Broken Souls (Book of Shadows)

Thirty-One

Thirty-One

HIM

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Enoch asks as he stares up at me from the floor of the gym, nursing his swollen jaw.

“Fine,” I say as I kick his sword back at him. “You need to get better at hand-to-hand. You rely too strongly on your magic. What happens if you lose it?”

Like Micha did? I see the question in his eyes even if he’s smart enough not to say it. Blowing out a breath, he works his jaw, then grabs his sword and climbs back to his feet.

“I’d get into the habit of carrying a gun,” he says. “What I wouldn’t do is use a sword.” He scoffs. “I don’t know why all the fantasy books keep to medieval shit. So many natural things burn so well. Did they just get rid of all of that, as well as teenage boys just wanting to fuck about with shit when they were world building? Like, seriously? Do you know what gunpowder was originally used for? Trying to make an immortal elixir. You’re telling me, no one in all the fantasy worlds ever decided to fuck around with materials just to see what they did? It doesn’t make anysense.”

He’s talking shit just to stall, and the irritation I have is growing. “Would you rather we lose the swords?”

He looks at me warily. He knows I’m holding back. He’s a shit swordsman, so I’m not hacking at him like he’s Khalid or Maddox. Hel, even Krypto’s footwork is better than his.

But Khalid is in bed with his girl, well deserved after the shit they went through. Antonio forced him to beat her while he touched himself. Khalid then cut off his own hand, the one he used to hit her, unable to bear having it attached to him. For hurting his girl is an unforgivable sin.

And Maddox is out hunting, rebuilding his stash of dead bodies, and Leno refuses to let me spar with his dog. Says it gives him too much anxiety.

So I’m stuck with the bottom-of-the-barrel Enoch.

“No,” my brother groans as he hacks his sword through the air at his feet. “I don’t need you kicking me in the balls this morning.”

“You ever planning on using them?”

“I use them all the time –”

“Not your dick. Your balls.”

He looks at me warily as I shift into a fool’s guard position, the blade pointed at the ground in front of me and off to the side as I bend my knees, ready to move forward or back as needed. He holds his up in a roof guard, his blade pointed back, with his hands up by his head, reminiscent of a baseball bat.

“Is this a very weird way of asking if I’m planning on having kids?” he asks as he darts forward and swings for my head.

I bring my sword up to parry. His blade slides off the tip of mine as he completes his arc. He swivels his wrists, swinging it around over his head, continuing to carry that momentum for a second blow. I raise my sword once more as I shift to the side. The clink of the metal resonates around the gym, cut by the heavy beat of his feet as he barrels past me. I lunge forward as he tries to stop and turn, and my sword raps him on the shoulder. That hand drops as he shakes it out with a small yelp.

“You are pathetic,” I say.

His sword slips from his other hand as he holds it palm out and shouts, “No, I am your – ow!”

The pommel of my sword knocks him in the head even as I’m tossed backwards by his telekinesis. The fucker is too predictable, and I threw my blade at him before he managed to fire off his shot.

“Why the fuck aren’t we wearing face masks?” he yells as his magic releases me. He’s backpedaling, one hand to his forehead, and I twist in the air so I’m facing the ground and extend my arms out in front of me with my elbows slightly bent. I roll over my head as I hit the ground, push off, pivot, then charge at him as he still has his hand over his face, blocking his vision.

He lowers his arm just as I slide on my knees and wrap both of my arms around his right leg. I pivot around him, bringing up a foot to plant behind him. My left arm rises up between his legs, slamming up into his crotch as the other wraps around his waist.

He gasps, then creaks, “Oh, come –” as I arch backwards, flipping his body over mine and slamming him onto the mat.

“Oooonnn…”

I roll onto my feet.

“I swear...if you kick me while I’m down,” he says as he lies there wheezing at the ceiling. “I won’t marry whoever the fuck you want me to marry.”

“Stormie Green.” His childhood crush. We need to forge alliances and now. Antonio was playing with us last night, testing his experiment in the field while trying to psyche us out, showing us what we’ll be up against if we go against him. The wolf was sick, probably already dying. How long until he perfects his craft and manages to create a whole army of them?

