The Fourth Soul: (Cards of Death book 4)

by Tamara Geraeds

  After a small nod, her blades turn back into hands, and she steps back.

  Charlie closes his eyes and mumbles something incoherent. The world bursts back to life, and the dragon in front of Charlie stabs a sharp claw into his chest. “Don’t try to screw with me, you’ll regret it.”

  “Charlie, are you ready to go?” I say, tugging at Charlie’s sleeve, hoping I can put up a convincing show. “We have to hurry. Uncle Beowulf is waiting for us, and I don’t want to mess with his good temper.”

  My acting skills are put even more to the test when I pretend to notice the dragon man only now. “Oh, sorry, did I interrupt something?” I conjure an incredulous look as I turn back to Charlie. “Don’t tell me you’re buying something again. Uncle Beo will be livid if he finds out.”

  Charlie doesn’t have to fake his exasperated expression. It’s clear that he doesn’t have much faith in my Oscar worthiness. “I can buy whatever I want. I was just negotiating, and this man got angry about it.”

  “Sure, you can buy whatever you want, just not with his money,” I retort.

  The dragon’s skin seems a lot duller than a minute ago as he pulls the pendulum from Charlie’s grip and places it back between the others in his stall. “He already agreed to buying it, but I can make an exception. It’s no problem. You discuss it with your uncle first and come back if he agrees.” His tone is casual, indifferent, but there’s fear in his eyes. “Or not,” he adds quietly to himself.

  I nudge Charlie. “He’s right. If you ask first, he won’t get angry.”

  Charlie lets his shoulders sag. “Well, alright then.” He shoots the dragon salesman a small smile. “Sorry for the inconvenience. We’ll be back later.”

  “Take your time. No problem.” A sliver of smoke escapes from the dragon’s nostrils as he turns to another customer.

  He watches our every move as we walk away from his stall.

  “Act like Beowulf’s cousin,” I say from the corner of my mouth when Charlie tries to hug me.

  He pulls his arms back immediately and gestures like a wild man.

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  “I’m angry at you for not letting me buy that pendulum, of course.”

  I shake my head and try not to smile. Who’s unworthy of an Oscar now?

  As we approach the stand where I found my pendant, I ask Charlie to stop time again.

  He stares at me with wide eyes. “What? No way! Do you know how much trouble it cost me to get everything going again? Controlling time is hard, you know.”

  I curl my lips in a crooked smile. “Try it anyway, I’d like to get out of here alive.”

  “Fine,” he grumbles and closes his eyes. A millisecond later all is quiet and unmoving again.

  Now it’s my turn to stare wide-eyed. “That was quick!”

  He sighs. “That was the easy part.”

  “Hey!” Vicky calls out to us from the next stall. “Trevor is here. If you want to get rid of him, now’s our chance.”

  She has already raised her sword.

  “No, don’t!” I hold up my hands.

  Charlie raises the staff like Maël taught him, while Gisella’s blades reflect the light of the sparks in the sky. “I agree with Vicky. Let’s kill him.”

  “No!” I repeat. “He can lead us to the soul we have to save. And…” I wait until I’m sure I have everyone’s attention, “as long as he’s alive, my mom won’t be hurt anymore.”

  They lower their weapons.

  “We can’t hurt anyone while they’re in a time lock anyway, remember?” Jeep says, and Maël nods in confirmation.

  My heartbeat steadies again. “Right. I forgot.”

  Jeep places his hat back on his head. “By the way, good thinking with the Beowulf story. That’s about the only name you could’ve mentioned to scare a dragon.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie says, “for a moment, I thought you had gone crazy, but it actually worked. How did you know Beowulf was real and still alive?”

  “Just a lucky guess.”

  The smile freezes on his face faster than time did. “You gambled my life on a lucky guess?”

  “What was he going to do if he knew I was lying? Set our hair on fire?” I turn back to the stall where I found the athame pendant.

