Page 9 of The Spark that Ignites (Shattered Soul #1)

“It is.” He tugged a hand through his hair. “Moronic, but possible.”

A flicker of hope inflated her chest as Maela’s gentle smile flashed through Emmery’s mind and her heart constricted. Could she do it? What if she could have everything? “How does this work? Do you wave a magic wand, and she rises from the grave?”

“Magic wand? Don’t be ridiculous.” Vesper snorted and sauntered back to his seat. “Enchanted items can call her soul back to her body.”

Emmery stared at him in horror and her stomach churned as she imagined a rotting corpse waiting for the ritual. She’d heard magic was twisted but that seemed extreme. And putting a soul back into a decaying shell would be pointless. “Do you have her body, uhm, lying around?”

“Bloody Hollow, no .” His face scrunched as he threw himself back into the chair. “The items will grow a body in her image. But these are details you don’t need to worry about. All I need is your magic and help retrieving a few simple things.”

“And my magic—”

“You’ll need to pass the trial.”

Emmery’s stomach sank. The deadly trial. “And if I fail?”

“You won’t.”

“How do you know?”

Vesper lifted a brow. “I just do.”

Hands fisted, she leaned across the table.

Over the years she’d grown skilled in deciphering liars from bargaining at markets by watching for excessive facial touching, evasive eye contact, or covering one's mouth.

All sure signs someone is manipulating the truth.

Vesper gave none of these indications with his steady stare.

He leaned forward, his voice surprisingly gentle. “I can tell you’re desperate and out of options by your whole situation. And despite you deciding I’m not trustworthy, I'm your only hope.” His pale eyes glowed with urgency. “So, will you help me and yourself, or not?”

Emmery released a shaky breath, her shoulders rigid as stone.

He had her cornered from the start and he damn well knew it.

It was either agree to this and get across the gate to safety or die.

Because the guard would inevitably catch her.

And what kind of life would she have here?

Even if she did escape, it would be an eternity of running and she just .

.. couldn’t bear it anymore. “If I’m agreeing to anything, I have terms.”

He smirked at this, threaded his fingers and tucked them under his chin. “I assumed you would. Let’s hear them.”

She raised five fingers. Gods help her, she had one shot at this.

“One, I need you to swear no harm will come to me. Both from external danger and from you as well. Two, you’ll guide me across the Iron Gate.

Three, you’ll take me to this magical spring and help me through the trial.

Four, I’ll help you get the items but what happens after is none of my concern.

Five, we can mutually amend this deal if necessary. ” Emmery switched hands. “Six—”

Vesper barked a laugh. “ Six ?”

“Don’t interrupt me. Six , you’ll find someone to help train my magic. I don’t know how to do this barrier breaking nonsense, and I can barely—” Emmery clamped her mouth shut, weary of revealing how incapable and unruly her magic was.

A small smile breached his bow-shaped lips. “Need a little help?”

She glared at him. “ No . I’ll figure it out myself. But I’ll need somewhere to stay.”

Vesper clucked his tongue and lounged in the chair, propping his booted feet on the table and crossing them at the ankle. “That’s a lot of terms. I think you need me more than I need you.”

Shooting him a contemptuous look, she nodded at his feet. He grimaced before setting them back on the floor.

Then Emmery smiled but it was more a bearing of teeth. “I’ve been doing fine on my own.”

His face said he wasn’t buying it and, honestly, the waver in her voice was less than convincing even to her own ears.

“We both know that’s a lie,” he drawled.

Emmery clenched her jaw, unwilling to back down from her demands. They weren’t unreasonable. In fact, they were merely essentials. “Either agree to my terms or I walk away.”

An infinitely long silence swelled, and they watched each other. A plethora of emotions crossed Vesper’s face—too many to name.

Emmery fought with every twitching muscle in her face to keep a mask of stone, praying her desperation wouldn’t bleed through because it lingered in her glassy eyes and knotted chest.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he broke the silence as a slow smile claimed his mouth. “You’re thorough and I can respect that. I agree to your terms, Sparky.”

Ignoring her pounding heart and that asinine nickname, in a voice more brittle than she cared for, Emmery dared, “One last question.”

Vesper sighed. “Yes?”

“What happens if the bargain is broken? If one of us doesn’t fulfil their part.” She bit the inside of her cheek as he chuckled. “Don’t laugh. It’s a legitimate question.”

“It’s impossible. We don’t voluntarily break bargains. If it’s a choice against the others wishes, your body goes under compulsion, and you can’t fight it. And this goes both ways of course. There’s only one permanent way out if both parties don’t agree.”

Her stomach flipped. “What is it?”

“ Death .” His voice echoed, an ominous force in the still room. “ But that’s the worst scenario of course. Nothing to concern yourself with.”

A chill shot down her spine. She was in fact concerned about a lot of things as her head spun with new information, tangling with the need for safety. And that gate, the shining, golden thing haunting her dreams, was so close she could almost taste the freedom. And she wanted it so damn badly.

