Page 40 of Soulmates

“Thank you,” Maddox said, and Cricket just nodded.

“This is all unbelievable,” Santiago said, gesturing at the books. “Magic used to be used so differently. So much was possible. It seems like we lost a lot over the years.”

“Some of that is technology, making certain types of magic unnecessary. Some of it is theoretical because we don’t know if it was really used or is a metaphor,” Cricket said, pointing to a book so old it looked like a single touch would disintegrate it. “Other magic is still being used, just not by you. They’ve educated you in certain kinds of magic and not certain others. But that’s not something we have time to get into this morning.”

Santiago huffed out a frustrated breath but looked at Maddox and Jake’s joined hands and nodded. Everything Cricket said were things the three of them knew in theory. Maddox had been researching scratch magic and the systems of oppression and lies surrounding their current magical hierarchy for years. Santiago and Jake were two of the only people he’d shared his research with.

“Do you want to shower?” Santiago asked.

“Yes,” Maddox said quickly, prompting a laugh from Santiago.

“Coffee first,” Jake nearly pleaded.

“In the kitchen,” Cricket said.

After Jake got his fuel, Santiago followed them upstairs to un-bond and re-bond their hands so they could get their shirts off. In the shower, they washed each other, laughing and sharing a few kisses. It was nice and calm and something Maddox could see them doing for the rest of their lives, assuming their current circumstance didn’t kill them.

After a quick breakfast standing over the kitchen counter, they went to the living room to join in the research.

“Where are we? What should we be looking for?” Maddox said.

“You can start with these,” Cricket said, handing them each a stack of seven or eight books. “Look for any mention of the Soul Exchange or magic sharing or mating bonds.”

“Mating bonds?” Jake said with an incredibly endearing elevated pitch to his voice. He cleared his throat. “What is a mating bond?”

“Calm down, Romeo. It’s just a way some cultures describe the soul bond,” Santiago said.

“Okay, we can do that,” Maddox said, trying hard not to laugh at Jake, who didn’t buy Maddox’s innocent look and pinched his side. “Hey!”

“We don’t have time for this,” Cricket said. “Those potions will only take you so far for so long. Your eyes didn’t dim with the second dose, and they should have like they did with the first.”

“Jake said my eyes were glowing last night.”

“They were, but not like they were when you arrived. When you first got here, it was hard to look at you.”

Maddox started a bit at that and looked over at Santiago, who was nodding while still looking at her book.

Maddox and Jake both picked up a book and began reading. Maddox lucked out in that the one he was looking through was in English. He could read English, French, and Latin, and get by with Spanish and Italian, but he knew many of the books that contained the best information were from the Far East or were in languages lost to time. Those books were being held together by some sort of spellwork. They had to be. They would never have lasted this long, much less in the humid swamp without protection.

He found nothing about exchanges, sharing, bonding, or mating in the first three books. Jake had to pull his attention back to the task several times after catching Maddox poring over something unrelated to their current situation. He couldn’t help himself. This was what he’d been wanting to find for years—unfiltered access to information that contradicted or expanded on what they’d been taught. But that could wait.

Each time any of them found a passage that might have something to do with the exchange, they handed it over to Cricket, who stacked it next to his chair. Hours passed. Maddox found a wedding ceremony that contained the words “joining” and “sharing” over and over, along with tying the hands of the couple together before and during the ceremony. He handed that over as well. The pile of books next to Cricket was gaining height, which felt like tentative progress. Finally, as the words and images began to blur on the page, Jake snapped his book closed and said, “Let’s take a break before Maddox falls over. Can I help make lunch?”

Cricket simply nodded, and they went into the kitchen. Jake leaned Maddox against the counter, and Cricket handed him a large glass filled with the same murky potion as the others. He sipped it while Santiago and Cricket made half a dozen huge sandwiches, after quickly realizing Jake was going to be no help one-handed. Maddox felt better after his drink, and they moved to the small kitchen table to eat. The two warriors dug into two each without preamble.

“How did you end up down here? You don’t have the same accent we heard in Everglades City. You sound like a Northerner,” Maddox said to Cricket.

“I’m from South Dakota. I followed nature down here in a manner of speaking,” Cricket said.

“Plenty of nature in the Dakotas,” Maddox said.

Cricket smiled slightly. “Yes. I followed a nature problem down here. My family was well-known for our affinity toward earth magic or nature magic as some call it. We were notified of a problem with the local rabbit population that couldn’t have been natural, so they sent me down to root it out.”

“And did you?” Maddox said.

“I did,” Cricket said.

“What kind of rabbit problem requires a nature mage?” Maddox asked.

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