Page 23 of Shadowed Spirits (Haunted Magic #2)
CHAPTER 23
IZZY
I stare at Bishop’s wide-eyed gaze in panic until Levi groans softly on the ground. Feeling like a horrible mate that I was momentarily distracted from Levi being hurt, I rush over to his side. I drop to my knees and feel relief soar in my chest that his eyes are open and alert. He gives me a half smile and struggles to sit up.
I put my hands out to keep him from getting up. “Stop! You’re injured. Just lie there until I figure out how to fix you.”
“Do you need assistance, sagana ?” Cer asks from beside me.
I whip my head around to look at them in shock. I never even noticed them appearing. “Can you help me stuff all their souls back into their bodies?”
They shake all three of their heads, but Bear is the one to answer. “We cannot. The souls are no longer on this plane.”
I swallow hard, unsure if I really want to know the answer to my next question. “Where do they go?”
“To the River Styx, like the rest of the condemned souls!” Russ informs me excitedly.
That sounds pretty fitting for Doyle. “Where do normal souls go?”
“Average souls go to the Asphodel Meadows, and exceptional souls go to the Elysian Fields. Both are where souls await reincarnation into another life. The condemned souls spend eternity trapped in limbo in the River Styx. Since you have the power to send souls there, you may hear the cries of the condemned when you’re near the Styx,” Cer informs me.
Well, that answers why the Styx whispers to me. I just hope I didn’t send Daniel to the Styx. His pure soul is the furthest thing from what should be there.
I open my mouth to ask another question when Levi lets out a pained chuckle as he ignores me and pushes until he’s sitting upright. “I’m fine, little raven. It’s barely even an injury.” He lifts his black shirt to show me a massive bruise covering his left side, from his ribs to just above his dark jeans. It’s an angry red that stands out against his olive-toned skin. “My magic deflected most of it. While the hit knocked the wind out of me, it didn’t do any damage.”
I scoff at him. “A massive-ass bruise isn’t hardly an injury. Are you sure nothing’s broken?”
“I’m positive. I’ve had many broken ribs and bones in my lifetime, and this isn’t one of them. I wouldn’t have bruised if my magic were at full strength. It’ll be gone by tomorrow.” He pushes to his feet and offers me a hand up. Shaking my head, I don’t take it and stand up on my own. Levi looks around the room and lets out a low whistle. “I assume they’re all dead?”
I wince as I look around the room because all the guards and Doyle do, in fact, look super dead. “Oops?” I offer with a what can you do shrug. While I’m not sorry to see Doyle dead, that’s going to be a huge problem.
“Why do you think you ripped out their souls?” Archer asks as he walks around, curiously inspecting the guards lying prone on the floor.
“Because I did it once before and this felt similar. Cerberus seems to agree with me too.” While stealing people’s souls sounds cool and all, I have no idea how I do it. That’s a pretty serious magic to have no control over. The last thing I want to do is start ripping out innocent souls, like I did with Daniel. I grit my teeth as I think about my childhood best friend, but I push away the memories because now is not the time. “What the hell are we going to do about this mess? I doubt we have much time before Dad’s distraction stops working.”
“We have to get rid of the bodies. Maybe we can take them back to our house and deal with them there?” Luca sharply assesses the council chamber littered with dead mages, and I can see the wheels turning in his head as he tries to figure out what to do about this mess that’s entirely of my making.
Levi shakes his head. “I can deal with them here. We just need to make sure Doyle doesn’t have anything useful on him.” Red magic pours out of him and creeps over the ground toward each guard. When it reaches the first guard, the magic slowly crawls over him. The guard dissolves into tiny particles as the magic moves through him. Once Levi’s power is finished with the guard, there’s nothing left.
I gape at Levi’s magic before tearing my gaze away and starting toward Doyle. “That’s another problem. How are we going to find Lua now, with Doyle dead?”
I don’t get very far before Bishop’s arm snakes out to wrap around my waist. “Stay,” he orders as he moves toward the dais Doyle is slumped over.
“I’m not a dog, you know,” I call to his retreating back. Some days, I wish I were a golden retriever living the good life, with nothing to worry about other than treats, pets, and toys. Alas, ’twas not meant to be so. Maybe in the next life.
