Heart and Soul

Cassius shoved me as a sword flew past the space my head previously occupied. They’d come, Micah’s friends, for their revenge, and possibly on Boss’s orders to punish Annika for being here. Cassius tracked her scent to one of the soul rooms. Something inside the room pushed me, but I couldn’t leave her. Not after I brought her here.

Shattering glass caused all the fighting to cease. I turned toward the room searching for Annika, but I only saw one thing. The cloudy glass ball I saw in his cruel hands was shattered across the floor. Autumn colors faded into the harsh shade of night before they vanished. I fell to my knees, silently begging for this to be just another of his sick illusions. Several of the crowd behind me dispersed, probably going to whisper in their master’s ear, while I broke for the second time within eighty years.

“I found it!” Her excitement drowned in the sadness that consumned me. Cassius’ hand slid over my shoulder just as it did when I saw that bastard take her from me.

“What have you done?” He whispered over my head. I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the pieces of her cage. ‘We can fix this,’ kept running through my head, but wherever it was my heart knew otherwise.

“No! You don’t understand,” she started. Cassius must’ve given her one of his disappointed glares that shut all the new recruits up before they could lay out the many excuses that he never bought.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I whispered while gently taking the largest hard of the ball in my hand. Even the blond woman sitting between the mossy rock and the river of blood disappeared.

“You did, Nicholai,” Cassius squeezed my shoulder. “You said goodbye to her all those years ago when he killed her mortal body, remember.”

“That was just her shell.”

“She begged me for this, Nick. I had to promise her.”

My eyes managed to drag themselves away from the dull silver shard in my hands. I glared at her while trying to figure out the words to express what she’d done. In one simple promise, Annika stole my entire world. Everything I existed for was in that cloudy glass ball, and she damned it to hell. I opened my mouth to speak when Cassius pulled me to my feet.

“They’re coming. You have to go, now.” He shook my shoulders. “Nick, don’t let what Sora died for be in vein.”

“She…”

“No, Nick! Leith, the Boss, killed her. He locked her in that box without an ounce of magic and you gave her the strength to help this one.” Cassius paused to point to Annika. “Take her somewhere safe, and don’t come back until you have everything you need to destroy this place.”

“Come on, Nick!” She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. I shoved her down a darkened hallway that led to the tunnels below the compound.

Snatching my arm away from her I stated, “don’t touch me again, and be sure to keep up.”

“I only did what she-”

“You sent everything good about me to hell. I won’t reward you for that, Witch.”

We sped through the last door before anyone noticed we weren’t with Cassius. He’d be safe because he could control the vampires better than Boss, and his silver tongue was a blessing. The advice he’d given me couldn’t have been worse. No one was safe in the Underlands with Boss after them, and, what’s worse, I have the one thing he wants most in the world.

“Where are we going?” She questioned.

“Somewhere safe,” I retorted icily while twisting through the tunnels and hoping they wouldn’t pick up our scents.