Rogue Soul (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 3)

by Hall, Linsey

  She’d hear him out, at least. Because she presided over the Mythean Guard, she left Otherworld more often than the other gods. The exposure might make her more inclined to believe him.

  “We couldn’t gather very many council members on such short notice,” Lea said as she took a seat.

  In its entirety, the university council was made up of nearly twenty university department heads. Together, they made the decisions that not only ran the university, but kept the peace between the major afterworlds created by European beliefs. A task that might have once been handled by war was now handled by knowledge and diplomacy. Other regions, such as Asia, had their own governing bodies.

  He recognized some of the individuals at the table, though Esha and her sister had not yet appeared. A pink-haired witch named Cora introduced herself. Next to Aerten sat Warren, her right-hand man and the one in charge of day-to-day operations for the Mythean Guard because Aerten was forced to stay in Otherworld most of the time.

  A dark-haired woman smiled and said, “Hi, I’m Vivienne. I’m a Sila Jinn. I’m new to the university, but I work with Diana. When she mentioned this, I thought I’d come along.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it,” Cam said, and looked at the woman she’d gestured to.

  “I’m Diana,” the red-haired woman said. “I’m the reincarnate of Boudica.”

  Cam’s brows shot up. Fuck, he really needed to keep in touch with the university a bit better. The Celts’ most famous warrior had been reincarnated and he hadn’t realized?

  She noticed his shock and said, “It’s a recent development. But Ana was Boudica’s patron goddess, and I appreciate everything that she did for me in that life and in this one. I want to help however I can.”

  Cam nodded his thanks, then glanced at Ana to see her smiling at Diana.

  “It was nothing,” Ana said. “When you were Boudica, you were my first big case. And you were, and are, a total badass. I’m glad you won your immortality.”

  Diana looked up at the man seated next to her and smiled. “Me too.”

  The man next to her was a Mythean Guardian that Cam recognized as Cadan Trinovante. He was a Celt born to a town that had worshiped Cam before his departure from Otherworld. They’d met once, long ago. Cadan nodded at him.

  Fiona, the Acquirer, sat next to Cadan. She smiled at him and nodded her head.

  “Thanks for coming,” he said to her.

  “Not a problem. I’m certainly not a representative of my department.” She laughed. “They’d never let me be that. But I feel invested in your success. And I’m not bad in a fight.”

  He nodded gratefully.

  “Okay,” Lea said after a moment. “I think that Esha and—”

  Two women appeared at the entrance of the room, along with Harp, who’d hitched a ride with Esha via aetherwalking. Harp nodded at him and Cam nodded back.

  “And here they are,” Lea said. “Good timing. That’s everyone.”

  The women approached the table with equal swaggers. Harp followed.

  “So the party started without us,” Esha said. Her familiar glared at them with citrine eyes.

  “Somebody invited the rabble.” Aurora knocked her chin toward the pink-haired witch. Her sleek midnight cat hissed.

  “Oh, shut up,” Cora said.

  “Make me,” Aurora shot back.

  “I did, once.” Cora smirked.

  “Please, you needed a whole coven to help you out. You’re nothing without your—”

  Esha elbowed her sister in the gut and her mouth snapped shut.

  “Sorry we’re late,” Esha said, and they took a seat, Aurora still glowering at the pink-haired witch.

  Great—his team was already fighting. Still, he was lucky to have them.

  “Right. Thank you all for coming,” he said. He introduced himself, Ana, and Harp. “We need your help, if you’re willing to give it.”

  There were murmurs of assent from around the table.

  “Hear me out first.” He looked specifically at Aerten, the only other Celtic god in the room. “Ana and I think we’ve discovered why the gods of the Celtic afterworld feel no emotion.”

  Aerten’s face showed no surprise, and he had to wonder at that. As goddess of fate, perhaps she knew more than he’d thought?

  “Here’s the situation,” he said, and told them about the spell that Druantia had cast over all of them, including the part about Ana, as she was the entire reason that he’d ever remembered his past in the first place.

