Soul Kissed Read Online Free PDF Page B

reason why you and Fletcher survived the May Fair Massacre is because the plague doesn’t kill humans, and your soul shielded him.
    They’d survived because they were lucky.
    Webb and Bran were lucky. You had a soul.
    “Stop that! Get out of my head!”
    Jack leaned forward. “You are a parent, and to be a parent is to bear all sorts of excruciating pain and fear. If magekind discovers you have a soul, that you are human, Fletcher, who is a full mage via his mother, will never be accepted. He will be a pariah at best during this, the advent of the Dark Age.”
    Mason’s aim faltered; the room went hazy. “I’m not human . I use Shadow every day.”
    “All humans use Shadow—in dreams, nightmares, inspiration, art.”
    “No, but I use Shadow.” All the things he’d done . . .
    “You craft with Shadow. You animate with Shadow. It’s not so different from how other humans use Shadow. Your mage mother increased your ability. But your human father gave you a soul. And anyone with a soul is human. You can’t tell me that you didn’t suspect—you’re too canny about such things.”
    “I’m a mage, a stray.”
    “Your son is a mage, a stray. Nature is unpredictable that way. He wasn’t born like you; he favored magic. And he has a chance to be fostered within his kind, safe behind the wards of a strong House.”
    “You’re insane if you think I’ll give him up.” Never.
    “I know you will. You’ll fight me, you’ll fight Kaye, and you’ll scream at the sky. But you will give him up to save him from the mage plague and to save him from magekind itself.”
    A queer feeling overcame Mason’s nerves. “We’ll stick together; we’ll be fine .”
    Jack’s gaze finally dropped to the floor. “Fine? You have barricaded yourself in a cabin on this desolate mountain plateau, shotgun at the ready, to keep him safe. This fight is just beginning. It may very well ravage the world.” The gaze found him again. “Tell me you can do better than Webb House. That ‘fine’ will be enough . Even if you were simply a stray and not human.”
    “I’d die for my son.”
    Jack nodded. “I know. But would you let him go?”
    The angel slid that sword into Mason’s belly with surpassing skill, but then he’d had millennia of practice. Mason was bleeding, guts shredded.
    “I’m sorry, friend.”
    Mason’s insides hurt too much, like a vital organ was being cut away with the angel’s invisible blade. He couldn’t speak, though his mind raced: He could agree to this for now, while the threat was pressing. Then later, when it was safe, find a way to dissolve the contract. Or if that didn’t work, kidnap Fletcher and . . .
    “And Brand would bear the repercussions,” Jack finished for him.
    “Stop reading my mind.”
    “Fine,” Jack allowed. “I know you’ll think through this proposition over and over and come to the same conclusions that I have: This world is not safe. There will be some new dire threat after the plague has passed. A storm is most definitely coming. Do you really want to go into negotiations on behalf of your son with the intent of not honoring the contract? And how would you feel if Brand and Webb were to do the same?”
    Mason pulled the trigger, blasting a hole in the back of the house. He knew the gun had fired, but hadn’t felt the report or heard the boom. Dust motes wavered in the new rays of sunlight.
    He was going to vomit.
    Jack leaned back again, as he had at the beginning of their conversation. “Once again: Brand has done you the favor of negotiating this safe place for Fletcher.”
    Oh, they were back to that. What had come next? Right. Mason numbly lowered the shotgun. “And Brand doesn’t ever do anything for free.”
    Mason felt strangely bodiless, as if he were no longer in sync with his flesh. He’d sworn to keep Fletcher safe.
    Jack nodded once, shallow. “She does not. In return, you will hunt the source of this plague and end it.”
    “Because you think it