Page 43 of A Soul’s Curse (Fallen Souls #1)
We never went for ice cream. Ren and I sat walked back to my sister’s apartment in the pouring rain, just giving ourselves some time to console each other.
By the time we made it back, we were soaked to the bone, shivering and miserable.
I said goodbye to my sister, then accepted Ren’s offer to use his magic to transport us back home, even though he warned me his accuracy wasn’t always, well, accurate.
Thankfully I crashed into the soft couch, but Ren wasn’t as lucky.
He tripped over a coffee table, landing face first on top of it.
I was there instantly to soothe the angry welt developing on the side of his head.
I caught him up on my meeting with Leon, and how I convinced Markus to undo the rune on Ellie’s wrist and merge her magic back into her body, unharmed.
Thanks to Lyric, I now knew exactly where the office building and, although it was a strain because she didn’t have enough time to commit Ellie’s magic to memory, she could barely lock on to a faint pulse of her magic to locate her.
I wanted to immediately rally up the crew and storm the castle, but, since Ellie’s magic was no longer ripping her into pieces, Ren asked if I could wait a couple days until he figured a few things out.
I was skeptical, especially since I only had less than a week left to make good on my oath, but the way he asked, not demanded, made it difficult to refuse.
Even after all we’d gone through, there was a part of me that still trusted him—at least with Syndicate matters.
I wanted to immediately rally up the crew and storm the castle, but, since Ellie’s magic was no longer ripping her into pieces, Ren asked if I could wait a couple days until he figured a few things out.
I was skeptical, especially since I only had less than a week left to make good on my oath, but the way he asked, not demanded, made it difficult to refuse.
Even after all we’d gone through, there was a part of me that still trusted him—at least when it came to Syndicate matters.
I wanted to immediately rally up the crew and storm the castle, but, since Ellie’s magic was no longer ripping her into pieces, Ren asked if I could wait a couple days until he figured a few things out.
I was skeptical, especially since I only had three days left to make good on my oath, but the way he asked, not demanded, made it difficult to refuse.
Even after all we’d gone through, there was a part of me that still trusted him—at least when it came to Syndicate matters.
Four agonizing days had gone by since then, and the only thing I could do to take my mind off Ellie and the Syndicate was bury myself in my magic business, continuing to test new spells and fulfill the few orders that came through.
There was no word from Caspian, and Ren kept saying he was working on a plan.
At least I had Lyric kept to keep me informed that Ellie was still alive.
“How long is this … thing with Ren going to last?” Stella asked as she handed me an empty glass bottle. “This is absolutely unbearable to watch. He’s like a cat afraid of a vacuum cleaner. Every time he sees you, he gets nervous, then runs and hides.”
I stared at the ham sandwich, a lunch offering from Ren when I lost track of time.
It was dry, on plain white bread, and I didn’t even like ham, but I refused to tell Ren that.
He no longer spent time with me in the basement, asking questions and learning about my magic, but he would pop in from time to time just to make sure I was still alive and ask if I needed anything.
“He’s dealing with it in his own way. And I can’t blame him. That was … a lot to unpack for him. For me, too.” I poured the green liquid into the bottle and capped it.
“And you’re just … okay with all of this? After everything you learned about his past? The guy’s basically been stalking you for half your life.”
“It’s not like he was watching me undress through my bedroom window.
He was looking after me. It’s kinda cute …
in its own creepy way.” I sighed heavily, rubbing my tired eyes.
I hadn’t been sleeping well at all in the past week.
“It’s complicated. On one hand, yeah, I’m pissed off.
But you weren’t there when he confessed.
He really is remorseful about what he did, and I believe him when he says he didn’t mean to do it.
He deserves a chance to at least prove himself.
” I immediately changed the subject. “Ivy, are we almost ready to go?”
Ivy held a small plastic bag in her hands, placed a few pieces of hard candy in it, and used a vacuum sealer to seal up my newest product—an immunity booster.
“I’m packing the rest of the supplies now.” She dropped a handful of bags into the plastic storage bin. “Um, is it supposed to be this very dark, unappealing-looking purple? And it smells like that one time Stella tried cooking lasagna and burnt it. Are you sure you did this right?”
“Hey!” Stella whirled around to her friend. “It’s not my fault you got vegan cheese and gluten-free pasta. You try making something delicious with fake ingredients!”