Bishop turns his baby blues on me. They’re burning with heat as he drags his gaze over me. “I’m aware, sweetheart. I also know you can handle this, but you shouldn’t have to.” When he reaches Doyle, he shoves him roughly back in his seat. After patting him down and going through his pockets, Bishop jogs back to us with a notebook and a keyring.
I watch with morbid fascination as Levi’s magic disposes of the twenty-five guards and Doyle, like they were never here to begin with. Unlike dissolving bodies with drain cleaner, I’m pretty sure Levi’s method leaves no trace, so that’s one thing that’s gone right today.
“Doyle’s office will probably be our best shot at finding Lua. The notebook is written in code, and I don’t know what the keys unlock.” Bishop looks like he wants to chuck the book and keys across the room, he’s so frustrated.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. It’s my fault he’s in this mess to begin with.
Bishop closes his eyes for a long moment before opening them to stare at me blandly. “Sorry for losing my cool, Izzy.”
I frown at him. It’s like he shoved all his emotions behind a curtain to pretend to be okay. “Don’t do that.” I always thought Bishop just had it more together than I do. I’m a shit best friend and mate that I never realized how much he stuffs himself down to be there for me because I’m such a hot mess.
He tilts his head in confusion. “Do what?”
“Whatever the hell just happened.” I gesture with one hand at his disturbingly emotionless face. “I don’t want you to hide from me or make yourself smaller because I’m so damn dysfunctional.”
“You’re not dysfunctional,” he growls as he invades my space. Whatever calm he managed to find is gone now. I gulp as I stare up at his intense expression. His mouth kicks up in a cruel smirk as he takes in my nervous movements. “Trust me, sweetheart. You don’t want to see all of me. At least, not yet and probably not ever.”
I scowl at him. “Bold of you to assume what I want, St. James. Have you ever tried, I don’t know, asking me? For all your talk about me letting you in, were you ever planning to do the same for me?”
Bishop wraps his hand around the back of my neck and tilts my head back so I’m forced to look at him. “That’s not fair and you know it, Isabel. I let you in plenty, and I don’t keep any secrets I don’t have to. I’m who you need me to be, and that’s never been the darkest version of myself. You don’t need to see all the violent, bloody, and cruel things I’ve had to do to keep us safe.”
I jerk out of his hold, and surprisingly, he lets me. “Keeping secrets isn’t letting me in, St. James! You’re a fucking hypocrite if you’re asking me to bare all the parts of me that I hate to you guys while you keep an entire other personality from me.” I’m shouting at him at this point, but it’s hard to care when I’m drowning in hurt that he doesn’t trust me or believe I’m strong enough to share all of himself with me.
I know I hit a sore spot when he flinches minutely, and I feel terrible. Hurting Bishop has never been the goal, but hurting others seems to be what I do best. I don’t have time to wallow in it because his expression hardens as he leans down to snarl, “Call me a hypocrite again and see what happens, sweetheart.”
I open my mouth to keep pushing him, too hurt and angry at myself to acknowledge that continuing right now is just going to hurt both of us, when Luca interjects. “We don’t have time for this. I can hear the councilors outside. We need to go. Now.”
Levi opens a rift, and the wolves and Cerberus go through as I continue to glare at Bishop. We’re still locked in a staring match when the doors to the council chambers bang open. I don’t think and just react on instinct when I grab Bishop’s hand and run to the rift. When we reach Levi, I snag his hand in my other as we leap through, not a moment too soon. As Levi closes the rift, I see the councilors start filing in, none of them any the wiser about what just happened there.
My knees feel weak at how close we just were to getting caught, all because I decided I needed to argue with Bishop right then. I shake my head but shove all my anger at myself and hurt from Bishop into a dusty corner of my mind. We need to focus and figure out a solution to this mess, not waste time on my feelings.
Looking around the space with deep maroon walls, gold accents, and a large mahogany desk, I realize that we’re in Doyle’s office. The giant portrait of him kind of gave it away.
I expected Levi to portal us somewhere safe, like the Nightshade keep, but this makes sense. We need a clue of some sort to figure out how to find Lua before she realizes Doyle’s dead. I’m guessing she already knows her son is involved in this, so that’s not great.
