Soul Symmetry

by J. L. Weil

  Zane sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “If you say so, princess.”

  Even though I was as tired and discouraged as the rest of them, something in the darkness pushed me. “One more sweep, and if we don’t find anything, we’ll call it a night,” I conceded.

  “Sounds like fun,” Crash said grimly.

  Zane eyes glared furiously, looking like he was going to blow a gasket. “You don’t have to be here, you know. I don’t recall inviting you. If you got a problem, leave.”

  “Too bad, Death Scythe,” Crash smirked in a way that only ever infuriated. “I live for this kind of drama. Tormenting you in the process is the icing on the cake.”

  “Fine,” Zane growled. “Stay out of my way, and if you double cross her, you won’t live long enough to feel a second of satisfaction.”

  I leaned against a big old oak, shaking my head, thinking maybe I should just let them duke it out. What the— I jumped forward off the trunk with a yelp. The tree had…zapped me? I turned around and scowled at the wide trunk.

  “What is it?” Zane asked, coming to stand behind me.

  “I don’t know, probably nothing,” I said, rubbing the back of my shoulder. “But I think this tree just shocked me.”

  All eyes flashed to me, beaming the same look. Hope.

  “I wonder,” Zane breathed, putting his hands on the big old tree at the heart of the courtyard. “Could it be?”

  I felt silly, waiting for something to happen. It was a tree. A very tall, ancient tree. “Do you feel anything?” I asked, cradling my arm against my chest. It pulsed with a strange tingle, almost like when your fingers fell asleep.

  “Give me your hand,” he instructed.

  My immediate reaction was to say no and give him my are-you-cray-cray glower. The idea of subjecting myself to another bolt of tree mojo wasn’t the least bit appealing. Hesitating, I curled my fingers with his while he still had his palm flattened against the trunk. There it was, the electric sting radiating down my arm. Zane’s eyes widened. “This has got to be it.”

  I unfurled my fingers from his. “If this tree zaps me one more time, I’m going to chop it down and use it for fire wood,” I said frowning.

  “That wouldn’t be wise,” Crash said, eyes sweeping up the length of the trunk. “I doubt you could if you tried. This isn’t just a tree, but a capsule. It is protecting something.”

  When did I ever do anything wise? And we all knew what that something was. “How do we get it out?” Zoe asked, not getting too close. Parker was at her side, inspecting the tree like we’d all lost our minds.

  “It’s obvious. Princess here has to work her magic.” Crash touched the bark, running his fingers along the bumpy texture, testing to see its effects. “It’s nothing more than an ordinary tree for the rest of us.”

  “As much as it pains me to agree with douchebag, he’s right,” Zane said.

  The idea of having to touch the thing again filled me with dread. I didn’t like subjecting myself to the voltaic jolts, and would prefer to avoid singing the hair on my arms. “Why does it always have to be me?” I grumbled, regarding the tree with scorn. A brisk breeze blew in from the north, cooling my face and causing the leaves to rustle. Because I’d never uncovered a relic before, I didn’t know where to start. Did I blast it with banshee sonar or hit it with a glowy ball of light?

  None of those seemed appropriate. I needed to get to the root of the tree. I sunk to my knees at the base of the giant oak, fighting the urge to wince like a little girl for fear of being shocked. There was no time for fear anymore. The world was getting dark, and I had to do this, for I could no longer ignore the throbbing in my gut. Trouble was coming, and it was getting close. I could pick up faint traces of death. Hallows.

  We were on borrowed time.

  Closing my eyes, I reached out with my power, letting it rise up around me like a force field. With caution, I dug my fingers into the ground where thick roots were slightly exposed, and let my power seep into the deep cracks of the dry earth, wrapping around the tree at its hub.

  A shudder went through the tree, shaking the branches over my head. Leaves tinged with the beginning colors of fall rained down on me. The air smelled of fall, damp grass and earth. To my great relief, there were no more tiny bolts of current.

  I opened my eyes as a cool mist coiled around me. My skin was glowing in a hazing white. It hadn’t occurred to me before how quiet and calm the atmosphere had been, but as I pushed to my feet, the whisper of my friends traveled through the wind. Leaves crinkled under my feet as I stood under the great oak. I blinked. A small outline of a narrow door was etched along the trunk.

