Soulbound Read Online Free PDF Page B

As if to punctuate that fact, a man in lime green plaid velvet stomped down the street. On stilts.
    Mab’s pretty face wrinkled. “It’s horrid. Too congested. One cannot properly breathe in this infernal place.”
    “Then why do you remain?” Eliza knew Mab had a home in the countryside. Several homes, apparently.
    Her aunt’s gaze slid away. “I’ve business here at the moment.”
    Eliza’s fragile hold on levity crumbled. Did Mab mean Adam? Eliza did not want to picture him chained up, his body ravaged, his eyes filled with pain. He was there for a reason. Mab had shone her nothing but kindness, opening up a world of freedom and independence, while Adam had kept her prisoner for months without an ounce of remorse. Yet the itchy, ugly feeling within her remained.
    He’d been tortured. Eliza hadn’t the ability to justify that and live with herself. And she found herself studying Mab again. There was a soft, green glow about her that grew brighter when she was content. After Eliza had died, she had begun to see the glow surrounding persons.
    “You glow,” she found herself saying.
    Mab’s red brows lifted with amusement. “Pardon, dearest?”
    Eliza flushed. “I see a greenish glow about you at times.”
    Her aunt watched her in silence before answering. “And out there” – she waved a slim hand towards the streets – “do you see anyone else glow?”
    “Yes.” Eliza did not need to look. “All the time. Greys, blues, reds, and yellows.” Every color of the rainbow, actually. Everyone she encountered appeared to have a colorful glow about them. The hues changed, though some were similar. And it was enough to give Eliza a headache if she focused too hard on them. She’d learned, by sheer will, to let her gaze go soft or to focus on objects instead. It made it easier to bear.
    Mab leaned in, resting her elbow upon her crossed leg. “You are seeing the light of a person’s soul.”
    Eliza glanced at the window. Yes, she saw the light of souls. But that wasn’t the only thing she saw. Spirits, wavering misty grey forms drifted here and there, moving through solid objects. Moving through people. Ghosts. She suppressed a shiver and turned back to Mab.
    “I see spirits as well.”
    It was Mab’s turn to shiver. Her gloved hands clenched. “Do you now?” Mab glanced about as if fearful there was one nearby.
    “All the time. All over London.” Truth be told, they were in greater numbers now. And always watching Eliza, as if pleading for her to hear them. Oddly, they did not frighten her. But they filled her with sorrow. Why did they linger when others did not? Where, for example, were the souls of her family? Did she even want to see them? No, she did not. It would be too painful when she could not truly have them in life.
    “A word of caution, dear child,” Mab said tightly, her creamy skin pale. “Do not engage the spirits. Fae are not meant to interact with the dead.” Fear crept into Mab’s eyes. All the more shocking because Mab never quailed.
    “Do I see these things because I died before?” she asked Mab.
    A moue of distaste marred Mab’s cool beauty. “No. It is the demon’s doing.”
    Eliza’s shoulders hit the cushioned squabs. “He did this to me?”
    “You are essentially GIM without the disgrace of a clockwork heart. No doubt, he thought to do you an honor.” Mab’s eyes darkened in disgust. “Or perhaps he figured that, as you were already chained to his side, he did not need to control you by means of your heart as well.”
    Eliza stared blindly down at her lap. Her hands, covered by the finest kidskin gloves money could buy, were clenched into fists. GIM, but not. She wondered if her spirit could leave her body as well, but did not want to try it. Horrible visions of being unable to get back into her flesh made her breath quicken. He’d made her as he was?
    “He’s never tried to find me,” Eliza blurted out. Because Mab had been insistent that Adam would try. It