Page 8 of Shadowed Spirits (Haunted Magic #2)

CHAPTER 8

IZZY

T he room erupts into everyone shouting questions over one another, including the normally silent Cain. I can’t understand anyone through the almost deafening chaos. Hades lets out a piercing whistle that shuts everyone up. My wolves all wince at the loud, high-pitched sound.

Hades cocks an eyebrow at us. “Do I need to get out the talking conch shell, children? Or can you take turns speaking like grown-ups?”

Levi rolls his eyes at his brother. “You are aware you’re only a few decades older than me.”

“Oh, very much so.” Hades flashes his brother a giant, slightly maniacal grin. “I relish lording my thirty-seven years, fifty-three days, and sixteen minutes over you, little brother.”

I tut in mock disapproval. “I’m disappointed you don’t have the exact seconds.”

“You raise a great point, earth dweller. I would ask my spawn point, but that bitch has been imprisoned for the last couple billion years. It’s great.” Hurt, anger, and perhaps a little regret flash over Hades’s face before he blanks it again. I wonder what the story is with their mom. Asking Levi will definitely go better than asking his slightly deranged brother. Not that I’m judging, because lord knows I’m fucked up.

Seph thumps Hades on the stomach. “Stop calling Izzy earth dweller .”

“Why?” He looks at her innocently. “She is, in fact, an earth dweller.”

She throws her hands up in frustration. “It’s rude!”

“Tell her it’s not rude, earth dweller. I’ve been perfectly cordial with you.” Hades looks so proud of himself for being pleasant with me. I shudder a little, wondering what not being friendly looks like if this is his attempt at being nice.

Bringing up my best pout, I turn to Seph. My lower lip trembles, and I give her the best puppy dog eyes I can. “He’s been so mean to me since we met. He terrified me when we first walked in and made me cry.”

Should I fuck with the ruler of Hell?

No, no, I shouldn’t.

Am I going to, anyway?

Abso-fucking-lutely I am. Snarking and messing with people helps me avoid thinking about everything that’s happened today. I don’t have time to drown in everything I’m feeling, so picking ill-advised fights with a maybe god, it is.

Seph looks horrified, but that quickly turns into a glare when she rounds on Hades. “Hades Lucifer Dis. I can’t believe you! Scaring your brother’s poor mate like that.”

Hades is gaping at me, so I give him a shit-eating grin. His eyes narrow on me, and my smile widens. His eyes light with understanding that I’m fucking with him, and he mouths game on, earth dweller. “I apologize for my behavior, earthling. I’ll endeavor to be kind to you to keep my lovely mate happy.” He pulls Seph into a lingering kiss that softens her anger toward him, if how she melts into him is any indication. Hades also flips me off while he does so, and I can’t help my snort.

“As much as I enjoy hanging out in Hell with tall, terrifying, and scary one and two point oh, I really don’t.” Aggie grimaces at the thought of spending more time with Levi and Hades. “If we could move this along so I can leave, that would be great, kid.”

“I live to keep you happy, Aggie,” I drawl sarcastically. “What magic drain are you talking about?”

“Remember the mage development program?” Aggie waits until I nod. “Apparently, Doyle is using that to suck the magic out of lower mage kids. Wild, I know. But it gets even weirder! Some permanently blood-soaked goddess taught him how to do it. None of my ghosts know what he does with this magic, though.”

I gape at Aggie, at a loss for what to say.

“Fuck,” Luca mutters behind me, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Not only is Doyle somehow sucking magic out of mages, but he’s also collaborating with a goddess.

Awesome.

“It can’t be, right?” Levi breathes, breaking me out of my thoughts. I stare at him in confusion, but his gaze is unseeing as he stares off into space.

Hades clenches his jaw, and his obsidian eyes turn red. “The realms better fucking hope not. I haven’t checked on her in a couple million years, but no one’s escaped Tartarus before.”

“Tartarus? Like the prison of the Titans?” I squeak. I don’t know why I’m even surprised at this point. Hades, Charon, and Persephone are all real. Not to mention that Persephone might be my great-grandmother. So, the universe might as well throw in the underworld hellhole, Tartarus, while it’s at it.

