Page 19 of A Soul’s Curse (Fallen Souls #1)

“Um, do you want to come inside?” I asked Ren.

The question rattled my nerves. I tried to kick him out of the shop when he was James Whitfield, yet now that I knew who he really was, I thought Vic would appreciate having a guest. Not to mention I actually wanted Ren around.

He intrigued me just enough to make me curious, reckless even, but not enough to ignore the warning bells ringing in my head.

The Syndicate was dangerous, and I had a feeling Ren could be too if he wanted to be.

Ren quirked a brow at me. “Do you actually do any work? Or are you one of those people who invites your friends over and pretends to work but goofs off all night?”

I couldn’t help the snort that escaped me.

As if I had any friends who would want to hang out with me at a demon-owned establishment all evening.

“Of course I work! But it’s usually pretty slow.

Mr. Carson lets me tinker with some of my spell mixing until a delivery needs to go out.

He’d probably welcome the company of another demon. ”

“Thanks for the offer, but I have things to do.” He avoided looking at me, staring straight ahead out the windshield.

“It’ll give us some more time to talk?” I pleaded. “I’m sure there’s a lot more I need to know.”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel for a good agonizing minute before he conceded. “Fine. But only for a few minutes.”

As we got out of the car, the sound of a drill from the auto shop across the street echoed sharply in the cool breeze.

A group of college kids was hanging out in the park across the street.

The warm scent of garlic was beckoning me inside and making my stomach growl.

Ellie looked over at me, but said nothing.

“You hungry, Ren? I could eat—”

Just as I was reaching for the front door, a man in a green hoodie shoved me aside.

My breath hitched in my throat as my eyes locked onto the figure before me—an athletic-looking man with slightly curled blond hair and radiant bright blue eyes.

The world tilted on its axis as a jolt of shock coursed through me …

I was staring at an exact mirror image of myself, clothes and all.

“Ren?” I squeaked, panic stealing my voice. My feet were frozen in place, refusing to move as my mind scrambled for answers.

My doppelg?nger pushed through the door, greeting Mr. Carson and a customer waiting at the counter. Not a second later, my twin pulled something out from inside his hoodie and chucked it at Vic.

Ren jumped in front of me as the explosion erupted, an invisible shield forming around us.

Although dampened by his magic, the force still knocked me back.

I landed hard on the asphalt as the powerful blast rippled through the parking lot.

Heat singed my skin, aggravating the burns already on my chest. Shards of glass and debris rained down like deadly confetti.

My ears rang, muffling the surrounding chaos—panicked screams, the crunch of crumbling brick, and the crackle of fire.

“Ren? Ren! Are you okay?” Ren had disappeared, as well as the protective shield, and that eerie feeling tickled my skin. “Oh, you bastard. You did not just go invisible on me right now!”

“Sorry,” came an apology to my left. “I can’t be seen here like this.”

“Coward,” I scoffed, forgetting him to focus my attention on the burning building, along with Mr. Carson and the customer he was helping who were still inside.

Heat blasted against my face and smoke billowed out the opening of what used to be the front window.

A demon woman stumbled through the hanging front door, coughing and clutching her chest.

“Are you okay?” I reached a hand for her shoulder and she immediately screamed, swiping at me and landing a weak slap to the side of my face.

“You … you get away from me!” She coughed again, glass falling from her sooty brown hair. “It was him … he did this!”

I turned around to see the mechanics from the auto shop had run across the street to inspect the scene, a few people from the park were lingering by the sidewalk, and someone who was driving by had pulled over, jumping out of his car and was racing over to see if he could help.

“Theo, this doesn’t look good.” Ellie hovered beside me, taking in the situation. “Someone is clearly framing you.”

“What? No … I didn’t do—” A secondary explosion startled me, the fire quickly consuming the building. My twin, not surprisingly, had mysteriously vanished.

Mr. Carson came limping out after the demon woman, a large gash on his cheek from where a piece of glass had sliced him. A heavy stream of blood matted his dark hair and was dripping down his face.

