Page 42 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“Keep up the good work,” Evangeline murmured, stroking the pad of one finger between his ears. He let out a low rumbling purr and a happy feline sigh.

Evangeline shrugged off her jacket, tossed it on the sofa, and headed for a door I assumed led to a bathroom. Marcus continued constructing his horrible sandwich.

“Evangeline speaks very highly of you,” I said.

Marcus’s bright eyes flicked up to me. “Is that so? She’s a very generous young woman. Always seems to find a way to see the best in people.” Even if they don’t deserve it, his gaze said.

I barely resisted the urge to squirm.

Marcus began placing golden raisins on his concoction. “She’s an excellent investigator, but she can sometimes be too trusting for her own good,” he said as calmly as if he was talking about the weather.

“I assure you I have no intention of betraying her trust,” I said, feeling like I’d been thrown into a test without any time to study.

Marcus hummed thoughtfully, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. There were runes tattooed on his fingers in faded blue-black ink—one between each knuckle. At the base of each fingernail was a small, stylized eye.

“Mr. De Montclair,” he said, then shook his head with a grandfatherly chuckle. “Excuse me. Lord De Montclair.” I hid a wince at the title. “I’m not sure you’ve considered what this situation looks like from my perspective.” He eased a hand under Pothos and gently shifted him onto the top level of the nearby cat tree.

“Please,” I said, sliding onto one of the stools in front of the island. “Enlighten me.”

Marcus smiled thinly. “My ward receives an anonymous letter informing her of a powerful artifact with the potential to do irreparable damage if used as a weapon. As soon as she begins to investigate it, the heir of an incredibly powerful vampire clan suddenly comes into her life. An heir, I might add—and I hope you won’t take offense to this—who is widely assumed to be primarily decorative, and who seems to be quite resentful of that assumption. With the help of this heir, Evangeline throws herself into several dangerous situations, and he’s right there by her side. On one of these expeditions, she discovers that, wonder of wonders, there’s a group of vampires looking for the very same artifact.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Marcus held up a bony hand to stop me. “I’m not done,” he said sharply. He braced his hands on the island and leaned over it toward me, looking me dead in the eye. Sweat prickled at my hairline.

“If someone was looking for an incredibly powerful weapon, they would use multiple methods,” he said calmly. “They might, for instance, hire a very capable investigator, follow her while she gathered all the pieces they needed, and then eliminate her and take the array for themselves.”

“That’s n—” I began, but Marcus twisted a finger through the air and my voice died in my throat as I tried to push the words out.

“You may speak when I am done,” Marcus said. “You can understand how this looks, can’t you? A prince kept from the power that’s his birthright, helpfully agreeing to help Evangeline find a source of incredible strength.”

I nodded reluctantly, and Marcus rewarded me with a small smile. He picked up Evangeline’s saltshaker—a grinning ceramic skull in a top hat—and poured a small pile of salt onto the table. He began to trace a complex pattern into the salt with one finger. The eye tattoo stared up at me.

“In a moment,” he said casually. “I’m going to give you a choice, Lord De Montclair. I’ll drop the spell that’s keeping you silenced, and you will tell me if you’d rather grant me brief, limited access to your mind so that I can see your intentions, or I will cast a spell that will force you to answer three questions completely truthfully. If you attempt to lie, it will be excruciatingly painful. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded, my mind racing. I’d had no idea that Evangeline’s mentor had the sort of power he was threatening to use so calmly. Did she even know the extent of his magic?

“Now, are you ready to make your choice?” Marcus asked.

I nodded again, and the spell that had been restricting my voice disappeared abruptly.

“The three questions,” I rasped. Every single one of my instincts was screaming at me that it would be incredibly unwise to let such a powerful witch into my mind.

Marcus smiled at me. “Yes, I thought you might say that.” He grabbed my wrist so quickly I barely saw him move, and he slammed my hand down onto the scarred countertop of the island so that my palm was pressed over the pattern he’d sketched into the salt.

“Why are you looking for the ascendancy array?” Marcus asked, his eyes boring into mine.

I refused to break eye contact first. Perhaps it was petty, but control of this situation was clearly far from mine, and it seemed like the only thing I could do.

“I think that it’s linked to the disappearances of vampires in the city, and I want to help Evangeline,” I said. The words bubbled up from my mouth without my input, spilling clumsily into the room.

“What would you do with it if you found it?” Marcus asked.

“Give it to Evangeline,” I said immediately.

Marcus raised a bushy gray eyebrow. “Interesting,” he said. “Why are you so invested in Evangeline?”

I could feel the words trying to force their way between my teeth and swallowed them back down. “I don’t know,” I said. The salt under my hand went burning hot, sending bolts of pain up my arm. I tried to pull away, but between the magic and Marcus’s bony grip, I wasn’t going anywhere. “Because I think I’m falling in love with her,” I blurted. The pain stopped immediately, and Marcus let my wrist go.

I stared down blankly at the salt on the table, covering my mouth with my hands. I couldn’t believe I’d actually said it. Hell, I hadn’t even let myself think it before, and now I’d just blurted it out. I had never prayed a day in my life, but now I sent a fervent prayer to anyone who might be listening that Evangeline hadn’t heard what I’d said.

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