Soul of a Witch (Souls Trilogy)

The prison I was locked in was comfortable. There were no windows, but the cavern was spacious. The bed was covered with black silken sheets which smelled of Lucifer’s cologne: cinnamon and clove, a hint of black pepper, and a sharp scent of copper. He couldn’t resist reminding me who was responsible.

It was so quiet that I kept whistling to myself, snapping my fingers so I wouldn’t go mad in the stifling silence. Cruel to do that, honestly. Lucifer knew I loved music, I loved sound. Taking it away from me was a petty attempt to flex his power.

My cell was thoroughly protected with magic and perfectly designed to contain a being as powerful as me. Lucifer was no fool; he knew what he was doing. He also knew he couldn’t get away with it for long.

To contain a demon against their will was repugnant. To imprison a demon who had done nothing wrong — and I maintained that I had not — was one of the most heinous acts a demon could commit against their own kind. Without a trial before the council, Lucifer could not keep me imprisoned here for long.

It had already been too long.

Everly was waiting for me. Locked in those vile cuffs, alone, doubtlessly confused as to why I hadn’t been there when I said I would.

My emotions became more erratic with every passing hour. Time passed differently in Hell than it did on Earth, but I’d been kept from her for days.

I couldn’t feel her, couldn’t smell her.

What if they’d hurt her? What if she’d attempted to steal the grimoire without me and find her way back to the house alone?

I hurled an elaborate jeweled sphere across the room, and it shattered into powder against the stone wall. I seized a wooden table next, smashing it against the ground until it split into pieces. “Lucifer! Goddamn you, show yourself!”

He would have no peace until he did, I’d make sure of it. Everything I could get my hands on in that room, I destroyed. My yelling was loud enough to vibrate the stones, but just to ensure he heard me, I picked up a large metal statue from near the sealed door and beat it repeatedly against the walls. The metal bent under the force of it, but I didn’t stop.

“You’re a fucking coward, Lucifer! I’ll make sure the entire citadel knows you have me in here! Lucifer!” I struck the stones so hard they cracked, leaving a crater where my fists landed.

Finally, I felt his presence. My head grew tight, like an overfilled balloon; a sure-sign he was close.

Then, from the darkness, his voice rumbled, “You’re a horrible bastard. You know that, don’t you?”

“Certainly,” I snarled, facing the door with my fists still clenched. “Yet you still made the foolish mistake of bringing me inside. Face me, Luci. You owe me that much.”

There was a derisive snort. “You’ve spent too much time around humans.”

“And you’ve spent too much time around simpering fools whose only interest is kissing your ass. You can’t keep me here. This is against my will.”

His growl made the stones shake beneath my feet. There was a flash like lightning, and suddenly, he stood before me, looking thoroughly displeased but as beautiful as ever. He kept his dark hair short now, although in his younger years, he’d let the tight curls grow into a massive mane into which he would braid metal and gems. Tattoos covered nearly every inch of his flesh, save for his face, and he wore more elegantly crafted piercings than I could count. His umber skin had a slight shine of oil, the scent surrounding me like a baker’s kitchen at Christmas time.

“You can’t keep me,” I repeated, as his claws flexed and his black eyes narrowed. “Unless I’ve committed a crime.”

“You’ve done exactly that,” he said tightly. “Or have you already forgotten you slaughtered a human without cause?”

“I did not kill him,” I said quickly. “The Eldbeasts did.”

“Did you really think you’d get away with it on that technicality? You gouged out his eyes.”

“Which did not kill him.”

“You cut off his hand.”

“Again, that did not result —”

“You disemboweled him, Callum!” When Lucifer raised his voice, I swear the entire High City could hear him. Just lovely. Now they all knew I was running around Earth gutting people.

But I, ever the vision of saintly patience, said, “When I left him, he was still alive. Screaming, yes, and a bit mad with agony but, nevertheless, he was alive. Can’t help what happened to him after I left.”

He practically swelled with rage.

“The Heavenly Host contacted me,” he said, and for the first time, a sliver of alarm pierced through me. “They’re concerned, you see, about certain strange activity in the human realm currently causing significant threat to the balance.”

“At least someone is paying attention,” I said. “Do you have any idea what those wretched humans are doing —”

“Yes, Callum, believe it or not, I do take my position seriously.” He sighed, standing several yards away from me. He didn’t dare to get any closer. “Those humans, the Libiri, have known about that God for over a century. You know how the beasts operate; don’t pretend you don’t. You think all it will take is their three sacrifices, and the God will be free? It will be nothing more than quivering flesh. A fallen God can’t even create Its own body without the sacrificial energy of hundreds, if not thousands.”

“It won’t create a body,” I said. “One has already been prepared for it: a young witch.”

His mouth curled in derision. “Ah, yes, of course. Your precious witch.”

“Jealousy isn’t attractive on you, Lucifer.”

“I should rip out your tongue.”

“I’d grow a new one, even more sarcastic than the last.”

