Chapter 13
Sonya lingered to talk with the Dean. I didn’t bother to see if either had anything they wanted to tell me. Just then, the only thing I wanted to do was speak to somebody who wouldn’t judge or make demands.
Olivia stood just outside the door holding Yuri’s hand, as if they’d been waiting. Trevor caught sight of me, his mouth tightening, but he gave a short nod before kissing Olivia.
He walked away before I reached them and I winced. “He’s angry with me.”
“He probably ate a bad fish,” Yuri said cheerfully.
Olivia chuckled, then squeezed my hand until we made a small circle. “He’s not upset with you, Lily.”
“You sure?” I stared at the backs of the retreating Demis. “I’m failing them—failing them and Orion.”
Olivia’s gaze flicked past me even as my spine stiffened, my awareness of the twins’ approach spreading through me. Olivia looked back at me, her lips quirking in a smile. Yuri laughed and threw her arms around my neck. “Lils, you are amazing. You can do this.”
Her exuberance brought a smile and I hugged her back even as Sam and Azra moved to flank me. Their displeasure was a heavy tug on my heart but I ignored it as I focused on Yuri. “Can you do me a huge favor?”
“Anything!” She beamed as she pulled a cherry sucker from her pocket and unwrapped it.
Azra raised his brow, seeming to change his viewpoint on at least this particular vampire.
A love of cherries moved mountains, apparently.
Glancing at the twins, I said, “I need to talk to Olivia. Can you show them the way to my dorm?” Then I paused. “Wait… do I even have a dorm now? Weren’t the tower suites destroyed?”
Olivia grinned. “Damaged, more like. Nothing a little Dark Arts can’t fix.”
I smiled at Yuri even as she sulked, looking at the angels she clearly didn’t want to be escorting. “Thank you.”
“The things I do for the people I love,” she said with a heavy sigh. Her gaze slid to the twins before returning to mine. She winked. “At least they’re pretty to look at.”
Sam went rigid. But I could have sworn the expression on Azra’s face was humor—before he managed to hide it.
Once Olivia and I were alone, relatively, we started to walk, taking a meandering route down the tower and onto the campus.
A few students were out and the atmosphere was nothing short of oppressive. A heavy scent hung in the air and it took too long to identify it—once I did, I wished I hadn’t.
Olivia caught sight of my repulsed expression. “Noticed the blood, I guess.”
“Yeah.” We came to a standstill at a crossroads in the walking paths. The dark stain mottling the stone beneath our feet was old and faded. Somebody had tried to clean it up, but blood had a way of leaving a mark.
“Nobody wants to expend the energy to clean up the tougher stains when more blood is going to be spilled anyway,” Olivia said. Her eyes roamed the landscape before coming to stop on a point behind me. “We’re all holding our breath, waiting on Lucifer’s next move.”
I moved to stand next to her, following her gaze to the barrier, a soft rainbow glow in the distance. “The unicorns are still hard at work.”
“They’ll never stop,” she murmured, her expression intense. Then she looked at me. “Kind of like you. You won’t stop either.”
There was a weight to her words and I took her hand, squeezing. “You never did. I couldn’t let you show me up, now could I?”
Olivia’s lips twitched, although no real smile ever showed. Her eyes were haunted now, sadder.
And I knew why. I couldn’t fix it, either. Her soul was gone now, sacrificed as she fought to protect the campus.
“Want to talk about it?”
The question fell between us like a stone thrown into a still, quiet pond, the ripples of it seemingly endless.
Olivia looked away, her eyes on the delicate rainbow glow of the barrier. Her eyes, now so dark, were deep, the emotions no longer so easy to read.
But this was my friend—my best friend. Although I’d been away from her, from my mates and everybody who mattered for a year after my death, it felt like only days. As jarring as the change was, I’d known Olivia before she changed into a Light Mage—before she was given a soul.