  “I know nothing of this spell,” Aerten said, frowning.

  “You were bewitched with the rest of us. How could you?” he asked.

  “But I am the goddess of fate. If there was a spell that needed to be broken in the future, especially one of such importance to our people, I’d have known about it.”

  “Perhaps. But Druantia’s magic took my memories as well.” Cam watched her closely, still on edge that she might flee the table for Otherworld and bring the rest of the gods down upon his head.

  Instead, she spoke. “You think you have a way to break this spell?”

  He nodded. “Druantia was mortal. Was. She’s obviously not anymore. She’s getting the power that fuels her immortality from somewhere, and I think it’s from the forest that grew up from the blood and bones of the Dryads.”

  He felt Ana’s hand clasp his under the table. He squeezed, grateful for the connection. “I believe that the power of our emotions, part of our very souls, is trapped in those trees. Along with the souls of the sacrifices. It’s a macabre place, a dark forest that’s protected by dark beings. But if we can cut down all the trees, I think that we can break the spell.”

  There were murmurs throughout the room.

  “So, like, lumberjacks?” Aurora asked. She was even more irreverent than her sister, but he chuffed a laugh, grateful for the bit of levity.

  “Essentially,” he said. “But the forest will be protected by creatures and magics that will want to keep us from chopping it down. With all of us, and all our powers, I think that we could manage.”

  “And you say this will restore emotion to the gods of Otherworld.” Aerten’s voice sounded strange. Almost hopeful.

  “That’s what I think.”

  “We can’t tell the other gods,” Aerten said. “They wouldn’t believe you. Coming to earth to oversee the Mythean Guard has made me question our ways. But for them, who see no reason to come here, they’re mired in their superstition.”

  “I believe that’s part of the spell,” Cam said. “Druantia took our emotion as vengeance, but ensuring that we stayed in Otherworld gave her incredible power as the only intermediary between the gods and mortals. They’re committed to the status quo because they’ve been enchanted to be. So, I agree with you. We don’t tell them.”

  “Excellent,” Esha said. “I say we get down to planning who does what. We’ll see who else we can get from other departments. When will we do this?”

  “I think we should leave for the forest tomorrow, at first light,” Ana said. “Druantia already knows that something is up because she has most likely found my body in her pantry. She’ll know what I did to my mortal body to send my soul to Otherworld and Cam. We want to get there before she can interfere.”

  “How do you have a physical, earthly body if you killed yours in Druantia’s pantry?” Aerten asked.

  “I don’t know. There’s something strange about that.”

  Lea frowned. “I can’t explain it, either. But we need to move on with this. While you all plan, I’ll look through my books, see if there’s anything about the forest that can help.”

  The group set about sketching out a basic plan for the next day, though the details of what they would actually face were still a mystery. They finished by determining a meeting place for the next morning.

  “Thank you for your help, everyone,” Ana said. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, but before you go, does anyone know of a black falcon that can break magical chains with its beak? It
helped us in Otherworld, but I don’t think that kind of bird exists there. Or on earth, for that matter.”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  Damn. “Right, then. Thanks for the help. Really.”

  Everyone nodded, said their goodbyes, and filtered out of the room. They met Harp in the hall.

  “Thanks for coming.” Cam clapped his friend on the shoulder. He introduced Ana, and the three of them walked down the hall as a group, passing beneath the watchful eyes of the portraits that lined the walls.

  “Wouldn’t miss it,” Harp said. “What do you think our odds are tomorrow?”

  Cam met Ana’s gaze. It held the darkness he felt in his own heart. He finally had something to really live for, but would they survive? “I’ve no idea.”

  “That’s what I figured. But I’ve narrowed down the location of the Rosa McManus to a thirty-square-mile area. So you’ve got a real reason to succeed tomorrow.”

  Cam felt a grin stretch across his face. He hadn’t thought he’d smile until this was all over. “Excellent. Good work.”

  “Not a problem.”

