Soulceress (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 2) (9 page)

“Where are you?” His breath came short with his rage, strangling his lungs like briars wrapped around a fence.

“Please. I won’t be telling you that. However, I will say that I’m glad to see you here. You’ll do just fine for my purposes.”

“You knew I’d be here?” There was no way.

“Nay. I came to ask these cowards for what I wanted.” She gestured to the cowering witches. “But your passion will ensure that I get what I want.”
 

Pride propelled Cora forward, but only a few steps. “You broke the law. We did only what was required when we locked you up for abusing your powers.”
 

“What do you know of my powers? You’re but an animus witch. Go talk to your marmot.” Aurora waved a dismissive hand.

“Bite me, Cruella. There are enough of us to stop you again if you pull a repeat of your past,” Cora said.

“You’re wasting my time,” Aurora snapped. She waved her hand and the witches were forced to their knees, struggling fiercely against her hold, their faces contorted with rage and their shouts echoing about the room.

Still on his feet, the strength leached out of Warren’s muscles and his stomach lurched. What the hell? He was never ill, and this wasn’t the same as what the witches were experiencing.
 

He swallowed hard, forcing the bile back, and said, “Where the hell are you?”

“What, you want to kill me to get your soul back?” She laughed.

“Aye.”

She rolled her eyes and his muscles bunched, prepared to launch himself at her even though it would be pointless.
 

“I knew that’s what you’d say. But you canna find me,” she said. “No’ where I’m going. The only one who can find me is another soulceress. And there’s one here at the university. I can feel her. Bring her to me.”
 

“Why?”

“I want a friend, that’s all.” Something swirled in her eyes, something dark and unreadable that took him back to the awful night when he’d traded her his soul. Her power seethed around her, so strong that he could almost feel it, though she wasn’t even truly in the room. She looked nothing like Esha, but the power was there. That similarity was impossible to deny.

“That’s no’ all you want,” he said. Bring Esha to her? Risk her like that?

“Either way, bring her to me. Then you can have your soul back.”

Nay. It was too good to be true. “That’s all? Why no’ just come get her yourself?”

“And let the university hunt me down? I’m no’ stupid. I want to meet her on my terms, where I make the rules and remain safe. Why would I give you the advantage by coming there?”

“How are we supposed to find you if you won’t tell me where you are?”

“She can find me. Bring her to me and your soul is yours.”

It was clearly a lie. And there was so much beneath the surface of her demands and her plans that he couldn’t identify.

“You’ve got one chance, Warren.” She waved her hand again and released the witches from their enforced submission.

As they stood, his muscles turned to jelly and his stomach revolted. What the hell?

“Bring her to me, Warren,” Aurora said. The air around her shimmered again, then collapsed in on itself until she disappeared with a pop.

He almost went to his knees with the sickness that surged through him. What the hell was wrong with him?

Once his stomach had settled a bit, he spun toward the witches and demanded, “That’s it? That’s all we fucking get?”
 

“Just a moment,” Cora said. She and the other witches were moving about the room, chanting spells and righting chairs that had overturned in the first rush of wind that had come with Aurora’s appearance.
 

Warren stumbled over to the area where Aurora had been floating but could feel no difference in the air. He breathed deeply as the sickness began to fade and some of the strength returned to his muscles.

Eventually, Cora approached him and said, “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“Aye.”

Cora shook her head. “No, there’s something wrong with you. I can sense it.”

“I’ll be fine.” But it hit him again, a wave of nausea so intense that he almost stumbled.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she whispered. “It’s like Aurora had some kind of effect on you.”

“Nay. Of course no’.”

The confusion that creased her brow turned to shock. “Oh, shit. Of course. Hang on a second.”

Warren put a hand on the table to steady himself and watched her run over to a bookshelf in the corner. She plucked a volume from the top and leafed through it as she returned to him.
 

“Here it is,” she said, peering at the pages. “It says that every time she uses the power that your soul provides, it takes some of the strength from your body as well. It makes you sick.”

“Then why has this never happened before?”

“She was neutralized in the aether, so she couldn’t use your soul.”

Warren dragged a hand across his sweating face, the cramps in his gut like squirrels run amok in his intestines. How the fuck was he going to face her like this? “Is there any kind of spell that could cure this?”

“Cure? No.”

“What about neutralize it?” he asked.

Cora frowned, a thoughtful light in her eyes. “I’ll ask my sisters. Some of them work for the infirmary. There might be something you can take. Wait over there.”
 

“Thanks.” Warren stumbled to the chair that she indicated under the window. How the hell would he defeat Aurora if she had him crippled by illness?

Twenty minutes later—during which time he watched the witches put their cottage to rights while Cora and two of her sisters went to the infirmary—Cora returned.

“Here.” She handed him a clear plastic bottle full of neon-green pills. “These should keep the symptoms at bay. But you can’t take them forever. They’ll eventually become ineffective. Then they’ll kill you.”

Shite.
“How long can I take them?”

She shrugged. “Two weeks, maybe? It’s different for everyone. One every twelve hours.”

He fumbled one out of the bottle and swallowed it dry. “How the hell did she get out so soon?”
 

“Too powerful, I think. She’s stronger than we thought. Stronger than any soulceress before her.”

“What the hell does she want with Esha?”
 

Cora looked away, hesitating. “I don’t know. But I’d guess that she wants her power.”

“Her power?”

“Yeah, they can steal each other’s power. Or their ability to absorb power, that is. It’s one reason that soulceresses can be so strong—they have a potentially infinite well of ability. And why we stay the hell away from them.”

