Chapter 10
10
W hen vision finally resumed after the dimension hop, Avery scanned a cleared-out bedroom in which Merck stood slouched against the wall with his arms crossed. Gathered dust from under furniture gave eerie outlines of where pieces had been sitting on the hardwood flooring. Even the walls had been cleared, leaving a few hangers and nail holes. A green duffle bag sat on the floor next to Merck, surrounded by odd relics. In the center of the room Eli lay on his back in the middle of a chalk-drawn pentagram.
Eli didn t emit the comforting vibes of the man she knew. Whatever was in the place where his body lay wasn t him. Her mind whirled with dizziness when she attempted to walk to Merck. She threw out a hand to support herself against the wall.
Go on, Shannon, Merck ordered. Not one hint of softness came from him when he met his fianc e s gaze. This wasn t the man-well, god-who was nuts about Shannon and about to marry her on the beach in a few hours. This was the Enforcer, a timeless avenger chosen by the gods to police the magic world.
Shannon squeezed Avery s arm in silent support before leaving.
You still have the amulet Eli gave you, Avery? Merck still hadn t uncrossed his arms.
She pulled on the chain to expose it from under her shirt.
Good. Let s just hope Eli followed my instructions for using it before you left Paris.
Can we save Eli? Avery glanced to Eli again, hope dwindling.
Merck pushed off the wall and rolled his neck back and forth. He s possessed by a necromancer. A really nasty one I ve faced several times. He reached down to pick up a bracelet with a crystal on the end of it, which he wrapped around his wrist. Next, he wrapped rosary beads around his opposite wrist.
Before she attempted to choke me she said she wanted to kill Shannon while you watched. That s why she s back and possessing Eli.
I should ve known she d make a deal with the Soul Peddler before dying to ensure he d unite her spirit with a body.
Eli doesn t feel like he s here. I mean whoever that is on the floor doesn t seem like it s him.
He may not be. I have to warn you, eight out of ten times I do this the victim doesn t make it. The spirit or demon leaves and the soul dies. One out of ten makes it but he s a permanent resident at an asylum. It s the merger of minds that destroys sanity.
And the last one in ten? An edge of hysteria tinged her tone.
I haven t met that one yet.
Those are pretty shitty odds. Merck, you have to get him through this. Please. She searched his face for any sign of hope.
I m one of the best at this, but I want expectations for what he ll be like afterward on the table before we start. You re crucial to drawing him back into this world. He nodded to the pendant around her neck. He, hopefully, locked his soul to the amulet. And you.
She fingered the amulet. Had Eli s soul conversation been literal, then? Maybe he hadn t been waxing poetic about being soulmates, but confirming he d followed Merck s instructions.
Eli lay prone as if asleep, but he breathed a little bit too fast and his left hand kept twitching. How does this work?
This particular spirit won t be swayed to leave by gods or religion. This has to be a physical separation. Like pulling a barnacle off a boat. It s going to take some paint with it, and it ll leave a big scar. Wish I had some glue to patch his soul back up, but I don t.
I get it. This is going to bruise his brain.
Merck sighed. Oh, it s going to do way more than that. We both have to pray we ll get him back at all. There s going to be a moment when I ll need you to tell me where she is once she leaves him. I can t see her when she s out here, but you should be able to see her in ghost form. After that, when I say-and only when I say-you re going to press that amulet into his chest, into the burn mark you ll find there, and demand his soul return. Merck stalked close to Eli. He leaned across the pentagram outline to snap above her face. Ana s. Wake up.
The voice that came out was a raspy female, not Eli. Merck, darling. Just the man I was looking for. Or should I say demigod?
Why re you back? Poseidon made it crystal clear you re not to be in this realm. If only you could behave, then we wouldn t be in these situations. You attempted to steal Avery s soul and then kill her.
She refused to give me her soul. I didn t have a choice but to try to kill her. She disappeared. Oh, there she is. Ana s pointed to Avery. Hello, darling. Eli did some rather pitiful begging over you before he left this body.
Ana s, Avery is guarded, Merck said. Do you know the Goddess of Souls s penalty for attempting to steal one of her marked souls?
The twisted smile left Ana s s lips. A god of souls exists?
Merck spun a crystal on a chain in circles as if bored.
Ana s yawned. Greek mythology s all bullshit.
Merck shook his head chuckling. Says the necromancer now consigned to steal other bodies after Poseidon burned her to a crisp.
I do have a message for you. Eli s body rose to a sit. An upward tilt of his lips, which was probably supposed to be a smile, came across as eerie. Saul needs his reparation.
