Page 7 of A Soul’s Curse (Fallen Souls #1)

Balancing the drink on top of the pizza box, I picked up the keys from the hook on my way out the back door. Now late into the evening, the sun had set and the temperature started to drop. It wasn’t raining, but there was a light mist in the air that seeped into my clothes.

“I’m back, Scootie Pie. Did you miss me?

” I patted the silver scooter on the seat with my free hand, then opened the insulated delivery pack, placing the pizza inside and securing the drink in one of the side sleeves.

I didn’t have a car, and delivering pizza on foot wasn’t a practical option, so I used Victor’s scooter.

In reality, he really purchased it for me since he rarely made any deliveries himself and had his own car, but even if I looked ridiculous riding it, I loved the thing.

It was a glittery silver color and cruised at a smooth thirty miles per hour, the extra-padded seat saving my spine from feeling like a pogo stick whenever I rode over potholes, and the horn sounded like a rubber chicken crossed with a dog’s squeaky toy.

“You ready? We’re going to see Ellie. She’s a nice demon. Super smart, too. She works at a museum identifying historical magic objects! Pretty cool, huh?” I secured the bright yellow reflective pack to my back, throwing my backpack in the plastic bin secured to the back, and got onto the scooter.

The fact I was talking to a scooter didn’t go unnoticed.

After securing my helmet and adjusting the giant square pack, I headed off on my first mission of the night to deliver a pepperoni pizza and some anti-anxiety tea to Ellie.

The cool wind bit through my hoodie, and the dampness in the air clung to my face as I puttered along the side streets of Salem.

Like earlier in the day, I still felt this strange sensation that someone was following me, watching my every move.

I prayed it was just exhaustion, and not Lizzie Borden’s ghost about to jump out from the bushes and cause me to swerve off the road.

Pushing the little scooter to its limit, I arrived at the museum about fifteen minutes later.

The Peabody Essex Museum was a core attraction in Salem, its main entrance framed by a striking glass atrium that contrasted the older brick-made parts of the museum.

Having visited several times to meet up with Ellie, the glass ceilings would let in bright sunshine that, during the day, encouraged exploration.

However, the museum was closed for the night, so Ellie came to greet me at the employee side entrance.

“Hey, Ellie. I brought your pizza and something to, um, help with that .” The poor demon looked like she was running on caffeine and sheer stubbornness.

Her auburn hair was a wild mess of curls sticking out in every direction and tangled around her shiny horns.

Her clothes, a pair of dark-washed jeans and band t-shirt, were a bit out of the ordinary for her typical work attire, which meant she had probably changed into the spare set she kept in her office when she realized she wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

“Everything okay? Anything I can help with?”

Ellie was normally bubbly and laughing, but she was practically dragging me down the hallway, her glowing yellow eyes darting inside the empty offices, storage rooms, and a small kitchen before a light caught my attention at the end of the hallway.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just preparing for a late night up ahead. I need Archie’s help with something. Since he prefers to work nights, I had to stick around and wait, and I’m burnt out.”

Worry fluttered in my chest. Ellie was my closest and most trusted friend …

okay, she was pretty much my only friend.

Because I was usually working, testing new spells, or volunteering at the shelter, I didn’t have much time to go out and have fun.

Ellie, however, would let me hang out around the museum, showing me all the cool things she was working on.

Usually I’d do this on my own time, but Vic wouldn’t mind, as long as it was a slow night and I’d immediately head back if another delivery order came in.

The restoration room we entered was quite large, with enough space for several teams of museum curators and researchers to work.

Everything was clean and well-organized, with microscopes, high-intensity lamps, and other equipment readily accessible along the rows of tables.

Archie, Ellie’s colleague, was the only other employee in the room, sitting at a worktable with his back to me.

He would go back and forth, inspecting some kind of document, then typing his notes on his laptop.

“What should I do with—” Ellie ignored the pizza box I had in one hand, grabbing the tea from the other.

What was meant to be sipped over several hours was guzzled down in about thirty seconds.

“Wow. If I had known you were that stressed, I would have brought you something stronger.” Having left the insulated carrier outside with the scooter, I only had my backpack with me.

