Page 34 of Veiled By Smoke (The Nature Hunters Academy #5)

He reached, up, up, through the rifts and cracks, following the thread of Ramses’s lineage. He found Ra. He found the boy’s defenses, the oath, the guilt, the pain. He smiled, sweet as poison. The blood binding was a key, and Ra’s mind was the lock.

“Poor child,” Lucifer crooned, a whisper in the shadows of Ra’s thoughts. “ So alone. So tired. Let me help you carry the burden. You need not bear it all yourself. Trust me. Rest. Let me in.”

He felt the resistance, the flicker of Ra’s will, but he pressed harder, the blood magic a tide no mortal could resist. Through Ramses, through the crimson bond, he slipped into Ra’s mind, into his memories, into the places even Ra feared to go.

And from there, Lucifer smiled, for he could see the bargain Ra had made with Viscious.

The promise that he now had to keep because he refused the first bargain Ra had actually sought out.

Interesting. The good and pure pharaoh king would have to deceive his loved ones in order to keep his word.

It was almost better than watching the souls around him burn.

This was going to be child’s play, messing with Ra’s head, while also gaining access to Aurora, the little morsel everyone wanted a piece of.

Damn, it was good to be back. Let the soul bonded heal their wounds.

Let Osiris play at redemption. The game was only beginning, and Lucifer had just found the board.

A s Penny stepped through the portal at Ra’s side, she remembered the phone conversation she’d had with Cordelia only hours ago, and a chill ran through her.

Penny’s voice had been brisk and a little breathless as she’d returned her coven sister’s call. “Cordelia? Is everything all right?”

She’d heard Cordelia suck in a sharp breath. “Girl, I was about to call you again. I had a private reading today. Paid visit from a woman named Fern and her foster daughter, Aurora. I know we’ve had plenty of looky-loos lately, but this girl, Penny, she’s different.”

Penny had frozen as she’d heard the name. It couldn’t be. “What did you say her name was?” The question had been asked slowly, hesitantly.

“Auora?” Cordelia had answered as if she was asking a question, not just answering one.

“I’ll be a dragon’s aunt,” Penny had whispered. “What are the chances? I mean, it seems too easy, like a trick, or a trap of some kind.”

“What are you talking about?” Cordelia had asked.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about, but she’s got power, but not the kind I can trace.

She doesn’t have a Mark, but she feels .

. . threaded, if that makes sense. Like she’s stitched to something big, just out of sight.

When I did the reading, it was like touching a live wire, but ancient. ”

Penny hadn’t said anything for a long moment. She’d been in shock. “Do you have their information?”

“Yeah. They booked through the website. Fern Witherspoon and her daughter Aurora. Though I got the ‘foster’ part from when they were here. She didn’t put that on the form online. I’ve got their email, phone, everything they entered on the form. You want me to send it?”

“No,” Penny had said quickly. “Just . . . keep it safe for now. I’ll be in touch soon.”

“Penny, what is this?” Cordelia had sounded confused and suspicious. “Is she in some kind of trouble? Are you in some kind of trouble? Should I warn Fern?”

“No. Don’t say anything yet. Just . . . keep your ears open. And Cordelia? Don’t mention this to anyone else.”

“All right. But if something happens, or I get any weird feelings, I’m calling Fern and having them come back,” she’d said firmly. “If this girl is a witch, then she deserves our protection.”

“But you don’t know if she’s a witch. You said you weren’t sure what she was.

” Penny hadn’t wanted to say too much over the phone.

“Just wait to hear from me. But, like you said, if you feel like she’s in serious danger, then call her and have them come back.

” She’d had no idea when she would be able to get Rory and their group to Aurora, or if that was even the best thing, but she hadn’t wanted the girl in danger.

“You okay?” Ra’s voice drew her out of the memory.

“I’m as good as can be expected under the circumstances. You?”

The portal had opened just a few steps from the porch of the mansion, which meant they were standing in the pouring, freezing rain. “The last time I came here, I told my Shelly that I didn’t do witches.”

Penny’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open before she said, “That’s a weird thing to say to your wife–mate, soul bonded, whatever. I mean, dude. Was she relieved, or did she slap you?”