Even then, her heart had been far stronger, capable of loving more deeply than just about anybody I knew. Because she did love so deeply, it had given her a rare sort of courage that might have surprised those who didn’t know her well.
I did know her and that courage didn’t surprise me.
“Is there really anything to talk about?” Olivia finally met my gaze again, a sardonic smile on her lips. “My soul is gone. At least I lost it for a good reason. All noble and hero-like, right?”
The words hurt—not because of the edged, caustic humor, but because I sensed the pain she’d suffered as she made that sacrifice.
“Did you know?”
Olivia cocked her head, eyes narrowed slightly. “What… that I’d end up losing it?”
“Yes.”
“I suppose.” She shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering slightly. “It felt too good to be true, you know? I never really expected to keep it anyway.”
This time, the words came off melancholy and Olivia looked away again, but not before I saw the bleak expression in her eyes.
She’d experienced life, and love, with her soul intact. What it must be like for her now, having experienced that, only to lose it?
Impulsive, I hooked my arm through hers. She’d been there for me for all the shit I’d been through. It was time I returned the favor. “Come on.”
As we started to walk toward the wooded area where the shifters trained, Olivia glanced behind us. “The dorms are back that way, Lils.”
“No… really?” I squeezed her arm playfully and winked. “Just kidding. I know. We’re going somewhere else. You need to get away from all of this, even if just for a few minutes.”
“I’m not sure where we can go to get away,” she said, but she didn’t try to pull away. “This shitfest is everywhere.”
I couldn’t disagree. “I know. But we can find someplace where there isn’t blood staining every surface, where half the dorms are smashed, where we don’t see…
this.” I accentuated my words with a wave of my hand at the loose debris of a building that hadn’t been repaired yet, dark stains flooding its base.
Olivia pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. I see your point.”
The forest spread out in front of us but just yards away, the promise of peace and solitude was destroyed as several wolves came prowling out of the shadows.
One pushed to the front, while the others bracketed the larger one.
He shifted into his human form, revealing a guy I didn’t recognize at all.
He crossed his arms over a brawny chest, a sneer on his face.
Letting go of Olivia’s arm, I took a step forward and met his gaze. “Yes?”
He looked me over from head to toe, the insolent dismissal crystal clear. One of the wolves snarled and he looked down at his packmate, chuckling. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Rolling my eyes, I caught Olivia’s arm again.
He spoke before we could take our first step.
“You’re the reason our alpha is laid up half-dead, you bitch.”
His words hit like a blow, the guilt I couldn’t escape flooding through me. Next to me, Olivia stiffened.
Lifting a blond brow, he said, “What, no smart-mouthed comment?”
“I don’t see the point.” Moving away from Olivia once more, I faced down the wolves, hoping the emotions wracking me didn’t show. “Logan is one of my mates. We need him—I need him to help face down Lucifer and Calamity. He knows it’s going to be dangerous. So do I. So do my other Mates.”
“You’re not the one stuck in a fucking coma,” he said, voice deepening.
“She’s the one who fucking died,” Olivia said, ignoring my attempts to keep her behind me.
A deep fire burned behind the darkness of her eyes and the man in front of me didn’t quite manage to suppress his flinch.
Olivia saw it, too, and she capitalized on it. “She died. I lost my soul. Logan and her other mates followed her in hopes they could find Lucifer and stop him. What the fuck have you done?”
A sharp hiss came from near my feet and we both looked down to see Uni had emerged from my wings and now bounced, baring her teeth.
She was glaring at the wolves, too, her dislike clear.
When one of the wolves snarled at her, she hopped forward and lowered her head in warning, her horn taking on a bright gleam.
“Oh, Uni’s killed Demonspawn who tried to get to Lily,” Olivia added, smirking. “And that’s just for starters.”
The leader growled under his breath.
At first I thought it was directed at us, but the wolf who had been snarling at Uni suddenly dropped her head, tail now drooping almost as low as she turned and went back to join the others.
