Page 39 of A Soul’s Curse (Fallen Souls #1)

“Leon? What are you doing here?” The young man had a round figure that gave him a softness that didn’t match the hard edges of the world around him.

His unruly, dark hair was a bit too long, and fell into his eyes whenever he averted his gaze from Leon to look down at the tablet he had in his hands. I knew that face, that voice. Markus.

“I’ve brought a friend with me,” Leon said, and I rolled my eyes. “Ellie’s body, please.”

“Oh, of course.” Markus looked like he wanted to ask why, but thought better of it. He scampered over toward the far wall, lined with a row of body racks, similar to what might have been found in a morgue. He opened one, and slid out the rack.

“Ellie!” I rushed over, a barely audible yelp coming from the top of my head at the reminder of Lyric still settled in my hair.

Instinctively, I reached for Ellie’s hand, the one where I knew the rune was placed, but Markus stopped me. “No touching.”

What Leon said next startled me. “Markus, can you return her magic to her body?”

I whipped around to face Leon, searching his dark brown eyes for what his end game was.

“I meant it when I said I was offering an olive branch to you, Theo. Say the word, and her magic will be returned.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but to wonder. With that rune, she was doomed either way.

Why give up his leverage now? My stomach was in knots and a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck.

When I met Leon’s gaze, his smile a little too sharp, his eyes a little too calculating, it clicked into place.

“You don’t think Ellie’s magic is going to make it two weeks, do you?

Which means, if she’s truly dead, you can’t complete your part of the deal. ”

It would send me spiraling out of control. Sure, I’d be mad at the Syndicate, but I’d be even angrier at Ren because it was his fault she ended up this way in the first place. It was the perfect fuel for me to make the choice on my own to join the Syndicate.

Leon sighed. “That is part of the reason, yes. Even now, returning her magic will be risky. But I thought you should see the truth for yourself,” he said, his voice lowering.

“You’re not the first to walk this path.

And you won’t be the last.” His words hung in the air, heavy with unspoken implications, as if he were trying to make me understand something I wasn’t quite ready to face.

“Ren has poisoned your mind with the bad intentions of the Syndicate, but we're not all evil people,” Leon continued, his voice softening slightly, as though trying to coax understanding into the air between us. “Over the years … decades, centuries … magic has adapted. We’ve had to evolve with it, and now it’s unstable and growing out of control.

Darkness is consuming light. The world wasn’t always this fractured.

The Syndicate, despite its methods, has tried to maintain this magical balance.

Some may question our methods, but everything we’ve done has been to protect that stability from slipping away. ”

He paused, his gaze lingering on me as he tried to gauge whether any of his words were sinking in.

“Okay,” I mused, not buying his bullshit.

“Then why trap Thomas in that urn? Why take Ellie away from me in the first place? Why poison everyone at Emberheart Place and destroy Mr. Carson livelihood just to get my attention? How does that protect your precious stability?” Why would you kill Ellie with that poisonous rune? I wanted to add, but knew I couldn’t.

“You misunderstand how this works.” Leon tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

“As the world itself becomes a dark place, so does the magic its inhabitants wield. It just so happens that demons, even those of mixed race like Ren, are more susceptible to having dark, unbalanced magic. Take Nick for example, your precious New Jersey Devil friend. Nick is a pureblood demon, and the longer he lives, the more volatile his magic becomes. You might not realize it, or agree with it, but no one is meant to live that long—and eliminating them, their magic, benefits the rest of us. We’re willing to make an exception for your friend Ellie, though, since her lineage is more human than demon. ”

“That’s complete bullshit and you know it.

Nick is one of the nicest people I know and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his magic.

” Disbelief and anger rolled off me in waves.

“You think eradicating demons, people with dark magic, is what keeps the peace?” I took a step closer to him, getting in his face as I poked him in the chest. “It’s because of people like you , like James Whitfield, that demons are in this situation in the first place.

You are the ones causing chaos, the disruption in magic.

You don’t care about balance. You care about power.

