I stood frozen in place as the silhouette sharpened into a man sitting on a low bench. A strange, golden light lit the room, and though it was poor, it was enough for me to make out his features.
His hair was startlingly white, but the face beneath was one of a man no more than twenty years old, at best. His eyes were a brilliant green that reminded me of sunlight through a rich, jungle canopy. The clothes he wore were odd, robes that swirled with patterns of blues and greens. An impatient frown corrupted his face, though his vibrant eyes danced with amusement.
Lor.
I took a step forward, and Kael growled a low warning in my ear. I ignored him and continued farther into the low-ceilinged room. A bundle sat on the warlock’s lap, wrapped in aged fabric that seemed to have once been a rich brown, but was now the muted color of drying mud.
A few feet in front of him, I paused and squinted as I ran my gaze over his features. There was something tickling in the back of my mind—a sense of familiarity.
“Do I…do I know you?” The question seemed absurd. I certainly didn’t know any warlocks, that I was aware of, but Lor seemed very familiar.
Lor smiled, and though his face was young, something about the gesture seemed old, and weary. “Once, long ago.”
My heart jumped. I had known him in my past. An uneasy sensation unfurled in my stomach. If he was as ancient as myself and Vehrin, was this warlock a friend, or foe?
“You were a friend of mine?”
His stare drank me in. “A student.”
Student? “I was your teacher?”
The man gave a short nod, his hair shifting over one of his eyes. “Yes, though I fear I was not the talented pupil of magic you had hoped for. Still, I think I managed to do my duty well enough.”
I shared a glance with Kael. I had been teaching him magic?
“What do you mean, you’ve done your duty?” I asked.
Lor’s green eyes went vacant; was he seeing something, some memory from the past that Kael and I couldn’t see? “When things began to crash around us, and you knew you would lose yourself to stop Vehrin, you gave me this for safekeeping.”
He pulled the muted, brown fabric from his lap and dropped it to the floor. My lips parted at what lay beneath. There, stretched across his lap, was a sword.
The blade curved ever so slightly, and the hilt gleamed with a blend of gold and green hues, like the jungle light itself had been forged into it.
“You’ve been here all this time?” Kael’s voice soaked into the stone around us.
Lor turned to peer at him. I still had my eyes on the sword. My fingers itched to grab it.
“I am where I was meant to be,” Lor said.
The words snapped my attention from the weapon. “What do you mean?”
“Because the place you need to go, the clue that you need, is in the library.” His bone-weary smile lifted a bit more at our silence. “I always did love finding the answers I needed in between the pages of books.”
Kael stepped closer to him. “Has Vehrin been here?”
It was easy for me to read between the lines. What Kael really meant was Did you give Vehrin this same information?
“No.” Lor’s gaze flicked over my shoulder. “But his friends are in the other room.”
Indeed, at that moment, I could hear a commotion behind us: low voices, muffled footsteps, and what seemed like the noise of boxes being rifled through.
“You had best be going,” Lor said. He looked at Kael, then back to me. “Keep your guardian close, as you’ve always done.” He lifted the sword.
I started to reach for it, then paused. “How did Renathe know where to find you?”
A crooked grin lifted one cheek. “Ah, him. He came snooping once. Be sure to ask him about the scar he has for doing so.”
“Olivia, we need to go.” Kael was looking back toward the other room.
I reached down and took the sword. It was warm to the touch, despite the cold air around us. My fingers wrapped around the green and gold handle, and my hand fit as if it had been molded just for me.
I knew this sword. As I studied the blade, the metal gleaming like quicksilver even in the poor lighting, a name fell from my lips.
“Soulsbane.” I could have sworn the sword hummed in my grasp with approval.
Lor’s piercing gaze danced. “A slayer of souls, indeed. Just be sure you know which souls to end, and which to let breathe.” Another glance behind us. “Best you be going.”
The warlock smiled at me one last time. It was a smile of friendship, though it seemed sad to me, as if he were saying goodbye for good. Then, he began to meld into the shadows behind him, his body shifting and fading, before disappearing altogether. Silence and darkness filled the room.
“Your friends are weird, Livvie.”
I quirked my eyebrow as I turned to Kael. “You would know.”
He smirked, then jerked his head to the doorway. “Let’s go. Not sure who else is down here, but I’d rather not find out if we can avoid it.”
I nodded. We left the place where Lor had been waiting, and just as we entered the other room, the door on the other side opened. I caught a glance at what appeared to be simple living quarters: a bed with a torn mattress and an overturned dresser being the only details I could see before a small group of people came out.
The vile and malevolent auras swirling around them gave me no doubt they had been sent to this place by the dark mage.
Kael growled in the almost jaguar way he had and shifted his stance, ready for a fight. My magic purred inside of me, and I grinned, finding myself eager for the confrontation.
With quick steps, the men charged forward. I couldn’t get an exact count in the darkness, but I guessed there were maybe three or four. One ran straight at me, a hulking figure with wide shoulders and long arms.
Energy burned through my veins and bloomed across my skin. My magic lit the room and licked up the gleaming sword in my hand, the sword I now turned toward the enemy.
My movements were sure and smooth, not a flick or twitch out of place. It was as if my muscles were tied to the memories of how to use the weapon in my hands. It only took moments before Soulsbane cut a deep line across the man’s thigh. I finished the whirling move by sinking my blade into his chest.
