Zayfeer shifted his weight, but met my eyes. “Think, witch. The first soul you ever took for Lucifer.”
The first soul I took for Luc belonged to a black rapper who was now happily ensconced in fame, fortune and mega-stardom. “Frosty A? What’s special about his soul?”
Zayfeer rubbed his eyes, let out an impatient sigh. “Not the Frost Man. Your first soul.”
“He was my first soul.”
“You’ll have to tell her,” Nikita said. “She doesn’t remember.”
Why was I always in the dark? Oh, right. Because Lucifer never told me anything.
My hand instinctively went to my heart and then traveled down to my lower abdomen. Tears burned at the corners of my eyes and I had no idea why, except I was sure I wasn’t going to like the answer to my question. “Whose soul is it?”
“It’s your…”
In the distance, the tree screamed, the noise like nails on a chalkboard as naked limbs reached skyward.
I slapped my hands over my ears again and grimaced. A storm rose out of nowhere. Lightning flashed and we all ducked. Wind tore through the trees, blowing back my hair and swirling the fog into dozens of dust devils that swiped at my feet and whipped against my back and legs.
Zayfeer grabbed my arm and jerked me sideways as a large branch broke off a nearby tree. “We have to get out of here!”
Nikita jetted by, heading in the direction Z had emerged from. He pushed me forward, helping me dodge the debris flying through the air. As the fog parted and swirled, I saw an opening to a cave.
We were about to duck inside when a fresh pain exploded inside my chest. I staggered, falling to my knees. Dark spots danced in my field of vision. “Wait,” I called over the noise.
Z grabbed my shirt and hauled me to my feet. “What?”
“He kills that tree, he kills me. I have to stop him.”
Z’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not possible.”
“With her?” Nikita dog-snorted. “Anything’s possible.”
Hair blew across my eyes and I gripped Zayfeer’s tunic. “Just tell me whose soul it is. Is it mine?”
The rational wasn’t there. God had returned the halves of my soul, reuniting them and giving me free will. There was no way my soul or any part of it could be imbedded in that tree.
But if the soul wasn’t mine, then why was I having such a visceral reaction to its destruction?
Z shook his head. “It’s not yours.”
Another blow rocked the tree in the background. I gasped and clawed at the burning inside my chest. He looked as if it pained him as well.
“The soul inside that tree? Amy…it belongs to your mother.”
Chapter Twenty – Trial By Fire
My mother?
The wind died as fast as it had come. My fists tightened on Zayfeer’s tunic. Did he think I was stupid? “Stop playing games. I never brokered my mother’s soul.”
“Yes, you did. She was your first.”
Nikita moved closer, leaning against my leg as if offering support. “You were young. Just a pup.”
A shaking started in my legs, snaked up my hips and into my stomach. My magic repelled the weakness, but it flooded my arms and skittered up the back of my neck.
My voice came out a whisper. “You’re lying.”
Z’s gaze held mine. “Why would I lie?”
“You’ve been playing games with me since you broke out of your purgatory. You tried to blackmail me at Keisha’s party. All in the name of redemption. Don’t stand there and pretend innocence.”
He started to reply when a loud crack rent the air and we all ducked.
Not the tree. Not a bolt of lightning. Not the heavens.
The earth.
Right through the middle of the forest, a giant fissure fractured the ground and zigzagged through the trees. The forest floor trembled. The trees quaked. A volcano of fire and brimstone erupted from the spreading crack and a pair of matching black shadows emerged, spreading over the landscape. Wings; on their feathery ends, fire.
“Finally,” Nikita said. “Something interesting.”
From the earth, a voice rang out, roaring up into the sky and echoing over the trees. “How dare you threaten the one I love?”
I knew that voice. Knew that tone. Turning loose of Zayfeer, I stumbled toward the cave’s entrance. “Luc?”
I couldn’t see anything but the outline of black wings. Black, glossy wings that trailed fire. Orange flames licked the trees in my forest, turning the whole thing into an inferno. The smell of burning wood flooded my nose.
“No.” My voice was still ragged. “Not the souls.”
Zayfeer grabbed the back of my neck and forced me to follow where he pointed. “Look. He’s releasing them.”