The Air Element frowned at me. “What do you mean?”
I remained silent for a moment, debating. Then I figured I had nothing to lose by telling them.
“The Order ripped out two years of my memories when they found out I was learning spirit magic,” I said. “I was a student at their academy at the time. And no, I don’t remember the specifics, but my mentor died for it, and the Order decreed that I should take on the full brunt of the punishment myself.”
Ryan looked at me with an unreadable expression on their face. Guess I should have known better than to expect sympathy from one of the Death King’s people.
“There’s a lot of reasons I turned my back on the Order,” they said. “They barely treated me like a person, and their ridiculous restrictions on magic use made staying on Earth unreasonable. I never understood how even regular practitioners could stand all the rules and regulations.”
“We have no choice,” I said. “We can’t all be part of the Death King’s personal team of soldiers. Most of us are just trying to stay alive. And you know, even if this comes to an end with everyone’s souls in the right place, I’ve broken the law again and the Order won’t care about excuses. Since I’m not underage this time, they’ll probably sentence me to a lifetime in prison.”
The Air Element turned my way with a frown. “If that’s the case, you’d be better served staying here.”
I forced a laugh. “There’s nothing for me here, either. Pretty much everyone in the Parallel wants me dead.”
“Not my master,” they said. “Not now we all know the truth.”
“Yeah, if that’s an invitation to join your army of liches, I think I’ll pass,” I said. “For multiple reasons, chief of which is that Brant’s soul is currently lost somewhere in this hall.”
“It’s not lost.” They halted at an alcove. “All the new souls are here.”
“The other prisoners, too?” I scanned the row of shelves. “How does your master know they won’t betray him if he turns them into liches?”
“Who told you he turned them into liches?” They paused beside the shelf. “If the person is unquestionably a traitor, they are punished in a different manner.”
“Like what?” The question escaped automatically, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
They swept a careless hand at the walls, which were lined with human skulls. “Decoration.”
That figured. Just when I’d started to understand the Death King’s position, another reminder came along that these people were happy to let the world see them as monsters.
Ryan pulled an amulet off the nearest shelf and held it out to me, and a rush of familiarity surged when my fingertips brushed the surface. Brant’s soul felt different than the Death King’s, warmer. Made sense, given that Brant was a fire mage. The flames kindled in my hands as I took the amulet, and his figure appeared floating above my palms.
A faint whispering noise prompted me to turn around. Brant’s lich had followed me, and now he floated at my side, his form shadowy and semi-transparent. I opened my mouth to say I didn’t know how to help him, but I did, somehow. I held up the amulet, and he hovered closer, bowing his head.
I reached out and looped the amulet around his neck. As I did so, his form began to turn solid again. His eyes became sharper, his outline less shadowy.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I whispered.
“I trust you,” he said.
Tears stung my eyes. Drawing in a breath, I splayed my hands and gently pushed his soul to return to his living form. Slowly, his soul slid back into his body, filling out the edges, his feet touching the earth. His eyes became clearer, less foggy, and the shadows receded until all that remained was Brant. Alive, as though he’d never been otherwise.
He pulled the amulet off, and I exclaimed in alarm—but he didn’t fade or disappear. The amulet was empty. Brant’s soul was back where it belonged.
“Thank the Elements,” I breathed.
Brant wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. Then he pressed his mouth to mine, and for an instant, everything was okay.
21
My next step was to get the Order on my side.
Easier said than done. After all, in their eyes, Mr Cobb was still a highly regarded supervisor. I wondered if he still had a black mark on his record from all those years back, or if they’d wiped it squeaky-clean when they’d taken his magic.
Brant insisted on going with me. Ryan, too, though I refused point-blank to let either of them enter the Order’s base. I still didn’t know what’d happened to those underlings who’d been with Mr Cobb, nor how much they’d witnessed of his public betrayal. They’d still been frozen by Devon’s cantrip, but they must have seen some of it.
Still, Mr Cobb would doubtless no longer care about making a public scene. He didn’t care if the Order knew what he was, not now he had the power he’d wanted for so long. It’d been a decade since Dirk Alban’s death. Nothing the Order gave him since then would have made up for what he’d lost.
I hopped through the node and landed outside their headquarters alone, my heart drumming with nerves.
Here goes nothing.
Going to the retrieval unit wouldn’t do me any good, so I made for Mr Cobb’s office instead, my body tensing with each step. A large part of me was certain I’d find the man himself there, ready to declare me a traitor, but another supervisor sat in his place, accompanied by two guards. All three were shifters, a somewhat unusual choice, and I recognised one of the two guards as the guy who’d been with Judith when the two of them had confronted the Air Element outside.
As for the supervisor, I recognised him from my early days as an Order employee. While he hadn’t been on the committee that had convicted me, that didn’t mean he had my back. His nametag marked him as Roderick Shepherd.
The shifter rose to his feet. “Olivia Cartwright?”
“That’s me,” I said. “I’m here to report a supervising officer for treason and for illegal use of spirit magic.”