  They pushed through the huge oak doors and stepped into the waning sunlight.

  “I’m over at guest quarters,” Harp said. “I’m going to head there now. There’s a nymph who looked lonely earlier.”

  “Have a good time. And Harp?”

  His friend turned back to him and met his eyes.

  “Thanks again.”

  Harp nodded and spun, strolling off across the lawn with a lightness to his step that Cam could hardly remember having himself. He turned to Ana, pulled her toward him, and pressed a kiss to her lips.

  When he pulled away, she looked up at him and asked, “Do you think we’ll get out of this?”

  “I don’t know. But I know I’ve got a damn good reason to try. We’ve got a hell of a lot of things standing in our way, but if we make it out of this, I want a life with you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Ana looked out over the valley and gripped her borrowed bow so tightly that her knuckles burned. It felt wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong compared to the bow that she’d made herself and used for two thousand years. She’d imbued it with magic to withstand the test of time so that she’d never have to be without it. But it was trapped at Druantia’s house, and she was going into the biggest battle of her life with a borrowed bow.

  She stood on the summit of a windswept mountain in the Highlands and gazed upon the dark forest below. Today would be either all victory or all defeat. There was no middle ground. She was likely mortal enough that she could die and end up in Otherworld. If they failed to break the spell, Cam would be found and chained to the tor again. Either way, they would be separated.

  “The rest will be here soon,” Cam said.

  His hand enveloped hers, hard and strong, a bulwark against her fears. She looked up at him, so tall and fierce, with his bow strapped to his back and his brow furrowed as he looked at the forest. He looked so natural with a bow in his hand again. From the way he’d looked at the bow when he’d picked it up, he’d clearly missed it tremendously over the past millennia. A hard lump formed in her throat and she squeezed his hand.

  She was amazed by what he’d come to mean to her in these short days. Their history was long and fraught, but they’d come so far since she’d cornered him in that jungle bar. And now they had only minutes before the rest of their party arrived and their lives were changed forever.

  He jerked on her hand and pulled her until she was pressed against him. His eyes met hers and set her heart to galloping. This was more than just attraction. More than just affection.

  “I’ll make this right, Ana,” he said. “I’ll fix what Druantia has broken. Because I want to, because it’s my responsibility for pissing her the hell off with my pride, but mostly because I want to be with you. And that can’t happen until we break the spell so the other gods change their minds about the rules of Otherworld.”

  Her heart pounded harder, as if to make up for the oxygen that her lungs were failing to absorb. He wanted to be with her. And he wanted her to say the same. Fates, the things she felt for him. She swore it could be love, yet a part of her couldn’t make that leap. Not yet. Not even in the face of all that stood before them.

  She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. With everything she had in her, she tried to banish her fears of failure and what it would mean for them. She broke away and said, “We can do this, Cam.”

  He nodded, determination in the set of his brow, then turned to face the people who had just arrived. Esha and Aurora held onto Warren and Diana respectively. The two soulceresses nodded, then disappeared again to retrieve more of their party. Though all gods could aetherwalk, it was a talent not all Mytheans possessed. Those who did could bring one or two people at a time along with them.

  Before long, Esha and Aurora had brought Cadan and Vivienne. Esha returned for Fiona, the Acquirer, who grinned at her. Cora arrived with two other witches shortly after. Aerten was the last to arrive, directly from Otherworld. She tilted her head toward Cam, her expression a combination of wariness and hope. Still waters ran deep with that one.

  When the full thirteen of their party all stood on the crest of the hill, Cam addressed them. “Thank you for coming. This is too great a task for Ana and me alone. If Lea is correct about the extent of protective magics in this place, it will be dangerous even with our greater numbers.”

  “She’s correct,” Esha murmured. “Never wrong, that one.”

  Cam nodded, a grim set to his mouth. “For that reason, if anyone should wish to depart at any time, you’re free to go.”

  Aurora barked a laugh. “Not ditching you now, mate.”

