Page 103 of Soul of a Witch

The wood was splintered, the wall broken. Thick slime clung to the broken slats and mushrooms grew from the wood. I rubbed some of the slime between my fingers, giving it a sniff. It had the odor of rotten fish and blood. Doubtlessly from an Eld creature. This was likely where the beast that had attacked Everly broke through.

Straightening up, I gathered magic around me, crafting it into rope-like braids of aether. The ropes were formed with the intention to protect, creating a formidable barrier the Eld would not be able to breach again so easily.

These tunnels were like a maze, and I’d been exploring for hours. For the past week, Everly and I had been coming down here every day. She would remain in the laboratory, studying Sybil’s notes, and I would traverse the tunnels.

It was high time I returned to her.

Back in the laboratory, I could barely see Everly over the piles of books and papers surrounding her. She had conjured several small flames that floated around her, illuminating the handwritten book laid open on the desk. Her eyes were narrowed, and she chewed her lip in concentration.

It amazed me that she could sit in quiet stillness for hours, perfectly focused.

She stretched when I braced my arms against the back of her chair and leaned down, kissing her forehead.

“You’ve been in here all day,” I said. “Studying. Reading.” Pressing my face against the nape of her neck, I slowly inhaled. Her scent flooded my brain like the sweetest perfume.

The slightest glance from her — a breath, a word, a fucking giggle — and I was hard, forced to attention, ready to serve however she needed me.

There was a smile in her words as she said, “Is that your way of saying you miss me?”

I nodded. I traced my fingers down her spine, over her silky blouse.

“I do miss you,” I mumbled against her neck. “Miss you every second I’m not touching you. Every moment I can’t see you.” My hands caressed over her, grasping her breasts and squeezing until her breath hitched. “I can hear you constantly, Everly. I hear you sigh when you turn the page…” I scratched my nails lightly down her arm, coming to rest on her hand. “I hear your tongue move over your lips as you’re thinking. The beat of your heart…the chair creaking under you…the floorboards bowing when your feet move across them…You haunt me.”

When I lifted my head, she was smiling at me. Her eyes were red around the edges from long nights spent reading by firelight.

Since her conversation with Juniper, she’d thrown herself into her work. It felt like she was withdrawing from me. Tension lingered between us that I didn’t know how to address. In the past, if a fellow demon and I had a disagreement, we would simply fight it out.

Or I would leave. Running away from discomfort was a simple solution.

But I couldn’t run from her.

“Have you eaten yet?” I picked up her hand and felt it shake. “What have I told you about neglecting yourself, eh? It’s like you’re trying to make me punish you.”

She giggled as I growled at her, insisting, “I’ll take a break! I am getting hungry. But it’s so hard to stop.” She surveyed the books spread around her, shaking her head in awe. “Sybil’s notes are written in code. There’s so much of it I can’t decipher. But her journals, written in Latin…” She grasped one of the books, picking it up excitedly and flipping through the pages. “She was experimenting on flesh samples from the Eld, and from the God Itself. Her research seems to indicate that the gods aren’t carbon-based lifeforms – at least, They weren’t in whatever dimension They came from. That’s why They have such difficulty surviving on Earth, why it requires so much energy for Them to form physical bodies and move around. But They can imitate fungus. She believed that the God was using mycelial networks to expand the influence of its psychic energy.”

She paused, ducking her head shyly. “What? Why are you staring at me?”

“Because you fascinate me,” I said. “The sound of your voice. Your enthusiasm for what you study. It’s soothing.”

She laughed softly. “Kids used to tease me in school for being a know-it-all. I guess it was annoying that I was always the first one to raise my hand for the teacher’s questions, or that I spent more time reading than playing outside.”

I growled again, but it wasn’t playful this time. “And who were these children?”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. You’re not going to kill them, Callum.”

“No.” I folded my arms. “I’d merely take their tongues for being nasty to you.”

She got to her feet, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Why don’t you let my tongue distract you, instead?”

She rose on her tiptoes to kiss me. She tasted like Earl Grey tea and lemon cake, a feast for my senses. It was blasphemy for a creature like me to touch a being as heavenly as her, but I relished the sin.

“What do you say to a little game before lunchtime?” I said, as she parted from me. “There will be a reward at the end, if you win.”

“What if I lose?”

“That’s the best part,” I said, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “You can’t lose, my lady. It’s impossible.”

She looked confused as I leapt back from her, dancing my way to one of the branching tunnels. She shook her head, laughing when I took her hand and gave her a spin. She didn’t know it, but I’d been reading her paperbacks after she went to sleep. The romance novels she would read in the brief spaces of time she wasn’t studying or practicing were now my study materials.

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