The errand girl has done her job. Merck clapped. I don t care what Saul wants. He was an asshole in life. I hear Hades thinks he s an asshole in death. Now it s time for you to go. He lit a clump of sage leaves and walked circles around her. He chanted various incantations in foreign languages. As his voice began to increase in volume Eli s body started twitching.
No, the spirit screamed. I m not leaving. This body s mine.
Merck lifted a small cup and used a miniature baton to fling water at her. Each time it hit, steam rose from Eli s body and Ana s hissed as if burned. May the water of the lake cleanse this body and leave the original soul.
I m not leaving! she screamed.
Merck opened a small tin the size of a sardine can and sprinkled red dust over Eli. With the powder of Maistros may you be expunged.
Eli s body collapsed. A mist left him.
Where is she, Avery? Merck circled around Eli s body.
Avery pointed at the mist as it rose above Merck and then started moving away.
Merck opened a square metal box and resumed chanting. He held the open box in the direction Avery pointed.
The mist got sucked inside.
She s in there, Avery said.
He slammed the lid on it. Now! Call Eli s soul back.
Avery jumped to Eli. She tugged the pendant on the chain over her head, stretched down his T-shirt and pressed it into the circular burn in his chest. May your soul enter your body again. Come back to me, Eli. Please, come back.
There wasn t a hiss or anything dramatic. His chest moved, but he d been breathing since she started.
Come on, you stubborn butthead. Where are you? She shook him. When he didn t answer or open his eyes or anything she lifted him by his shirt, which only moved his heavy body a half inch off the ground. Wake up. I need you here.
His eyes fluttered open. The warmth of Eli reflected in his pupils.
That s it. Come back to me, Eli. She kissed his lips and then each side of his face.
His gaze drifted to her neck. His brows drooped and eyes darkened. The temperature around her seemed to drop. Goosebumps pricked her arms.
No. He drew to a sit and butt scooted away from her while clutching his head.
Eli She reached for him, touching his arm. What s wrong? It s gone. Merck took care of her.
Eli moved his arm away from her touch. He dropped his head into his arms and rested there for endless moments. Merck, she s gone?
She s out of you. I ll ensure she remains locked away.
Destroy her. His tortured gaze pleaded with Merck.
The gods don t want her soul, not even Hades. There s no way for me to atomize her. But I swear to you I ll make sure she doesn t escape again. Merck s gaze flickered to Avery, filled with sadness.
She tried to scoot closer to Eli, but he waved her away. His lips thinned. Stay away from me. You want us to be a lot more than we are. All that sappy shit I said before was the product of being under the influence of that demon. You figured out I d locked my soul to the pendant.
I don t believe it. You ve got to believe in us, Eli. Believe in me. She reached out to touch his hand.
He yanked it out of her grasp. Red-tinged, tortured eyes met hers. I can t make this be what you want it to be. This isn t love. His voice lowered to a whisper. Leave me alone.
She stared at the man she thought she knew as well as herself. At the moment? Avery was staring at a stranger. This wasn t the spirit who d possessed him. This wasn t the Eli she d grown up with. This was someone else. Eyes she d gazed into zillions of times over the years, lips that had kissed her in Paris, a body she d touched It was like some kind of amnesia wiped their entire lives away rendering what had once been an intimate reality into a nonexistent.
None of it was your fault, she tried. You get that don t you? That Henrik guy-
His gaze deadened. There s nothing here for you. There never was, not for real.
I don t believe you. Even you said there s always been something. Prove to me there s nothing. She wasn t giving up without a fight.
Go find your gods-intended man. It s not me. He dropped his head into his arms. There s nothing here. Nothing left.
Let me help you, she whispered. Despite the shattering pain inside she wasn t mad. Getting angry wouldn t help. He d been through hell.
Eli didn t say a thing. He didn t look up from the cage of his arms where he hung his head between his legs.
Her gaze drifted over to Merck, who somehow conveyed a mixture of bafflement, concern, and uncertainty all at the same time.
She rose with as much dignity as she could muster after leaving her heart on the floor. She thought she wasn t mad, but then it exploded. Never one to leave without having the last word she leaned in close to Eli. I m going to find my soulmate because I have to. When I do, if it s not you, you re going to dance at our wedding while imagining me with him for the rest of my life. And since he s my soulmate, I m going to be loving every single moment with him.
Nothing. Not even a flicker in his eyes. Not one single ounce of emotion.
Thank you, she whispered to Merck. You re incredible at what you do. Time for you to get married.
Merck nodded, sorrow in his gaze.
She left. Better to focus on adapting to her new reality without Eli, even if it brought tears to her eyes. She hoped time would heal him the fractures in her heart.
No tears.
She was a Pleiades, descendant of a Greek goddess. No crying. While waiting for Eli to recover, she d get even. Not with Eli, but with the one who did this to him.