  Charlie follows me with a scowl on his face.

  “I’m kidding!” I exclaim. “Mona told me the story of Beowulf once. The ending was different than the one in literature. I thought she’d made it up then, but with what I know now, I understood that must have been the true story. He’s still alive, and dragons fear him like nothing else.” I put the pendant back where I found it and gesture at the statues around us. “Please press play.”

  He closes his eyes obediently and speaks the words I don’t understand. It sounds like a cross between African and Latin. Maybe it is. I should ask Maël sometime.

  D’Maeo appears at Charlie’s left side. “Hurry, the hidden hour is almost over. If you don’t unfreeze everyone, people could get stuck here.”

  I turn to him with a frown. “How? Time has stopped, hasn’t it?”

  He nods. “For the people he froze, yes, but the hidden hour can’t be stopped or paused. There’s no tampering with it. If it ends while time stands still, these people will be lost.”

  Charlie crumples the hems of his shirt in his hands. “I don’t want to be responsible for something like that! This is why I didn’t want to stop time again! What if I can’t undo it?”

  I’ve never heard or seen him so desperate. All the cheeriness that makes him Charlie has vanished, and that brings out my protective side.

  I grab his shoulders and look him in the eye. “Relax. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

  “Actually, he’s the only one who can do it right now,” Jeep comments, just loud enough for us to hear.

  “Would you shut up?” I hiss over my shoulder.

  Charlie is shaking a bit, so I tell him to breathe. It doesn’t seem to get through to him though, and I’m glad we took Gisella with us. She takes my place and smiles at him. “Close your eyes, let go of your nerves and focus. You’ve got this.”

  A cold presence touches my back, and Vicky’s voice whispers in my ear. “Do you want me to ask Jeep to control Charlie’s emotions?”

  Barely noticeable, I shake my head. We’ve got this. Charlie is strong. He can do it.

  When Charlie starts mumbling again, I look past him at the still crowd. It’s like watching that sappy scene in West Side Story where Tony and Maria see each other for the first time and everything around them slows down. At the end of their dance, the music gradually picks up again, and the haze around them disappears. Colors become more vivid, and sounds trickle back in.

  I’ve been forced to watch that movie so many times that I can practically recite it word by word. But now that I think about it, I don’t think Mom has seen it even once since Dad left.

  A lump rises in my throat at the thought, and I lick my lips that have suddenly gone dry.

  Thankfully, at that moment, Charlie manages to restore time completely and pulls his hands free.

  “Well done,” I say and turn back to the stall.

  “We’ll keep an eye on Trevor,” Vicky says, pulling Taylar along.

  The salesman squints at me over his glasses, probably wondering where I came from so suddenly without even a flash of magical light.

  I just smile at him and hold up the pendant. “How much for this one?”

  He takes it from me and studies it for a moment.

  “It’s a very detailed piece, very old too,” he mumbles. “It’s worth quite a lot.”

  Keeping my face straight, I ask him, “What can it do?”

  “Well…” He pushes his glasses further up his nose and wets his lips. “I’m not sure actually.”

  “So, it might not do anything?”

  He waves his finger in front of my face. “No, no, everything here is magical. It’s
impossible to sell non-magical stuff on the black market.”

  I gently push his hand down and look him in the eye. “I know, but a pendant that glows in the dark isn’t worth much, is it?” I move my eyebrows up.

  “It’ll do more than that!”

  “How do you know? Just give me a fair price, okay?”

  He puts down the miniature athame and fidgets with his glasses and a handkerchief.

  “I think they’re clean now,” Jeep whispers beside me after a minute or so of silence. “If you push him a bit more, he’ll practically give it to you for free.”

  “You’re a Mage?” he asks eventually.

  “I am.”

  Jeep leans closer to me. “Push him now.”

  “I could look around some more and come back another time, if you can’t decide on a price,” I blurt as the salesman opens his mouth to give me his offer.

