Page 14 of Shadowed Spirits

“Remember the mage development program?” Aggie waits until I nod. “Apparently, Doyle is using that to suck the magic out of lower mage kids. Wild, I know. But it gets even weirder! Some permanently blood-soaked goddess taught him how to do it. None of my ghosts know what he does with this magic, though.”

I gape at Aggie, at a loss for what to say.

“Fuck,” Luca mutters behind me, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Not only is Doyle somehow sucking magic out of mages, but he’s also collaborating with a goddess.

Awesome.

“It can’t be, right?” Levi breathes, breaking me out of my thoughts. I stare at him in confusion, but his gaze is unseeing as he stares off into space.

Hades clenches his jaw, and his obsidian eyes turn red. “The realms better fucking hope not. I haven’t checked on her in a couple million years, but no one’s escaped Tartarus before.”

“Tartarus? Like the prison of the Titans?” I squeak. I don’t know why I’m even surprised at this point. Hades, Charon, and Persephone are all real. Not to mention that Persephone might be my great-grandmother. So, the universe might as well throw in the underworld hellhole, Tartarus, while it’s at it.

Levi shakes himself from his thoughts, and his lips kick up on one side as he stares down at me. “Tartarus is the most secure prison in this realm, but it doesn’t hold Titans. Neither Titans nor gods and goddesses are real. Instead, most of those that inspired the legends of the Romans and Greeks arecura.”

“And what exactly arecura, for us mere earth dwellers?” I ask.

“Great question, earth creature.” I raise my eyebrows at Hades becauseearth dwelleris far less insulting. He just shrugs and keeps explaining. “We are the guardians of the realms. Earth is neither the first, nor will it likely be the last, planet this particularcurarealm has guarded. As long as Earth is the primary planet we are tasked with guarding and humans remain the dominate species, we will continue to be in human form. We shift to resemble whatever the main species is on our assigned world.”

His explanation just created more questions, like how are they assigned planets? Are there multiple guardian realms? What other planets have they guarded? But I focus on the most pressing question first. “I’m supposed to be part guardian?”

Hades purses his lips and tilts his head as he regards me, like he’s trying to see into my DNA to determine if I am, in fact, acura. “So Leviathan says. We can’t be sure until you drink water from the River Styx. You’ll either get powers of this realm or die. Allcuradrink water from the Styx when they come of age to unlock their magic and find their sub-species.”

“Awesome. I love playing Russian roulette with sketchy underworld rivers.” Someone snorts behind me, but I don’t turn to look. While Hades is currently playing nice, he’s the biggest predator in this room. By far. It’s wise to keep my eyes on him. “Is that why it whispers to me?”

Levi whips his head around to stare at me in shock. “It whispers to you?”

I look at him with wide eyes, unsure why he’s looking at me like that. “Um, yeah. Isn’t that acurathing?”

Levi gives me a small shake of his head while staring down at me with worry swimming in his gaze. “No. That’s very much not a normal thing forcurae.”

“Oh,” is all I say. I wish I could say I’m surprised that the river only whispers to me, but I’m not. I’ve always attracted weird, strange, and abnormal occurrences. “Moving on. So, how are we going to find this blood-soaked goddess?”

After watching me for a long moment, Levi focuses back on his brother. “Who have you given anobrussato lately?”

“The last person was Melinoe, which was a few hundred years ago.” At the mention of her daughter, Seph’s eyes fill with tears. Hades hugs her closer to him. His attempt to offer her comfort softens his abrasive edges. It makes him look startlingly human, but his face hardens again when he tears his gaze away from her. “Before that, I hadn’t handed out one in at least a couple thousand years. Why?”

“Doyle, the head of the mage council of North America, had one,” Levi explains. “That’s how he figured out Izzy was a spirit mage and had her arrested.”

“Why did they arrest her for being a spirit mage?” Hades asks quizzically.

I answer before Levi can. “Because spirit mages have been outlawed since the eighteen hundreds. The council claims that spirit mages are unnatural, morally corrupt, and inherently evil, so executing us keeps the mage community safe. But I’m pretty sure the real reason is because spirit mages are usually very powerful.” To avoid being overthrown, the council eliminates anyone more powerful. Instead of, you know, improving the lives of mages or ruling for the good of all of us or even being a smidge likable.

Aggie said she doesn’t know what Doyle does with the stolen magic, but I can take a guess. He’s using it to make himself more powerful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s trying to take over the entire council.

“That’s a load of fucking bullshit,” Hades says, fuming.

I bark out a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”

“Abolishing the spirit mage law is on my list of things to do, but the more pressing issue is figuring out who is helping Doyle. To do that, we need to track down Melinoe and find out how Doyle acquired theobrussa.” Levi shoves an agitated hand through his hair as he contemplates everything we have to do.

“Haven’t you been looking for her for a while?” I ask. “How are we going to find her now?”

Levi hangs his head slightly at the mention of his inability to find Melinoe, and I feel awful that I brought it up. He scrubs a hand over his face before seeming to shake himself out of his guilt. “We now know that she’s probably your grandmother. Your family should have a way to contact her. I’m fairly certain she’s using some kind of magic to conceal her whereabouts, so your family may be the only ones able to find her.”

“Before we drag my family into it, let’s see if Anya can do a locator spell.” I hate bringing Anya, the owner of the Apothecary shop and the only person willing to take a chance on me, into it, but I plan to tell her it’s for Elemental security. The less she knows, the better.

“That’s a good idea, little raven. We’ll try that first.” Levi smiles down at me, and my heart beats harder in my chest at his praise. I feel my cheeks warm under his intense gaze and duck my head to hide it.

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