by Hall, Linsey
“Never been too smart.”
A lie, but she played along. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“I need your help.”
A little thrill skittered over Esha’s skin. Ignore it. “Not interested. Last time you needed my help, you set me up. Oh, and that was last night. Not nearly long enough to forget.”
He stepped toward her. The breath caught in her throat, and she backed up until the cold metal of the car pressed against her back. She despised herself for backing away, but she couldn’t trust her control where he was concerned. She was determined to have a little more self-respect this time around.
“No’ intentionally,” he said.
“You’re saying you didn’t know I’d be locking up another soulceress?”
“Nay. But I dinna know the extent of the spell or what it would mean to you.”
“Why me?”
“I need your help to find another of your kind. Soulceresses can find one another. You’re the fastest way for me to get to her.”
Really? “Why are you looking for her?”
“Her power outplayed that of the imprisonment spell. She’s out, and she’s gone rogue.” He paused. “We want to make sure she’s on our side.”
“Like you did with me.” And see how well that worked out.
“Basically.” He looked away, swallowed hard.
He’s lying. Warren was a terrible liar. A disgusted laugh burst from her lips. He expected her to trust him. But how could she when he made it so clear that he didn’t trust her?
“If you insist on having this conversation, don’t lie to me. You aren’t planning to ask the other soulceress to join the university.”
His jaw clenched.
“What,” she said, “not used to being caught in your lies?”
“I doona lie—”
“Often. I know. You’re too bloody honorable to stoop so low. But you did this time. Why?”
“Because I need your help, damn it!”
Esha had to work to suppress a shiver of delight at his words. On the surface they were what she wanted to hear. To be needed was a lovely thing. But beneath, the reasons for his lies writhed. “You think that the reason you want the soulceress will keep me from helping you, don’t you?”
A tic began in his jaw.
“You’re going to imprison her again. Or kill her. Aren’t you?”
His eyes flickered at the word kill. She had him. She laughed, the sound dark and bitter. “You were going to try to trick me again—into helping you hurt another of my kind.”
“She’s evil, gods damn it!”
“So am I, according to you! There’s no way in hell I’m helping you with this. All you’ve done is fucking lie to me when you need me.” There was that word again. That lovely, lovely, dangerous word. “And inevitably, you need me to do something that I absolutely refuse to do. I’m not leading you to her so you can hurt her.”
Warren dragged a hand through his hair, frustration evident on his face. “Honestly, Esha. I doona think you’re evil. I’ve been an arse to you. Unforgivably so. It’s just… You tie up my mind and my tongue until I say the worst possible things. And I’m no’ trying to shift the blame. It’s my own damn fault that I get screwed in the head around you. And I’m sorry.”
Shock almost put her on her ass. A genuine apology… for her? An apology that confirmed she wasn’t crazy for what she believed was happening between them?
Huh. “Well, don’t do it again.”
“I mean it. I am sorry. And I really do need your help with this. This soulceress actually is evil. If you knew the things she’s done…” He slashed the air with his hand, frustration welling out of him.
“Well, why don’t you tell me?”
“I canna.”
“No, you willna.” She mimicked his accent and kicked the gravel at her feet. “I’m getting sick of being used, sick of being lied to, and sick of being left out of the important information.”
“It’s… personal.”
The soulceress had done something to him, then? Had they been… lovers? Her stomach pitched. No, that wasn’t possible. She wanted to kick herself for even caring. Of course she didn’t care. “She meant something to you?”
“No!” His eyes were fierce, the storm within them raging at the thought of the other soulceress.
He really did intend to kill her. Once again, he’d come to her for help to destroy her own kind, but he wouldn’t even tell her the truth of why. Was she really so abhorrent? Was her kind so terrible that he was bent on destroying them? Would she have to go with him to protect the other soulceress?
“Help me. I can make it worth your while.”
“How?”
“Money.”
“Do I look like I need money? My skills are worth a fortune.” She conjured a fireball, then made it whiz around his head. “I won’t sell them to hurt another soulceress.”
“A department of your own at the university. With assistants.”
“Do I look like I need help?” Though it would be nice to have a team. “Anyway, who are you going to get to work with an evil bitch like me?”
“You aren’t evil. I know that everyone treats you that way. But you aren’t.”
He hadn’t answered her questions, though they were nice words. But she wanted action.
“We’ve determined that you have nothing I want,” she said.
But he did have something she wanted. She didn’t want him finding and killing the other soulceress before she could find her. Esha might be able to find her the fastest, but only if everything went right. She had no idea how or where to start. If she left Warren to find her on his own, there was always a chance he’d beat her there.
He’d hurt her and lied to her. But she was pretty used to that. She didn’t particularly want to be around him anymore, but if it meant improving her chances of finding and saving the other soulceress, she was all for it.
“What’s her name?” Esha asked.
“Aurora.”
“Aurora.” She liked that name. “Say I help you find Aurora. You can’t kill her. That’s not an option if I help you. And I get to talk to her first.”