I slung it off my shoulder, digging around inside until I found a package of gummy bears.

“Here. You could probably use an extra energy boost. What’s going on? ”

She popped a gummy in her mouth and let out a heavy sigh, then finally opened the box of pizza on the counter to take a slice. Through a mouthful of pepperoni pizza, she said, “A strange item was delivered to me this morning and I have no idea who it came from.”

I rested my backpack against the chair. “To you specifically? That doesn’t typically happen?”

Ellie rubbed her forehead. “It should have been addressed to the museum itself, but this was hand delivered directly to my office. Someone wanted to make sure I was the one who got it. There’s a piece of parchment, probably a hundred years old, but I’m not the documents expert so I had to wait for Archie to examine it. It came with this urn—”

“Hey, Theo.” Archie interrupted, as he got up from his desk and headed toward me.

I didn’t bump into him very often, but the vampire was a nice guy, always wearing khakis, button downs, and sweater vests that smelled like leather and a hint of solvent.

But there was something unnervingly predatory about him.

The graceful way he moved and the aristocratic cadence to his speech made me feel something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“Hey, Archie.” I moved aside so Archie could grab a slice of pizza. “How’s the document translation going?”

Archie glared at me, his sharp, angular features framed by faint shadows under his deep-set, nearly black eyes.

“It appears to be a magical contract between James Whitfield and someone else, still unknown.” He casually took a sip of ink from his water bottle.

Despite popular belief, not all vampires drank blood.

Archie, a man with a fondness for historical documents, thrived off ink.

“Wait, James Whitfield? The James Whitfield newspaper reporter, who hates practically everyone with magic?”

“Only those with sinister types of magic,” Archie corrected.

I tossed a confused look over toward Ellie. “But you said the document was a hundred years old. James Whitfield is an ordinary human … isn’t he? There’s no way …”

“And now you understand why I’m freaking out.

” Ellie finished up her pizza, washed her hands, and put on a pair of latex gloves.

“It's all a bit suspicious. Someone who didn’t want to be identified sent this over to me. They clearly want me to uncover something, and I’m worried about what exactly that is. ”

Archie pulled his phone out from his pocket and stared at the vibrating device. “Excuse me. Gotta take this.” He hurried out into the hallway to take the call.

“Look here.” Ellie delicately lifted the urn.

I imagined it was once a beautiful piece of artwork, with its wide, rounded body tapering into a narrow neck and flared lip.

It had no color, at least not anymore, but someone took the utmost care to hand-engrave very intricate details into it—runes intertwined with roses and vines.

It was in remarkable shape for a hundred-something-year-old artifact.

Hardly a crack, scratch, or dent on the surface.

“This rune means strength.” Ellie pointed at a symbol with several lines crossing each other. “This one … I think this one is knowledge.” She continued rambling about each rune engraved into the urn, excitedly exclaiming about how they all interconnected into some mega-spell.

“Can you get a reading off it? Is something inside?” I asked. Ellie’s ability to recall memories by touching an object or person made her an invaluable employee whenever unknown artifacts came her way.

Ellie grunted as she tried lifting the lid, demonstrating that it was stuck tight and refused to open.

“You see this rune here?” Right on the center of the lid was the shape of a diamond with a zigzagging line running through it.

“It’s a sealing rune, and a very powerful one.

Even after a hundred years, it’s still stronger than anything I’ve ever seen before.

It’s not only sealing away what’s inside, but also any memory that I might have been able to pull, including anything from that document.

I have a bad feeling about this one, Theo.

Even if I could open it, I need to figure out what’s being sealed inside first.”

Footsteps announced Archie’s return. He offered a quick glance in our direction before returning to his station to pack up his things.

“Archie?” Ellie asked, putting the urn down on a piece of soft cloth. “Where are you going?”

“Hmm?” Archie hummed. “Oh, that was my wife. Billy’s sick and she needs me to come home and help take care of him. Sorry, Ellie, I gotta go.”

“Oh … okay. I hope he feels better.” Ellie and I watched as Archie grabbed his satchel and hurried out the door without even saying goodbye.