Thief of Souls

by Emma L. Adams

  “What are you doing?” Devon said. “We’re closed for the night.”

  “We’re here to arrest a fugitive.”

  Trix came to my rescue, to my astonishment. Putting on a dramatic wide-eyed face and stepping in the way of the door into the back room, he said, “What are you doing here? You’re not part of our group.”

  “Who are you?” said one of the Order employees. “What crime have you committed?”

  “Crime?” he said. “I’m not with the Order. I’m here to play Dungeons & Dragons.”

  “Enough of this.” Mr Cobb strode to the forefront of the group, advancing on Devon. “If Olivia won’t come out, I’ll give her an incentive.”

  “Don’t you fucking think about it.”

  As I ran into the shop, Mr Cobb released Devon, fixing me with a look of contempt. “So there’s our fugitive. Did you really run from the Death King’s prison and assume we wouldn’t track you down?”

  “No, but I hoped you’d let me take a nap first.” I needed to convince the Order he was a traitor, but I’d rather do it in front of witnesses with equal authority to him, not people conditioned to obey his every command. His underlings would never take my side on this one.

  Mr Cobb gave me a cold look. “The Death King is poised to fall. You might have stood a chance of surviving if you’d remained imprisoned.”

  Devon dropped to her knees. Mr Cobb glanced at her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Looking for my keys,” she said. “Don’t mind me. You get on with your big speech.”

  “Your keys are in the door,” said Judith.

  “Never mind,” said Devon. “I was looking for the last fuck I had to give, but it’s gone.”

  A loud cantrip went off with a blast, knocking the intruders backwards and freezing them all on the spot.

  “Damn, that’s good.” Even Mr Cobb had gone utterly still, his arms stuck to his sides. “Um… what’re you going to do with them now? Tie them up in the back room?”

  “Good question.” Her gaze went to the door. “You can take us to any node on the other side?”

  “Theoretically.” If I was feeling particularly vindictive, I’d leave them stranded on the Death King’s territory, but that was as likely to backfire on me as not. “This will only stall them, you know.”

  “Of course I do, but if we can take them straight to the evidence…”

  “The earth mage’s lair,” I said. “There’s a bunch of cages in there, too. And if the lich traitor comes back, we’ll have him, too.”

  Even one fewer person in my way was a point in my favour.

  Devon, Trix and I moved all three intruders into the back room and on top of the node. If the other players showed up while we were gone, we’d have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, but I figured we’d deal with the immediate issue first.

  Grabbing Devon’s hand on one side and Mr Cobb on the other, I pulled our group through the node and into the Parallel.

  Devon landed on her feet at my side. “Damn, this place stinks worse than I remember.”

  We’d landed as close to the underground lair as I could get us, but at once, I knew I’d made a mistake. Several figures clustered around us, skeletal and hungry for magic. Blasted revenants.

  Dex conjured up a flash of light, sending the revenants cringing backwards, but they remained hungrily focused on me. They fed on magic, and we’d just come out of a node with its energy still tingling in my veins. A veritable feast.

  “Get back.” I shoved one of the revenants, and to my own surprise, it stumbled back without my hand making contact. My skin still glowed with the node’s light. Hang on…

  A voice echoed in my mind: “The third stage of spirit magic is drawing the node’s strength to bolster your own.”

  Instinctively, I stepped back into the path of the node’s energy. The energy rose to a peak, and I splayed my hands, blasting the revenants aside like skittles.

  Behind me, Devon yelled. I pivoted, ducking out of the node’s path, to find someone held a knife against her throat. Shaking off the remnants of the paralysing spell, Mr Cobb pressed a knife to my best friend’s neck.

  “Devon!” Trix stood frozen beside me, while Mr Cobb extended a free hand, holding out the amulet.

  Revenants gathered at both ends of the street. They were with him, too.

  “Enough games, Olivia.” He held the Death King’s soul in his casual grip, the chain dangling from his fingers. “You nearly ruined everything when you brought this into the Order’s base the first time around, but it’s finally time for me to claim it as mine.”