  He swallows his words and wipes the sweat from his forehead. “I need to borrow your power for a day.”

  I shoot him a sarcastic smile. “You’re kidding, right?”

  He pushes his glasses up twice. “Yes, yes, of course. Eight hours, that’s the price.”

  Folding my arms over my chest, I shake my head.

  A watery smile makes his lips tremble. “I could do six.”

  “You’ll have to think of something else, because I’m not lending my power to anyone.”

  He starts cleaning his glasses again. “You drive a hard bargain, mister…?”

  “Yes, I do,” I say, evading the question.

  Suddenly he straightens up, newfound hope in his eyes. “Can you make potions?”

  “Sure.”

  His head bobs up and down enthusiastically. “One potion in exchange for the pendant.”

  I tilt my head. “What kind of potion?”

  He beckons me closer, and I lean over the glistening objects in his stall. “A love potion.”

  My eyebrows move up on their own accord. “Okay… Let me think about that for a moment.”

  His smile falters, but he doesn’t object when I turn my back on him so I can face my friends. “What do you think?”

  D’Maeo’s finger taps his beard. “There are different kinds of love potions, some more dangerous than others. As long as he doesn’t specify, I don’t see a problem. You can just make him a harmless one.”

  He sounds a lot more certain than he looks, and I wish I could ask Vicky for advice, but she’s who-knows-where, keeping an eye on Trevor.

  “Is this pendant worth putting another thing on our to-do list?” I ask softly.

  D’Maeo gestures at the small athame in the hands of the salesman. “You tell me.”

  As soon as I look at it, certainty washes over me. I need this pendant. It’s important. It belongs with me for some reason.

  So I turn around and hold out my hand to the salesman. “You’ve got a deal.”

  CHAPTER 19

  I barely have time to wrap my hands around the pendant, bottle and business card the salesman hands me. The air around us ripples and changes color. Specks of black appear in the white sky, and the stars turn a shade lighter with every second that passes.

  Customers quickly seal deals or give up and say goodbye while the salesmen gather up their things at the speed of lightning.

  D’Maeo places a hand on my arm. “It’s almost nine. We have to go.”

  To my relief, Vicky and Taylar return without a trace of Trevor.

  Silently, D’Maeo gives all of us another piece of mushroom and holds out the glass card. “Ready?”

  We all touch the card, then swallow the mushroom.

  The journey back is much calmer than the one that brought us here. Maybe it also helps that I squeeze my eyes shut so I don’t see my friends getting stretched out and the whole world bobbing and weaving. I only feel the pull of the square at Darkwood Manor reeling us in like fish on a line.

  I wait for the jolt of the landing before opening my eyes. After a couple of blinks, the room and the people in it look normal again. I count the heads and let out a small sigh. “That was exciting.”

  “And fun,” Jeep says, throwing his hat in the air and catching it on the tip of his finger.

  I’m not so sure I feel the same way, but I don’t argue.

  “Well, it was interesting.” Vicky helps D’Maeo to clean up the square. “We found some important stuff.”

  “And almost got stuck in the hidden hour,” I add before I can help myself. There goes my daredevil reputation.

  Charlie’s hair hides his face like a curtain, and he pulls it into a ponytail. “All I know is, I’m not going back there as long as I don’t have my own power back. That was way too close for comfort.”

  “Let’s go see how Mom and Mona are doing and have some hot chocolate,” I suggest. “I think we can all use some comfort food.”

  Taylar snorts. “That’s the only reason we ever eat or drink, Dante.”

  While Maël pulls a disgusted face, the others nod.

  “Some things are too good to leave lying around.” D’Maeo takes a big bite out of an apple, and I shake my head. Of all the things to choose from…

  In the kitchen, Vicky wipes the dust from her leather pants. “There’s one thing you guys didn’t think of.” She points at the bottle I’ve put on the table. “None of us are currently able to make a potion. At least, not without a big chance of screwing it up.”

