Page 11 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“I think I might have gotten something here,” Isabella said. “Hang on, let me…” She pulled out her phone and typed rapidly, then nodded. “Here, take a look. This book has a footnote that references a manuscript on magical craftsmanship, and I had a hunch that turned out to be right.”

She stuck her phone in my face, and the picture on the screen was a high-definition image of a yellowed page covered with dense Gothic script. “Say hello to the Gottenheim Artefaktbuch,” Isabella said. “Lucky for us, the Verstecktestadt Zaubermuseum just digitized their collection, so the whole manuscript is on their website.”

“I don’t think you’re ever allowed to make fun of me again now that I’ve seen you get excited about museum digitization,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes. “I hooked up with one conservator who was part of the project at the conference. And I also think digitizing stuff like this is important. I contain multitudes.”

“Lucky for me,” I said. “So, what does this German manuscript I’m not going to try to pronounce tell us?”

“It tells us the ascendancy array is mentioned in a prophecy, and that the prophecy is kept in a shrine.”

“So, what, we need to go to Germany?” I asked.

“This is the exciting part,” Isabella said, her eyes alight with excitement. “You see this bit here?” She pointed at a bit of the text on the screen, which looked exactly like the rest of the page to me. “This is a description of the shrine, and I’ve seen this exact place before. Maybe it was in Germany originally, but now it’s in the Valley of the Forgotten.”

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. The Valley of the Forgotten was the sort of thing parents used to scare little baby witches into behaving. It moved around the world, sucking up stray dark magic. It tended to lurk around the outskirts of different magical cities to feed, trying to tempt in unsuspecting people to trap. It didn’t stay anywhere long—a few weeks at most—before it showed up in another location to start its cycle again.

“We have no idea where the Valley’s going to turn up next, though,” I pointed out.

Isabella shook her head. “Check this out,” she said. “I took this when I was coming back home this morning.” She pulled up a selfie on her phone that showed her far above the city, basking in the early morning light as she rode her broom. Her hair matched the clouds behind her perfectly.

“Uh,” I said. “You look great?”

“Well, duh, but that’s not the important thing.”

I frowned, taking a closer look, then zoomed in on the background of the picture. There was a thin crescent that seemed out of place in the forest around the city. The trees were different, much darker than the ones surrounding them. The shape of them was curled around the city like an open mouth.

“It’s here,” I said. “Shit, it’s here.”

“Exactly,” Isabella said. “Which probably means there’s a shit-ton of dark magic being used somewhere in the city that drew it here, but that’s above my pay grade.”

I grimaced. Knowing my luck, I’d probably have to deal with that, pay grade or no. I went to grab my jacket, but she tugged at my wrist. “Are you crazy?” she asked. “We can’t go running into the Valley after dark without any prep.”

“But—”

“Trust me,” Isabella said firmly. “We really shouldn’t mess around with this place. It’s dangerous. We’ll go in the morning, okay?”

“You don’t have to come with me,” I said, but she just rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m coming with you. Now, come on, let’s clean up a little and talk some shit.”

Later, once papers had been cleared away, plans had been made, and wine had been opened, we flopped on the sofa, with Pothos purring up a storm between us.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Isabella was saying. “It’s just stressful, you know? And all the apps are garbage. If I see one more picture of a boring-looking guy holding up a fish, I’m gonna lose my mind.”

“Why do they always pose with the fish?” I asked, refilling my glass. The wine was very cheap but very effective, and the more you drank the better it tasted.

“Maybe they’re trying to prove that they can provide, but in, like, a hunter-gatherer way?” Isabella hypothesized. “Maybe I’ll just stay single for a while. I’m so tired of dressing up for a first date and then finding out the guy’s a prick.”

“I’ve just stopped bothering,” I said. “Witch men are always so goddamn arrogant, and human guys are either freaked out by my magic or way too into it…”

“Last time I dated a werewolf, my cycle synced with the full moon, so it was like double PMS, and I definitely can’t deal with that again,” Isabella said. “Cramps and a hyperactive wolf at the same time? Total nightmare.”

“I guess that would be a perk of being with a vampire,” I said thoughtfully, then waited until Isabella shot me a quizzical look. “They’d be fine with period sex.”

“Oh, my God,” Isabella said before hitting me with a pillow. “Nasty. Nasty! If you find out with Mr. Spooky Vampire Prince, you’ve gotta promise to tell me.”

“You’re a nightmare,” I told her fondly.

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