know you and how easily scared you get, I would say you love getting into the kind of messes we often find ourselves in.”

  “Sometimes I do; sometimes I don’t.”

  I laughed at that, amused that when it was only the two of us, Claire put on a bravado she didn’t usually have. She could be a scaredy-cat, but she always stayed by my side, and even when our chances were lower than zero, she sucked it up and helped me in way only she could.

  And I loved her for that.

  Though I thought Claire and my mother were partially right about my half-siblings, I didn’t want to give up hope yet. Finding them might be near impossible, but I wanted to find a way.

  I had to.

  12

  Rey

  For days, I tried following Randall, but he didn’t go back to the forest, at least not when I was nearby.

  Giving up on that plan for now, I headed to the library late one Friday night, to see if I could find any clues about whatever the fuck Randall had done inside that portal. Of course, I had peeked in on Erin before coming to the library. I had to make sure she was in her dorm, and not walking around campus by herself. At least tonight, she didn’t seem to have one of those gruesome practices with her mother.

  What was Professor Martha thinking? Dark magic? Reanimating corpses? I was glad Erin stuck to her morals and refused to do any of that. If she went down that rabbit hole, the dark magic would only grow stronger and one day consume her.

  We already had a lot of trouble on our hands as it was.

  After confirming Erin was indeed in her room, I went to the library. It was closed and dark, but nothing a little magic couldn't fix. I unlocked the door and navigated through the main part of the library in the dark, but when I reached the restricted section, I conjured a small darkfire ball. It floated above the room, illuminating much less than the lights on the ceiling, but enough so I wouldn’t get caught.

  Not that I would get in trouble for being here, regardless of the time of the day, but I really didn’t want anyone to know what I was about to research.

  I started pulling out books on curses and dark rituals.

  Hours and dozens of books later, I had found nothing about a curse or ritual that involved a portal and blood, at least not ones with the descriptions that fit the scene I witnessed.

  Where else could I find books about such topics? Professor Crimson was known for having an extensive library of dark magic books in his townhouse, but I was sure he was there right now. Breaking in would be too hard.

  Then, there was Randall’s private collection. Adjacent to his office, there was an extensive room with thousands of books of all kinds. I had only entered that library once or twice, while Randall was talking to me about other things. I remembered being impressed by the few collections I had seen there.

  I glanced at my phone. It was past
ten at night. Randall stayed in his office until after midnight most nights. I could either wait until the middle of the night, or I could go and check now.

  Deciding it was best to check now, just in case, I exited the Iris building and shifted into my raven. I flew across the courtyard, swirling around the blackthorn tree, to the Aster building.

  From a distance, I saw the window to his office was dark, but when I flew by, I confirmed the room was empty.

  I nosedived, and in the shadows of the building, I shifted into my human form. I entered the building and raced to Randall’s private library. For a moment, I wondered if my magic would work on this door, but when I tried, the door unlocked right away. I guess Randall didn’t think he had to worry about other magical users at the academy, except for me. Well, that had been true until a few months ago when he brought the half-demons to the school. Most half-demons had magic.

  I shook my head. That didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was now inside his library, and I had a book to find. Randall’s private library had no windows, but even then I only cast a darkfire ball and sent it floating through the room, lest the glow of the normal lights shine from under the door and someone who might be walking by saw it.

  I glanced around. Rows and rows with little space between them, crammed with all kinds of books—hastily bounds books, leather ledgers, binders, and even a few rolled parchments.

  How would I ever find a book about what I was looking for here, when I didn’t even know what that was exactly?

  I walked among the shelves, reading the spines and trying to get the gist of the kinds of books in here.

  Demonology 101

  The Darkest Spells

  The Worst Demons to Encounter and How to Stop Them

  Demonic Contracts

  All About Witches Volume One

  All About Witches Volume Two

  All About Witches Volume Three

  And more books about supernaturals, dark magic, and everything about demons and demonology.

  Among so many fucking books, wasn’t there anything about curses and rituals?