His nostrils flared. “Seriously?”
She nodded.
“No’ a chance,” he said.
“Give me a break. I know I’m your only option. You wouldn’t have asked for my help otherwise. Promise not to kill her, let me talk to her, and I’ll help you.”
When he scowled at her, she grinned, knowing that she had him.
“Fine.”
He’d agreed not to kill Aurora. He might be lying, but from the granite in his gaze, this was the best she could hope for.
And he was honorable. Most of the time. She’d need to be there when he found her, that was certain.
She shivered at the strange sensation that quivered along her nerves at the idea of actively trying to protect another Mythean. All her life, her job had been to kill rogues. It was a solitary existence. The only beings she’d ever considered risking her life for were Andrasta and the Chairman. Now she’d aligned herself with some other unknown soulceress?
Yes. For the chance to meet another Mythean, one who wouldn’t judge her for something she couldn’t control? To have her questions about her power answered? Absolutely.
Resolutely, she stuck out a hand. “Deal.”
Relief coursed through Warren when Esha offered to shake on the deal. He gripped her hand, trying to ignore the goose bumps that rose on his skin. Electric.
“Thank you.” He released her hand and stepped back, then cursed when he nearly tripped over the damn cat, who’d moved from his post beside the car.
“Watch it,” said Esha. “You don’t want to get on his bad side.”
“What, or he won’t use the litter box?”
“Please, that’s my punishment. You, he’d wait until you were asleep, put a spell on you, and then eat your face.”
His head snapped to the side to look at her. “The
hell you say.” When he saw the gleam in her eyes, a short burst of laughter escaped him.
“Seriously, though,” she said, “he’s got his ways.”
Warren looked down at the soot-black cat at his feet. The beast turned its head to glare at him, white fangs gleaming in the light. He growled back.
Esha laughed. “Get over it, alpha dog.”
Warren looked away from the cat. He’d just had a pissing contest with a house cat. Fucking embarrassing.
“So now what, boss?” She looked him up and down, her face daring him to contradict the title the way he had the other night in the pub.
He didn’t. He liked the idea of having control over her. The setting sun gleamed on her rich black hair, a striking contrast to her pale skin. Aye, this was a woman he wouldn’t mind telling what to do. She wouldn’t listen, of course. But he liked that too. “You’re supposed to be able to find her.”
“Sure, but how?”
“You doona know?”
She shrugged.
“Well, think, damn it.”
“I thought you’d have some inside info on how this soulceress tracking is supposed to go.”
“I doona.”
Esha rolled her eyes. “What do you think, Chairman?”
No response. Did she expect it to answer?
He searched his mind, turning away from Esha because she did nothing but cloud his thoughts with images of her, ideas of what he might do to her if she weren’t a soulceress and didn’t hate him. He stared out at the grove of oaks in the distance and caught sight of a rabbit bounding between the trees. An idea sparked to life.
“Packs of shifters can sense each other when they’re nearby. Sometimes they can even find each other from far away. Now that Aurora has escaped, maybe she’ll pop up in your subconscious.”
“What, like radar?”
“Just try.”
“Fine.” She leaned back against her car and closed her eyes. Eventually her breathing calmed. Movement behind her eyelids gave him hope. This was working. It had to be.
Suddenly, she snored. Then laughed.
“Damn it, Esha, you need to take this seriously.”
“Whatever, you have to admit that was funny.”
When he said nothing, she shrugged again and said, “Fine. But I don’t have a damn radar like our furry friends. That’s not going to work. Give me a minute to think.”
Tension thrummed beneath his skin as he waited. Of course this wasn’t going to be easy, but even if he could get her to cooperate, he’d be in close proximity to her for the duration of their search. He’d been so obsessed with getting Esha’s help in finding Aurora that he hadn’t thought of the logistics of actually being near her for so long. In the past, he’d avoided her for a reason. His control, something he’d always prized in himself, was shot around her.
Even now, just standing near her lightened something within him. He’d never met anyone like her, someone who saw him. Hiding the darkness within, the lives he’d taken, had become second nature to him. Mytheans killed all the time, but he wasn’t one of them. Death didn’t come so easy. Yet she knew that he’d done evil things, could see it on him, when no one else could. Esha could see the shadow of his past, and she didn’t hold it against him. It unsettled him. Intrigued him.
“I can’t sense her,” she said. “If I can’t sense her, then it has to be something we have in common that will allow me to find her. What do we share?”
“The way you reap power.”
She glared at him. “What, we’re supposed to track all the poor, temporarily weakened Mytheans and find her that way? It’s a needle in a haystack, and you could do that without me.”
“Good point.”
“Anyway,” Esha said. “If she has her familiar, she can aetherwalk. Does she have her familiar?”
“Aye, a black cat like yours. Sleeker looking, though.”
The Chairman hissed.
“Right, needle in a haystack plan is out.”
“What kind of mythology do soulceresses have? Maybe it’s related to that.”
Every species had stories about its origin, books that contained its history, bards that recorded its songs. The soulceresses would too.
