He didn’t have an answer for her because he didn’t know. Elric had brought very few people back from the dead. That power was the difference between him and his siblings. Elric always made certain that his people remained who they were when he brought them back from the dead—because he didn’t know what would happen if he didn’t keep watch over their souls. Clearly, the infected people in this kingdom proved he’d been right to be wary of the undead.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, holding out his hands as though she might take them. “I don’t know, Jessamine. But you are yourself now, that I can promise. I changed nothing about who you were. The only thing that is different is that I hold your soul safe. It kept you alive then and now.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for stealing my soul? For lying to me?” She shook her head, turning her back to all the groaning infected and heading back the way they’d come. “There should be a servants’ exit here. Come with me.”
“Jessamine, we are not finished with this conversation.”
“No, we aren’t,” she snapped. “But I don’t want to die again with all those others. It’s too symbolic, don’t you think? They won’t stop moving until they’re ash, and I will just have to suffer with them.”
If she wanted to be dramatic, fine. He stalked behind her, throwing up bits of magic every time one of the lumbering guards came near her. They made their way out to the gardens, but Jessamine turned and slapped her palm onto the door they’d just left, muttered out a curse, then turned to him. Grabbing his hand, she startled him as she rattled off a lockingspell that would keep all the infected inside the house, even if a door was opened or a window shattered.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She paused the spell for only a moment. “I’m keeping them contained.”
“But they’re important to the kingdom, are they not? And not just to yours. People need to know that they’re dead.”
She didn’t listen to him, though. She cupped her hands together and breathed into them. Unlike his own magic, she did not create black smoke, but a glowing mist that pooled in the palms. Flicking her fingers toward the house, tiny droplets of glowing gold floated toward the building. Beyond the door, he heard the roaring sound of a flame bursting to life. Then more groans. The closest thing an infected could manage to a scream.
Fire reflected in her gaze as she replied, “I’m doing them a favor, Elric. I’m killing them, because no one else can.”
Elric loved her when she was bloodthirsty. He loved her when she walked away from him with her head held high with anger, her nose so far in the air he didn’t know how she saw where she was going. His heart beat only for her when she was brave, when she was kind, and when she regarded the world as hers to take. He just loved her, a confession he repeated over and over in his head.
Elric followed her through the streets, making sure that no one even looked at her twice, no matter how many times she bumped into someone or shoved them. There were a lot of things going through his nightmare’s head. And she had every right to be frustrated with him right now.
He had taken something very dear to her. Not that he would ever understand the depth of losing such a thing. He wasn’t human anymore. He didn’t have a soul to take or steal. But then his mind got tangled up with the thought of her on a throne, and he remembered how she had conjured her own in that realm in between and turned his dark world into one of bright colors, and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about what came after that.
The taste of her. The little sounds she made when she threw her head back in rapture. She captivated him with every tiny movement when she was in the throes of passion.
Maybe that would get her out of this funk. He took a few steps closer to her, and then immediately dropped back again as she glared at him over her shoulder with a gaze that said if he even touched her, she would cuthim to ribbons with those sharp claws of hers. There was pain and retribution in those eyes.
Perhaps not, then.
If she wanted him to follow her, then he would. They made it all the way back to their home at the end of Rose Street, with a wind that howled through the broken windows in the front and the suggestion of a figure standing in one of the second-floor rooms. This haunted home was so perfect for them, and yet, she didn’t even pause as she stomped inside.
Sybil had already thrown open the door, clearly waiting for them to return. Her brows furrowed at Jessamine’s angry expression.
“Did it not go well?”
“Could not have gone worse,” Jessamine spat before she took the tempest of her emotions down the hall toward her bedroom. The slamming sound of her door echoed.
Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “It was a trap,” he explained. “Fortuna infected every single person at the party. Apparently, they’re using the souls of the infected for a much larger spell.”
Sybil blinked up at him. “Ah. So it reallycouldn’thave gone worse.”
“She found out I stole her soul when she first made a deal with me, and that I still have it in the other realm.”
“Oh.” The word was long and drawn out. “I stand corrected. It could get much, much worse.”
“Women are complicated.”
“I think you know exactly what you did and why she’s angry, but allow me to remind you just in case. You stole her soul without letting her know, and apparently you then just… kept it? A soul is a deeply personal thing. It’s our connection to the land of the living and our ticket to the land of the dead. It’s what makes us who we are.” Sybil’s hand clenched on the door. “I should slam this in your face and tell you to sleep on the street for the night.”
“We both know I’d just walk in anyway.”
“We do.”
And still, her hand clenched harder around the door before shestepped out of his way. Even he could see the disappointment in her expression. Her forehead wrinkled with the knowledge that he had taken something so dear from someone Sybil valued, and he knew she had a right to be angry with him, too. He knew that there was so much wrong with what he had done, but he’d done it already. Elric might be a god, but even he couldn’t go back in time and stop his former self.
