A Soul For Atonement (The Soulbearer Series Book 4)

by Crista McHugh

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Note to Readers

  Books by Crista McHugh

  A Soul For Atonement

  A Soul For Atonement

  The Soulbearer Series, Book 4

  By

  Crista McHugh

  Arden Soulbearer has fought a god, defeated a necromancer, and driven enemy invaders out of her homeland. Now, the only reward she desires is to marry the man who’s been by her side through it all--her knight protector, Dev. But with her happy ending almost in reach, an ancient crime returns to haunt them... and the punishment is Dev’s death.

  A century ago, a Soulbearer stole a sacred relic from the Ornathians, and now their king demands a sacrifice of Dev's blood to lift the blight cursing his people. Arden’s only hope to free Dev from the king's prison is to find the relic. But first, she must outwit the one person who knows where the relic is—-Loku, the God of Chaos whose soul resides within her.

  The Soulbearer Series

  A Soul For Trouble

  A Soul For Chaos

  A Soul For Vengeance

  A Soul For Atonement

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  Chapter 1

  Devarius Tel’Brien knocked his opponent’s sword away and stomped his boot over the blade. “Do you surrender?”

  The bright yellow-green halo flashed in Arden’s eyes, and she grinned. “Never.”

  A ball of magic exploded from her free hand and connected with the center of his chest. His muscles tensed, paralyzing the air in his lungs, before going limp. Dev staggered back a few steps, giving Arden enough room to break free and raise her saber again.

  He gulped down a few breaths, the burn from her spell easing with each inhalation. “This is combat practice, Trouble, not magic practice.”

  “You never said I couldn’t use magic,” she said matter-of-factly, flipping her golden braid back from her shoulder. Her eyes danced with laughter. “You just said to treat you like an enemy who wanted to kill me.”

  Which, based on her history, was a list already a mile long. Since she’d become the Soulbearer, she’d been hunted by a necromancer, a god, and an army of invaders from another kingdom.

  “Besides, if you wanted this to be real combat practice, you wouldn’t have cast a spell to dull our blades.” She pointed to the white mist that surrounded the sharp edges of her saber.

  “I did it to protect you.” His strength returned, and he mirrored her en garde posture. “If I hadn’t, you’d be a bloody mess by now.”

  “Are you sure it’s not the other way around, Dev?”

  She lunged at him with such speed that he barely had time to deflect her attack. Even though he tried to remain serious, the corners of his mouth involuntarily rose into a tight-lipped grin. In just over two years, Arden had grown from a skinny barmaid who could barely handle a knife without cutting herself to a sparring partner fit for any knight in the empire. If he hadn’t been so focused on blocking her attacks, he might’ve marveled at the way her blade sliced through the air like a striking cobra or the way she moved around the room, her body twisting and turning with the grace of a dancer.

  But his pride kept him from taking pleasure in watching her. He’d been a decorated knight before becoming the Soulbearer’s Protector a century ago, and he refused to admit his pupil was now nearly at his level.

  He waited until he caught her off balance from a missed thrust and parried with enough force to drive her back toward the stone wall. He pinned her against it with his body, taking a second to draw in the scents of apples and warm bread that always surrounded her before leveling the tip of his blade to the artery that throbbed in her neck. “Do you surrender now?”

  A slow, seductive smile appeared on her lips before she pressed them to his.

  And every drop of self-control fled his being. Desire flooded his veins, and his sword fell from his hand. He wrapped his arms around the woman he loved more than life itself, deepening the kiss until all thoughts of combat practice vanished in favor of dragging her back to their bed for the next hour.

  That is, until the bite of cold steel against the back of his neck ended his blissful reverie.

  Arden gave him a saucy grin. “Weren’t you the one who cautioned me to never lose awareness of my surroundings?”

  “Point made,” he replied, his voice low and quiet. She’d succeeded in distracting him, but he wasn’t ready to surrender, not when she left him aching with want. He countered her attack, assaulting her sweet mouth with another passionate kiss.

  Her breath hitched, and her sword clattered to the floor. Her fingers tangled in his hair and massaged tiny circles into his scalp, moving at the same swirling tempo of her tongue.

  He grabbed her bottom and lifted her higher until he was at the perfect angle to grind against her. Their kisses turned hungry and desperate, but he wouldn’t be the one to end it. If he had to carry her back to bed and continue until they were both left completely sated, he would. Anything but let her know how much control she had over him.

  Arden finally broke away, her chest heaving and her eyes hazy with desire. “And what are you out to prove now?”

  There was no concealing the possessive growl in his voice as he said, “That if you dare use your feminine wiles to distract another man, I’ll slit him from nose to navel.”

  Her face softened, and she tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, brushing her fingertips over the sensitive pointed tip. “I love you, too, Dev.”