“Mr. Carson!” I swung around my backpack. “Come here. Sit down. I need to stop the bleeding—”

“How could you, Theo?” The painful words acknowledging my betrayal hurt him more than his actual injuries.

“I didn’t do it, Vic, I swear! That wasn’t me. You know I’d never do something like that!”

It had to have been a man glamoured as me, and whatever magic he had unleashed, within a matter of minutes had flames licking up the side of the brick building and completely consuming it.

Mr. Carson’s beloved pizzeria, the cornerstone of his life, was quickly becoming a shell of twisted metal and crumbled brick, his livelihood reduced to smoldering embers, and he thought I was the one who did it.

“Run.” Ren’s command felt hot against my ear but I hesitated, my heart pounding inside my chest. Running would only make me appear guilty but sticking around would mean getting arrested, and if the Syndicate was behind this, which I highly suspected they were, they’d have me trapped in a prison cell with no hope of saving Ellie until I gave in to their demands to join them.

Sirens wailed in the distance. I had maybe a few minutes to decide.

“You can’t stay here, Theo.” Ellie tried to tug at my arm, and I was met with a static shock.

“Don’t let him out of your sight!” A mechanic in an oil-stained t-shirt had a wrench clenched in his hand.

He lunged at me, but I was too quick. I turned and bolted around the side of the building and toward the back. If I could get to Scootie Pie—

“Going somewhere?” Magic sizzled over me, like a very staticky sweater coming right from the dryer. I was suddenly face-to-face with two men—one with scars on his hands and face, the other with styled earthy-blond hair and dressed smartly in slacks and a vest.

I turned around, expecting the stampede of people chasing me to tackle me to the ground, but they had suddenly stopped, looking around utterly confused at where I had gone even though I was right in front of them hidden by magic.

“It seems like you’re in a bit of a predicament …

but I think I can help with that.” Leon shook his head.

“I warned you, Theo. You brought this upon yourself when you rejected my generous offer the other night. Things will only get worse from here. So, what do you say? Care to join the Syndicate now?” The gaunt man shifted his weight, his boot crunching on some glass underneath.

James, who I now knew was Ren, stood beside him with his hands in hiss pockets.

If I had the balls, I’d smack the smirk right off his face, but I also knew it was his magic currently protecting me from the angry mob of pedestrians trying to beat me up.

“What do you want from me?” I growled. This was what Ren told me to avoid … being cornered into a position where I had no other choice but to agree to their demands.

Leon continued, disgust curling around his words.

“While your magic is … filthy and impure, and we would normally eradicate you on the spot, we can’t ignore the light that’s shining within the darkness.

The Syndicate requires your assistance with something.

We will allow you to live, as well as your friend, but in exchange we need you to find a ghost.”

“A ghost?” I asked, somewhat relieved but confused. Not that I wanted to help them with anything, but finding a ghost, all things considered, seemed like an easy way out. There had to be some kind of catch.

“Something’s not right,” Ellie’s transparent hand scratched her chin. I had to agree with her. This was too easy of a task.

“This ghost goes by the name of Caspian Vale. He was an extraordinary witch, long ago, with the ability to … cleanse magic. Not only could he break curses and stabilize deadly illnesses that corrupted magic, but he could completely absorb and erase magic at his will. There are rumors he hangs out in Salem, but without the ability to see or speak to him, alas, no one within the Syndicate can find or approach him. That’s where you come in. ”

I snorted. “If he’s a ghost, he no longer has his magic power. All that’s left of him is the remnants of his magical aura that forms his ghostly body. There’s nothing he can do. Nothing I can do.”

Ren seemed agitated, looking over my shoulder as he struggled to maintain whatever barrier he had placed over us. If his magic truly was mediocre, then he wouldn’t be able to hold on to this shield for long.

Leon sighed, his ruin-clad knife now twirling in his hand.