He snapped, lunging forward with a snarl. But he didn’t come close enough to touch me. He held himself back, restraint kicking in at the last possible second.

“Do you have any idea how close I came to sending a hunter after you?” he snapped. “Years you’ve spent locked up in that house, talking to ghosts, waiting for your fucking hallucination to come to life. Madness. You’re fucking feral.”

“I’m not.”

He looked as if he wanted to kill me, and I would have loved for him to try. Perhaps he’d been stronger than me when I left Hell all those years ago, but the difference between us was far slimmer now.

“Two thousand years ago, you envisioned a witch in the middle of a field full of your dead friends,” he hissed. “You’ve searched for her ever since. Across centuries, Callum. And for what? To kill one more God? To feel the thrill of slaughter again? You won’t even claim her for Hell.”

“I’m not obligated to bind myself to anyone,” I choked out the words, bitter as they were. I had to get out of here. I’d been away from Everly for far too long.

“Oh yes, of course not. Callum, the great and terrible, who has no friends, who takes no lovers. Who will not bind, nor mark, nor claim another living thing.” Lucifer shook his head, and I recoiled when I saw tenderness on his face. “That war broke you. I know. All these centuries I should have kept you close, but I thought you would get it out of your system —”

“Stop speaking to me as if I’m a youth!” I lunged forward, and he leapt out of my range with a soft, disapproving chuckle.

“Yet you’re still making the foolish decisions of one. Wasting your loyalty on an untrained witch, as if she won’t perish like every other human. As if she could ever understand the thousands of years you’ve seen, the pain you’ve experienced. As if she could ever be more than a passing fascination.”

“Passing fascination?” I echoed, laughing low under my breath. “You’ve sat in your onyx tower too long; it’s softened your brain. Everly is not, and has never been, a mere fascination. She is my reason, my logic. She is my one and only God. Think I’m mad if you wish. There is nothing left for me in this existence except for her, and I would sooner rip myself apart than allow you or any other being to stand in her way.”

“I will not risk bringing hybrid spawn into existence without a guarantee it is Hell’s and Hell’s alone,” he said. “Do you understand me?”

“As I said, jealousy isn’t —”

“You need to learn to shut your mouth.” His hand darted out, grabbing my face and digging his claws in. To think I once loved him. To think I once wanted nothing more than to accept his mark and be taken into the council.

“Claim her,” he said viciously. “I want her marked, I want her soul bound. Do you understand me?”

“You won’t make me your pawn in whatever pissing contest you’re in with Heaven’s hosts,” I said, although it was rather difficult given his tight grip. “Who I claim is personal. That choice has always been personal.”

“Perhaps for common demons. But we are not common, are we, Callum? The destruction creatures like you and me can inflict upon the world is unprecedented, and Heaven knows it. You don’t want the angels involved, trust me.”

My jaw clenched. There was an odd tingling in my abdomen, a sensation like fingers grasping at my skin and tugging. It made me think of Everly’s fingers, so soft and warm as they caressed me. Realization pulsed through me and the tugging intensified.

I was being summoned.

“The angels won’t touch her,” I said. “Nor will you, Lucifer. You’ve seen me fight. You’ve seen me go to war.” Shuddering at the sensation of the summoning, I grinned up at him. “What makes you think I would hesitate to bring about the apocalypse itself if it means keeping her safe?”

He bared his teeth at me. “Are you threatening me?”

He may as well have asked me if I was prepared to be a traitor to Hell itself. But I was. His question didn’t frighten me, as he hoped it would. The clawing hands were growing stronger now, and I was being pulled back and away. Lucifer finally realized what was happening, but it was too late.

He couldn’t do a damn thing to prevent me from being summoned.

“I’ll see you soon, Callum,” he said, right before I vanished, my spiritual form ripped away and sent flying, plummeting into the human world.

The first thing I noticed was the smell of ash. The next thing I noticed was blood.

The forest looked as if it had been hit by a small bomb. Young trees had their trunks snapped in half, their carcasses lying burned on the singed forest floor. The buildup of leaves beneath my feet was still smoldering as I stepped forward, gazing through the haze of smoke. The burnt bodies of Eldbeasts lay around me, some still twitching, jaws snapping.

Then I saw her.

Everly was curled at the base of a tree, her arms outstretched to grip the massive roots. Her body was coiled, hunched over, shaking violently. Her hair was drenched with rain and mud, and her arms…

Fuck.

The glass manacles were still locked onto her wrists. Blood seeped from beneath them, thick and dark, putrid with the magical poison swirling within. It was impossible to fathom how she’d used magic despite them — the amount of power, the sheer brute strength required to overcome the enchantment in those cuffs, was astronomical.

It should have been impossible.

But the more power she poured out, the more fiercely those wicked devices would sap it from her. They didn’t just stifle her magic, they absorbed and poisoned it.

To judge by the destruction around me, Everly should have been dead.

She lifted her head. Through her sopping wet hair, one eye fixed upon me. So many blood vessels had burst in the whites of her eye that it was almost entirely red.