  With those five simple words, his defenses came crashing down. He kissed her once more, slowly this time, drawing out each delicious sensation as long as he could. The warmth of skin. The taste of apples that lingered on her lips. The subtle way she melted into his arms with a faint moan. It still never ceased to amaze him that a woman nicknamed Trouble could’ve captured his heart so completely, and yet he knew without a doubt that his heart belonged to her.

  Just as her heart belonged to him.

  He ended the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. “I meant that. If I dare catch another man kissing my wife—”

  “I’m not your wife yet,” she teased.

  “True, but in two weeks—”

  “In two weeks, I will be your wife, but until then—”

  “Damn it, Arden, will you let me finish?” He waited until she closed her mouth, her lips twitching in amusement, before continuing. “What I was trying to say is that as far as I’m concerned, you are already my wife. You possess my heart and my soul, and my life is certainly less boring with you in it.”

  “So are you saying I’m still a pain in your ass?”

  A single note of laughter escaped from his chest. “Absolutely, but I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

  “Same here.”

  The halo in her eyes flashed again, and a look of wide-eyed shock replaced the happy smile on her face.

  Dev straightened, the intimacy of the encounter ruined by the presence of the constant voyeur in their lives. “What did Loku s
ay?”

  She looked away, her cheeks flooding with color. “Um, he made some rather crude suggestions about what you could do to my posterior.”

  Pretty much what he’d expected from the chaos god living inside her. He stepped back and gathered his magic. “Would you like me to contain him for you?”

  “No, I’m quite capable of doing it myself.” Her face tightened in concentration, and the halo dimmed in her eyes until it was barely more than a thin ring around the sky blue centers. “There. Now he can’t interrupt us.”

  She took his hand and led him toward the door, the sway in her hips telling him she was more than ready to finish what they’d started. Cinder, his fire wolf, fell into step behind them with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

  Dev paused and turned to his pet. “No. Stay here.”

  Cinder’s ears fell, and he nuzzled Arden’s hand until she scratched his favorite spot on the top of his head.

  “You don’t have to be so mean to him,” Arden said, her fingers moving down the wolf’s coarse fur as she rubbed his back. “He just wants to be wherever we are.”

  “No, he just wants to be with you because you spoil him.” He clasped her hands in his and guided her away from Cinder. “It’s bad enough I have to share you with Loku. I refuse to allow a wolf into our bed.”

  “Who said anything about the bed?” She bit her bottom lip, her eyes silently laughing.

  “Tease.”

  He was leaning in to kiss her again when the door to the fencing room banged open. Sazi, the Ornathian who’d been friends with him since he was a youth, ran into the room with her ebony wings pulled in as tightly as the planes of her face. “Dev, Soulbearer, run,” she ordered, her accent only adding to the urgency on her voice, “before they find you.”

  Arden’s brows bunched together in confusion. “Before who finds us?”

  Sazi ignored Arden’s question, her gaze never wavering from him. “They are seeking retribution for the Blood.”

  A slew of Elvish curses rattled off his tongue as he grabbed his longsword. It was only a matter of time before the sins of the prior Soulbearers came back to haunt them, and if Sazi was telling the truth, they’d extract their punishment on Arden. He grabbed Arden’s hand and dragged her out into the corridor behind Sazi. “Where are they coming from?”

  “The north.”

  “Then that means we’re heading south.” He wasted no time pulling Arden in that direction, ignoring the unspoken questions revealed by the tense line of her mouth. Cinder followed hot on his heels.

  “I will stall them as long as I can.” Sazi ran in the opposite direction to intercept her people.

  Dev led Arden through the twisted maze of corridors that made up one wing of the Mages’ Conclave. Heavy thuds echoed around him in a quick rhythm, but he couldn’t tell if it was from their footsteps, his heart, or the flapping wings of those who wished to capture Arden.

  But one thing was certain—he’d die before he’d let them execute her for Syd’s crimes.

  He drew to a stop just before the corridor emptied into the center rotunda of the Conclave and drew his sword. “Stay close.”

  Her breath was hard and labored, but that didn’t stop her from asking, “Why?”

  “I’ll explain later.” He peered around the corner to make sure the Ornathians weren’t waiting for them.

  “No, you’ll tell me now, or I’ll ask Loku.”

  He gritted his teeth to keep from cursing out loud and revealing their location. Of all the times for her to be stubborn. “One of these days, you’ll learn to trust me.”

  “I do, but if I’m going to piss off more people, I’d like to at least know why beforehand.”

  The air around him crackled with protective magic bearing the slightest tinge of chaos. He turned to find the halo in her eyes glowing brighter than normal. “Be careful calling upon him, Trouble. You know how out of control he gets.”

  “I’m not calling upon him at all.” But the upward tilt of her chin told him she wouldn’t hesitate to do so if she felt it was necessary, even if it meant jeopardizing her own sanity. “My shields are up, so I’m ready to go when you are.”

  The magic that surrounded him was so strong, it seemed impenetrable. He had to remind himself that even before she became the Soulbearer, Arden had been a powerful witch with bloodlines that linked her to Gravaria’s imperial family. Combined with the abilities of the chaos god living inside her, she was a force to be reckoned with.

