Dancing With The Devil, Witches Anonymous Step 5(26)
Whatever was being dragged on the ground scraped against a tree. Metal clanged. There was a splitting noise, and deep inside the forest, a tree shuddered. The tall tree. A couple more of its leaves broke away and fell in a death spiral to the ground.
Inside my chest, my heart tried to break free. A burst of white hot pain shot through my upper body.
“Unless,” Nikita added, “you’re into that whole Axeman/Resident Evil thing.”
Oh, no. Keisha had made me watch those movies over and over. Every time, I freaked out more about the Axeman than the zombies.
“And me without my gun loaded with coins.”
Nikita grinned. “Who needs coins? You’ve got me.”
I rubbed my chest where the burning sensation hovered around my magic. “Right. I feel so much better.” Not.
Another scrap, another clang, another strike against the tall tree. A collective moan went up from the trees and pain burst again inside my chest. Nikita and I stepped backwards into the fog, hit the invisible wall.
I wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead. “Why is it chopping down the tree?”
“My guess? The trees represent the souls you sold to the Devil. Axeman is a reaper. He’s sending that soul to Hell.”
Through the fog, I studied the tree, my heart beating a painful rhythm. Was the tree reaching toward me? It looked so…sad.
I was definitely losing it. “How do we stop him?”
“The Axeman? Hell if I know.”
“I’m so glad Luc sent you of all people—er, creatures. You’re such a big help.”
“Kidding, kidding. As you well know, I happen to be an expert on taking souls to Hell. You can’t stop a reaper from collecting a soul. What you can do is make a trade.”
“Trade one soul for another?”
“Exactly.”
“But I don’t have a soul to trade.”
“You have yours.”
Silence…from the forest and from my magic.
The pain continued burning in my chest but a hollowness set up shop next to it. “So this is all a trick to get me to give my soul to Lucifer again.”
“It’s not a trick. I’m telling you, if you want to save that soul from Hell, you have to give the reaper a soul in exchange. It’s just how things work.”
Axeman struck the tree another blow and one of the remaining leaves fell. A cry went up; the wind screaming through the trees and bending their branches.
Or maybe the trees themselves were screaming.
I slapped my hands over my ears. My knees went out and I slid down the invisible wall of fog to land hard on my butt.
At one time, my soul had been split in two. Lucifer owned half and Gabriel the other half. It hadn’t been easy to rejoin them, but I’d struck a deal with God and both halves were mine now. My fate was my own. I controlled my destiny.
At least in theory.
Images of the people I’d brokered deals for were cataloged deep in my brain behind a door I never opened.
But that tree wasn’t just any soul. My brain knew it, my magic and my heart did as well. The idea of going to Hell in place of that soul made my stomach heave, but for reasons I didn’t understand, I had to save that tree. Had to save that soul.
“Fine,” I whispered, my breath hitching but my resolve strong. “I give my soul as trade.”
Chapter Nineteen – A Walk In the Dark
“Hold on, there, Broker.” Zayfeer emerged from the fog. “Let’s not be rash.”
The wind died, and with it, the screaming.
Slowly, I removed my hands from my ears. “You.”
Pushing to my feet, I got in his face and shook a finger at him. “This is your doing, isn’t it?”
My legs wobbled and my feet couldn’t seem to stick to the ground, pitching me forward. He grabbed my arms just before I face-planted into his chest. “I had nothing to do with designing this…this…” He paused and glanced at the forest. “Poor excuse for purgatory.”
Everyone’s a critic. I clenched my fists. “What are you doing here, then?”
His gaze probed mine. “You can’t trade your soul for that one.”
“Why not?”
He glanced away. “That one’s…nonnegotiable. The terms are written in stone.”
Nikita’s brown eyebrows shot up. “Oh. My. God. That soul is…?”
She left the question hanging and Z gave her a terse nod.
The queasiness in my stomach pushed up toward my throat. I opened the mental door so I could flip through the images in my brain. Nine-hundred ninety-nine souls.
But this one was special.
The deal, nonnegotiable.
Whatever was obvious to the Hell hound was not to me. None of the people cataloged in my brain stood out as any different than the others. “Whose soul is it?”