Whereas my thoughts take a darker turn, Enoch’s clearly doesn’t. He sits up, a blush spreading across his cheeks. He rubs a hand over his head, and the tired gecko mohawk he has gets a second life as he uses his telekinesis to put all the strands back in place.

I look at him dryly; what a waste of magic. “She isn’t even here,” I say.

“When she coming?”

“Few weeks if you acc–”

“I accept.”

I frown. I bet I could’ve kicked him in the balls. Got out a bit more of my rage.

His eyes narrow slightly as he studies me. “You don’t look happy about it.”

“I’m fine.”

“How are you and Mi–”

“Get up,” I say as I pick up my sword. “I want to go another round.”

He snorts. “Ain’t happening. I’ve let you hit me for over an hour. I’m starving. I haven’t even had breakfast yet, and I don’t want to risk a blow to my balls when we’re all fucking Khalid’s girl later. I have to last as long as Ez, or he’s never going to let it go.”

My fingers tighten on my sword. Yet another reason why I want to go another round. After we got home last night, Khalid told me about what he needed to complete the bond.

“I need you…and the rest of our brothers…” Khalid’s jaw clenches, the words heavily strained. His dark eyes flash with a desire to kill everything around him, but this is the price of a blood bond. The djinnis who gifted us the ability to choose our own mates didn’t do so out of kindness. They wanted entertainment, and nothing makes them happier than seeing witches tear each other apart by hurting those they love.

“What?” I press, itching to leave this conversation and get back to my girl. I need to make sure she’s okay. I need to fucking apologize for what I did to her.

He glances away. Breathes out, battling with his anger before looking back at me. “I need you all to fuck her and come inside her at the same time she does.”

My lungs stop as the very soul of me freezes. I can’t do that to Micha. I don’t want to do this. She’s the first person I’ve been with, and I want her to be the last.

“Are there any other options?”

“No.”

Fuck. I want to tell him I’m not going to do it, but he’s already started the blood bond. If he doesn’t complete it, it will kill him. Unless I killed his girl.

And dear fucking gods am I tempted to go that route. To choose mine over his.

“So will you do it?” Khalid asks softly.

My jaw clenching, I turn and head over to the weapon’s rack and place my sword down. The thought of doing it is making me sick, but if I don’t participate, then Khalid dies.

It’s the same fucking scenario all over again: Khalid or Micha. Which one do I hurt?

She hates me enough to risk killing herself; I doubt she’ll care if I fuck another. The only person who does is me.

“I’m going for a run,” I say. “I’ll be inside the wards if Khalid asks.”

“Do you want company?”

“You asking?” I call over my shoulder.

“Yeah. I’m up for talking as long as you ain’t hitting me.”

Deciding I want to be alone so I can push myself as fast as I can go, I say, “I’ll pass.” As the door swings shut behind me, I hear a soft, “Thank gods.”

The house is still quiet. No one else is awake yet. Mother is normally up at this time to make us all breakfast, but the kitchen is empty. She undoubtedly needs her rest after what was done to her, but I’m of half a mind to drag her out of bed like I did Enoch. The bitch’s curse made me hurt my wife. No. I hurt my wife.

I just can’t remember how because of her.

But as mad as I am at her, most of my anger is directed at me, and waking her up won’t do anything to help with that. So I head outside, dressed only in a pair of shorts. Despite the early hour, the Floridian day’s already packing heat.

The door closes behind me, and I take off in a jog, but as soon as I’m under the cover of the trees, I push myself as fast as I can go, riding myself hard, wanting to feel the burn of my lungs and the ache of my muscles. It’s a poor attempt at a distraction. My thoughts are all too easily keeping up.

She cut off her fucking tattoo.

Removed my mark from her skin and threw it away like it was nothing. Almost as if she’s given up on us.

Snarling, I pivot to the right, heading towards the edge of our property. The ward shimmers up ahead, crackling with blue energy. Rudy didn’t have any issues putting it back up. Talon didn’t use brute force to break it. He simply gave it the command to go down, which makes me think he has not turned against the Family. He’s just turned against me.