  A chill raced through my blood. He was the spirit mage, the mastermind. He’d started all this.

  “So much for pretending to be on the right side of the law,” I said. “Let Devon go.”

  “The laws of the Parallel are on my side,” he said. “You should have run.”

  “I thought you wanted me dead.” I clenched my hands at my sides. “This isn’t dead. This is pissed off. Let her go.”

  Trix looked between us, his eyes wide with terror, not speaking.

  “I did want you dead,” Mr Cobb said. “Until I heard of your recent achievements, that is. You’re remembering a lot of your training. Faster than I anticipated.”

  My heart gave a sickening dive. I’d suspected he must have some idea of my history, but this was something else entirely. “So you wanted me to be with the Death King when you overthrew him.”

  “It’s better this way,” he said. “Trust me.”

  “Nobody in their right mind would ever trust you,” Devon said, struggling against his grip. “Screw you.”

  Mr Cobb glanced down at her. “I didn’t want to harm any more people than I had to. You won’t get hurt if you comply.”

  “No, thanks.” She thrust an elbow backwards, spinning out of his grip and grabbing for a cantrip, but he seized her wrist first, the knife back in his hand. Being without magic didn’t make him incapable of doing damage.

  More revenants spilled into the alley, drawn to the power of the node. Blocking my escape route. Not that I’d run without Devon. Never.

  Mr Cobb shook his head. “This has grown far too complicated for my liking. It was supposed to be a quiet coup, but the Death King knows too much.”

  “He’s not afraid of you.” Why it mattered that he knew, I didn’t know, and yet I found myself saying the words anyway. “He doesn’t even care that you’re planning to claim his soul.”

  “Really.” He looked me in the eyes. “Then it won’t matter if I ask for your assistance, will it? If you decline, your friend will die, so I’d suggest you take this seriously.”

  18

  “Assist you?” I said. “You can forget it. I’d sooner die.”

  Bastard. He and the liches were as bad as each other, yet it gave me no joy to see him holding the amulet containing the Death King’s soul.

  “It’s your friend’s life on the line, not yours,” he said. “It might interest you to know that you alone have the potential to topple the Death King from his throne.”

  “What?” I said. “You’ve got to be joking. I can’t beat the Death King, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

  “Even after he captured and tortured you?” he said.

  “We both know that was your doing,” I said. “Besides, there was no torture involved. Aside from a little neglect.”

  All I could think of to do was stall. His grip on Devon hadn’t relinquished, while his revenant army thickened by the second. I should never have brought him through the node, but I hadn’t known he’d shake off the effects of the cantrip so damn quickly. Maybe it was down to the amulet in his hands, which glowed in the light streaming from the current of energy at my back. He might not have any magic himself, but he held the Death King’s life in his hands.

  And yet he was offering it to me.

  Devon groaned as the knife pierced her neck. Trix took a step forward, but the revenants had us surrounded. I didn’t have
any better ideas, so I reached out and my hand closed around the amulet. The cold pulsing beneath the surface took me by surprise. I tried to tug it from him, but my whole body froze.

  “Don’t try to fight me,” he said. “I need you to finish the job, that is all.”

  Rough hands grabbed me from behind, and I let go of the amulet, my palm stiff with cold. Mr Cobb steered Devon through the path of revenants, leaving me with no choice but to follow him until we reached the stairs leading underground to the earth mage’s hideout.

  Trix’s shouts echoed in the background, and a flash of light indicated Dex trying to burn his way through the liches to me, but soon enough, the darkness closed in overhead. Mr Cobb pushed Devon into the cage, where she spat at his feet. Revenants filled every inch of the hideout, and Mr Cobb turned to me, the amulet’s chain dangling from his hand.

  How was it possible for him to be the spirit mage? He had no strong gift for magic, and I’d have known if he was like me. He must have put out those rumours on purpose, to disguise the fact that he wasn’t even based in the Parallel. But then, how had he learned spirit magic existed?

