Page 157 of Jagged Souls

“Show me Rudy,” I say as Enoch peels off down the drive, back towards our house.

“He’s alive.”

“Show me.”

Swirling his hand over his lap, he pulls a pool of shadows onto his thigh, then pulls Rudy’s soul doll from it. It’s in one piece; Eduardo stitched him back together with his magic.

Picking it up, Khalid closes his eyes as he listens to what is happening around our brother and sees what he does. I do not doubt that he keeps the darker stuff to himself, secreting the truth so it’s only his pain to bear.

“There’s been no change,” he says after a few seconds, meaning Rudy’s magic is still under wraps. For now. But if they break him, he will lose hold of the control he grips so tightly. His power isn’t like normal. Most witches take the energy in their veins and manipulate it into what they want, but if a pregnant mother’s hit with a violent spell, then their fetus, if they survive, is born with chaos magic.

Meaning, Rudy’s seeps from his skin and feeds on the fears and nightmares of those around him. Then it runs back to him, its belly full with the equivalent of a grenade about to go off. It is a constant battle of wills to keep it from exploding, so if he loses his mind through Ricks or pain… itwillerupt from him, affecting friends and foes alike.

But he will kill himself before then. We all know it.

“And Micha,” I murmur.

“Varius –” he starts as he deposits Rudy’s soul doll back into his shadows.

“Show me.”

He stares at me. His lips tighten into a line of fucking stubbornness. “No,” he says. “It’ll affect your judgement, and it’s already clearly impaired as you went toAleric’swithout any back-up –”

“I needed to talk to him in private,” I say tightly.

“Privacy doesn’t mean you go on your own. We could have waited outside – like we did.”

“If he wanted to kill me, he would just do it at our house.”

His eyes narrow. “How?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, but he clearly has a fucking way inside.” I think about the porno I found playing in Mother’s room when I went back to check on Micha. About the lotion he has her put on every night. Certain words he’s said here and there… There’s just been this constant itch under my skin when it comes to him and our ward.

“The sky,” Khalid says, and now it’s so fucking obvious. The ward isn’t a dome, it’s a fence that reaches a hundred feet into the sky and digs down into the earth. He must phase up high, then fall to the ground. Or phase to it. He is actually crazy enough to try.Shit.

“I’ll get the others to close it,” he says as he digs out his phone.

“No,” I say. Mother would want to help, and she can’t use magic yet. The build-up in her blood is still too high. It’s going to take months, perhaps even a year or so for it to dissipate back to normal levels. If she uses a large amount of power before then, she could develop loka, a magical cancer that is always terminal.

Plus, we’d need to tell Aleric so the idiot doesn’t find out when he next decides to ‘drop in for an unexpected visit.’ As much as we’d all love to see him dead, his death would lead to too much of a power vacuum. When Micha and Rudy come home, I don’t want them to be stepping into another war.

“Leave it in case we need a trap later,” I say instead, and Khalid nods. He types out a text anyway, no doubt telling everyone about the hole in our security.

“You still shouldn’t have left on your own,” he says when he looks up. “It was foolish and stupid.”

“You all have my number.” If Antonio got spotted, they could’ve reached me. I would’ve convinced Aleric to take me there. But it’s been months, and no one’s fucking seen him.

Khalid’s jaw tics. I know that isn’t what he meant, but I don’t care.

“You’d do anything for your girl,” I say quietly. I don’t admit I have forgotten her name. She’s changed it recently anyway. Lou is teaching her how to summon eknor demons, and it’s dangerous to use your birth name with them. So she decided she wanted a full change with her new life.

I’m pretty sure it starts with a K now though – or maybe an R?

I don’t care enough to find out right now. “Now show me my wife.”

He stares at me for a moment, then says, “Enoch?”

“Fuck,” is muttered from the driver’s seat, too soft for Khalid to hear. I only just pick it up with my hybrid senses. This is a test to see how he handles his new job as reaper – making decisions for the good of the Family.