City of Souls

enough noise so I was also unheard. The first tunnel emptied into a ninety-degree turn, but I stopped keeping track after that. The turns and whorls it took were impossible, part of a magic system rather than any clever planning on the city’s part. After the first few, which I navigated by touch, the air became stifling, and the blood I’d smelled earlier intensified.

Just as I was wondering how much farther this particular rabbit hole went, I heard Regan’s voice. It was closer than I expected, and I froze.

“They won’t come after you,” I heard her say, and a sharp thwack! told me she had just slapped his face. What was it with these Shadow women and face slapping? Did they take classes in it or something?

“I know.” His flat, annoyed response told me it wasn’t the first time he’d been hit. It was probably how she’d brought him back around. It was hard to carry someone heavier than yourself while trudging through a damp tunnel.

“Great, so be a good boy and leap onto that ledge. I’ll tear off a huge chunk of flesh if I try throwing you, and it takes forever for that shit to grow back.”

Eww. A part of Regan’s personal hygiene routine that I really didn’t need to know about.

“Nah,” Hunter replied, and I could practically see the shoulder shrug that went with it. “Go ahead and kill me here.”

“No. I want your kill spot to shine forever just outside Midheaven’s entrance.” By killing Hunter at the entrance to Midheaven, anyone who tried to access that world in the future would scent the olfactory chalk outline that was his kill spot, basically paranormal graffiti that said, Regan was here.

“I know,” he said in a way that meant he wasn’t budging.

She hesitated, thinking. “You know there are lots of ways to seriously injure you before killing you, and believe me, I’m familiar with most of them. This crossbow makes a particularly effective edged weapon.”

“Try burying it just beneath his Adam’s apple,” I said, and sent a thought pulse to bring my glyph to full blast. “That’s always been my favorite.”

Both Hunter and Regan cringed, eyes closed. “Uh-uh-uh,” I said when she swung my conduit my way. “You’d better watch where you point that.”

She notched an iron bolt.

“You can’t kill me, remember? The Tulpa wants me alive.”

“No, but I can kill your boyfriend here.” She pointed the bow exactly where I’d told her. Hunter gave me a dead stare. I grimaced apologetically. “Oops. I mean, ex.”

“Geez, my memory must be bad.” I put one hand on my hip, the other behind my back. “Regan, weren’t you supposed to bring me to the Tulpa at the first given chance?”

Hunter made a warning sound, knowing I was baiting her. “Jo-”

We both ignored him, though Regan kept my conduit trained on his throat. Kill spot or not, she’d murder him there if she had to. He stilled again.

“So what if I tell Daddy Dearest that you traded me for Hunter? That, once again, you put your desires above your leader’s?” I shook my head and heaved a sigh. “Then you’ll never heal. You’ll never be reinstated into the troop. You certainly won’t ever sit at his right hand side…not unless it’s as a knickknack on his side table.”

“And what? You’re going to tell him? Hunter is? Like I’ll let either of you out of this tunnel.” She laughed, but even in the empty tunnels it rang more hollowly than it should have. I smiled.

“He’ll be happy to come to me. All I have to do is let the fury I’m feeling unfurl like a giant red banner. It’s actually quite easy. Probably because it’s so close to the surface.”

She weighed her options, notching the arrow a little tighter in Hunter’s throat, just to feel in control. “You’re going to do that anyway.”

I lifted one shoulder. “Not necessarily. Not if we can strike a deal.”

“No,” Hunter said, as I knew he would, drawing Regan’s attention. “No more deals.”

“Let the woman talk,” she told him, before turning back to me. “What kind of deal? Your life for his?”

“Actually, I had something else in mind.” And I pulled Hunter’s whip from behind my back. Lashing like a rattler’s tongue, I wrapped it around my conduit. Hunter-feeling the same attraction for his conduit that I felt for mine-ducked so the barbs nearest his face licked air. Regan misfired, and I jerked my crossbow from her palm.

But she didn’t let go. She stumbled forward, instinct telling her release meant death, so I simultaneously pulled and delivered a front kick to her chest. My boot sank clear into its center, splitting ribs and separating muscle, and threatened to lodge there. I’m ashamed to say I squealed, but I’d have defied even Hunter to plow through someone else’s chest without a groan.

“Yuck,” he said now. I couldn’t agree more.

“So here’s the deal I was thinking of,” I said once my foot was free. I was breathing hard, kinda grossed out, but I didn’t miss a beat. Too bad Regan couldn’t say the same. She was sprawled on the concrete floor, bloodied and stinkier than ever, and alternating squeals of pain with gulps of breath. I’d displaced her heart, which had to be unbelievably painful…especially when you couldn’t die that way. Now via conduit was another matter, I thought, flipping mine around in my hand to point at her, and throwing Hunter his whip. “How about your soul in exchange for his passage into Midheaven? But wait-there’s more! You get absolutely nothing out of it except more excruciating pain. Do we have a deal?”

“Fuck no, you-”

“Shh…I wasn’t asking your permission.” I shot Hunter a tentative smile, but he was standing flat-footed, arms at his sides, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, that I’d come for him after what he’d done and what I now knew. I swallowed hard and shrugged. “Come on, let’s hoist her up. I have a feeling we won’t be alone for long.”

He hesitated, but bent after another moment to grab an arm and a leg. Well, what else was he going to do? He was a rogue agent now. He had nowhere else to go. Plus, Midheaven was obviously where he wanted to be.

“You think the Tulpa’s really coming?” he said.

“Nah, I didn’t work up my mad yet. Besides, he’s captured Skamar.” Hunter looked surprised. That even caught Regan’s attention. I privately marveled at how natural it was to be working together, talking together, over the body of the one he’d betrayed me for. “I have a feeling he’ll be busy for a while.”

I didn’t even want to know what kind of madness one tulpa could inflict on another.

“Warren, then.” Hunter grimaced, and the niggling I’d felt in the kitchen was back. I was still angrier with Warren than Hunter, but he shouldn’t get too comfortable.

“Of course.” We both knew Warren wasn’t going to just let me walk away. I was, after all, his precious Kairos.

We got Regan up on the ledge, then stood, staring at each other. Conscious of her eyes on us, I put my boot over her face. I resisted the urge to stomp, but only because we needed her breath.

“So,” I finally said. “In return for what?”

“I didn’t betray you, Jo. This,” he said, motioning to Regan down at our feet, “this had nothing to do with you.”

But it should have. Because we were lovers. Because I trusted you. That should have played into whether he teamed up with the trash we were standing on now. I let my silence speak for me. Hunter rubbed a hand over his face.

“This is so stupid,” Regan muttered, knowing she was finished anyway.

“Shut. Up.”

“Lovers are retarded.”

I kicked her in the head.

“I don’t know what you’re looking for over there,” I told Hunter softly, “but I hope it’s worth it.”

It was probably the dim lighting, but tears may have sparkled in his eyes. I looked at the small rips dotting his flesh like a new constellation. They’d scar, I thought, putting my finger to one and wiping the blood away. Injury from conduits always did. “Jo-”

I sniffed, and cleared my voice, focusing on the safe’s dial instead of him. I lined it up with the Leo glyph, Regan’s sign. I wanted to be sure it took her soul and not Hunter’s. “You’ll skip the worst of it by using Regan’s soul in lieu of your own. I guess you figured that out.”