Page 63 of Fractured Souls
I didn’t really know what to think of Nova or the men she surrounded herself with. I mean, I knew what I thought of the Red Masques team, specifically Everett—they were fucking dangerous, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the unpredictability of their actions and how unstable they were. I think that was where Nova came in. I didn’t know for sure, but with the way they interacted with her, I had a feeling she grounded them—despite having chaos magic. It was an interesting dynamic to study.
Well, if we weren’t focused on far more pressing matters.
I wasn’t positive how long I sat there flipping through the book in my possession, but my attention started to wane from having gone through so much information in only a few short days. And if I was tired, I couldn’t imagine how exhausted Lorcan had to be.
“So.” Lorcan looked up at the sound of Nova’s voice. “Do we want to talk about how we both added people to our…team?”
I hid a smirk as I pretended to read, loving that Lorcan had someone to bond with over the concept of having multiple people who were obsessed with her. Although I wasn’t positive I loved the idea of Zander being included… You know what, that wasn’t even fucking worth the battle. The bastard was clearly here for reasons outside of the mission the Cosmos god had given him, and if Lorcan wanted him here, that was all I needed to know. I trusted my flame completely.
Lorcan made an amused noise. “It seems our magic knows what it’s doing better than we do. Zander is a siren like me.”
I loved hearing her talk about her magic in such a familiar way. It was obvious to everyone that the more she used her magic and relaxed into it, not fearing it as much, the more connected they became.
“So how does that work with both of you being sirens?”
“He’s a bit different,” Lorcan said quietly. “Not the same type of siren.”
Fucking understatement. I couldn’t even call Zander a siren. It was more that he wasthesiren, as in one of the first. My gaze darted to the man in question as he continued to read the parchment in front of him. I knew for a fucking fact that I wasn’t the only one eavesdropping.
As if knowing, Lorcan shifted topics. “What abouthim? Who’s your new guy?”
Volkan, I believe his name was—at least from the intel I’d gathered.
Nova’s voice turned even quieter. “A demi-titan of destruction. We…we aren’t exactly together.”
I could sense Lorcan’s amusement through our bond, and if I had to guess, her friend was more than a bit off base.
Leaving them to their conversation, my attention returned to a section of the book on important locations to siren culture, the Elven realm and its many villages unsurprisingly listed.
But it wasn’t only villages. There were other places as well, ones that were located throughout Earth realm, and many were coastal-based. Grabbing a piece of paper nearby, I decided to write down a few and then cross reference them for possible ways to find Beryl Darklace. I had a feeling that she hadn’t survived this long to be killed off in the past two decades or so.
There was a part of me, though, that was uncomfortable at the idea of finding any remaining members of the Darklace family. It was purely selfish, of course, and I wouldn’t say a damn word, but I didn’t like the idea of anyone thinking they had a right to Lorcan. That concept infuriated me. I was possessive enough about her, and I didn’t want an entire family line thinking that she somehow owed them time or attention.
Then again, it was possible that we would find them and it would be a positive relationship. But considering that they made no effort to find Lorcan or Cormac, assuming they were still alive, the prospect didn’t seem likely.
Standing up, I decided to go locate several large maps of Earth realm, spreading them out in front of me. It wasn’t until moments later that I realized River, one of the mages on the Red Masques team, had joined me, studying a separate section than myself.
Extensive intel told me that Everett’s Red Masques team was complex. There was the man himself, a death mage, and then his second-in-command River, a healing mage. There were the twins, Fox and Cassian, who I believed were blood and metal mages respectively, and then August and Rowan, who I had read from my intel were alchemy and ink mages. I didn’t really understand mage magic, but I had enough info to know that almost all the types of mages were represented. That alone would have made them dangerous, but when you added in Nour and Ramsey, who were demi-gods, and the more recent addition of Volkan…
I should have been worried about having to work with them, but I had a feeling that Lorcan and Nova’s friendship would be key in assuring that we kept our shit together. I didn’t know how they felt, but the last thing I wanted was to mess up my flame’s new friendship, especially since she didn’t have many good experiences with friendship as a whole.
“Where did you guys just come from?” I asked River casually, noticing that their magic as a group had shifted since I’d last seen them. It seemed almost unified.
“The Horde, and before that, the God realm. It was an absolute shit show,” River muttered, looking objectively exhausted. “We were nearly killed by Set, and then we found out a ton of shit that made this far more complicated.”
I inhaled sharply. “Yeah, we just returned from the Elven realm—”
“That’s never good,” Volkan said, joining us on the other side of the map.
“And before that, the Demonic realm where Lorcan killed that bastard Mr. Black.”
River chuckled, looking relieved. “And here we thought he’d be coming after us.”
“He’s not coming after anyone anymore,” I confirmed. “Somehow, though, I don’t think any of this shit is going to prepare us for what’s to come.”
The other two didn’t need to say anything for me to know they agreed. Whether we were ready or not, the dark ones were coming.
CHAPTER22