  There was only one possible answer to that question.

  “You knew Dirk Alban.” I said quietly.

  “Knew him? I trained with him.” A smile curled his mouth. There was something mocking, bitter, in his expression. “Yet I suffered worse than you did for my transgression. They only took your memories.”

  Oh, Elements. He had been a spirit mage… before the Order had caught him.

  “They didn’t take yours,” I said. “You remember me.”

  His mouth twisted with hate. “I’d rather have no memories than no magic. They took away what was mine.”

  “So that’s why you’re trying to depose the Death King. You think that’ll make up for what they took from you.”

  “You have no idea,” he said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I understand just fine,” I said. “You people have screwed me over, majorly. All this for a dead guy’s soul.”

  “That amulet is more than a soul,” he said. “It’s my salvation.”

  “Then why the fuck do you need me?” I spat.

  “I require the assistance of a spirit mage to transfer the Death King’s life essence to myself,” he said. “I confess I thought you incapable when you first brought the amulet to me, but now I’ve seen what you can do, I’m glad I chose to spare your life.”

  “I told you, I can’t do spirit magic,” I said. “I have no memory of any of my lessons. And besides, I don’t think you deserve it.”

  “If threatening your friends isn’t enough,” he said, “then consider the amulet. I imagine you wanted it off your hands either way, didn’t you? If you aid me, I’ll clear your name and you can go back to your old life. The Order doesn’t have to know.”

  “The Order doesn’t know you’re a traitor,” I said. “I imagine it ticked you off when another of your fellow Order members asked me to bring in the thief and swiped the amulet in the first place.”

  “It all worked out in the end,” he said. “Do you think I would be a much worse leader than the Death King? Has he ever treated you with humanity and compassion?”

  “He’s not human,” I answered. “You supposedly are, but I’ll be honest, I’d be more than happy to see you destroy one another.”

  “Enough chatter.” He grabbed my hand and pressed it to the amulet once more. “Go on.”

  Cold pulsed beneath my palm. I could feel something there, but I didn’t know what to do with it. “I might have no memories, but I think I’d remember if I’d ever ripped out someone’s soul before.”

  That was the realm of the liches, not humans. Not even spirit mages could rip out other people’s souls. Or so I’d thought.

  “Dirk Alban studied the liches extensively,” Mr Cobb said. “He was training you when we were both caught. I know he told you what he knew.”

  “Telling me and teaching me isn’t the same thing.” My palm began to go numb with cold. “I really don’t know what I’m doing. Any of us could get hurt. Including you. Hell, especially you. You’re human. I’m…”

  A spirit mage.

  Cold fury leapt into his eyes. His grip on my wrist turned bone-crushing. “Do. It.”

  “She can’t!” yelled Devon, sounding panicked. “Look, I’m the last person who knows about spirit magic, but she can’t put someone else’s soul in your body.”

  “I’m aware.” Mr Cobb held up another amulet. “That’s why I need this. Transfer the Death King’s soul to this vessel and it’ll be bound to me.”

  Oh, Elements. That might actually work. If I were a real spirit mage, anyway. And if it did, then his powers would be on a level with the Death King. Higher, because the man himself would be dead. Or as dead as an undead person could be, anyway. Think, Liv.

  Maybe I could fake it. Even when he’d trained with Dirk Alban, he’d probably never actually seen anyone place a person’s soul into an amulet before. They didn’t go for that kind of thing in the Order.

  “The first stage of spirit magic is travelling via the nodes,” he said. “The second is astral projection.”

  I heard the echo of Dirk Alban’s voice beneath his, and cold fear rooted me to the spot.

  He continued. “The third stage is drawing the node’s strength to bolster your own.”

  My breaths came too quickly. In vain, I searched for a node, but the chilling presence of the amulet drowned out everything else.

  Mr Cobb looked me with eyes brimming with hate, and then he spoke Dirk Alban’s words. “The fourth? Moving the soul to another source.”