  “Congratulations, princess,” Zane murmured. “I think you’ve done the impossible. You might have just saved the world from utter darkness.” It creaked open as Zane gave it a push. The old wood groaned as it lifted.

  A hush descended upon us. The interior of the trunk glowed softly and had a sweet musky smell, like a dusty trunk in the attic filled with your dead great-great aunt’s perfume bottles. But there, nestled deep within the tree was what we’d been searching for. The relic.

  Boom-shacka-lacka!

  I wanted to do a happy dance, arms flailing and screaming like a goat, but I managed to squash the urge and smiled instead, the biggest, brightest grin.

  Inside, the relic pulsed with a soft amber radiance, as if sunlight had been captured and bottled. It reminded me of a scepter the kings and queens used to carry, decorated with vines trailing up the handle. The carved head of the scepter encompassed a clear glass ball that at the top came to a needle prick point.

  A halo of awe filled the courtyard as we all gaped. “It’s beautiful,” I murmured, reaching out, the glow washing over my face. Mesmerized by its ancient and otherworldly refinement, it aroused something inside me, beckoning me.

  “Princess don’t,” Zane warned, reacting quickly and pulling my arm away before I could touch it. “Not until we know it’s safe,” he reasoned.

  “And how do you plan to determine that?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the relic. I swear it sang to me, a song as luring as a siren’s.

  “There’s an inscription.” Crash said, eyes glittering as he moved to get a closer peek. He too seemed to be in some sort of trance, but as my eyes narrowed, I saw what he was talking about. There were indeed markings carved elegantly up one side of the handle, and like nothing I’d ever seen before. Enthralling scroll and swirly shapes that obviously meant something. A warning? An instruction manual?

  Again, I had the urge to trail my finger over the etchings. “What does it say?”

  “Parker,” Crash said, stepping back. “You got some kind of ancient reaper decoder in one of those books you always got your nose in?”

  “Right in my back pocket,” Parker answered dryly.

  Zoe shoved Crash in the shoulder. “Don’t be such a jerk.”

  “I was being serious,” he mumbled, as if any of us believed him.

  “How do we know this tree isn’t a booby trap?” Parker asked, shrinking back away from the tree.

  Zoe gave him a reassuring smile, linking her fingers with his. “I’ve got killer reflexes. I’ll make sure you don’t get swept up in a net or peppered with arrows.”

  Crash snorted.

  “So we think it’s safe?” Parker again prodded the million dollar question. “It did shock Piper when she touched.”

  Zane sent Parker a look. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  Declan, my stealthy shadow, stepped forward. “Maybe someone other than Piper should extract the device.” He was so military in his thought process.

  I shook my head. “No, it has to be me,” I proclaimed. A tiny seed of hope flickered inside amongst all the mounting anxiety and fear. Maybe I could do this, really save the world. All I had to do was take hold of the relic and activated it. I had managed to reveal without a hitch, here’s to hoping using it won’t be any different.

  Story of my life. Things neve
r go smoothly.

  Parker wasn’t having it. “I have a nasty feeling about this.”

  I patted his chest. “I’ll be fine.” Not mentioning that the nasty feeling he was talking about was an ambush of hallows headed straight here. I sensed them. They were moving quick, threatened by the relic. I had to get my hands on it. Now.

  With no expectation and a fire under my butt, I stuck my arm into the little door, half expecting there to be an intense heat. As my fingers grazed the top, sliding to the handle, an arctic chill amplified through my arm, up my shoulder, until my entire body was encompassed in cold that made the air in my chest crisp. In my hand, the scepter flared, a golden aura shooting up the staff and over my face. Holy macaroni. I felt a sudden dizzy spell.

  “I told you it was real,” Crash said, with a small degree of victory in his voice.

  Zane said something in response, but I didn’t catch it, because the ground began to twirl beneath me, and another wave of dizziness made my head spin. I fought the darkness threatening to take me into oblivion.

  It wasn’t Zane’s voice that kept me from going over the edge. Nope, it was Heath’s.