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I decide I better be useful and try to find a clue to Lua. I start toward the desk when Bishop tugs me to a stop and spins me to face him. “This isn’t finished.” His voice is low and velvety but with an undercurrent of danger that would have a smarter person running far, far away.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any sense when it comes to my mates. Instead, I sigh tiredly, the anger that was powering me earlier draining out of me. “I didn’t think it was. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, St. James.”
His brows furrow. “For what?”
“For hitting a sore spot. For not being stronger so you’d be able to share yourself with me. For dragging you into an even bigger mess than I could’ve ever imagined.” Bishop opens his mouth, probably to disagree with me, but I shake my head at him. “I don’t want to do this now. Please.”
Bishop’s eyes, that seem to be roiling with a thunderstorm, soften until they resemble a peaceful ocean. “You never have to beg me for anything, sweetheart. I’m sorry, too, Iz. I never want to hurt you.”
I give him a small nod because I know he’d rather endure torture than hurt me. But that’s what happens when you care about someone. You hurt them and tear them apart and fuck up so many times, you wonder why they still talk to you. But caring about someone also means that you cheer them on and make them laugh until they can’t breathe and build them up stronger than they’ve ever been.
Caring about someone is messy and hard and draining, but it’s also what makes life worth it. I try so hard not to care about others, but the truth is my life would be empty without all of them. Maybe, instead of pushing everyone away, Bishop’s right that I need to let them in to help me keep all of us safe.
“I think I found something,” Levi calls from over by the desk. While I’ve been lost in my thoughts, Luca, Archer, Cain, and Levi have spread out to look for clues.
Bishop offers me his hand. I take it, and he leads me over to the desk, his warm palm reassuring in mine.
“Whatcha got, demon eyes?” Archer asks as he hops down from the cabinet he was standing on. He lands in a crouch before heading over to the desk on nimble feet.
Levi sighs but doesn’t make any comment on the nickname. From the small smile playing around his lips, I don’t think he’s as put out as he tries to seem. “I found a list of coordinates and times with Dea Sanguinis et Armorum written on it. I’m pretty sure ‘Goddess of Blood and Weapons’ refers to Lua. Since there are six repeated coordinates over the past year and a half with dates two weeks apart exactly, I’m pretty sure this is where Doyle’s been meeting Lua.”
“When was the last date?” Luca asks.
“Yesterday.” Levi’s answer lines up with Doyle getting his memories restored by his “partner.” As Levi said, I highly doubt Lua considered a lowly mage her equal, but whatever. He clearly met with her, and she realized his memory had been tampered with. It was just bad luck that everything happened yesterday, I guess.
“Where do the coordinates lead to?” I ask. Here’s hoping they’re to a nice relaxing beach or a tropical paradise. I could go with a little less gloomy of a location.
Archer hops up to sit on the desk so he can read the paper in Levi’s hand. He pulls out his phone and quietly researches for a minute. “The first one is a remote mountain in Iceland. Second is a mountain in Siberia. Third is a mountain in Japan.” Archer pauses his research to look up at me with a grin. “Why do I get the feeling that these are all mountains? Fourth is a mountain in Chile. Fifth is a mountain in Colorado. And sixth is a mountain in Italy. Yep. All mountains. She’s pretty predictable for a war-mongering, world-ending goddess.”
Levi shakes his head, his mouth set in a grim line. “Nothing about Lua is predictable. She might create the illusion of predictability, but that’s only to lull you into a sense of complacency. A safe assumption with Lua is that she’s always twelve steps ahead of you but messing with your mind to make you think you have the upper hand.”
Lovely. A super powerful goddess trying to end the world who plays mind games. Just what I wanted.
I rub my temples because it seems like nothing in my life is ever easy, and I’m so over it. “So, lemme guess. We have to go check out all six mountains and try to figure out which one she’s going to be at in two weeks? Then we have to find some way to stop her, when a whole bunch of cura barely managed it last time?”
Levi nods and pins me with his otherworldly stare. “That’s correct, yes.”
I groan but don’t get the chance to say anything, because the door crashes open.