Page 104 of Soul of a Witch

These gallant heroes she read about weren’t like me. Princes, dukes, and marquesses, who could sweep a young woman off her feet with politeness and charm.

I found far more of myself in the villains, the shadow figures determined to cause death and destruction wherever they went.

But if I was going to be a villain, I would be hers. Her protector in the shadows, her tool of chaos. If I couldn’t charm her with poetry and politeness, then I would use the skills Ididhave.

I cupped her chin and peered with her into the darkness. The tunnel stretched ahead, dissolving quickly into shadow, and she gulped against my hand.

“Find your way through the dark,” I said. “There are candles along the way, so light them as you go. When you find the sun, you win.”

“It sounds too easy.”

“Does it? I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Her pretty lips curled into a playful smile. “Will you be hunting me?”

“Not this time, darling.” I let her go, backing away from her into the tunnel. “This time, you’ll be hunting me.”

36

Everly

This was the first time I had explored the tunnels so deeply.

Callum’s laughter led me deeper, calling out to me in warning. “Don’t lose yourself in the dark.”

Then, silence. The light from Sybil’s laboratory was distantly visible behind me, but it provided little illumination. Faintly, I was able to make out a cluster of white candles nearby, so I lit them with a wave of my hand. Onward I went, lighting candles as I found them, and soon, the camp vanished entirely, lost behind me in the maze.

The quiet was unnerving. The tunnels felt oppressively small, the weight of the earth piled above me. But I kept going, following my senses to discover my demon’s path. He left no footprints, no marks of his passing. Instead, I tracked him using the subtle vibrations in the air that he left in his wake.

The slim silver thread that bound our beings together was faintly visible in the dark. It could be seen most clearly when I meditated, but it was visible to me almost all the time now. When Callum was away from me, that thread was pulled taut and tugging, urging me closer.

Rounding a corner of the tunnel, I caught sight of a beam of light cutting through the darkness. The tunnel sloped upward, little green plants clustered thickly around the mouth of the cave. Clambering up the slope, I emerged breathlessly into the forest, smiling widely as I shouted, “I won! Ha! What’s my reward?”

But the sight before me took my breath away, and I stared in disbelief.

The narrow cavern opening was in the middle of a meadow between the trees. The grass sloped away from me, toward a stream that trickled over a bed of smooth stones, its pebbly shore coated with dark green moss. Flowers bloomed in the grass, tall and swaying in the breeze, their yellow faces turned toward the sun. Insects flitted through the air, and birdsong filled the trees.

My demon stood waiting for me.

His expression was uncertain, almost embarrassed. At his feet was a large blanket laid across the grass, and on top of that was an open basket. There was a bottle of wine within and covered plates of various foods.

“Perhaps your idea of a reward was a bit different,” Callum said, when my stunned silence stretched out. “I was uncertain if you liked red or white wine, so white may have been the wrong choice.”

“This was your idea?” I said, and he nodded. “You…you made a picnic? For me?” He nodded again.

All I’d done was a simple training exercise, the kind of thing I needed to do every day anyway. It was too easy. What had I done to deserve this?

“Why?”

My question caught him off guard, and he frowned. Yet he still had an answer for me, and with every word my throat got tighter.

“I am not a gentle creature, Everly. I know my flaws; I’ve lived with them for centuries. I know the places I fall short and I see it in your eyes when I do.” He paused, his eyes drifting off to scan the trees around us. Always searching for danger, always ready to defend. “You’ll join me, won’t you?”

The grass was tall enough to brush the tips of my fingers as I walked over to him, joining him on the blanket. His claws caressed my cheek, his thumb coming to rest at the corner of my mouth as I smiled.

“It kills me to disappoint you,” he said. “I would cut off my hands if it would soften me enough to please you.”

“You do please me,” I whispered, looking at him with a sudden pang in my chest. But I couldn’t deny his words. There were times when I looked at him in fear, when I felt overwhelmed by his sheer power and experience. I was merely a twenty-three-year-old witch, and he was an immortal being who’d seen kingdoms rise and fall, who’d watched modern humanity come into being.

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