Page 58 of A Soul's Curse
“The guy said not to touch his daughter!” My attacker took one of my wrists, someone else grabbing my other, and dragged me away from the unconscious girl.
“Perhaps I can be of help here?” The shadow of a man with pale skin settled over me, wisps of hair slipping free from his man-bun as he gazed down at me with a slippery smile. He was the other reason for my visit, therealreason I had hoped would stay hidden from Ren.
“The girl … She’s going to suffocate from a fucking allergic reaction and they won’t let me help her!”
Caspian took in the battlefield in front of him, shaking his head as he tsked at my attackers. “You two idiots, let Theo go. Whether or not you like it, this boy’s magic can save her. I’ll watch him and make sure he doesn't try anything sneaky. If he does, I’ll kill him myself.”
There was a genuine threat to Caspian’s words, but hopefully he knew me well enough to realize I wouldn’t do something so stupid as to harm a child just to make sure someone learned a lesson.
The two men reluctantly dropped their hold on me, and I scrambled to my feet, rushing back over to Emily. Ren was still fighting off Henry, blood was being shed, and if this kept up much longer, I’d have two more patients to deal with after this.
I held up a hand to my chest, closing it into a fist as I dragged it down to my stomach. I cast the restraint spell out to both Ren and Henry, both of them freezing in place and knees dropping to the floor like someone had just bound a piece of rope around their bodies and yanked on it. They both stiffened, their gazes snapping toward me in alarm.
“You two are being immature adults. Sit there and sulk all you want, but when the spell wears off, get the fuck out of here and stop disturbing me!”
Henry tried to wiggle out of the restraints. Ren accepted defeat, learning his lesson.
Meanwhile, Caspian was examining Emily, humming in thought as he slightly lifted her shirt to check her stomach, pulled up her sleeves to look at her arms, and rolled up her pants to peek at her legs.
“Moron,” Caspian spat at the father. “You think Theo did this? Perhaps you should be a more mindful parent and ask where your child ran off to after school yesterday. These rashes have been forming for a while. And this bump here on her lower leg?” Caspian pointed to a raised, swollen area of red skin. “My guess? She was sneaking around the forest where she shouldn’t have been, disturbed a nest of nasty spiders, got bitten for her trouble, and in her frantic escape, ran straight through a patch of poison ivy. This had absolutely nothing to do with anything Theo did. In fact, that candy she ate is actually helping. You should bethankful he was here to neutralize it because she’d never make it to a hospital at this point.”
Patrick’s face drained of color, and he gulped nervously, his hands shaking slightly as he fidgeted with the edge of his sleeve. Even the people around him looked guilty.
“Thank you,” he grumbled, risking eye contact with me for only a second as he watched my magic flow into his daughter, the red rashes disappearing and the swollen bumps receding. Emily’s breathing slowly stabilized, and her eyes fluttered open.
“You’re welcome. I’m just glad your daughter is okay.”
Caspian started to walk away. When I didn’t follow, he turned around and said, “You coming or what? We have business to conduct.”
24
IfollowedCaspianintoNick’s office, the overseer of Emberheart Place still out replacing the supplies his guests trashed. Caspian shut the door behind me. Ren and Henry were still restrained, but the spell would wear off quickly and once it did, I fully expected Ren to barge in here demanding answers.
“So let me get this straight.” Caspian folded his hands, sitting in the fancy, executive leather chair behind Nick’s desk. I prayed the devil didn’t catch him sitting there or he’d have no spine left to sit. “You successfully tricked the Syndicate into giving Ellie her magic back. You know where she’s being kept. You have a possible ally on the inside. The clock is ticking on your deal with the Syndicate. But you’re here talking to me now. Why are you waiting? You should have called me the instant you figured everything out.”
“I mean, shewasat the office park. She probably isn’t any more.” I sighed, unwrapping a piece of chocolate from Nick’s candy bowl and popping it into my mouth as I sat in the less-fancy chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Ren asked if I could wait. He thinks the Syndicate is up to something, and he wanted time to figure things out.”
Caspian’s evil laugh was loud enough to rattle the windows. “Ofcoursethe Syndicate is up to something! When are they not? But he must know the longer you wait, the more time they have to plan as well. I don’t understand why you even still listen to that demon after what he did.”
“It’s not like that.” I averted my gaze, playing with foil wrapper from my candy.
“I see. Then there’s a different reason you asked me here.” Caspian propped his elbow against the desk and rested his head in his hand.
“Well …” I scratched my head. “I guess … I’ve been wondering what my magic thinks about all this. I thought maybe, since you can talk to magic, that you might just … ask it?”
“Askwhatspecifically?”
I leaned back in the chair, staring up at the ceiling. Ren would burst in here any minute now. This had to be quick.
“About Ren,” I answered. “He told me he tried to steal my magic the night he broke into my house. Even though it hadn’t manifested inside me yet, it was there. And apparently it refused to go with him. I just … I guess I wanna know why. I feel this strange connection to him. He might not have taken my magic, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do something else to me that night. I just want to know … what to do.”
“You still don’t fully trust him.” Caspian leaned forward. “You want to know my opinion.”
“Not really. I want to know what my own magic thinks.”
“I think,” he continued anyway, “that to most people, death is something that happens in the past. Your magic took on the shape that it did because you’re haunted by the ‘what if’s of that night. But when you started thinking about death as somethingin the future, to stop something like that from ever happening again, it became something totally unexpected. Through your magic, you treat other peoples’ illnesses, you welcome ghosts into your life like they’re living beings. So when Ren tried to take it from you, while it might not have been fully developed yet, it knew it had a bigger purpose than to let surrender to him. Ren felt that strength and latched onto your magic in a different way. He couldn’t have your magic, but he refused to let you go, regardless.”
“So …” I forced myself to look at Caspian. I was grateful for the sincerity of his words, but it still didn’t answer my question. “Where does that leave me and Ren? I mean, I should hate the guy, right? I should want to be as far away as possible after everything he’s done to me. But … as crazy as this sounds, I like being around him. I don’t have to hide myself. I just worry that it’s only because our magic got mixed up that night and I don’t know what to do. There’s a part of me that wants to forgive him and work this out, but I have this unsettling feeling that we’re destined to destroy each other. Like, despite our pasts bringing us together, our paths forward don’t align.”