“Sorry.” Ivy flushed, embarrassment coloring her cheeks.
“I’ve been making a variation of this spell for a while,” I told Ivy as I stared at the scribbled notes in my recipe book.
“It’s just an altered version of my energy booster.
I tried it myself just to be sure. It didn’t kill me or produce any nasty side effects so …
I’m taking that as a win. I’ll improve on the taste later. ”
Stella rolled her eyes. “Is that how you test this stuff? You poison yourself?”
“How else would I test it?” I blinked at her. “I won’t put something out there that could be dangerous to someone else. I have the magic to undo it on myself if anything backfires. It just makes sense.”
Having heard that tidbit of information, a rasping snarl sounded from the top of the stairs as Ren appeared holding a paper bag in his hand.
“Hey,” I said, offering him a friendly smile.
The demon was giving me space, and I respected that, but I wasn’t sure if it was helping or hurting.
He’d go out of his way to do these nice things for me, but it was guilt driving him to do it.
I missed the old Ren, the bold demon who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
“You’re all going somewhere?” He slowly descended the stairs. I could hear the real question in his words: Why didn’t you invite me? “I thought you were going to take the scooter and make some deliveries?”
“I am. But thanks to Stella and Ivy helping out, I have a lot more inventory than I have customers so I thought we’d stop by Emberheart Place and drop some supplies off. Ivy was just about to summon Jacob to take us—”
“I can take you.”
I stared at Ren. His expression was hesitant, like he wasn’t sure why he’d just volunteered, but there was a flicker of hope buried beneath the usual gruffness.
“Oh, uh …” I peeked behind me toward Ivy and Stella, but there was no backup coming. I would have invited Ren, but handing out my magical products wasn’t the only reason I wanted to go to Emberheart Place, and I feared Ren wasn’t ready to face the real motive behind my trip.
“It’s okay. I think Ivy’s got this one. We have a lot of delicate stuff so it’s just easier and faster for Jacob to get us there.” The words punched me just as hard as they slapped Ren. He knew what I was saying, that his magic was too unreliable to use for something like this.
“Fine.”
Ren’s shoulders hunched, and at the sight of the defeated demon the words just flew out of my mouth. “But, we could use an extra set of hands if you wanted to come with us?”
Damn my kindness. Was today the day it would get me killed?
“No, it’s okay—”
“Ren, get your damn shoes on. You’re coming with us. We need your help.”
He blinked a few times at my unexpected command. I should have just let him go, but it didn’t feel right. His whole life he was desperate to feel wanted, and a part of me was determined to be that person to show him just how important he was despite how little he thought of himself.
“I’ll get my shoes.” He turned to run back up the stairs before he stopped, turned back around, and thrust the paper bag into my chest. “That’s for you. I had a craving for a chocolate chip cookie so I went to the bakery in the center of town and got you a cannoli while I was there.”
I opened the white paper bag, and a wave of sugary sweetness spilled out, wrapping around me like a cozy blanket of pure indulgence.
Ham sandwiches weren’t really my thing, but Ren had certainly hit the mark on dessert.
I immediately removed it from the bag and took a big bite out the end, devouring a cluster of chocolate chips.
“Mmm. Damn this is good. Thanks, Ren.” He didn’t smile, but his eyes did, crinkling slightly at the corners with a quiet warmth flickering through them.
“I’ll be right back.” His feet pounded up the stairs, and when I turned around to finish packing, Stella was there rolling her eyes.
“I’m not which is worse … the grumpy, prickly demon who snapped all the time or the annoying, overly-devoted one desperate for attention. Either way, I wish I had some sexy demon taking care of me and bringing me food all the time. Sounds nice.”
Ivy answered in an excited whisper, “I—I can bring home some cupcakes after my next shift! You like the vanilla ones, right?”
I laughed so hard powdered sugar puffed into the air. “You walked right into that one, Stella.”
It took Ivy a minute to realize exactly what we were insinuating. “Oh, oh, that’s not what I meant!”
“I like the ones with rainbow sprinkles on top,” Stella grumbled, her voice demanding, but there was a softness underneath, a playful edge that made it clear she wasn’t actually forcing Ivy to do anything. “Don’t get the day-old ones. They have to be freshly made that day.”