Page 51 of A Soul's Curse
He paused, his gaze lingering on me as he tried to gauge whether any of his words were sinking in.
“Okay,” I mused, not buying his bullshit. “Then why trap Thomas in that urn? Why take Ellie away from me in the first place? Why poison everyone at Emberheart Place and destroy Mr. Carson livelihood just to get my attention? How does that protect your precious stability?”Why would you kill Ellie with that poisonous rune?I wanted to add, but knew I couldn’t.
“You misunderstand how this works.” Leon tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “As the world itself becomes a dark place, so does the magic its inhabitants wield. It just so happens that demons, even those of mixed race like Ren, are more susceptible to having dark, unbalanced magic. Take Nick for example, your precious New Jersey Devil friend. Nick is a pureblood demon, and the longer he lives, the more volatile his magic becomes. You might not realize it, or agree with it, but no one is meant to live that long—and eliminating them, their magic, benefits the rest of us. We’re willing to make an exception for your friend Ellie, though, since her lineage is more human than demon.”
“That’s complete bullshit and you know it. Nick is one of the nicest people I know and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his magic.” Disbelief and anger rolled off me in waves. “You think eradicating demons, people with dark magic, is what keeps the peace?” I took a step closer to him, getting in his face as I poked him in the chest. “It’s because of people likeyou, like James Whitfield, that demons are in this situation in the first place.Youare the ones causing chaos, the disruption in magic.You don’t care about balance. You care about power. You care about control, and you fear what happens when those outside your precious organization have it.”
Leon stepped closer, his frustration rising. “It’s not just demons, Theo. Witches, vampires, shifters, fae … they’re all susceptible to dark magic. There is more bad in this world than good, and it’s tipping the balance. Look at yourself, how your magic formed into death itself because of your tragic past.”
“Oh yeah? What about me? My magic is literally death, and yet you don’t want to kill me.”
Leon’s stiff shoulders relaxed slightly, his eyes flickering with something almost like admiration, though it was buried beneath the layers of his conviction. “You … you’re an anomaly.” The sharpness in his voice softened. “Your magic is dark, yes, but you use it to bring forth light. It’s like it’s perfectly balanced … like you’ve found a way to control it when most people would be consumed by it. You’re the hope that others can break through the darkness. ”
He took a slow step closer as I took a step back, studying me with a new kind of curiosity, though there was still a trace of doubt in his eyes. “The Syndicate is not after you for your power, or to neutralize your magic. We want your help, Theo. You thrive off helping others, so help us help them. Help me prove that not everything the Syndicate does is out of malice. You could be the key to showing that balance can be maintained without falling into the same darkness we’re trying to fight.”
His speech was almost convincing. Almost. I desperately wanted to believe him. At least, unlike Ren, he was being truthful about his agenda. But I couldn’t ignore that nagging feeling in my gut, the way Leon’s words rang hollow, like a carefully constructed lie designed to pull me further into a trap. There was nothing wrong with Nick’s magic, or Ellie’s, or Ivy’s,or even mine. They were good people, even if others feared the power of their magic.
“No. Forget it. I’ll never be your puppet.” I clenched my fists, the magic in my blood pulsing with anger, but I realized if I wanted to keep any chance of getting my friend back, I couldn’t piss off Leon. Ellie was struggling, barely keeping it together. I didn’t know how much time she had left, but her body was right here in front of me. If I could remove that rune, maybe I could solve at least one of my problems.
I exhaled a long breath. “But I can see that perhaps you aren’t completely insane if you still have compassion to see through our differences and offer me the opportunity to spare my friend, a demon you so despise. I respect that. I still reject your offer to join the Syndicate, although you may win that battle in the end anyway. In the meantime, my friend is suffering. I would appreciate it if you could return Ellie’s magic to her body. She has nothing to do with this war, and she deserves to go back to her friends and family.”
Markus coughed uncomfortably, snapping both me and Leon out of our staring match. “Leon? Are you serious about this?” he asked, looking for approval from his elder. Leon wasn’t the leader of the Syndicate, but I had a hunch he was definitely someone of high importance to them.
“Do it, Markus.” He looked at his watch. “I have something else I need to attend to while I’m here. I’ll be back in ten minutes. You have my permission to use force if he tries anything stupid.” Leon turned to leave, his rubber-soled boots making a soft, steady thud against each step he ascended until he was no longer in view.