Levi shakes himself from his thoughts, and his lips kick up on one side as he stares down at me. “Tartarus is the most secure prison in this realm, but it doesn’t hold Titans. Neither Titans nor gods and goddesses are real. Instead, most of those that inspired the legends of the Romans and Greeks are cura .”

“And what exactly are cura , for us mere earth dwellers?” I ask.

“Great question, earth creature.” I raise my eyebrows at Hades because earth dweller is far less insulting. He just shrugs and keeps explaining. “We are the guardians of the realms. Earth is neither the first, nor will it likely be the last, planet this particular cura realm has guarded. As long as Earth is the primary planet we are tasked with guarding and humans remain the dominate species, we will continue to be in human form. We shift to resemble whatever the main species is on our assigned world.”

His explanation just created more questions, like how are they assigned planets? Are there multiple guardian realms? What other planets have they guarded? But I focus on the most pressing question first. “I’m supposed to be part guardian?”

Hades purses his lips and tilts his head as he regards me, like he’s trying to see into my DNA to determine if I am, in fact, a cura . “So Leviathan says. We can’t be sure until you drink water from the River Styx. You’ll either get powers of this realm or die. All cura drink water from the Styx when they come of age to unlock their magic and find their sub-species.”

“Awesome. I love playing Russian roulette with sketchy underworld rivers.” Someone snorts behind me, but I don’t turn to look. While Hades is currently playing nice, he’s the biggest predator in this room. By far. It’s wise to keep my eyes on him. “Is that why it whispers to me?”

Levi whips his head around to stare at me in shock. “It whispers to you?”

I look at him with wide eyes, unsure why he’s looking at me like that. “Um, yeah. Isn’t that a cura thing?”

Levi gives me a small shake of his head while staring down at me with worry swimming in his gaze. “No. That’s very much not a normal thing for curae. ”

“Oh,” is all I say. I wish I could say I’m surprised that the river only whispers to me, but I’m not. I’ve always attracted weird, strange, and abnormal occurrences. “Moving on. So, how are we going to find this blood-soaked goddess?”

After watching me for a long moment, Levi focuses back on his brother. “Who have you given an obrussa to lately?”

“The last person was Melinoe, which was a few hundred years ago.” At the mention of her daughter, Seph’s eyes fill with tears. Hades hugs her closer to him. His attempt to offer her comfort softens his abrasive edges. It makes him look startlingly human, but his face hardens again when he tears his gaze away from her. “Before that, I hadn’t handed out one in at least a couple thousand years. Why?”

“Doyle, the head of the mage council of North America, had one,” Levi explains. “That’s how he figured out Izzy was a spirit mage and had her arrested.”

“Why did they arrest her for being a spirit mage?” Hades asks quizzically.

I answer before Levi can. “Because spirit mages have been outlawed since the eighteen hundreds. The council claims that spirit mages are unnatural, morally corrupt, and inherently evil, so executing us keeps the mage community safe. But I’m pretty sure the real reason is because spirit mages are usually very powerful.” To avoid being overthrown, the council eliminates anyone more powerful. Instead of, you know, improving the lives of mages or ruling for the good of all of us or even being a smidge likable.

Aggie said she doesn’t know what Doyle does with the stolen magic, but I can take a guess. He’s using it to make himself more powerful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s trying to take over the entire council.

“That’s a load of fucking bullshit,” Hades says, fuming.

I bark out a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”

“Abolishing the spirit mage law is on my list of things to do, but the more pressing issue is figuring out who is helping Doyle. To do that, we need to track down Melinoe and find out how Doyle acquired the obrussa .” Levi shoves an agitated hand through his hair as he contemplates everything we have to do.

“Haven’t you been looking for her for a while?” I ask. “How are we going to find her now?”

Levi hangs his head slightly at the mention of his inability to find Melinoe, and I feel awful that I brought it up. He scrubs a hand over his face before seeming to shake himself out of his guilt. “We now know that she’s probably your grandmother. Your family should have a way to contact her. I’m fairly certain she’s using some kind of magic to conceal her whereabouts, so your family may be the only ones able to find her.”