Because I killed his best friend?

My chest tightens.

Or because he knows I’m a hybrid?

Either way, I will not hesitate to put him down. I never do. Never give mercy.

Except when it comes to her.

My teeth grind together as my legs pump harder. What the fuck am I going to do with her now? If the reaper learns she tried to kill me, he’ll kill her regardless of my wishes. Her rage is a threat to this Family, and with us going to war, we cannot afford to be tearing each other apart from the inside. We won’t survive.

If she wasn’t pregnant, I might take Maddox up on his offer to help me break her and remold her, but his methods might trigger a miscarriage. So I only have two options.

Make her fall back in love with me – something I’m not certain I can do.

Or make her fall in love with this Family so she’ll never betray it.

She already likes Maddox. My eyes narrow as my chest burns with jealousy. But I force my thoughts to keep going, to form a plan –however much it fucking hurts– to get her loyalty to this Family. Despite being a little shit most of the time, my youngest brother can be charming if he wants to. He sweeps women off their feet, lures them into his trap so he can butcher them and throw their bodies into the cooler he has in his shadows. He needs their meat to be able to shapeshift into bigger bodies as magic still obeys the law of nature, and mass doesn’t come from nothing.

If I get him to put on the charm, to make her like him more… My nostrils flare as I think about her laughing with him when she won’t even look at me. Talking to him when she won’t even tell me hello. The fucking little shit. I’m going to kill him.

The ward bites into my skin – a dozen bolts of electricity arcing through my body, forcing my legs to lock, my body to freeze as it captures me. My muscles tense as the pain intensifies until I can’t breathe, my lungs twisting inside my chest, spasming so godsdamn tight not even air can get through them.

And then I’m released, the ward deciding that I am, in fact, enough of a witch for it to allow me through.

I stagger forward, my hands on my knees, sweat beading across my face and neck as I swallow in great big gulps of air. Mother fucker that hurt. I squeeze my eyes shut for just a moment, using the pain to finish my thoughts.

I need to get Maddox to charm her, to make her want to stay for him rather than for me. I need to get my other brothers to do the same. She didn’t have a great family life growing up, and I know she secretly craves one. And then I need to figure out a fucking way not to kill them all in my jealousy when they have her full attention and I’m still begging for crumbs.

“Fuck!”

Lunging to my right, I slam my fist into a tree. The wood groans and creaks as the branches sway. The burst of energy explodes up my arm as my knuckles protest my idiocy of trying to take on a fucking hundred-plus-year-old elm. And yet, I try again, swinging my other fist into it, bruising the knuckles in that hand too. Making them swollen. Bruised and scraped. Perhaps even broken. But I relish the pain; it’s so much nicer than the shit in my chest.

Collapsing to my knees, I breathe out heavily and close my eyes again. My teeth clench, my jaw locked so tight that pain radiates down my neck.

Fucking hel. I’ve fucked up.

But I’m going to fix this.

I’m going to make her love my brothers too much not to hurt them. And as a trump card, I’m also going to bring her best friend into this Family. If Dayne’s a part of it, there’s no way she’d turn against it. And I’ll make her see that I’m the best one to lead – that Leno is too fucking soft, that Khalid does not want the position, that Enoch and Ezriel aren’t smart enough to play the game, that Maddox is too feared by our allies, and that Rudy is too sweet. She might still want to kill me after all is said and done, but she won’t if she knows that will most likely mean everyone else she loves will die too.

She also has a sister she loves, my brain points out.

Then I’ll bring her into the Family as well. She’s sixteen, too young to get married for my tastes despite it being legal in many states, but she can get engaged to Maddox. Stefaan might wish to save her to sell to another Family, to build ties outside of just ours, but everyone has a price, and I will pay whatever it takes to have her and Dayne.

With a plan forming, my panic-fueled rage calms enough for me to stand. My hands ache, but I wiggle my fingers, and none of them seem to be broken. Turning on the spot, I head back through the ward, clenching my teeth when it zaps me, though not as strongly as before, and then make my way towards the house so I can grab my phone.