  “I can do that,” Mona says, stirring the hot chocolate. “And I’ll use a bottle of my own, in case this one has been tampered with.”

  With a frown, I examine the bottle from all sides. “I don’t see anything.”

  She stops stirring for a moment. “Oh come on, Dante, you should know by now that most magic is invisible.”

  Feeling like a dimwit, I place the bottle back on the table and turn to Vicky. “So, did you hear anything interesting while you were eavesdropping on Trevor and that Zang demon?”

  She apparates over to Mona, dips her finger into the pan and licks the brown liquid off. “They were talking about the soul they’re after. Unfortunately, I missed most of it, but I did understand that he’s some kind of priest or something. They were saying that this is a tough one, which is why they want you out of the way so badly.”

  Mom is pacing on the other side of the table. “And you said they want to use me to get to you?” She makes a cutting motion with her hand. “Well, they can forget about that. I’ll never trust Trevor again.”

  “No, no.” I shoot her a warning look. “If you encounter him, you have to act naturally. There’s no telling what he could do if he suspects we know something.”

  Her face contorts into an expression of disgust. “Please don’t tell me I have to suck up to him.”

  I ponder on it for a second before responding. “Not right now. But that might not be such a bad idea.”

  Mona’s sparks fill a row of cups with hot chocolate and pass them out. “Either way, be very careful around him. He’s dangerous,” she says.

  Mom sits down again and sips from her chocolate. “Yes, I gathered that.”

  “So, Mom,” I tap the table with my finger. “You never told me how you know Trevor.”

  Her cheeks turn red in an instant. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  I give her the stern look she gave to me so many times. “Tell me anyway. It might be important.”

  She sighs, looks at the others with eyes that plead for them to leave, but when no one does, she rubs her temple. “Okay. Trevor used to be my neighbor when I was young. His parents were very strict, and almost every day he sat on his porch crying. I didn’t like him much, he basically gave me the jitters from the start, but I felt sorry for him, so I went over to comfort him more than once. As we turned older, I saw a change in his behavior toward me. I kept some more distance, but one day when I wasn’t expecting it, he kissed me.”

  I try to keep a straight face, which is hard when images of a
creep like that kissing my mother flood my mind.

  “I pushed him away gently and told him I didn’t like him like that. He left me alone but kept bringing me gifts, which I declined, until the day I moved out of my parents’ house. I think he was pretty heartbroken when no one wanted to give him my address.”

  I start tapping the table again. “That’s creepy. But nothing to be ashamed of, Mom. You rejected him nicely.”

  “Maybe a bit too nicely,” she says, burying her face in her mug.

  “Probably,” I say, tilting my head. “But he’s a determined guy. Who knows what will happen if you stop being nice to him. I think you did the right thing.”

  She gives me a grateful smile. “I hope so.”

  I turn to the others. “So, when do we use the pendant to find him?”

  “As soon as we’ve tried to get your powers back in place again,” D’Maeo answers. He slides a bar of chocolate to Maël, who’s sitting in the seat to his left as usual. “Eat this, you need the energy. Then we’ll try some simple spells.”

  I push back my chair. “Charlie, can you help Maël with the spells?”

  He nods, and I gesture to the others. “Great, then we can also train a bit before we go to sleep? It’s better than sitting around doing nothing.”

  Mom clears her throat. “Honey, I think Vicky is going into another fit.”

  Chairs scrape the floor as four of us get up and hurry to Vicky’s spot at the table.

  “Let me,” Mom says. “I know what it’s like.”

  I give her some room, and she crouches down next to Vicky, who is shaking violently, her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

  “Listen to me, Vicky,” Mom says in a stern voice. “I know it’s hard, but you have to believe you’re stronger. It’s just a curse, just evil magic, don’t let it take over.”

  Vicky starts shaking. Her face contorts into an angry mask.

  I pull Mom back gently and nod at D’Maeo. “Get the supplies for the spell.”