  Chapter 27

  Heath. My brain echoed his name as my eyes tried to deny what was right in front of me. Heath approached, flanked by two Red Hawks whose names I knew, thanks to my banshee roll call abilities, but I’d never seen them before. He stood before me, a satisfied smirk on his dry lips, as if he was the cat who caught the canary. I should have been afraid, but the relic pulsing in my hand gave me courage, and I stayed unwavering under his glare.

  Heath gave a jerk of his head and his two goons circled behind us, boxing us in. Then the artillery showed up, covering the perimeter of the manor, baring hollow eyes and anger strong enough to kill. My confidence dipped. Okay, it more than dipped. It plummeted, and my fear spiked.

  I had known Heath would bring an army, but knowing and seeing were two very different things. Never had I seen so many hallows in one place. As I surveyed the sheer volume of ghosts, not all of them were vengeful spirits, but had joined the bandwagon in promise of a chance at life again. They probably hadn’t been given the disclaimer. If I didn’t succeeded in putting back the barrier, this place wouldn’t be inhabitable, so a chance at life was a farce.

  Zane whirled around. In one smooth motion, he drew his sword from the shadows. “How did you get in here?” he hissed. The grounds of the manor were heavily guarded, reinforcements had been added since the night Zane and I married in anticipation of trouble.

  Several dark forms emerged from behind the shrubs and peonies. Four wolfs growled, teeth bared as they made their way through the bushes. Eyes glowing, their growls turned to snarls.

  Zach tipped his head to one side, his aqua eyes shining. “Looks like he brought the wolf pack.”

  Shitbuckets. Things kept getting more interesting, and not in a good way. No, this wasn’t sketchy at all.

  Heath had breezed into the courtyard with no warning from my security. In that guileless way of his, he seemed to know what I was thinking. “It helps to have a man on the inside.”

  Zane had Crash slammed up against the tree in three seconds flat. “I told you what would happen if you stabbed her in the back.”

  Crash didn’t bother to struggle. “It wasn’t me, you blockhead.”

  Zane flashed a black dagger at Crash’s throat. “Sorry, if I don’t believe you.”

  Heath laughed, not concerned for his son’s safety. He was the king of douchebags.

  “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “You’re in possession of something I want.” His voice held power, echoing over the courtyard. He looked at me with slitted eyes. “I knew you could find it, your highness. You just needed a push in the right direction.” That slimy gaze moved to his son.

  “Okay, that I am guilty of,” Crash unabashedly admitted.

  Zane’s eyes went steely, and the shadow binds he used to keep Crash from morphing into another form tightened. “You son of a bitch. I’ll kill you.”

  A wry grin appeared on Heath’s face, but Zane was too focused on Crash to notice. “Understandable. He served his purpose. And now it’s time for you to serve yours.”

  I couldn’t agree more. Giving my lungs a workout, I screamed, a beacon to every reaper, summoning them to my aid. The battle between reaper and dead had begun.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Heath tsked.

  My skin prickled with disgust. “You left me with no choice.”

  He chuckled weakly. “I’m not the only one who doesn’t abide by the rules, Mrs. Hunter.”

  “I’m nothing like you,” I spat.

  “This can all end, all you have to do is give me what I came for.”

  “Don’t do it,” Zane blurted.

  “We’ve got your back,” Zoe added.

  “And he’s out of time,” Declan said, glancing upward. Reapers were coming, answering my call.

  Heath stared stonily at me, daring me to act. “They’re right. Time’s up. You should have just given me the relic and saved them all from bloodshed. We both know my numbers are greater than yours.”

  I quelled my fear. “And let you win? No thanks. Didn’t anyone ever tell you size doesn’t matter?” This was one of those moments I was proud of my filter-free mouth.

  “So be it.”

  My throat dried.

  Zane’s face went cold and blank. He shoved at Crash’s chest, releasing him. “I’m gonna kill you in a minute.” And then he spun around, throwing out his hand and a bolt of darkness expelled from his palm. The arc of the shadows split in half, striking both of Heath’s goons in the chest. The two hawks went down, a blast of light erupting from their bodies.

  It kicked off from there.

  “Well, that’s one way of taking care of things,” Zach said. “No turning back now.”