“Before we drag my family into it, let’s see if Anya can do a locator spell.” I hate bringing Anya, the owner of the Apothecary shop and the only person willing to take a chance on me, into it, but I plan to tell her it’s for Elemental security. The less she knows, the better.

“That’s a good idea, little raven. We’ll try that first.” Levi smiles down at me, and my heart beats harder in my chest at his praise. I feel my cheeks warm under his intense gaze and duck my head to hide it.

“How long are you planning to stay, Leviathan?” Seph inquires.

Levi shrugs. “I’m not sure. I didn’t have a concrete plan.”

“You have to stay at least the night! We can have a family dinner and get to know your mate and her other mates better.” Seph’s voice has a note of pleading in it that tugs at my shriveled heart.

Levi looks at me, leaving the choice of whether we stay to me. Seeing the hope on Seph’s face, I sigh. “Sure. We can spend the night and have dinner.”

“Yay! I’ll go get started on the preparations. Does seven work for dinner for everyone?” Once Seph gets nods from all of us, she claps excitedly before hurrying off, presumably to get ready for dinner. Hopefully, it won’t be too awkward. If it is, I can always insult Hades to get the conversation going.

Hades watches her leave like a lovesick puppy. As soon as she’s out of the throne room, Hades plasters a glower back on his face. “I assume you’ll be staying in your suite?”

“Yes. We’ll head there now.” Levi turns on his heel and starts striding purposefully out of the room. I have to jog to keep up with his long legs and fast pace. Grumbling under my breath about his freakish height, I manage to keep up with him.

When we’re almost at the doorway, Hades calls, “Leviathan?”

Levi pauses and looks at his brother over his shoulder. “Yes?”

“Come see me once you’re settled. I have a few things to discuss with you.” Craning my neck to look, I see Hades standing on the steps with one of his hands shoved in his pocket. His expression is concerned, which makes worry churn in my gut.

Levi dips his chin in acknowledgement before leading us out of the impressive throne room. He walks at a brisk pace through the castle. We wind through a maze of glowing obsidian and go through both populated and empty areas of the building. Other people in the castle give us curious looks as we pass, but none of them bother us.

It’s only a few minutes before we come to a stop in front of a plain wooden door at the end of one of the more secluded hallways. Levi outstretches one hand toward the door, and a black mist swirls inside the keyhole. The door unlatches with a soft snick, and Levi pulls it open. He gestures for us to enter ahead of him.

The large space contains a living room, kitchen, and dining room all in one space. Something about the dark wood floors and navy walls are familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it until we head into his bedroom to set down our stuff.

A large bed with a fluffy navy comforter, a thick oriental rug, and dark wood floors are the same as I remember them from the day I passed out while running laps. “This is where you took me when you kidnapped me?”

Levi groans. “I didn’t kidnap you, little raven. And, no, this isn’t the same place I took you, since I couldn’t open a rift directly here. But I did take you to another one of my residences in this realm. It’s the only place I knew you would be safe. I have several other homes here, and I took you to my favorite one by the coast. They’re all decorated similarly.”

I grin at him so he knows I’m teasing him. “Is that where you live while you’ve been on Earth?” I didn’t know that this realm had a coastline. I kind of thought it was just all dusty red rock.

After we all set down our stuff at the foot of the bed, Levi leads us back out into the living room. “Yes, I’ve been rotating between my other properties, since I can get to them by rift.” Archer flops down onto the overstuffed gray sectional with a long sigh. Cain and Luca follow him, but Bishop and I remain standing with Levi. “Will you be okay here, little raven? I need to go speak with my brother. I shouldn’t be too long.”

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Go see what he needs, screech owl.” Levi gives me a quick kiss on top of my hair before he leaves his suite. The door thumps closed behind him.

Aggie blows out a breath of relief now that Levi’s gone. He’s really not that scary. “I’m gonna take that as my cue to leave. Try not to get killed in Hell, kid. I’d rather not have to come back here to find you.”

I snort at her. “I’ll do my best, Aggie. You know where to find me if you need me.” She nods before shimmering out of existence.

“Can I speak to you alone for a moment, Izzy?” While Bishop’s tone is light, his eyes are burning with barely contained anger.

Oh, boy. I’m definitely in trouble now.