“Logan better not die,” the shifter in human form said. But his voice was no longer as hard and he didn’t meet my eyes—or Olivia’s.
I ignored him, bending down to scoop Uni up. She rubbed her cheek against mine, her horn brushing against the feathers of my wings. Her pleasure and love filled the odd bond between us and I hugged her.
“Sweet girl,” I murmured.
She rubbed my cheek once more then wiggled, her demand to be down now familiar to me. Looking at me, then Olivia, she started toward the forest. A few hops later, she looked back at us. Waiting.
“I think she wants us to follow,” Olivia said, amused.
“Yep.”
We fell into step behind the Uni-Hare, quiet for several minutes. But once we were past the treeline, the campus no longer visible, Olivia said, “Don’t let him get to you, Lils. The wolves can be total douchebags when there’s a power vacuum.”
“Maybe.” It would be easier to ignore them if that male wasn’t so completely right. “It’s not like he doesn’t have a valid reason to be mad, though. Logan wouldn’t be in the shape he’s in if it wasn’t for his connection to me. But I don’t want to talk about that. I’m worried about you.”
Olivia blew out an annoyed sigh, shoving her hair back from her forehead. “And I’m telling you not to worry. I did what I had to, Lils.”
“But—”
She stopped on the path and spun to face me, forcing me to stop as well as she blocked my path.
“There are no buts, Lily. It’s over and done.”
“Over and done?” My eyes burned as I stared into her eyes, now as dark as they’d been when we first met. “Is that how I’m supposed to deal with this? It’s just… over and done? You lost your soul because I wasn’t good enough to stop Lucifer.”
“Shit, Lily.” She spun away, pacing several steps along the beaten earth of the game trail we were on before stopping and turning back to me.
“You aren’t responsible for my choices. You might be the Champion, but you don’t get to control me—or your damn Virtues, either.
There are tons of Dark Mages who live without a soul and that is their life.
My life. It’s not a bad thing, okay? Get over yourself. ”
Going rigid, I sucked in a breath. “Excuse me?”
“And yank the stick out of your ass, too.” She shoved her hair back and linked her fingers behind her neck, staring up at the canopy of leaves and branches over her head.
“You’re the Champion. You’re meant to face Calamity.
But you aren’t meant to do everything alone here.
Stop martyring yourself, okay? I made a choice and I stand by it. You need to accept it and move on.”
“How?” I demanded. “You lost your soul and it wasn’t worth it. When you die, you won’t exist anymore. How can I deal with that? I’m having a hard enough time trying to imagine life without you. But when you die, you’ll just be gone so I’ll face eternity without you now. How do I accept that?”
Her face softened and she came to me, reaching up to rest her hands on my shoulders.
“We’re in a war, Lily. We all have to make choices, sacrifices.
I made mine and you can’t blame yourself.
” A sad smile curved her lips, making her look incredibly beautiful…
tragically beautiful. “I was never meant to be a Light Mage, never should have experienced having a soul again. I’ll always be grateful for that chance, but…
this is who I am. I don’t regret that, either. ”
It hurt too much to talk.
She could tell, too. “And as for me dying… well, that only makes my time more precious. Besides, Dark Mages are immortal, unless we make the wrong choices. I may outlive you.”
“You better,” I said, sniffing. Uni poked my leg gently with her horn. “Come on. Uni says it’s this way.”
We started to walk once more. After an untold time, I looked around, but none of the landmarks were familiar. “Uni…”
Uni disappeared through the undergrowth and I sighed, moving to catch up with her.
Olivia followed and we both came to a sudden stop when we ended up on an abrupt cliff, the moon shining down on us with pure, silvery light—a real moon…
shining through what was the edge of our realm butting up to a different one.
I heard a howl and instantly knew that this was the wolf’s realm.
“What the…” Olivia’s words faded into nothing.
I wasn’t sure where Uni had brought us.
But we weren’t in Hell anymore.