Page 5 of Between Soul and Vessel
Von
“Out of the way, child,” Ezra bellowed at one of the kitchen staff as she carried a pot over to the sink, dumping out the bubbling, hissing contents. A billow of steam rolled toward the ceiling, followed by something pungent, something that smelled like ammonia.
She sighed in relief. “That was a close one.”
With my fist balled up in the back of Soren’s tunic, I steered him through my fading shadows into the kitchen, back at my castle in the Spirit Realm. I had given the cavernous room to Ezra so she could work on her magic potions—one of which she promised would help me get Sage back.
I shoved the sniveling worm ahead, my fist releasing from his shirt. It was just enough force to make him stumble but not enough to make him fall to the floor.
My brow raised. There was a large, dark splotch between his legs. I glanced down at my thigh, noting a trace ofdampness on the black leather. I groaned as realization dawned. The pungent smell was not from Ezra’s pot—it was Soren’s piss.
He’dpissedon me.
“Fucking mortals,” I grumbled as I waved my hand over my leg, dissolving the urine. I looked at Soren’s trousers, my magic cleaning that mess as well.
Ididn’tdo it for him.
The last thing I wanted to smell was his piss. I imagined the rest of the staff would agree.
Soren looked down, stunned to find his pants were dry.
Ezra turned around, her milky-white orbs looking past me. “You found him, I see.” She cracked a smile, entertained by her own overused joke.
“When do we start?” I asked, eyeing a staff worker dumping a copious amount of salt into a boiling pot. Salt was something Ezra had requested a lot of lately, so much so that I was having it delivered to the castle in wagon loads. I didn’t ask questions, nor did I care. If salt was the answer to me getting Sage back, I’d harvest every crystal, until the realms had no more to give.
“In due time,” Ezra answered as a girl handed her a wood cane. Swollen and stiff knuckles wrapped around the handle. “Soren, dear, can I get you something to eat?”
“W-w-where am I?” he stammered, looking around.
“You are in the Spirit Realm,” Ezra answered.
“Am I dead?” he asked, two fingers and three nubs raking back his blond hair, as if getting that mop out of his eyes would help him see. A laughable notion—the boy was as blind asthey came.
“Unfortunately, not yet. Although, I will thoroughly enjoy it when your time comes,” I said, my voice making him bristle.
He turned around and began to back away from me. “I a-a-always knew th-th-that something was-was off about you.”
“I am what I am, but at least I am not a spineless traitor.” My tone was menacing. “Not only did you cross Sage’s unconscious mind barrier, but you used it to manipulate her into thinking Ezra’s life was at stake. Because you did that, my hand was forced into making a deal to protect her, one that meant I could not save her when she needed me the most.”
“Save her?” Soren asked. “From what?”
So then, the boy didn’t know.
“She is dead.” The words were like ash on my tongue. My chest grew still, the oxygen evaporating from my lungs.
His eyes widened. “That’s why I don’t feel the connection to her mind anymore,” he spoke to himself. “But wait . . . doesn’t that mean she’s here?”
“No,” I said. “When mortals die in the Three Realms, they come to the Spirit Realm, but when immortals die, their souls cease to exist here.”
“So . . . she’s reallydead.” Soren choked out the last word. His expression folded in on itself as tears filled his eyes. They began to leak down his face as he fell to his knees. “It’s all my fault.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Ezra’s cane sounded against the floor as she moved to Soren’s side. She patted his head in a bid to comfort him. “Although your actions played a hand in the events that led to her death, they are not entirely to blame. Sage chose her own path, and she sacrificed herself to save countless others. Now it is our turn to save her.”
Soren looked up at Ezra, his voice breaking as he asked, “How are you going to do that?”
My muscles stiffened. Soren was one of the last people I wanted Ezra divulging our plan to, especially while it was in its infancy.
