Page 50 of A Soul's Curse
“I just wanted to stop by to see how you were doing after … last night.” Leon stood before me, the scar on his lip pulling tight as he smirked. I had every reason to believe the Syndicate was keeping tabs on me, but how much did he really know about my meeting with Caspian last night? About what I learned aboutRen? Or my attempt to swap bodies with Ellie in hopes I could find her?
“I’m fine. You can fuck off now and go away.” I went to slam the door in his face when a black leather boot slipped through the opening to stop me.
“I have a proposal for you. Don’t you want to hear what I have to say?” The tall, wiry man wore a dark jacket that made him stand out in the bright, afternoon sun, his eyes sharp and calculating as they met mine. There was a quiet intensity about him, like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike. I had no doubt I was his prey.
“Not really.” I could feel Lyric’s wings gently flapping against my hair. Leon noticed her presence, but said nothing about it. “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.”
“Come with me. You have questions. I have answers for you,” he stated, his voice low and commanding. I wanted to defy him, but a curiosity stirred within me, pulling me forward despite myself. This was definitely a bad idea, but I was going to do it, anyway.
I grabbed my coat and phone, locking the door behind me with the spare key Paige had left. “Answers to what, exactly?”
“Your friends,” he answered simply, rounding the front of a blue SUV parked on the street and opening the driver’s side door. I hesitated, knowing nothing positive could come from getting into a car with this guy.
“Look, I feel just as betrayed by Ren as you do.” If Leon was trying to get a rise out of me by mentioning the half-demon, he might just succeed. “I’m extending an olive branch. The police have already been called off. You have been cleared of anything that happened at Mr. Carson’s restaurant, and you’ll be delighted to know I’ve made sure his business insurancewillbe compensating him for the damage. I’m also going to showyou where we’re keeping Ellie’s body. My guess is her ghost isn’t doing well, is she? And you want to know she’s safe, right?”
The air fled from my lungs. Leon had me trapped. He knew there was no way I’d pass up an opportunity like this, but I was also wary of the fact no one knew where I was going or who I would be with. If Leon wanted to try something, now would be the perfect opportunity.
I felt a tug on the ends of my hair. No, I wasn’t alone. Lyric was with me, and with her expertise in tracking, she could go back to Ivy and let her know I was in trouble. We could even go back to the exact location where they were keeping Ellie.
Leaving my concerns behind, I hopped into the car and Leon drove off. For the first ten minutes, Leon tried to make small talk, mentioning the weather, last night’s baseball game, and asking what kind of music I liked to listen to. When I refused to respond, the atmosphere grew heavy as the awkward silence stretched between us.
By the time we pulled into a parking lot, I realized the half hour drive took us to an office park in the neighboring town of Peabody. Having been a work day during business hours, there were actually quite a few cars in the lot and even a few people coming in and out of the building—although whether or not they were Syndicate members I couldn’t tell.
Following Leon toward the entrance, I discreetly searched around me, looking for the name of the office park, the building number, or anything that might give away its location. Why wouldn’t Leon have just opened up one of his tears in the Nether to get here? Did hewantme to know where I was?
The office park was a stark, uninspiring place. Rows of identical gray buildings seemed to stretch on endlessly, each one cold and impersonal. The architecture was utilitarian, designed to be functional rather than inviting, with sharp lines and reflective glass windows that caught the light of the bright sun.
As we approached one of the buildings, its exterior gave off a sterile, almost clinical vibe, with pale concrete walls and a metal door that looked too solid, too secure. The hum of fluorescent lights from inside leaked through the edges of the door as it opened, offering a glimpse of a hallway lined with bland, beige walls and the faint scent of antiseptic in the air. Despite the activity outside, the inside was the kind of place that felt devoid of life, a place where things were stored, rather than lived in … a perfect place to keep a body.
Only a few people milled about the hallways. I followed Leon to a set of stairs as he led me not up, but down into the basement.
I nearly fainted at the sight that presented itself. Just like the memory I pulled from Ellie’s rune, the space was vast but poorly maintained, filled with rows of industrial shelving and equipment that looked out of place. I recognized the metal table that Ellie’s unconscious body had once laid on, where Markus placed that destructive rune on her wrist. The air was thick with the musty scent of age and dampness, as if the place hadn’t been properly ventilated in years.
The clattering of metal startled me, making my heart jump.
“Leon? What are you doing here?” The young man had a round figure that gave him a softness that didn’t match the hard edges of the world around him. His unruly, dark hair was a bit too long, and fell into his eyes whenever he averted his gaze from Leon to look down at the tablet he had in his hands. I knew that face, that voice. Markus.
“I’ve brought a friend with me,” Leon said, and I rolled my eyes. “Ellie’s body, please.”
“Oh, of course.” Markus looked like he wanted to ask why, but thought better of it. He scampered over toward the far wall, lined with a row of body racks, similar to what might have been found in a morgue. He opened one, and slid out the rack.
“Ellie!” I rushed over, a barely audible yelp coming from the top of my head at the reminder of Lyric still settled in my hair.
Instinctively, I reached for Ellie’s hand, the one where I knew the rune was placed, but Markus stopped me. “No touching.”
What Leon said next startled me. “Markus, can you return her magic to her body?”
I whipped around to face Leon, searching his dark brown eyes for what his end game was.
“I meant it when I said I was offering an olive branch to you, Theo. Say the word, and her magic will be returned.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but to wonder. With that rune, she was doomed either way. Why give up his leverage now? My stomach was in knots and a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. When I met Leon’s gaze, his smile a little too sharp, his eyes a little too calculating, it clicked into place. “You don’t think Ellie’s magic is going to make it two weeks, do you? Which means, if she’s truly dead, you can’t complete your part of the deal.”
It would send me spiraling out of control. Sure, I’d be mad at the Syndicate, but I’d be even angrier at Ren because it was his fault she ended up this way in the first place. It was the perfect fuel for me to make the choice on my own to join the Syndicate.
Leon sighed. “That is part of the reason, yes. Even now, returning her magic will be risky. But I thought you should see the truth for yourself,” he said, his voice lowering. “You’re not the first to walk this path. And you won’t be the last.” His words hung in the air, heavy with unspoken implications, as if he were trying to make me understand something I wasn’t quite ready to face.
“Ren has poisoned your mind with the bad intentions of the Syndicate, but we're not all evil people,” Leon continued, his voice softening slightly, as though trying to coax understanding into the air between us. “Over the years … decades, centuries … magic has adapted. We’ve had to evolve with it, and nowit’s unstable and growing out of control. Darkness is consuming light. The world wasn’t always this fractured. The Syndicate, despite its methods, has tried to maintain this magical balance. Some may question our methods, but everything we’ve done has been to protect that stability from slipping away.”