This was one hell of a gamble. If the Order found out it was me who’d ripped out the Death King’s soul, then I’d be screwed for real this time. But there was no way I could get him jailed single-handedly. Most of the Order’s representatives believed he was one of them. He could walk in here with the Death King’s soul without anyone knowing the truth.
My one ace in the hole was that thanks to the Death King’s soul, he was a spirit mage. That meant they’d be unable to deny his treachery if they saw the amulet he carried. That is, if they believed me without seeing him for themselves.
The shifter’s brows lifted. “Who, exactly?”
I could see from his body language that he was seconds from ordering his guards to grab me. Well, it was worth a shot. “Mr Cobb. He handed me over to the Death King for a crime I never committed, and while I was locked up, he stole the Death King’s soul for his own use. You can ask the man himself if you don’t believe me.”
One of the guards stepped closer to me. “You’re confessing to your involvement in Barrett Cobb’s disappearance?”
I nearly laughed. “Not hardly. He stole the Death King’s soul. Two of your people were with him when he took my friend hostage in an attempt to get him on our side. They’re still in the Parallel where he left them.”
“Mr Cobb is a valued member of our team,” he growled. “The council will not accept these allegations.”
“Look at his record,” I said. “He was a spirit mage, before the Order stripped him of his powers. He then schemed to get his hands on the Death King’s soul because he believed it would return the magic you took from him. Which one of the two of us has a better motive?”
“You have black marks on your own record,” said the supervisor. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I don’t remember a thing,” I said. “My memories were erased, but Mr Cobb’s weren’t. He still remembers what it was like to use spirit magic, and it’s driven him mad. I couldn’t reason with hi
m.”
The Death King chose that moment to stride into the office, his human face twisted into an expression of annoyance.
“Death King.” The shifter’s face went ashen. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“It gives me no pleasure,” he said dispassionately. “Olivia here was sent into my jail on false accusations at the hands of one of your staff members. That same person has stolen something of mine.”
“I thought she stole from you,” he said, jerking his head at me.
“A misunderstanding,” said the Death King. “I intend to take back what was stolen by your supervising officer, but I would like to request you send a team to accompany me. I believe it’s in your rules that you must take him in yourselves.”
A chill ran through the room as the shifter guards exchanged glances. For once, the Death King’s aura didn’t hit me as strongly. After all, he was on my side this time. As for the Order? For all I knew, Mr Cobb would turn on his fellow Order members now he had what he wanted, and I could tell the same thought had crossed the others’ minds, too.
“We will come,” said the shifter supervisor. “I’ll get a team together as requested.”
The Death King vanished, leaving behind a long pause in which nobody looked directly at me.
“Olivia, you will wait for us outside,” said the supervisor.
I heard him move around giving orders as I left the office, disbelief sifting through my thoughts. The Death King stood up for me?
Of course he had. He wanted his soul back, and he was even willing to work with the likes of me in order to get it.
Ten minutes later, a team of thirty Order members had assembled in the lobby. Most of them had some combat training, but that didn’t change the fact that we were hopelessly outclassed when it came to fighting off the entirety of the Death King’s army. Not to mention I couldn’t openly use spirit magic in front of them. I had to make Mr Cobb seem like the villain in all ways. While the Order employees who’d seen the fight in Devon’s shop should also have seen him put a knife to Devon’s throat, they must still be in the Parallel.
When our group landed on the other side, I found Brant waiting for me as planned. Beside him, Ryan paced up and down the street. Dex appeared in the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t even speak to him without risking drawing suspicion. Befriending sprites wasn’t against the Order’s rules, but from the wary looks some of them gave me, and the mutters they thought I couldn’t hear, they thought I’d take Mr Cobb’s side, given the chance.
I ignored them, walking up to join Brant. “These Order employees are coming with us to fight against Cobb and apprehend him.”
“About time,” said Ryan, scowling at the assembled group. “We’ve wasted enough of it.”
Reading between the lines, Ryan and Brant had not exactly hit it off. No surprises there.
“I know where Vaughn is,” Brant added. “Just say the word and I’ll have him by the throat.” An undercurrent of anger ran through his voice.
“Yeah, I have a few words I’d like to say to him.” I turned to Roderick Shepherd. “A couple of your people are somewhere in the city. You’re welcome to look for them, or you can come with Brant and me to find the traitor’s allies.”
Whispers broke out among the Order members, but they didn’t argue. The presence of Ryan in full armour scowling at them probably helped. Vaughn was in real trouble now. Good luck running from two pissed-off mages.
We followed Brant’s lead towards a house set slightly apart from its neighbours. An air of neglect hung around the place, but that was nothing new. Was the earth mage hiding underground? At a guess… yes, he was. I turned to Brant. “Does he have a basement, by any chance?”
“Yes.” His hands clenched. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Might want to avoid letting the Order see,” I commented. “They’re not fussed about who they arrest.”
“I don’t think any of them are going to survive this,” he said. “I saw what those liches can do to a person. Even if they’re the Order’s best, they’ll die.”
I halted mid-step. “You can’t mean that.”