“Callum…” Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “Help me…”

Fury and fear filled me as I rushed to her side and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I wanted to scream, to rage, to punish everyone responsible. She said nothing, but her breathing was ragged; it wheezed in her chest. Every movement made her whimper.

She’d needed me and I’d failed her. My beautiful witch had fought alone.

I cupped her face, her skin cold against my palm. I barely recognized my own voice as I said, “Everly? Keep speaking to me. Please.”

Her eyes wouldn’t focus on my face. Her lips moved, but she was too weak to make a sound.

It was as if I was back on the battlefield again, surrounded by blood and the screams of the dying. Watching those I loved slip away.

No. Not again.

With singular focus, I launched myself into the air and over the trees, flying back to the coven house as swiftly as I could. The doors flew open before me. Flying through the twisting halls, I took her to the piano room, where the small space and large fireplace could keep her warm.

“What happened?!” Winona’s voice crackled from the large antique radio in the corner. The fire flared to life the moment I entered, and I laid Everly gently on the bearskin rug before it. “Who put those infernal devices on her? Callum! What in the name of Venus —”

“They’re killing her,” I said, tearing off her coat and ripping through her shirt so I could get a better look at the cuffs. They were so tight, they’d sunk into her flesh. She shook violently, her eyes rolling in her head, imperceptible whispers dropping from her lips as sweat drenched her face. “They’re fucking killing her, Winona! How do I — fucking hell —”

“You need the key, Callum, the key! They’re enchanted, you won’t be able to —”

“There’s no goddamn time! Fuck!” Grabbing the closest thing to me — a small, polished wood table — I hurled it across the room to shatter against the wall. Then I crouched over her again, taking in the blood, the pain, the smell of infection. “I have to crack them. It might break her wrists…I have to…” Her eyes fluttered as I held her face. “Everly. Listen to me. Can you hear me?”

“Break…break them…” Her words were barely audible. “Don’t care…just…please…”

“She’s not strong enough,” Winona said, her voice thick. “She’s lost too much blood, Callum. She doesn’t have any strength left.”

I was a fool, a fucking fool. I’d let her go back, I’d left her alone, I’d failed to keep her safe. I should have been able to protect her. What fucking good was my strength if it couldn’t even be used to protect those I cared about? What use was my power when those it should have sheltered were dead?

“Callum.”

Everly’s soft voice drew me back. She barely managed to lift her arm to touch me. “You came back. You came…”

“I swear to you I will never leave your side again,” I said.

“She’s dying, Callum.”

I roared in response to Lucifer’s voice, grabbing another nearby piece of furniture and hurling it in his direction. He dared to follow me here, he dared walk in this house and invade this moment? I’d kill him, I would rip him to fucking pieces —

“Get out,” I snarled. “Before I kill you.”

“You would step away from your precious dying witch to try to kill me? A waste of time.” He scoffed. “You want to save her, you know how. You have a solution.”

My hands clenched into fists. Everly’s head lolled to the side. Her beautiful blue eyes were glassy. I wanted to burst apart. I wanted to scream. The pain of seeing her like this was worse than any battle wound I’d endured.

“Perhaps you’ll run away from her too,” Lucifer mused, and I grabbed the chair beside me to launch it at his head. He knocked it away with his arm, shattering it in midair, then brushing a bit of lint from his suit. “A bit tender there, are we? You weren’t the only one to survive the war. There were others, but your pain was so much greater than theirs, wasn’t it? They simply couldn’t understand.”

“Shut up!” I couldn’t think. I knew what I had to do, I knew, but the thought made me so violently terrified I was frozen in place. Watching her die in my arms while I cowered in fear.

“He’s right, Callum.” Winona sounded so calm, so blessedly reasonable. “Claim her soul. Bind her to you. It will give her the strength she needs.”

Bind her to me.

It was irrevocable. Unchangeable. A soul bargain could not be broken. Only the most extreme and violent of circumstances could severe it.

Her strength would become mine. And a little of mine would become hers. From this day, until the end of eternity, we would be bound together.

I’d claimed human souls before. Far more than I could count. They lived, they died, I escorted them to Hell. Humans assimilated well to life among demons. After a few decades, they were nearly imperceptible from us.

I couldn’t even feel my ties to those human souls anymore. They didn’t frighten me because they could no longer hurt me. Time and distance had rendered those relationships nearly moot.

But if I bound Everly to me, I would feel her pain. Her fears, her worry, her suffering. Her power and pride. All that she was would be connected to me, and the longer we remained in close contact with each other, the more intense that connection would become.

Claiming her meant ripping open old wounds, breaking down the defenses I’d so carefully built around myself. It meant facing the agony again. The pain and terror of having someone I could lose.

But if I didn’t, I would lose her here and now. The pain was already there. There was no hiding from agony.

Only the dead see the end of war. Only the dead can rest.

Lifting Everly’s limp body to hold her close against my chest, I snarled, “Get out. Both of you, get the fuck out of here and leave us alone.”