  “Then we go,” Cam said.

  They set off down the hill, their plan from the previous night in place. The oaks loomed huge as they approached the wood, thick trunks supporting limbs that reached for the sky. Too large and too numerous to ever chop down with axes before the creatures of the wood killed them all. No, magic had created this place and magic would destroy it.

  “To the center, witches,” Cam commanded.

  As a group, they moved to the center of the pack, surrounded on all sides by the warriors armed with bow and sword. Guns wouldn’t fire in a place so thick with ancient magic, else they’d have used them. But tools of the present couldn’t be used in the past, and this place was imbued with a magic so thick that it hadn’t changed since the day it had been made.

  They neared the wood and the shadows of the trees reached out toward them, carrying unnaturally cold air. Humans would never approach this place. Nor would Mytheans, not if they didn’t have to. As it was, their band of warriors suppressed a collective shudder as they entered the shadows of the trees.

  Esha and Aurora moved away from the group, striking ahead on their own. Their black familiars stuck close to their sides. If they’d stayed with the group, they’d have sapped their fellow warriors’ strength and speed and magic. By forging ahead, they could cut a path through the monsters, weakening them for an easier kill, which both were handy at delivering.

  “Dark in here,” Ana muttered to Cam. It was as if night were only minutes away, and too cold and too silent.

  They led the pack, with Aerten, Cadan, Diana, Warren, Vivienne, Harp, and Fiona surrounding the witches. Dead leaves and twigs crunched beneath their boots. A heavy tension shrouded them.

  “There’s nothing here,” Vivienne whispered.

  She was right, and it made the hair on Ana’s arms stand on end. There should be monsters of the wood, creatures enchanted by Druantia into protecting the oaks. Instead, there was silence.

  As if they were waiting to strike.

  Perhaps Esha and Aurora would be able to repel them all until the group reached the center of the wood, where the witches would cast a spell to make the oaks break at their trunks.

  Eerie whispers tickled Ana’s ears as they crept deeper into the forest. Silence had turned to the rustle of oak leave
s. It almost sounded like words. Were the souls of the Dryads speaking to her?

  She strained to hear, but instead of whispers, a sudden shriek echoed through the forest. She slapped her free hand to her ear. Her fellow warriors stiffened, turned in tandem toward the shriek that came from the west. Another joined it, and another, growing ever closer. Ana clutched her bow and nocked an arrow.

  “Caoineag,” Cam said.

  Highland banshees, foreseers of doom. To hear their cry meant death or tragedy for the listener.

  Ana’s gaze scanned the forest, looking for whatever monsters or attack the banshees prophesied. But instead, three horrifying women swept down from the trees to the west, wingless but possessing command of the air. They were gaunt, skeletal things with stringy hair and tattered dresses. The magic here was darker than even she’d expected, for the Caoineag were only meant to be heard, not seen. To prophesy doom, not deliver it.

  Yet Druantia had given them form and rage and set them upon anyone who dared enter the forest. Ana aimed her arrow at the nearest Caoineag. Shot. Watched in horror as the banshee kept flying toward them, arrow protruding grotesquely from its chest. She reached for her quiver to nock another arrow, but a tree root snapped up from the ground and tripped her.

  She crashed to the ground. In her peripheral vision, she saw Cam’s arrows fly at the Caoineag. Ana heaved herself to her feet and reached for another arrow, but before she could shoot the banshee that was nearly upon them, Diana leapt from her place in their group and charged the Caoineag, swinging her sword at its neck. Its head tumbled to the ground.

  Only then did the wailing horror disappear in a wisp of smoke. Cadan and Warren took their cue, charging after the other two and swinging their swords to decapitate. The banshees fought back, sentient enough to recognize their sister’s fate and fight it. A great bloody gash appeared on Warren’s chest from a swipe of its claws, but after a struggle, his sword hit home and she turned to a wisp of smoke. Cadan’s Caoineag followed. Vivienne and Fiona worked as a team, doubling up on one banshee at a time.