Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger

20

The cartridge explodedwith a violent shockwave. Adrianne and Bailey cursed as they tumbled backward. Zach grabbed Charlie by his jacket before the enchanter could go flying into the concrete wall of the basin.

“A warning would have been nice!” Julia yelled above the gale sweeping the chamber.

The angels and the demon had barely budged from their positions.

“I did say to step back!” Cassius shouted.

Morgan released some of his powers and formed a protective barrier around the three magic users. He exchanged a tense glance with Julia and Zach.

Summoning a Reaper usually required runes made from animal blood and a complex spell that only high-level magic users could perform. Opening a doorway between the Earth and the Nine Hells took an incredible amount of power and was authorized under exceptional circumstances by Argonaut and the other agencies. As far as Morgan knew, this had happened a handful of times since the Fall.

He’d never seen a Reaper being invoked in the manner Cassius had just done, using only Rain Silver and his powers. Judging from Julia and Zach’s troubled expressions, neither had they.

Does this mean Cassius can access the other dimensions at will?

The Empyreal focused on the pool forming on the altar, heedless of their concerns. Light danced brightly across his body and his blade where it had half disappeared into the stone.

Morgan’s belly clenched with a different kind of tension as he gazed upon Cassius’s radiant form. He’s beautiful.

The turbulence rippling the shiny surface the Rain Silver bullet had created gradually died down, as did the tempest whirling around them.

An expectant hush fell across the chamber.

The silver darkened as the portal formed. A sharp stench of camphor preceded the ominous shape that slowly emerged from the inky doorway.

“Oh hell,” Bailey muttered, pale-faced.

The Reaper stood nine feet tall when he fully materialized, his spectral form wreathed in shadows and a sharp scythe glinting in one bony hand. Crimson eyes flared under the hood covering his skeletal head. The apparition drew himself to his full height as he registered his surroundings, an angry, black aura warping the air around him.

“Who dares summon me from the Nine—?” the Reaper roared. “Oh.” He paused, aura fading and tone turning affable. “Hello, Cassius.”

“Hi, Benjamin,” Cassius murmured.

Bailey and Charlie gaped. Morgan and the others stared.

“The Reaper has a name?!” Adrianne hissed sideways at Morgan once she’d recovered from her shock.

The apparition narrowed his crimson-glowing orbs at the sorceress. “Of course I have a name! All anthropomorphic manifestations have one.” He cocked his scythe at Morgan and his team. “Who are these people?” he asked Cassius irritably. “It is clear you have not brought me here to harvest their souls.” He glanced at Adrianne. “Although, I am willing to make an exception and take hers if you so wish.”

“Hey!” Adrianne protested.

Cassius rolled his eyes. “No one’s soul is getting harvested. I wanted to talk to you about what happened here a couple of nights ago and the other strange murders that have been taking place across the city in the last two months.”

Morgan frowned, puzzled. Considering the nine victims’ souls had been stolen, a Reaper wouldn’t have been present at the time of their demise.

So, why has he summoned one?

“Ah.” Benjamin rested his scythe on the altar and propped his chin atop the weapon with a bony clunk. “It is the damnedest thing, really,” he muttered, tone somewhat piqued. “Us Reapers have been talking about it for weeks now.”

Morgan shared a startled glance with his team.

“Wait. You guys were aware of the stolen souls?!” he asked the Reaper.

“Do you know who’s behind the rituals?” Julia said sharply.

“Oh, no.” Benjamin waved a skeletal hand dismissively. “We are only present at the time of the impending passage of a human soul to the afterlife. Their affairs are no concern of ours.”

Disappointment shot through Morgan.

“In that case, why have you and your, er, Reaper colleagues been discussing the spate of murders we’re investigating?” Zach asked.

“We were puzzled by the numbers missing from our tally, is all.” Benjamin’s pupils contracted to tiny red circles. “It is our solemn duty as Reapers to ensure that all human souls go to the afterlife.” He paused. “I must admit, this incident bears a close resemblance to that time thirty years ago, when that sorceress started stealing human souls. It left quite the void in our accounts.”

Morgan stiffened. The Reapers know about Tania Lancaster?!