As he fell to the floor, I stepped back and turned, seeking another opponent. He came out of nowhere. The only warning I had were his ruby eyes burning in his shadowy face. I let out a sharp yell as he collided into me. My back hit the wall. My bones shook, and I nearly lost my grip on the sword.
“You’re coming with me.” His breath rolled across my face and brought with it the nauseating stench of sulphur and putrid meat. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to bring me to his master, or if the key with my soul tethered to it was tempting him. Either way, I wasn’t going to wait to find out.
He was so preoccupied with trying to keep my sword arm from him, he didn’t notice my left fist swinging up in a sharp hook until it collided with his jaw. He stumbled, and I swung my sword, magic still crackling up it like it was an extension of me.
His screams turned to gurgles as blood sprayed from his throat. He hit his knees, and his fingers scrabbled at the wound I’d left there. I swallowed burning bile at the sight and stepped away. His drowning screams continued until a gunshot rang out. He fell silent and folded the rest of the way to the floor.
Kael lowered his pistol. The third man lay in a still heap by his feet. My partner had an impatient scowl on his face.
“What?” I snapped.
“You can’t let things like that bother you. They’re the enemy.”
I pulled in a deep breath and let my magic dim a bit, withdrawing from my sword to kiss at my knuckles.
“Well, it was creepy. Who the hell can still scream like that when their throat has been cut out?”
I was playing it off with sarcasm. The truth was, I found it disconcerting just how easily killing them with the sword had been. Kael’s gaze dropped to the weapon in my hand, as if he were just now realizing it, as well.
“Livvie—”
“Quiet.” I tilted my head, certain I’d heard something.
“I just want to―”
I waved my hand at Kael, and he scowled. “No, listen.”
The noise in the darkness was subtle, like a pebble being dropped to the floor. Then, I heard it again, and again. The walls groaned around us, and dust drifted from the ceiling above. A rock the size of a softball fell loose from the wall, and dirt spilled onto the floor. My breath caught in my throat.
The tomb was going to collapse.
Kael darted over and grabbed my arm. He urged me toward the steps that would lead us up to safety. I shook my head and whirled behind him.
“You go first,” I said.
He started to argue, and I gave him a hard shove.
“You’ll have more trouble,” I said. “If the walls start closing in behind us, you’ll never get through.”
He looked over his shoulder at me. “But what if—”
“Just shut up, and move!” I gave him another hard shove, hard enough that he stumbled up the first couple of steps.
He snarled. “You’re impossible.”
Still, he started to make his way up the steps.
I stayed close behind him and used the light from my magic to help light our way. Dust continued to fall as the ceiling and narrow walls shook and groaned. I blink my eyes against the debris as it rained down around us.
Kael’s breathing quickened. He didn’t like tight spaces. This had to be a nightmare for him, being trapped in a collapsing tomb.
“You got this,” I said. My shoulder scraped roughly against the wall as it hugged us closer. “You can get us out.”
He didn’t say anything as he surged forward. I gasped as the steps underfoot began to give. Kael reached back and grabbed my arm in a tight grip.
Had it taken this long to get down here? I couldn’t remember. The steps seemed to go up and up with no end. Perhaps Lor had been working with Vehrin after all, and his words were just some nefarious joke.
Rock from the ceiling fell. Kael pushed himself harder, and I stumbled after him. Something hit our clasped hands and nearly broke our grip, but he held fast and didn’t let go. My muscles burned, and my skin stung where it had been scraped by the walls.
We weren’t going to make it.
I’d finally managed to find myself in a tomb I wouldn’t get out of.
Fresh air teased me from the distance as the walls and ceiling groaned louder, their final push to bring us to an early grave.
Then, I was in the open, and Kael was pulling me up and over the edge of the tomb. We both stumbled back as it collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but a pile of cracked and broken black marble.
The pair of us stood, bruised and breathing heavily, and stared at what had nearly been our demise.
“That,” Kael said. He swallowed. “That is why I don’t like tight spaces.”
I tried to come up with a witty remark, if only to ease the tension, but I couldn’t find the breath for it. He squeezed my hand, still held tight in his, as if to tell me he understood.
I turned away from the tomb, and inspected my sword. Thankfully, it hadn’t been damaged.
“I don’t know why, but it suits you.”
I glanced at Kael. He was studying the sword with approval.
I shrugged. “Yeah, but now what? I can’t go walking around Chicago carrying something like this.”
If only I could hide it somehow.
In the next moment, Soulsbane disappeared. Instead, a braided bracelet hugged my wrist, the same green and gold color of the sword. My pulse quickened, and I thought about drawing the sword out, as if from an invisible sheath. It appeared in my hand again, as solid and real as it had been a moment before. I gasped as I let it swirl back into a bracelet again.
“Well, that is extraordinarily convenient,” I said, twisting my arm and studying the bracelet.
Kael just shook his head as if he could expect nothing less from me. I was already a reborn ancient entity with my soul tied to a cursed key and the ability to conjure supernatural powers. What was a magical sword compared to that?
“Now what?” Kael asked.
I raised up on my toes and reached for his head. I wiggled my fingers through his hair, shaking dust loose. Then, I smiled.
“Now, we go to the library.”