Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
27
“That thing missedyour soul core by an inch,” Lucy gushed, her eyes bright with unconcealed excitement.
Cassius grimaced where he lay on the bed, hand rising to touch the bandage around his midriff. Whatever it was the black spear had been made of, it had resisted his ability to heal himself. It was only thanks to a large amount of Blossom Silver and Lucy’s magic that the wound had finally closed. He winced as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, too restless to stay still.
“Don’t,” Morgan chided, rising from the chair beside him. “She just patched you up.” The Aerial narrowed his eyes at the medical mage. “And you? Do you have to sound so morbidly happy about the fact that he nearly died?!”
Lucy grinned as she finished healing Suzie’s hands, her mage magic and arcane staff redolent of Juniper. “What I’m saying is, Cassius’s soul core deflected the weapon at the very last second. It was as if his body knew what the spear was and protected itself by sheer instinct. Which is pretty amazing, if I may say.”
Cassius stilled and stared at her, shocked by this latest piece of news. Morgan frowned.
“After everything that went down in that alley, nothing would surprise me,” Julia muttered.
The angel glanced irritably at the medical mage tending to her. Though her fists and the wounds she’d incurred while battling the war demons had healed, Lucy had insisted everyone get checked over, in case the warlock’s magic had tainted their bodies.
Zach was taking things more easily where he lay on his bed, the demon enjoying the attention of the pretty mages crowding around him.
Adrianne observed him with a faintly disgusted grimace where she sat putting a cold compress on Charlie’s forehead. The young enchanter had used up a significant amount of his soul-core magic to maintain his control over the sorcerers they’d captured, only retreating when another Argonaut enchanter had arrived on the scene to take over. The result was a fever Lucy predicted would last a couple of days.
The frosted-glass, sliding doors at the end of the room opened. Bailey appeared with two carrier bags.
“I got Skittles, Hershey’s, Snickers, Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, Milk Duds, and M&M’s,” the wizard said briskly.
Julia raised a hand. “Snickers, please.”
“Milk Duds,” Zach said.
Bailey threw them a couple of sweets each and dropped two packets of M&M’s next to Adrianne.
“Here, eat,” the wizard told the sorceress. “We both know how grouchy you get when you have low blood sugar.”
Adrianne narrowed her eyes at him.
Cassius caught the Hershey Bailey threw him, tore the wrapper, and bit into the confection. The fastest way to replenish soul-core energy was to consume a lot of food. Protein was best but chocolate and sweets were everyone’s emergency backup, since they were easier to keep on one’s person.
Zach caught Suzie’s amused smile as he opened a carton of Milk Duds under the mage’s disapproving frown. “What?”
“You don’t look like a Milk Duds kinda guy,” the witch said.
“You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” the demon drawled, popping a sweet in his mouth.
“I can see that,” Suzie said.
Julia glanced curiously between them.
Lucy arched an eyebrow. “Is it me, or is there some kind of chemistry between the demon and the witch?”
Zach sighed. Suzie rolled her eyes before looking around the medical bay, a trace of unease dancing across her face.
They were on the top floor of the San Francisco Memorial Hospital, in a private ward reserved for magic users and the otherworldly. If Cassius had to guess, the witch wanted out of there and pronto. He didn’t blame her.
Her newfound fame as a Level One witch wasn’t something Suzie desired and she’d made that clear by keeping a low profile all these years. Regret danced through Cassius as he observed her.
Suzie caught his stare. Her face softened. “I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t your fault.” She shrugged. “It was going to happen sooner or later. I’m just glad I was there to help.”
“Thank you,” Cassius murmured.
Suzie’s expression hardened slightly. “I can handle the agencies.”
Morgan frowned. “You saved a lot of lives back there, including my team’s. That has to count for something.”
“Still, they are going to want her to register with one of them,” Adrianne told Morgan. “A Level One witch walking around doing her own thing isn’t something any of the agencies will abide.”
Cassius fisted his hands at that, remorse twisting his belly all over again. He’d landed Suzie in a thorny position without meaning to.
Suzie straightened where she sat, her tense gaze leveled at the muted channel playing on the TV on the far wall. It showed a crowd of reporters outside the main entrance of the hospital in the top left of the screen, while the live broadcast from the news helicopter circling Occulta took up the main display, theflashing lights of the fire engines and police cars blockading the road bright in the darkness. Cassius clenched his jaw at the sight of the damage to the alley behind the bar and the nearby buildings.
He had no memory of what had happened when he’d transformed into the armored angel. Morgan had told him about it when he’d woken up half an hour ago. The Aerial’s expression had grown troubled when he’d realized Cassius couldn’t remember any of it.
All Cassius recalled was coming around to find the dark spear still embedded in his body, the war demons dead, and the gossamer wall of shadows that had separated him from Morgan and the others gone.
According to Morgan, their soul cores had resonated when Cassius was in his armored angel form, unleashing a power the Aerial wasn’t even aware he’d possessed from the very marrow of his body. It was that black wind that had given Morgan the ability to break the warlock’s barrier and destroy the spear impaling Cassius.
No one knew what energy the warlock had used to create the weapon and the wall of shadows. Like Adrianne had stated at the time, it hadn’t been magic. But whatever it had been, Morgan’s new powers had managed to defeat it, though not without taking a toll on the Aerial.
Though he’d grumbled about getting checked over, the dark circles of exhaustion under Morgan’s eyes made it clear his soul-core energy had been depleted by the battle. It was only after he’d drunk the rejuvenating concoction Lucy had made for him that some color had returned to his face.
Cassius was conscious it wasn’t just fatigue that had Morgan looking so haggard. He recalled the tears in Morgan’s eyes before he’d fainted and the pain pulsing from the Aerial’s heart and soul core across the bond that connected them.
The prospect of losing Cassius had taken Morgan to a dark place and Cassius couldn’t help but feel sorrow at that realization.
I’ve hurt him again.
Cassius blinked, startled by the words that had come unbidden to his mind.
“You okay?” Morgan said.
Cassius swallowed and nodded, unease swirling through him. Where did that come from?
A commotion outside the bay drew his gaze. The sliding doors opened. Strickland stormed in, his face thunderous. Cassius stiffened.
Jasper Cobb, Reuben Fletcher, and Brianna Monroe walked in behind him, their expressions equally unhappy.