I turned to Markus. The man was sweating bullets, his white polo soaked through with dark patches under his arms. Each breath he took seemed shallow, as though the air itself was toothick to breathe, his entire body betraying the panic he was trying to hide.
“You don’t have to do this,” I told him, recalling the memory of his conversation with Helen. It made me wonder how many times Leon had pressured him into carrying out this task—into taking a life, ruining someone’s future, and pushing their loved ones into a dark spiral that led straight into the Syndicate’s grip.
Markus snorted, trying to laugh through his nervousness. “Fine with me. Guess you don’t want your friend back that badly then.”
“Look, we don’t have a lot of time.” I stepped beside Ellie. “I know about the rune you placed on her wrist. I know it’ll kill her if you try to draw her magic back into her body. And I know you don’t want to do that. Please, let me remove it with my magic. You don’t want her death on your hands.” A nervous energy buzzed through my body. I was putting all my trust in Markus, this strange man who I had only met once in a dream.
To my surprise, he didn’t deny my statement. “I don’t know how you figured it out, but I guess it doesn’t make much of a difference now, does it?” He went to grab Ellie’s wrist, but I grabbed his to stop him.
“I know about your cousin,” I blurted out as he yanked his arm away from me. “I know a demon wronged him, but—”
Markus flicked his wrist, quickly tracing a symbol midair with his pointer finger. It glowed a bright yellow, and then the magical energy burst into a ring of light that shot toward me and snapped shut like shackles around my wrists and ankles, locking me in place. “You don’t get to bring my cousin into his and use him against me. He did nothing wrong! Yet that demon brutally murdered him, and neither the police nor Syndicate did anything about it. No one even knows what happened to that demon, and I refuse to let that happen to anyone else. If it means ending the lives of those threats myself, then so be it.”
Not even the Syndicate did anything about it? That seemed suspicious to me, and also worked to my advantage. It now made sense why Markus mentioned to Helen about wanting to take advantage of Ellie’s magic. “What if you could get to the bottom of what really happened? You know my friend here can relive memories with her magic. Not all demons are bad. If you let her live, Ipromiseyou she’ll be more than happy to help you find out the truth.”
Markus scoffed, then looked up at the clock above the door. We were running out of time. “Let’s say for a second I actually believed you. Even if I wanted to let her live, I can’t. If Leon found out I defied Syndicate orders, I’ll be punished for it. Probably with my life. No offense, but I’d rathershedie than me.”
“Fair enough,” I conceded. “But this doesn’t have to fall on you. I can dissolve that ruin myself, then you can perform the rest of spell to return her magic to her body. You can pretend you had no idea what I did.”
“I don’t know …” Markus peered over at the door as if expecting Leon to burst through it at any moment. Catching him evenconsideringdefying orders was a crime. Was there nothing else I could offer to convince him?
Lyric fluttered out of my hair, her iridescent wings leaving behind a glittery magic in their wake as she hovered between me and Markus. “If your cousin is still alive, I can probably find him by his magical scent, assuming you still have something of his.”
Markus’s eyes widened and his breath hitched. “Alive? No. He’s dead. He was burned alive and—”
“In the interest of time, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you never saw his body.” Markus nodded at Lyric’s statement. If his cousin was burned to ash, there wouldn’t have been anything left to identify. “This has all the telltale signs of a murder being swept under the rug because someone’s hidingsomething they don’t want to get out. Your cousin may very well be dead, but there’s also a possibility that wasn’t his body. Either way, you’ll never find out whatreallyhappened without our help.”
That was all the motivation Markus needed. My restraints vanished, and two of his fingers pressed down on the rune on Ellie’s wrist. He didn’t even wait for me to dissolve the rune myself. It was gone in a flash of bright magic, and just as quickly he was working to trace a number of other symbols in the air, a trail of his glowing magic being left behind as he swiped his fingers. He didn’t say any words, but I could feel the magic pulling into the hovering runes as heat radiated out of them. If Ellie’s ghost was here, I didn’t see it or sense it, and I had a spike of panic when the thought occurred to me that maybe Markuswasn’tsaving Ellie.
“He’s coming,” Lyric warned as she made her way back to nest in my hair.
Markus stopped moving, and the both of us stared in anticipation at Ellie. She was breathing, but still not moving.