Damn. He hadn’t known that. Esha could permanently steal another’s power, not just siphon it off temporarily? “Can they steal yours?”

“We don’t know. None have tried in our written history, but that doesn’t mean they can’t. It’s why we wanted Esha put on the other side of campus when she joined.”

“Does Esha know soulceresses can steal power?”

Cora shrugged. “Doubt it. She’d probably have taken ours if she knew, right?”

Warren wasn’t so sure. “How many soulceresses are left, if they’ve been stealing each other’s powers all these years?”

“I don’t know how often they do it. They used to be very loyal to each other, since no one else wanted to be around them. Aurora is one of the few who rampantly stole souls and power. The Burnings killed most of them. I think that Esha and Aurora are the only two left in Britain. She must want Esha’s to complete her collection.”

The idea of Esha’s power being in Aurora’s
collection
made his chest hurt. But if she didn’t have her power, then she’d be normal. The idea wasn’t wholly unappealing when he thought of it that way. Though he wasn’t a big enough arse to wish her power away. But how would he ever convince her to help him, especially after his first blown attempt?

CHAPTER TEN

“Come on, Chairman, we’re blowing this Popsicle stand.”

Esha swung her bag onto her shoulder and headed for the door of her tower apartment. This was it—she was leaving. It hadn’t taken but a moment to throw her valuables in a bag. A couple of goofy T-shirts from Ana, the Chairman’s fluffy green squeaky toy that was the only thing he deigned to play with, her journal, and a necklace that was supposedly from her dad, though she’d never met him, so she couldn’t be sure.
 

Her first stop would be to see the witches and check on where the soulceress might go when she was released. If they didn’t know anything, the second would be to the historian Lea’s office. She might know. Either way, the other soulceress would leave the university right away. Hence the packed bag.

She skipped down the spiral staircase, her dire mood improved by the possibility of what was to come. The brisk November air hit her face as she ran out the door at the base of her tower. Nearly all of the leaves were off the trees now. Snow would be here any day.
 

“New adventure, Chairman.”

He meowed, low and deep, as he trotted at her side.
 

As she was pushing her car keys into the door lock, a hand landed on her shoulder. Shocked, she spun around and threw a blast of power that put the assailant on his ass.

“Warren?”

He coughed and rose, shaking the dirt from himself. “Aye. Damn, lassie, what’d you pack in that punch?”

“You’re lucky that’s all it was. Only an idiot would sneak up on me.” She looked him up and down, letting the insinuation hang in the air. He might be an idiot, but not a bigger one than she. And he was a hot idiot. Golden hair that was such a contrast to the shadows at his feet whipped in the wind. “Why the hell are you sneaking up on me, anyway? I thought you’d be smart enough to leave me the hell alone.”

“Never been too smart.”

A lie, but she played along. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“I need your help.”

A little thrill skittered over Esha’s skin.
Ignore it.
“Not interested. Last time you needed my help, you set me up. Oh, and that was last night. Not nearly long enough to forget.”

He stepped toward her. The breath caught in her throat, and she backed up until the cold metal of the car pressed against her back. She despised herself for backing away, but she couldn’t trust her control where he was concerned. She was determined to have a little more self-respect this time around.
 

“No’ intentionally,” he said.

“You’re saying you didn’t know I’d be locking up another soulceress?”

“Nay. But I dinna know the extent of the spell or what it would mean to you.”

“Why me?”

“I need your help to find another of your kind. Soulceresses can find one another. You’re the fastest way for me to get to her.”

Really?
“Why are you looking for her?”
 

“Her power outplayed that of the imprisonment spell. She’s out, and she’s gone rogue.” He paused. “We want to make sure she’s on our side.”

“Like you did with me.”
And see how well that worked out.

“Basically.” He looked away, swallowed hard.

He’s lying.
Warren was a terrible liar. A disgusted laugh burst from her lips. He expected her to trust him. But how could she when he made it so clear that he didn’t trust her?
 

“If you insist on having this conversation, don’t lie to me. You aren’t planning to ask the other soulceress to join the university.”

His jaw clenched.

“What,” she said, “not used to being caught in your lies?”

“I doona lie—”

“Often. I know. You’re too bloody honorable to stoop so low. But you did this time. Why?”

“Because I need your help, damn it!”

Esha had to work to suppress a shiver of delight at his words. On the surface they were what she wanted to hear. To be needed was a lovely thing. But beneath, the reasons for his lies writhed. “You think that the reason you want the soulceress will keep me from helping you, don’t you?”

A tic began in his jaw.

“You’re going to imprison her again. Or kill her. Aren’t you?”
 

His eyes flickered at the word
kill.
She had him. She laughed, the sound dark and bitter. “You were going to try to trick me again—into helping you hurt another of my kind.”

“She’s evil, gods damn it!”

“So am I, according to you! There’s no way in hell I’m helping you with this. All you’ve done is fucking lie to me when you
need
me.” There was that word again. That lovely, lovely, dangerous word. “And inevitably, you need me to do something that I absolutely refuse to do. I’m not leading you to her so you can hurt her.”
 

Warren dragged a hand through his hair, frustration evident on his face. “Honestly, Esha. I doona think you’re evil. I’ve been an arse to you. Unforgivably so. It’s just... You tie up my mind and my tongue until I say the worst possible things. And I’m no’ trying to shift the blame. It’s my own damn fault that I get screwed in the head around you. And I’m sorry.”
 

Shock almost put her on her ass. A genuine apology... for her? An apology that confirmed she wasn’t crazy for what she believed was happening between them?