“I know why they banned spirit magic,” he said. “I understand it, even. On their own, the liches obey their master, but if a spirit mage takes them over…”
“So the Death King could have wiped the Order off the map at any time,” I surmised. “Good to know.”
“No, he couldn’t,” Brant said. “Because he and his liches have no power on Earth. The Order does. Mr Cobb belongs to both worlds, though, and he can use his leverage as Death King to bring the Order to its knees.”
Please say it’s not true. Earth wasn’t prepared for a spirit war. Hell, the Parallel wasn’t. It’d barely survived the last one, and the remnants of its violence still haunted Arcadia’s streets. The Death King had been the closest to a spirit mage left in either realm—or so I’d thought.
Yet Dirk Alban had seen potential in me. He’d seen it in Cobb, too, and if I killed him, I could say goodbye to ever finding out the truth. But as little as I liked the Death King, I’d rather have him than the alternative.
I felt the liches before I saw them, cold and shadowy, drifting through the streets. Coming this way.
“Shit,” I whispered. “I think he’s already convinced them he’s the Death King. They’ve switched to his side.”
The Order’s people had probably never fought against liches before. They wouldn’t know what to expect. Worse, the only way to destroy them was to find their individual soul amulets—all of which were in the Death King’s own hall of souls, far out of reach.
There was one option remaining. I had to use spirit magic—yet even then, I was no match for an army. Think, Liv.
Ryan stepped in, their hands alighting with air magic. A blast of energy slammed headlong into the closest liches. At the same moment, the earth trembled beneath our feet.
“Earth mage!” I shouted at the others. “He’s laid a trap.”
They got the message and moved out of range of the quaking earth. The earth mage was somewhere below our feet, and from the stubborn expression on Brant’s face, he had no intention of letting him off easily.
I walked closer to Ryan. “Can you stop them? The liches?”
“I can only stall them,” they said. “They obey my orders, up to a point, but their loyalties are confused thanks to the false king. If he shows up, they’ll turn on me, too.”
Crap. “Then I’ll face him myself. Get the amulet off him. Vaughn will know where he is, I guarantee it.”
As Ryan barred the liches’ path, we advanced on the house once again. Brant walked ahead, fury simmering in his eyes. “I’ll get the shithead.”
I grabbed his arm for balance when the ground gave another heave. “I wonder if Mr Cobb is hiding down there, too?”
Dex flew up to me. “What’re you doing with them?” He indicated the Order’s team, who’d spread out behind the Air Element.
“Getting them to do what they do best, and throw the book at their traitorous supervisor,” I said. “Assuming the liches don’t get to them first.”
“They aren’t the only ones,” he said. “The liches are fighting each other in the streets. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Where’s Mr Cobb? Does he have Trix with him?”
“That tricky elf of yours gave him the slip somewhere underground.”
“Finally, some good news,” I said. “How’d you stay hidden?”
“Oh, nobody notices me.” Even the Order members didn’t seem to have spotted Dex, though they were distracted by the liches and the Air Element’s attempt to keep them away from us.
Brant kicked open the door to the house, revealing a hallway which was mercifully lich-free. Inside, a trapdoor stood open, leading down into darkness.
As we climbed down, the sound of fighting rose to meet us. I blinked in confusion, then my eyes adjusted as Brant’s fire lit up the way ahead. A sizeable basement lay beneath the
house, and a large number of brawling revenants blocked the way. No wonder the earth mage hadn’t come to the surface. The revenants had entirely blocked the way out, and they seemed too intent on tearing one another up to notice our appearance.
“What in the world is wrong with them?” said Brant.
“Maybe they’re confused, too, about this whole leadership changeover thing,” I said. “The false Death King’s probably trying to convince the ruling vampires to join his team.”
He’d kicked off a turf war, and we’d unintentionally landed in the middle of it.
Brant conjured a flame to his hand. “Not sure about that. Check out your friend.”
Trix stood in the middle of the chaos, and when he saw me, he waved cheerily at me as though we were passing one another at the supermarket. “I thought you’d appreciate me distracting them. I used my magic to confuse them into attacking one another.”
“And the earth mage?” I said. “We’re looking for him.”
“Oh, he’s here.” He casually lifted a foot, where the earth mage was pinned down.
“You.” Vaughn raised his head. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Surprise,” Brant said, through gritted teeth. “You traitorous bastard.”
Fire blasted from his hand, burning a path through the revenants. Vaughn ducked for cover, shooting headfirst into the earth. Trix groaned. “I had him!”
Vaughn emerged from the floor beneath my feet, but I pivoted aside before he could grab me and take me hostage again. I kicked him in the face, feeling a satisfying crunch beneath my heel. He groaned, blood streaming from his nose. “Hey. Hang on—"
“You tried to get us killed.” Brant’s fireball sent him scrambling for cover, but the earthquake continued, knocking revenants left and right. He’d lost control of his magic, and if we weren’t careful, the whole house would come crashing down.
“Get to the surface,” I told Brant. “I’ll meet you there, but this place won’t last long the way he’s going.”
Thief of Souls Page 20
