Page 6 of Between Soul and Vessel
Continuing to stroke his head, she replied, “With your help.”
The tightness in my muscles eased.
“How am I going to help?” Soren asked.
“I’ll get to that, but first, let’s get you something to eat and a nice hot cup of tea,” Ezra said. She pursed her lips in thought. “Although, we might have to go to another kitchen to find you something . . . edible.”
“Ezra,” I cut in, voice flatter than a slab of stone. Colder, too. “I’d like to speak to you. Outside.”
“Alright,” she said, the rhythmic tapping of her cane following me out of the room.
When we were out of earshot, I turned to her and snarled, “Soren is a traitor, and he should be treated as such.”
“Soren is a scared little boy who wants what everyone else wants—to live,” she countered, her hands resting on the top of her cane.
“Then he really should have made better choices,” I stated, my tone menacing.
“He was dealt a poor hand, and he made his decisionsbased on it.”
“That does not excuse what he has done.”
“No, it doesn’t.” She paused. “But he does genuinely care for Sage, and that is something we will use to our advantage. Besides, for what we are going to ask him to do . . . he is going to need his strength. A full belly will help him with that.”
I raised one brow in challenge. “Who said anything aboutasking?”
Ezra sighed, licked her cracked lips, and then said, her voice soft, “I understand your anger toward him—”
“Clearly you do not,” I interjected, my teeth clenched. “Have you forgotten what he’s done? That useless mortal is part of why Sage is no longer here. I will show him all the grace he showed her when he wove his lies into her mind, making her believe he held a knife to your throat, all so he could save himself.”
“I have not forgotten, no.” She took a breath. “But a wise god once told me people are more amenable when they believe they have a choice, even if they do not.” Beneath her milky-white orbs, I could see the razor-sharp mind at work. “I wonder, where is that god now?”
I chuckled at that. “You would try to turn my own words against me in order to manipulate me?” I asked, somewhat amused.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Ezra lied with a coy smile.
“Mhm,” I responded, looking past her, through the doorway, and into the kitchen at the boy who had pissed himself mere moments ago. Perhaps Ezra was right. Perhaps force wasn’t the answer . . . at least, for the time being. “Fine,we’ll do it your way.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
“But the second—”
“I know, I know,” she interjected. “Thenwe’ll try it your way.”
I nodded, forcing a breath into my heated lungs. I watched the boy and muttered, “I do not trust him.”
“Nor do I,” she agreed. “But for this to work, weneedhim.”
A muscle ticked in my jaw. I hated that truth. Hated all of this.
But if this was what it took to have Sage back in my arms, I would endure.
Speaking of—
“The mixtures you have been preparing, how are things going?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“They are getting closer,” she answered. “But I’m going to need those tears from a Lost Soul, as we discussed before.”
“I’ll get them.”