“Benjamin indirectly helped us find her,” Cassius explained at their confused expressions, confirming Morgan’s suspicions. “We had a Hexa mage place a timed spell bomb on the soul of a black-magic sorcerer we captured at the time. We allowed the man to escape shortly after. He didn’t know about the spell he was carrying and ran straight back to Tania’s hideout through a portal, like we’d suspected he would. When the soul bomb detonated, I followed Benjamin to the dying man’s location and alerted the others.”

Adrianne gasped, the color draining from her face. “You went through a Reaper’s portal?!”

Cassius didn’t reply. Morgan clenched his teeth.

I guess the answer to my prior question about him being able to traverse the dimensions is a yes.

A gruff, rhythmic sound echoed around the chamber. The Reaper’s shoulders trembled. Morgan realized Benjamin was laughing.

“The soul of the sorceress was so twisted and delicious,” the Reaper chortled. “So were those of her acolytes. They made a handsome meal indeed for me and my friends. We were loath to regurgitate them in the Nine Hells. Why, those cursed souls were almost as delectable as this Rain Silver you have gifted me with.”

Charlie gagged and slammed a hand over his mouth.

“That one is weak-stomached,” Benjamin chuckled.

“Is that true?” Bailey asked Zach, horrified. “Our souls get eaten by Reapers when we go to the afterlife?!”

The demon grimaced and scratched his cheek.

“Yeah. It’s not a well-known fact, for obvious reasons,” he muttered. “It’s not like they digest them or anything,” he added hastily when Bailey’s face took on a distinctively green tinge. “They just, you know, keep them in their bellies until they know where they need to spit them back up again.”

“Like birds and their throat pouches,” Julia contributed helpfully.

“That’s disgusting,” Adrianne mumbled. “I’m never gonna die.”

Cassius sighed.

“The Dark Blight painted into this altar,” he asked the Reaper, “can you smell it? It has a pretty unique undertone.”

Benjamin squatted down and sniffed the stone. “Hmm. You are correct. It is very faint.”

“Is it anywhere else in the city?” Cassius said insistently. “There can’t be many places around carrying this smell.”

Oh.Morgan stared at Cassius. That’s what he’s after!

“Give me a moment.”

Benjamin scraped off a layer of the dried, black liquid with the tip of a bony finger and disappeared into the portal.

Silence fell across the confluence chamber.

“Where did he go?” Charlie said hoarsely.

“To search the city with the other Reapers,” Cassius replied. “A Reaper’s sense of smell is the best in all the realms,” he explained in the face of their stares. “Benjamin can probably tell what you had for dinner last week.”

“So, you’re pals with the Reaper?” Julia said in the awkward silence that followed.

Cassius’s ears reddened self-consciously. “He’s…a friend, yes.”

Emotion brought a flush of color to Adrianne’s face. She sniffed before glaring at Morgan. “Don’t you dare break Cassius’s heart!”

Morgan scowled. “Where’d that come from?”

“That poor guy has to resort to being friends with Reapers,” Adrianne mumbled. “He must be so lonely.”

Cassius grimaced at her look of pity. “You’re making me sound like a total loser.”

Zach smiled.

Benjamin returned. “These are the places where we’ve picked up a trace of this particular Dark Blight.”

The Reaper rattled off a list of addresses.

“Damn.” Julia exchanged a stunned glance with Morgan. “Those are the locations where the other victims were found!”

“We could have used this information weeks ago,” Zach said in a frustrated voice.

“You wouldn’t have been able to save them,” Cassius remarked. “This spell would only have activated at the time of their deaths.” He studied Benjamin with a frown. “Those are the only places you and the other Reapers have identified as carrying this particular taint?”

Benjamin’s eyes flared. “There was one more location where one of our brethren thought he detected an infinitesimal trace of it. Someone was murdered a week ago, in a back alley behind a bar. The Reaper who collected the dead man’s soul didn’t detect anything suspicious at the time. He revisited the scene just now and explored it more thoroughly for this scent.”

“And?” Morgan said impatiently.

“He caught a whiff similar to this Dark Blight on the ground close to where the body of the victim was found.”

Cassius narrowed his eyes. “What’s the name of the bar?”

“Occulta.”