  “Hold off as many as you can, while Piper figures out the what-cha-ma-bob,” Zane instructed.

  No one needed to be told twice. Zach threw out his arm, hitting a wolf in the nose. The hound went up in the air, ears flapping like wings before he smashed into the ground. “Already on it,” Zach said grinning.

  Parker swung around. “They’re coming.”

  “Zoe!” I yelled. “I need you to keep Parker safe. If anything happens to him…”

  “I got this,” she replied, unraveling her glittering black whip. “I can keep him out of trouble.”

  Parker’s mouth dropped open, but there wasn’t time to argue. Fire exploded down the stone pathway leading up to the courtyard, thrashing and twisting in a maelstrom of heat and fury. It shot straight for us. Zane wrapped me in shadows, tackling us flat to the ground as flames shot over our head, singeing my back as I lay gasping on the grass.

  For a few seconds that felt like minutes, I lay there with Zane’s body covering mine, feeling both hot and cold at the same time as the shadows warded off the fire. Through the crackling and hiss of the inferno, I swore I heard Heath laugh.

  Declan was the only one on his feet. He made a sweeping motion with his hand, dousing the flames with a gust of icy wind.

  “Oh man, tell me someone brought the marshmallows?” Crash blurted.

  Zoe and Parker struggled to their feet, muttering curses and groans, but they were unhurt. They moved beside Declan to block the entrance of the courtyard, but their eyes glanced upward, pulled by an enormous cluster of dark bats that seemed to move with incredible speed, blocking the moonlight. The feeling that rolled through my gut told me those weren’t bats, but reapers.

  Yes, they were.

  As the cluster got closer, it broke apart, reapers edged along the perimeter of the manor, coming up behind the army of hallows. They were a welcomed sight. Aspyn and Oliver were among the reapers who had arrived. We were no longer ridiculously outnumbered, but pandemonium followed.

  The hallows gasped and hissed, preparing to tear into us, kill us one by one, setting free the souls collected. They zipped in like a mob, da
rting and dashing over bushes and landscaping, destroying everything in their path.

  “Now, this is more like it,” Zach said, throwing back one attacker and whirled to meet the next. Zoe was at his side, her whip slashing through the air like a viper, poisoning her targets to their end.

  Zane’s mind moaned. Princess, stay close.

  My eyes sharpened, glinting as our souls merged. There was no reason to hold back, no reason not to use the power we possessed together. A dry laugh escaped as I steeled myself. It’s go time.

  Crash knocked a strand of hair out of his eyes and smiled. “Let’s do this,” he announced in a raspy voice.

  Zane shot him a look that was purely predatory.

  “You guys, stop this!” I cried. “We got incoming.” The hallows went berserk, howling, hissing, and screaming in the night.

  Lean and dangerous, silhouetted in all black, Zane’s hand went to his sword. With a flash of black, his shadowy blade breezed past my face, before cutting down a hallow in one clean sweep. He burst into a thousand pieces of shattered light. Zane arched a brow at me.

  “What?” I said, innocently. “You told me to stay close.”

  At least you listened.

  Crash slipped into his wolf form, sleek and lean, with a sly twitched to his lips and a troublesome glint in his silver eyes. I had to say, he was a whole lot scarier as a wolf. Snarling, and fangs shining in the moonlight, he leapt at his fellow hounds. One let out an inhuman sound as Crash sunk his canines into the scruff of its neck. Another with gold eyes and thick, dark, scraggly coat jumped on Crash’s back. They rolled, jaws snapping and paws lashing.

  My name echoed in warning from across the yard “Piper!” It was Parker.

  Company was coming directly at me. With my soul aligned with Zane’s, electricity crawled throughout my body. White energy burst from me, smacking into four hallows and tossing them back into the stone wall.

  Zane lunged at me. I tensed, my heart hammering in my chest. He pinned us up against the garden wall as the air was peppered by lethal darts of fire, shielding me with his body. They flew through the air, thunking into the stone walls and pinging off the metal gate to clatter to the ground. Oliver took a direct hit. He jerked, spinning to the left and came face to face with a gleaming hallow. Oliver, hugging his side, tried a detoured to no avail. His assailant slammed his fist into Oliver’s chest.