Page 41 of Hunted By Darkness

Salvator turned around, the blood failing to hide every part of him. Specifically one part I wished I hadn’t glanced at first. “I hate to agree with Sparkles, but it’ll do our job for us. Word will get around, and they’ll keep their mouths shut to avoid being our next targets.”

Lev made a little noise in his throat, eyebrows waggling. “If that doesn’t send the message, then I vote for sending you around town just as you are to make the pointbigand clear.” He emphasized the word big with a snicker my direction.

I was surrounded by children.

I glared at Lev with the violence of a thousand papercuts, but it only made his smile grow. I’d make him pay later. As much as I loved Lev, I hated him right now.

“I don’t see how that’ll help, boy,” the shifter grumbled.

My friend didn’t appear bothered by the tone Salvator had used or the patronizing title he’d given him. I took issue with it, though, and cast angry eyes at the shifter. But I wasn’t given time to chastise Salvator.

Ryker cackled behind me. “Sally’s pulling a Tometi. Night officially made. I love this kid. I’m keeping him.”

The grinning phantom tried to throw an arm around Lev, but it went straight through, and for some reason, that only made him laugh louder. Salvator couldn’t see him, but that didn’t stop him from scowling the wolf’s direction.

Catching an eyeful when he glanced at Salvator, Silas tossed his cloak at him before the shifter could make his way over. “Oi, you wolf bastard. I remember telling you to bring clothes tonight.”

“They’re in the car,” Salvator replied and begrudgingly wrapped the cloak around his naked body.

Silas sighed like he hadn’t been just as frustrating as Salvator at every turn tonight. “What good will they do you all the way out there?”

“You looking for a fight, Sparkles? Because I’m plenty ready. I was just thinking tonight hadn’t been much of a challenge.” Salvator’s wolf gleamed in his vicious stare, changing the color of his irises.

“With your knob swinging about? I’ll be the bigger bloke and save you the loss of a precious part, Sally. My bird has had a long enough night, yeah? She doesn’t want to watch us having it out because you can’t bring a bloody pair of trousers.”

Looks like I have two big pouty babies now.

Lev and I shared a little look before heading back the way we came, leaving the two to figure their shit out.

We’d have to avoid the main streets, but we’d planned on it from the start. All things considered, it was another successful part of the plan carried out. It was time to return to the safe house and figure out how we were going to send the demon hunting us back to the After. I needed to learn how to summon the old magic, and I wasn’t sure how long I had to figure it out.

Voices whispered in my ear, and I woke with a start, covered in a thin sheen of sweat. My pulse pounded, a loud thump thatechoed a fear I couldn’t place. My night had been dreamless, but the whispers beckoned me awake as if I’d come out of a fantasy world.

I’d fallen asleep after spending hours reviewing the book we stole from the Dark Fae Society. Based on its content, this book was meant to be read by only the most trusted in our society. It contained secrets dating back millennia. Secrets I wasn’t even aware existed, that I was confident even my father hadn’t known. It was a hulking, several-thousand-paged monstrosity guarded by magic I’d never seen before. Old, dark magic that both did and didn’t smell like blood.

“She must’ve sealed it after I last saw it. It’s been a couple decades,”Lev mumbled to himself, inspecting the book closely.“This is a bit…extreme. I knew it was important, but I hadn’t realized how important. This is lineage magic she used.”

Which explained the hint of blood without it being blood magic. Lineage magic was stored in objects. Generations of magic aided in its strength. Its reserves weren’t endless, so using it was left to things of great importance. The power of the lineage and how many contributed determined its potency, and only someone with magic from that lineage could break it. Meaning, any new Council members wouldn’t be able to open it.

Lev was the last, and he didn’t hesitate to break the magical seal keeping the book locked. She’d always intended to make him her predecessor. She never imagined that he’d one day betray her, so it was only him who could.

With his eidetic memory, it didn’t take long to find the passage he’d mentioned. After he translated the old text written in a language most Dark Fae couldn’t read or speak, Lev confirmed it called for “the old magic” to summon or banish a demon, and that only those whose power touched the After could use it. More specifically, Soul Collectors.

A little further into the passage it mentioned the price that must be paid after true balance was achieved, and the message Grandmother circled several times immediately came to mind after reading it.‘Even one soul for a soul is a heavy price to pay, but a price we must.’

A soul for a soul? Was it mine or someone else’s? Mother had said the time would come where I’d bind myself to one, either the Soul of Life or the Soul of Death, but what happened to the other she never said. Grandmother said I’d know what I needed to do when the time came. It didn’t feel right to leave everything up to a moment.

But it was the summation of the text at the end of several pages that sang out over the rest. One stark statement that brought everything into crystal-clear focus. The words felt as if they’d been written for me to one day read, though I doubted that was the intention of the original author.

“It’s been prophesized that one day a demon with the power of a Soul Collector and the strength of the After will appear. It will seek to end the world. Death, in its mysterious design, will send powerful souls to restore the balance. These souls will be the difference between a world saved and a world ended. How they achieve the necessary balance will determine the world’s inevitable fate, one that will come to fruition no matter what is done to stop it.”

Death would send powerful souls to restore the balance? That part in particular called out to me. My father, mother, and grandmother. Salvator, Tometi, and Ryker. Were they the souls this prophecy mentioned?

The Dark Fae had called me the Foretold, and after reading what was written in the book Yuma kept sealed with powerful magic, the name felt like another piece of fate sliding into place.

The Dark Fae Society hadn’t killed me for a reason. They’d definitely wanted to. Maybe even tried to if the memory Fatherleft in the necklace was any indication. The Council had feared me and said I’d one day be the end of them—and I had been. I was absolutely the reason they were destroyed, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

I was the granddaughter of the Soul Collector they couldn’t control and locked away in a box of untold torture; I was the daughter of a mother they tried to silence; I was the daughter of a Dark Fae they couldn’t beat; and I had every reason for revenge. Maybe they thought I’d one day take the whole world with me.

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