Page 23 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

“Ah, Evangeline,” said Iskra. She was perched in a black rattan chair in a small, sunny room filled with plants. On the matching side table next to her was a delicate porcelain teacup, complete with saucer, filled with blood. Nestled halfway into a massive fern in the corner was another chair, where Marcus sat with the little roll of tools he used to clean his vape spread across his knees. The vape itself, an awful thing shaped like a long-stemmed wooden pipe, was disassembled in his hands.

“Do come in,” Iskra said, even though I had already stepped through the open door. “We have much to discuss.”

I perched on the only remaining seat in the room, a bench that matched the big chairs but was way less imposing. It made me feel a little like I’d been called into the principal’s office—at least from what I’d seen in the movies since I’d never really gotten in trouble at school.

“As you have already been made aware, I was visiting the citadel to retrieve items from my collection,” Iskra said. She took a sip of blood, then set the cup back on its saucer so smoothly, the porcelain didn’t even clink. “Most of the pieces I reclaimed were taken with the desire to keep them out of the wrong hands, or purely because of their sentimental value,” she continued. “However, I believe that one of the sentimental items could be of some use to you in our current predicament.”

“Maybe you should just show her,” Marcus suggested.

Iskra handed me a small wooden box, round, and maybe the diameter of a ping pong ball. It opened a little stiffly—the hinges were old and a bit battered—to reveal a ring nestled inside. The ring was a gold band with a clear, flat disc of stone set into it. Small patterns were stamped into the metal around the edge of the stone, and when I held it up to get a closer look, the stone glinted with barely there shimmers of pink, blue, and green. It looked old, like a well-preserved archaeological find still weighed down by time after it had been cleaned off and made museum ready.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “What, uh… what is it, exactly?”

Iskra gave Marcus a sharp look, as if to say ‘what have you been teaching your apprentice? She should be able to recognize this extremely rare magical artifact right away.’ He seemed unbothered, though, as he screwed his pipe back together.

“This ring was crafted by Aurelia Ursa,” Iskra said, and I jumped like I’d been electrocuted.

“Holy fuck,” I said. “What? No. Holy shit, you can’t give me this. Jesus Christ!” Every witch knew of Aurelia Ursa. Every vampire, too, probably. She had been one of the witches, thousands of years ago, who had worked to create eternal life, and had instead created vampires. That entire coven was legendary, and according to the stories, Aurelia had been the strongest of them. The right collector would snap up anything she’d owned for eye-watering amounts of money. Something she’d made? It’d be enough to retire on. It would be enough for your grandkids to retire on. I was instantly hyperaware of how sweaty my palms were.

Iskra watched me with a delicately amused twist of her lips, and Marcus looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“Aurelia’s interest in eternal life was really more of a diversion,” Iskra said, taking another calm sip of blood. “Her true passion was for ley lines. You know about ley lines, I assume?”

“The natural flow of wild magic,” I said. “With more power where the lines intersect.”

Marcus nodded at me proudly.

“Just so,” Iskra agreed. “Aurelia discovered that if a witch is powerful enough, they can slip into the stream of magic and let themselves be taken to an intersection of the ley lines. Assuming, of course, they have something to help them navigate.”

I twisted the ring. The light glinting off the stone changed color. At one angle, bright white. At another, the flecks of color were back.

“The ring is a compass,” I said.

Iskra tilted her head to the side. “Well, no, but if that’s the analogy that works for you, it’s good enough.”

“And you think I’m powerful enough to use this?” I put the ring back in its box extremely carefully and wiped my hands on my jeans in a way I hoped was subtle.

“I had the chance to meet Aurelia,” Iskra told me. “She was older then, and had only gotten more powerful with age. I could see her power, child, and it was comparable to yours. Perhaps a little stronger, but you’re young yet.”

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. “I need a minute,” I blurted, thrusting the box back into her hands and standing up. I tangled my fingers into my hair and paced the length of the little room a couple times.

“Does she do this often?” I heard Iskra ask Marcus. “When I met her before, she didn’t seem terribly prone to histrionics.”

“You just told her she’s as powerful as a witch who helped to create an entirely new species,” Marcus pointed out.

“Nearly as strong,” Iskra said.

“Even so. It’s a lot to take in.”

Iskra sniffed in disapproval. “Still, there is such a thing as decorum. A girl of her age should be more poised.” There was a pause. I stared at a ficus. “How old is she, exactly? I can never tell with humans. Eighty? Ninety?”

“Twenty-five, I believe,” Marcus told her.

“Twenty-six,” I muttered.

“Ye gods,” Iskra said. “Practically a babe in arms. I suppose I can tolerate some light histrionics, in that case.”

I took a deep breath and sat back down on the bench. “Okay,” I said. “Okay, okay. So, um. Teleportation?”

---