You care about control, and you fear what happens when those outside your precious organization have it. ”

Leon stepped closer, his frustration rising.

“It’s not just demons, Theo. Witches, vampires, shifters, fae …

they’re all susceptible to dark magic. There is more bad in this world than good, and it’s tipping the balance.

Look at yourself, how your magic formed into death itself because of your tragic past.”

“Oh yeah? What about me? My magic is literally death, and yet you don’t want to kill me.”

Leon’s stiff shoulders relaxed slightly, his eyes flickering with something almost like admiration, though it was buried beneath the layers of his conviction.

“You … you’re an anomaly.” The sharpness in his voice softened.

“Your magic is dark, yes, but you use it to bring forth light. It’s like it’s perfectly balanced …

like you’ve found a way to control it when most people would be consumed by it.

You’re the hope that others can break through the darkness. ”

He took a slow step closer as I took a step back, studying me with a new kind of curiosity, though there was still a trace of doubt in his eyes.

“The Syndicate is not after you for your power, or to neutralize your magic. We want your help, Theo. You thrive off helping others, so help us help them. Help me prove that not everything the Syndicate does is out of malice. You could be the key to showing that balance can be maintained without falling into the same darkness we’re trying to fight. ”

His speech was almost convincing. Almost. I desperately wanted to believe him.

At least, unlike Ren, he was being truthful about his agenda.

But I couldn’t ignore that nagging feeling in my gut, the way Leon’s words rang hollow, like a carefully constructed lie designed to pull me further into a trap.

There was nothing wrong with Nick’s magic, or Ellie’s, or Ivy’s, or even mine.

They were good people, even if others feared the power of their magic.

“No. Forget it. I’ll never be your puppet.

” I clenched my fists, the magic in my blood pulsing with anger, but I realized if I wanted to keep any chance of getting my friend back, I couldn’t piss off Leon.

Ellie was struggling, barely keeping it together.

I didn’t know how much time she had left, but her body was right here in front of me.

If I could remove that rune, maybe I could solve at least one of my problems.

I exhaled a long breath. “But I can see that perhaps you aren’t completely insane if you still have compassion to see through our differences and offer me the opportunity to spare my friend, a demon you so despise.

I respect that. I still reject your offer to join the Syndicate, although you may win that battle in the end anyway.

In the meantime, my friend is suffering.

I would appreciate it if you could return Ellie’s magic to her body.

She has nothing to do with this war, and she deserves to go back to her friends and family. ”

Markus coughed uncomfortably, snapping both me and Leon out of our staring match. “Leon? Are you serious about this?” he asked, looking for approval from his elder. Leon wasn’t the leader of the Syndicate, but I had a hunch he was definitely someone of high importance to them.

“Do it, Markus.” He looked at his watch.

“I have something else I need to attend to while I’m here.

I’ll be back in ten minutes. You have my permission to use force if he tries anything stupid.

” Leon turned to leave, his rubber-soled boots making a soft, steady thud against each step he ascended until he was no longer in view.

I turned to Markus. The man was sweating bullets, his white polo soaked through with dark patches under his arms. Each breath he took seemed shallow, as though the air itself was too thick to breathe, his entire body betraying the panic he was trying to hide.

“You don’t have to do this,” I told him, recalling the memory of his conversation with Helen.

It made me wonder how many times Leon had pressured him into carrying out this task—into taking a life, ruining someone’s future, and pushing their loved ones into a dark spiral that led straight into the Syndicate’s grip.

Markus snorted, trying to laugh through his nervousness. “Fine with me. Guess you don’t want your friend back that badly then.”

“Look, we don’t have a lot of time.” I stepped beside Ellie.

“I know about the rune you placed on her wrist. I know it’ll kill her if you try to draw her magic back into her body.

And I know you don’t want to do that. Please, let me remove it with my magic.

You don’t want her death on your hands.” A nervous energy buzzed through my body.

I was putting all my trust in Markus, this strange man who I had only met once in a dream.