  The amulet grew colder, seeming to fuse to my palm. Then a blurred figure rose from its cold surface, a human male with pale, pale eyes…

  The Death King? That couldn’t be him, and yet, his sharp-edged features looked familiar to me. Maybe it was the person he’d been, before he’d split his soul, Elements knew how many years ago.

  Mr Cobb leaned in, his mouth curling into an eager smile. “You see him, don’t you?”

  He saw me, too, his face startlingly human for a disembodied soul belonging to a dead king. I gave the floating figure a pleading look, but there was nothing he could do. I literally held his life in my hand.

  Mr Cobb slid the second amulet into my other hand and pushed my palm towards the other. At once, the two amulets locked onto one another like magnets, and the soul in my palm began to disappear. As the skull amulet dimmed in colour, the other one grew brighter.

  Shit. I tightened my grip on the first amulet, willing the soul to move back where it belonged, but I didn’t know how to.

  The pale figure hovered above the second amulet, whose glow brightened—and then the Death King’s form vanished into it as though sucked below the surface of the glowing metal.

  “It is done.” Mr Cobb took the second amulet from my limp hand. “I’m glad I chose to spare your life after all, Olivia.”

  Nausea choked my throat. “The Death King is still alive. You can’t command him, not even with his soul in your hand.”

  If that were true, I’d have been able to get the Death King to listen to me while I’d been carrying his soul on my person and we never would have ended up in this mess.

  “The one who owns the Death King’s soul is recognised as the master of the entire Court of the Dead.” He turned the amulet over in his palm, then looped the chain around his neck. “This amulet is as strong as the original vessel, and now it is in my hands, the wights will flock to my side, and the liches will soon recognise me as their master, too. They’re simple creatures. Even that lover of yours.”

  Brant. I’d—ridiculously—hoped he was safe from the soul thief behind the gates of the Court of the Dead, but even the Death King himself might be incapacitated by now. Who knew what effects moving his soul into a new vessel would have on his lich form?

  Mr Cobb jerked his head at the first amulet, clenched in my hand. “You’re welcome to keep that as a memen
to. If I were you, I’d want to celebrate the fine use of spirit magic you just displayed. But then again, you didn’t really know what you were doing, did you?”

  I said nothing. My words were gone, my grip on the amulet nothing more than autopilot, my soul frozen in horror at what my magic had done. No wonder the Order had erased my memories of my lessons if that’s what Dirk Alban had been teaching me to do.

  Yet my ignorance had cost me, like it always would.

  Mr Cobb walked away, leaving me alone in the darkness with the amulet which had once housed the Death King’s soul.

  It’s too late.

  He was gone.

  Devon groaned from inside the cage. “Please don’t tell me he has the Death King’s soul now.”

  “I won’t.” A sob caught in my throat. “Would you believe it? I had the power to do that, and the Order robbed me of my memories so anyone could use it against me.”

  Not Mr Cobb. He hadn’t been involved in their decision, and he was furious I’d kept my powers and he hadn’t. Furious enough to nurse a grudge against me for years until he’d found a way to lay hands on some real power.

  My one consolation was that having the Death King’s magic at his fingertips didn’t mean he was able to use it. The Death King kept his secrets close to his heart, and while Mr Cobb’s memories were fully intact, he’d implied Dirk Alban had trained me further than him.

  The bastard. Now Mr Cobb was off to declare war on the Death King, and for all I knew, the entire army would take his side. My hand clenched on the other amulet. No life pulsed against my hand now. The soul amulet was dead.

  The revenants had gone, along with their master, so I opened the cage door and helped Devon climb out. She was shivering, blood streaming from her neck where the knife had cut her. I needed to get her out of here before I thought about my next move.

  Devon leaned heavily on me as we climbed the stairs to the surface. The revenants had vanished from the alley, too—along with Trix. But someone else stood waiting for us, dressed in armour and a cloak embossed with the Death King’s symbol.

  The Air Element.