Ra’s lips turned up ever so slightly, the closest thing to a smile she’d seen on him. He was handsome. She imagined when he really smiled he was downright sexy. “She knew how I meant it.”

His dry tone snapped her from her admiration of his looks.

“Right,” she smacked her forehead. “You mean you don’t like witches, like to work with or otherwise.

Not that you didn’t actually do , as in dooooo, witches.

” Penny shut her mouth and shook her head.

“Can you not tell Shelly that I just said that to you? I’d rather her not kick my ass, and she seems like a puncher, not a slapper. I have no desire to be bitch-punched.”

Ra nodded and motioned for her to go up the steps first. “You’re right. She’s not a slapper. But she wouldn’t punch you. She likes you.”

“Even though I just talked to her man about ‘doing witches’?”

“It’s not like you were propositioning me. Right?” His dark eyes might have twinkled, if that sort of thing was possible in eyes like his.

She gave a sharp nod. “Absolutely not. I don’t do taken men.”

“Then we have no problem, and my Shelly wouldn’t punch you.”

Once they were under the cover of the porch roof, Penny looked up at Ra. His face was etched with worry, and his black eyes held a weariness she hadn’t seen there before. “Just for kicks and giggles, and to get off this weird-ass topic, are you okay?”

“I’m as good as can be expected under the circumstances,” he said, repeating her answer from earlier with a smirk.

“Fair.” Whatever he was dealing with wasn’t her business, and she knew that no matter what it was, it wouldn’t keep him from doing what he needed to do in order to protect Aurora.

With that knowledge solidly in place, she turned and opened the door to the coven mansion and stepped into the familiar entrance. “Okay then, let’s do this.”

Penny pressed her palm to the weathered brass knocker and let the door swing open.

The Blackhorn Mansion always felt alive to her, old wood breathing, glass eyes in the stained windows watching, the air thrumming with secrets and spells.

She was tired, but in the giddy, hopeful way of a traveler finally reaching shelter after a long, dangerous road.

Ra was at her side, shoulders tense, jaw set, the element of fire barely banked beneath his skin.

She stepped lightly into the foyer, boots clicking on black-and-white tiles. The early morning sunlight filtered through the high windows, painting rainbows across the dust motes. Penny lifted her voice, bright and sure. “Cordelia? I’m home!”

The hush of the house broke as footsteps echoed on the staircase. Cordelia appeared at the landing, her russet hair pulled back, a robe cinched tight around her waist. Her eyes were shrewd and kind, face marked by both laughter and wariness.

Cordelia’s gaze swept over Penny, then narrowed as she landed on Ra. “I’m impressed,” she said, voice even. “You don’t usually do early, and you certainly don’t travel with elementalists with demon eyes.”

Penny smiled, stepping forward, her hands open in a peaceable gesture. “This is Ra. He’s a fire elementalist, one of the soul-bonded, actually.” She kept her voice light, but there was purpose behind every syllable. “He’s here because we need to talk. About Aurora.”

Cordelia’s expression shifted–less surprise, more calculation. She nodded, descending the last few stairs. “Let’s speak in the front room. I’ll make tea.”

R a moved behind Penny, his presence, no doubt, a wall of heat and tension.

He didn’t bother with pleasantries, not when the weight of his mission pressed so heavily on his chest. The three of them settled in a parlor filled with velvet and old books, the air scented with lemon and sage.

Cordelia busied herself with the teapot.

Penny and Cordelia began to speak in low tones, their words weaving in and out of each other.

As they sipped their tea, they spoke of Aurora’s uniqueness, her sensitivity, and the fact that she was already drawn to Blackhorn and to magic.

Ra watched the steam curl from his mug, his mind buzzing, his skin prickling with warning.

Something was off, he could sense it, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

His head felt tight–not a headache, yet, but it was getting there.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He set his cup down with a soft thud.

“We need to see the girl,” he said, his voice gruff, but urgent.

“Soon. She’s not safe until she understands what’s coming.

Let us talk to her, explain what she is, what this world means.

She needs to trust us before someone else gets to her first.”

Cordelia regarded him, her eyes sharp, weighing, as if she could see the fire in his blood—and maybe the shadows, too. “You’re certain?” He could see the suspicion in her eyes, she didn’t trust him, and rightfully so.