“One tiny detail to add. We only have until the Fallen Equinox. A month from now.”

Not having a clue what the Fallen Equinox was, Emmery’s brows pulled together. “Why?”

“Let me worry about that.” Vesper’s gaze flicked across her face, and he seemed to be holding his breath too. She wasn’t the only one with a lot riding on this. “Do we have a deal?”

If anyone had told her that today she’d make a bargain with a complete stranger, and not just any stranger but a Damned One, she would have claimed them insane. But now, as she uttered the word, maybe she was the one out of her mind.

“Yes.” Regret instantly cinched her gut.

Vesper snatched the dagger from the table, tugged off his glove, and nicked a shallow cut on his palm.

He did it with an effortless, fluid motion, like flaying his own skin was a daily occurrence.

And perhaps it was. For all she knew, he made bargains with everyone he met.

Blood beaded along his wound, and he reached for her.

Emmery flinched and yanked her hand away.

In what universe did he think she would let him take a blade to her?

Maybe he was out of his mind too. From the confused furrow of his brows, he had to be, but Vesper handed over the dagger.

Gripping it in her sweaty palm, she stroked the ruby jewelled handle, identical to her ring, as she searched for a way around this.

But there wasn’t one.

So, Emmery studied his bloody cut. It was absurd how a kiss from a blade could birth a situation this dangerous.

Because this bargain was merely a mixing of words and blood—one open to trickery and one binding.

Shackling was more like it. She rested the blade over her flesh, her chest inflating with air, but she may as well have been submerged underwater with her oxygen starved lungs and mind.

“It may sting a bit,” he teased, the sentiment anything but comforting.

Emmery hid her wince as she pressed down, and blood rose to the surface of the wound. She slammed the dagger back on the table and muttered, “I’m such an imbecile.”

“You said it, not me.” He gazed at her. Blinked. Blinked again. Those moonlit eyes locked on her, waiting for something or perhaps giving her a moment to run from this cottage screaming. “Last chance to back out now,” he offered.

A few heartbeats passed and the reality and weight of the decision settled into her chest. There was no going back after this. But Vesper was right, he was the only one willing to help her get to safety. And as much as it pained her to admit, she needed him as much as he needed her.

Good gods, she was really doing this.

When Emmery didn’t protest, Vesper said, “Brilliant. Now repeat after me.” He cleared his throat dramatically. “It will be done, so it shall be.”

Her quiet voice carved the irreversible path as she repeated it back.

He dabbed his forefinger into her blood and mixed it with his own.

Studying it for a moment, he cocked his head and leaned across the table.

Emmery’s eyes widened but she couldn’t retreat as the bargain spell took hold and her own fingers followed, pulled by an invisible thread as they dipped in each of their blood and reached for his neck.

The moment his finger met her skin she inhaled sharply, though Vesper was gentle and merely dragged it in a series of strokes.

Their faces were entirely too close, so close in fact, she could make out a shallow scar on his cheek and that his eyes were not entirely white but contained slivers of the lightest grey like stolen fragments of the moon.

He focused on his fingers, though occasionally his stare flicked back to hers.

Vesper smelled familiar somehow. Earthy and comforting.

Floral but also ... masculine, though the metallic tang of their blood flooded her nose as her finger traced the same pattern as his.

But his skin was warm and smooth and touching him was surprisingly not stomach twistingly uncomfortable as she assumed it would be.

His thundering pulse under his touch told her he was nervous, just evidently better at hiding it than herself, though it provided little comfort

She retracted as the blood absorbed into his skin and a shooting star took its place, glistening an aged milky white unlike the rosy scars on their chests. Emmery flexed her already healed hand with only the blood remain-ing as evidence. How was that possible? It had to be the spell.

Her neck tingled like a cool wind licking her skin as the magic burrowed inside her, flooding her veins with an ember of something she couldn’t name. Heart sinking, she stretched her neck and squeezed her eyes shut until the sensation ebbed.

Vesper grinned and shrugged. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Making an unbreakable bargain with a complete stranger?”

“I’m not a complete stranger. I did give you my name. And it’s too late now to regret.” He stood from the chair, his expression playful again. “We’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll be back here early morning. Try to stay out of trouble until then.”

She looked anywhere but at him, her fingers tracing the shallow indent of the new scar as the permanency sent a chill through her.

Vesper refastened his weapons, his fingers nimble as they snapped and buckled them into place, like he’d done it hundreds of times blindfolded, before he slipped on his cloak and hood.

“It’s been too long since I’ve had such lovely company.

” He offered her a smile, but Emmery fixated on her bloody palm.

His eyebrows furrowed at her pale face. “Try to get some rest.”

He stalked to the door, his footsteps soundless as a ghost.

She didn’t look up. Didn’t watch him leave.

And the small shooting star branded into her neck tingled long after he left.