He could slice through Ren’s barrier at any second and I’d be exposed.

“Under normal circumstances, that might be true. But Caspian is unique. From what I'm told, the greedy bastard overloaded himself on magic before he died and when he finally perished, the cleansed magic was left behind to preserve his body. He’s not so much a ghost now as he is a phantom—so as a half human, he still has his powers and the Syndicate needs it to cleanse all the impure magic in this world. Either get him to take an oath to join us, or get him to trust you so that we can steal his magic from him.”

I gulped, my mouth going dry. “And if I do this, everything goes back to the way it was? You’ll return Ellie’s magic to her body and clear my name of this shit you're accusing me of? You’ll leave me alone? Forever?”

Leon scoffed. “That’s what we have our stellar reporter here for.

People will believe anything he says. Now, you have maybe thirty seconds left before I dissolve this barrier myself or James here passes out.

Looks like the firefighters have things under control.

The police just arrived, and there’s quite the crowd forming.

What choice will you make, Theo Kingston? ”

I briefly glanced at Ren, who offered a stoic expression and a lack of answers.

I thought about it for three whole seconds before I made my decision.

Even though Ren would do anything to protect his cover as James, I convinced myself that if he thought I was in any real danger, he would have stepped in. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

“Fantastic. I’ll have someone—”

“I’ll watch him,” Ren cut in.

Leon pressed his lips into a thin line, his gaze sharp and assessing, lingering on who he thought was James. “You already let him get away once. I think it’s someone else’s turn to babysit.”

Ren narrowed his gaze at Leon. “I admit I wasn’t prepared for what happened the first time around. But I won’t make that same mistake twice. I’ll place a binding rune on him to—”

Leon held up his hand to stop James from talking.

He then sheathed his knife in its holster at his hip and dug out something from the inside pocket of his canvas jacket.

He pinched a shiny black stone between his thumb and forefinger.

“I have a better idea. This is an Oathstone, a special magical artifact capable of recording and enforcing the details of our deal. It will dissolve when we both complete the required terms. Don’t, and, well, there will be consequences, obviously. Deal?”

He held out his bony hand, the black stone in his palm.

Ellie drifted between me and Leon. “I don’t like this, Theo. Don’t do it. There’s gotta be another way.”

“Your time is running out.” I heard the strain in James’s voice. It wasn’t meant as a threat, but a warning to get this over with quickly.

“Fine.” I clasped my hand in Leon’s, and the stone flared with a flash of white magic. “I, Theodore Kingston, will find the phantom who goes by the name of Caspian Vale and either convince him to use his magic to help the Syndicate or steal it from him.”

Leon gripped my hand with surprising strength. I knew the moment he cackled that Ellie was right … he set me up. “And upon successfully completing this mission, Ellie Thorson’s magic will be returned to her body. You have two weeks.”

“Wait a minute—”

Leon kept going, speaking over me. “Failing this mission means you, Theodore Kingston, will not only lose your friend, but will relinquish the rest of your life and your magic to the Syndicate. In addition, as reassurance you won’t try anything clever to get out of this contract, if you try anything sneaky, pain and suffering will come to the person who cares about you the most.” He winked at me.

Not the person I cared about most, but the person who most cared about me .

“No, that’s not … you can’t do this!” Heat radiated from the stone, there was another flash of white light, and the oath was sealed.

The black color leached from the stone, traveling up the veins of my arm like a poison, tendrils spreading with an intensity that burned and numbed at the same time.

As I bit down my scream, the protection barrier dropped and suddenly I was exposed to a police officer managing crowd control.

“There he is!” someone cried out.

“Theo, Run!” There was nothing Ellie could do but watch in horror as the angry mob rushed toward me.

The officer turned around, grabbed his gun, and sprang in my direction.

“Good luck, Theo!” Leon and James disappeared into the Nether, while I was left to fend for myself. I dug out the key from my pocket and dashed for Scootie Pie, zipping out of there as fast as the little scooter could go.