  Which unnerved him all the more. It was one thing to deal with unyielding Ornathians who saw the world as black and white, good and evil, and who sported talons that could rip a man’s flesh off his bones. It was an entirely different matter that Trouble was ready to meet them head on and possibly destroy the Conclave in the process. Either way he looked at the situation, he was screwed.

  “Please, let’s try to slip away without confrontation,” he urged.

  “Agreed.” She closed the space between them, peering over his shoulder just before they darted forward into the rotunda.

  He heard the flap of wings before he saw them. A dozen Ornathians flew in from the upper levels of the room, circling them like a flock of vultures while they descended. The spit in his mouth dried as he recognized the insignia on their chests. Ordinary Ornathians were imposing creatures, many standing over seven feet tall with a wingspan that doubled that. But these were members of the king’s elite guard, skilled soldiers who carried out their leader’s commands without hesitation. And their presence meant two things.

  The Ornathian king was nearby.

  And it would be suicidal for Dev and Arden to take them on.

  Arden’s magic shields doubled around him as the Ornathians landed and surrounded them. She clung to his shoulder, her gaze burning more with anger than fear. Beside him, Cinder had his ears pressed back, and a low growl rumbled through his throat.

  If they can be brave facing them down, so can I.

  Dev pushed his fear into the pit of his stomach, raised his sword, and stared down the largest of the soldiers. “You’re not going to take her.”

  “That is where you are mistaken, Sir Devarius,” a cold, calm voice said from the back of the room.

  The soldiers parted to let the Ornathian king approach. Dev had met him only a handful of times, but nothing had dulled the intimidation radiating from the man. Although Ornathians came in every hue imaginable, King Adeyemi always reminded Dev of a raven. Strong. Cunning. Merciless. The only things on his body that weren’t midnight black were the whites of his eyes. He strode into the room with a haughty smile curling his lips as though he was presiding over his own palace instead of treading upon the neutral grounds of the Conclave.

  “We haven’t come for the Soulbearer,” Adeyemi continued, his accented voice stilting the words. “We’ve come for you.”

  Chapter 2

  Arden’s heart skipped a beat, and she shook her head to make sure she hadn’t heard the Ornathian incorrectly.

  “No, my little Soulbearer, you didn’t dream it up,” Loku replied, the usual levity missing from his voice. Instead, a hint of smirk reverberated through her mind.

  “This is more of a nightmare.”

  “We can always turn the tables on them.”

  A rush of chaotic magic pumped through her body and gathered in her hands, waiting for her to release it. It was always like that when Loku offered his help to her. But instead of unleashing the power of a god on the men who surrounded them, she held back and moved beside Dev. She adopted the authoritative air of her cousin the empress and said, “I demand to know why you’ve come for my Protector.”

  The leader arched one brow at her audacity, but his hand remained on the hilt of his sheathed sword. Light reflected off the golden loops that hung from his ears and the jeweled rings on his fingers, but his well-muscled arms and metal breastplate revealed he was more than just some arrogant nobleman. He was a seasoned warrior. “Lireal demands blood for the loss of her gi
ft.”

  “Lireal always was a bloodthirsty bitch,” Loku muttered.

  A lump formed in Arden’s throat at the thought of them killing Dev, and the magic flowing inside her burned along her fingertips. “Find your sacrifice elsewhere.”

  “Shut up, Trouble,” Dev whispered.

  “No.” The magic pounded inside her skull, clouding her vision with red. “I won’t let him kill you.”

  “Enough of this,” the Ornathian leader shouted. “Take him.”

  The soldiers drew the weapons and attacked, only to collide with the invisible wall she’d cast before they’d entered the room moments ago. Arden sent a pulse of Loku’s magic into the shield. Green lightning danced along the surface before striking their attackers. Smoke rose from their wings, and their cries of pain encouraged her to release even more of Loku’s magic. She wanted them to suffer for trying to kill Dev, and she wouldn’t rest until she’d annihilated them all.

  The god inside her laughed. “I love the smell of chaos in the morning.”

  She slipped further and further under his control, the chaos god’s magic surging through her veins with each beat of her heart. The smell of singed feathers filled the air and swirled through the haze around her. The soldiers surrounding them fell back, leaving only one obstacle blocking their freedom. She leveled her gaze with the Ornathian leader, redirected her magic from her shields to her hands, and sent a bolt of lightning at him.

  She knew from looking at him that he was skilled with his sword. What she didn’t expect was for him to be as equally skilled with magic. He stood, unmoving as the bolt zapped through the air toward him until the very last second. Then, with a flick of his hand, he rebounded the spell back toward her.

  The spell rammed through Arden’s defenses and knocked her off her feet. Her head smacked against the stone wall behind her, and black stars exploded along the edges of her vision. The distant sounds of scuffling followed.

  I have to get up. I have to protect Dev. But her limbs refused to move. “Loku?”

  Silence answered her.