“I don’t know much. There was never anyone to teach me about soulceresses specifically.” She looked away. He swore he caught a glimmer of sadness, but then it was gone. No, that was ridiculous. Esha was tough, one of the toughest Mytheans at the university. “I don’t know a lot about it. I’ve never tried to learn. But there’s a place that was once vaguely mentioned in history class. The howf.”
“Isn’t that a pub?” He hadn’t heard the word in ages.
“Can be, but howf also meant meeting place. For debates and that kind of thing. Ours was enchanted, and since we were the only ones who could enter, it was also used to store the documents and books that we didn’t want falling into the wrong hands.”
“That’s got to be it. She said that only you can find her, and if you’re the only one who can enter the howf, that’s got to be it.” Aurora was smart. It was a surefire way to make sure he brought Esha. “Let’s go there.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right. It sounds totally badass, so don’t you think I would have gone there before?”
“You doona know where it is?”
“Not exactly, I’ve got a pretty good idea. Wouldn’t take too long to find. But it’s not the location that’s the problem. It’s the guard. If you don’t know how to get in, or the rules once you’re there, it’s as dangerous as trying to get out of hell. Soulceresses won’t have anyone stealing our secrets, so they enchanted the place. Older soulceresses taught younger ones how to get in.”
Damn it. “This is our only lead, and you’re telling me you canna get in?”
“Basically.”
“What kind of cut-rate soulceress are you?”
She merely raised an eyebrow. The cat didn’t even bother to hiss at the insult. “Please. I’m an awesome soulceress. You aren’t going to goad me into this.”
Damn it, she was always going to be one step ahead of him. He liked it. Though it was proving to be a pain in the arse.
“Is this really our only lead, then?” he asked.
Esha looked away. Minutes passed before she spoke again, during which time the first snow of the season began to fall lightly around them.
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s the only thing I can think of.”
She’d racked her brain, but the truth of it was, she knew little about her own kind. There hadn’t been any parents to teach her, and her school had stayed the hell away from teaching about soulceresses except for a brief mention. But what little she’d heard of the howf had been riveting.
It still was. A place that held the secrets of her kind? She’d never tried to find it before. Not only was it dangerous, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. What if her kind were as evil as everyone said? Did she really want to face that?
But she’d already set out on this path, and she finished what she started. “Do you even think she’ll be at the howf?” she asked.
“Doona know. Do you?”
She frowned and mulled it over. “No, I don’t think she will be. Too dangerous to risk meeting us at a place with so many unknowns that she couldn’t account for. If I were Aurora, I’d want to meet on my home turf. But I’d make you work for it by sending you someplace dangerous for the clues.” That decided it for her. The other soulceress probably thought like she did. “I’ll try to take you there.”
As much as it made her skin cold to think of it, the idea of learning the secrets of the howf was tantalizing. She’d had centuries of ignorance about her own kind.
“Excellent. Where is it?”
“Fingal’s Cave.”
“Fingal’s Cave? That odd rock formation off the Isle of Mull?”
“Yeah, the one on Staffa.”
She’d never been to the small, uninhabited island located off the west coast of Scotland. The cave, made of towering
octagonal rock formations, sat at the base of a vertical cliff and opened right into the sea.
“The soulceress howf is in a cave that is well known to mortals? The Giant’s Cave is famous,” Warren said.
“Fingal’s Cave is just the entrance. The geological formations that draw mortal attention are an unavoidable manifestation of our power. But back when we used it, mortals weren’t taking tour boat rides. And Fingal wasn’t a giant. That’s just a myth, meant to scare away the few mortals who might want to visit. His name was Finn. Finn MacCummhail, and he was a soulcerer. Not the first of our kind, but the most powerful.”
“What happened to him, if he was so powerful?”
“Some say he was killed in the Burnings. Others say he sacrificed himself for the remaining soulceresses with magic meant to hide them from other Mytheans. Those few who survived believed that it was Finn MacCummhail who crafted the magic that calmed some of the hysteria. As for the howf, the entrance is at the back of the cave. It’s only visible to Mytheans, not mortals, and it’s submerged at high tide. If we miss the tide, we could be crushed by the waves.”
“Can we aetherwalk? It would save time.”
“To Mull, yes. Not to the cave, because the howf will be protected by magic that won’t allow us to just appear inside. Any other species who can aetherwalk could gain access that way.”
“We’ll take a boat, then. Tourist boats won’t be running this time of year, which helps us avoid people. When can we depart?”
“I need to refuel my power.” She watched his face for any sign of a grimace, so used to seeing it on the faces of Mytheans was she.
Nothing. Not even a flinch. Did he really not care that she was a soulceress? She wanted to believe that.
“All right. I’ll give Cadan a call. He has a house on Mull. He might know where to get a boat. I’ll come get you in a few hours, and we’ll head over there, all right?”
“Fine. I’ll check the tides. We might have to wait until tomorrow to approach the cave.”
Which meant they might be spending the night together on Mull. Esha swallowed hard.
