Soul Seekers03 - Mystic Read Online Free PDF Page A

aim poor.
    “You can do this,” I whisper, figuring he could use the encouragement. “I completely understand and I won’t try to fight you.”
    He drives the stake harder until my nostrils jam with the stench of metal burning through paper. His voice rising, eyes rolling in his head, as he cries, “Good shall overcome evil! I will drive the Word straight into your soul. Though make no mistake, it’s too late to save it. There is no Grace for a blasphemer like you!”
    Yeah, whatever. Just make it quick. Daire is out there somewhere, and I really need to find her …
    I heave my chest higher, hoping to speed things along. Biting back a grin at the first pinch of contact, the moment when the sting of sharp metal grinds into my flesh.
    Won’t be much longer …
    The stake gouges harder, deeper, slowing only slightly when it butts against bone.
    I grit my teeth hard, commit to the pain, and prepare for the end. One more blow should see that it’s done.
    His sour breath blasts hard against my cheeks as he grasps a fistful of my hair and drags my face closer to his. “Look at me, sinner!” He shrieks, flecks of saliva showering my cheeks. “I want to look into the face of evil. I want to see the life force snuffed from your demon eyes!”
    I do as he says, hoping it’ll speed things along. My desperate gaze meeting his crazed one, only to watch as he screams, “Where the hell did it go?” He jerks my head higher, ripping a chunk of hair straight from my scalp. “What the hell happened to it? What did you do with it?” He butts his nose against mine.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I groan, frustrated, breathless, aware of a warm stream of blood surging down my sides. I heave my torso up, keeping it taut, as I thrust deeper into the stake.
    If he won’t end this, I will.
    “Your soul!” He screams, waving the mallet carelessly above me. “What did you do with your soul? Where is it? What have you done with it?”
    Oh. That.
    I close my eyes in defeat. Sink deeper into the dirt. “It’s gone. Lost. I heaved a last breath, and it went. But then I heaved another breath and…” There’s no use explaining it. No need to tell him about my connection to Cade. And how the mere act of Coyote saving his soul has kept me alive without mine. I press my cheek to the ground, saying, “I have no idea where it went.”
    Suriel grunts. Shifts his weight off, and gets to his feet. Muttering a long stream of curses as he slams his tools back into his bag and makes to leave.
    “Wait! Come back!” I shout, staring in anguish at his retreating form. “Finish what you started! You can’t stop now—not after coming all this way!”
    “It’s the soul that I need. You’re no good to me now.” He shoots me a look of disdain. “The Last Days are upon us—I shall not be defeated! If I can’t snuff your soul, I’ll get Cade’s. You were both conjured by evil—as far as I’m concerned, you’re one and the same.”
    He leaves me with blood seeping from my chest—hope seeping from my heart. My dream of being reunited with Daire gone, just like that.
    Suriel may be crazy, but he’s smarter than most people think. Able to see the very thing most everyone else has sought to deny—the mystical connection between Cade and me.
    I roll to my side, steeple my palms tightly against the wound at my chest.
    I was so close. So damn close.
    Yet, while it may not have ended in the way that I wished, there is comfort in knowing it’s just a matter of time before it will.
    When Cade goes, I go.
    Maybe then I’ll find peace.
    Maybe then I’ll find Daire.

 
     
    five
     
    Xotichl
    “It doesn’t seem right.”
    “What doesn’t?” Auden reaches for my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. Temporarily abandoning his search for the perfect parking place to comfort me.
    “This.” I flip a hand toward the windshield. “Coming to the Rabbit Hole. After everything that’s happened, it feels wrong to hang out