Soul Cursed, page 3
“I don’t owe you an explanation.” Her gaze bore into him as she tried to let fury burn away the hurt his words caused.
“Surely you’ve not been here since I left?”
She pressed her lips against all the words she wanted to shout at him and just said. “Pretty much.”
“But what about your plans? You wanted to travel the world after your contracted years as Guardian of Pompeii were up. To keep helping people.”
She shrugged. “Plans change.”
“Not this much.”
She glanced at Hades and Seph. They watched her carefully, as they always did, as she wished they wouldn’t. She wasn’t breakable – you couldn’t break what was already broken. But they obviously hadn’t told him anything. Good. Not that she thought they would. They’d kept her secrets all these years. They were hardly about to spill them to one too-handsome auburn-haired cupid.
“Rinna, what happened?” he asked more softly.
She hated that his voice could still get inside her like that; curling around her heart, making her want to soften, to confide. She straightened her back. “I decided research was my forte. And Hades has been kind enough to let me live in his palace where I can do my research undisturbed.” She turned back, glowering at him. “So, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to what I was doing before you interrupted.”
“I ...” His fingers grazed her arm before she could turn away. “Rinna, please. You have to believe me. I did send you letters. I did try to find you.”
“I don’t believe you.” She bit back on the sob in her voice, too aware of the others watching.
“I wasn’t allowed to leave Eros’ side for an entire year. I was bound to him. I couldn’t break free until I had permission.”
“And it took you a whole year to get permission?”
Tam lifted his hands and let them drop. “Eros was intractable. A fact you would have known if you had got my letters.”
“Well, I didn’t get any letters.”
His gaze raked over her face. “And I didn’t get any from you, yet you say you sent them.”
“I did. Are you saying somebody kept them from us? Why would they do that?”
“I have no idea. But the real question is, why won’t you believe me? Why would you think I would leave without a word? You obviously think very little of me.”
“I ...” She clenched her fists at her side, trying to stop the tremors shaking through her body from showing. “You. Left. Me.”
Tam took a step closer, his violet eyes ablaze with indignation that seemed so real. “Not. By. Choice!”
He stood so close now, his breath brushed over her face. She stepped closer. “So. You. Say.”
His jaw clenched. “It seems to me like you were just annoyed that I didn’t deign to get your permission before I left.”
“Deign to get my permission?” Her fingers curled into fists.
“Oh-oh. That was a mistake,” Hades said, snickering.
“Hades, you need to do something,” Persephone whispered.
“Why? This is fun,” Hades whispered back.
She ignored them, attention boring into the annoying cupid in front of her. “Deign. To. Get. My. Permission?” She poked him in the chest with each word, her finger bouncing off firm, defined muscle.
He grabbed her finger, holding it firmly in his warm grasp. Fire zapped through her veins at the contact. Ah Hells. He’d always been cute, but now ... He’d grown into his demi-God-hood in the almost two thousand years since she’d seen him. And how! She took a gulping breath and forced herself to stare unblinking into his beautiful eyes. “How can you say that to me? After all we shared?”
His full mouth thinned as her question struck him. Then, jaw clenched, eyes blazing, he asked, “How is that different from you accusing me of betrayal after all we shared?”
“I ... I ... Get out.” She tore her hand from his and pointed at the door, her powers fizzing inside her, sparking on her fingertips. She mercilessly pushed them back. She couldn’t trust them. Not after … “Get out before I do something I can’t take back.”
“My pleasure, my Queen.” Tam bowed, waving his hand, an obvious mocking of the gesture he used to make to her; one that had always made her laugh. It should have made her angrier, but the anger died the moment she saw the mark on his wrist.
Gasping, she grasped a hold of his arm. “What is this?” The marking, marred by an obvious attempt to heal it, was damaged by a nasty scar running through its middle but it was unmistakably from the lost Eleusinian Mysteries Grimoire. Every reference she’d managed to get her hands on had spoken about the unmistakable difference in the spell work and sigils – and this was different. Even damaged, it made her skin both crawl and shiver in excitement. “This spell. Where did you get it?”
“Persephone! I thought you’d healed him,” Hades said, moving as if to stand between them.
“I did,” she answered, appearing at Hades side, reaching for Tam’s hand. “But I can’t make a spell like that disappear. It’s damaged though. Nobody will be able to copy and use it.” She turned her gaze on Korinna. “What I want to know is how my darling Soteira knows what it is.”
Korinna’s heart pounded faster as she glanced between her mentor and Hades, their expressions harder than she’d ever seen, and aimed at her. “It’s the answer,” she whispered. “Not this spell particularly, but where it comes from.”
A light of understanding lit Persephone’s eyes. “You should have come to me. Told me you were looking for the grimoire.”
“Why? You wouldn’t have been able to help. You and Demeter never took any notice of what your worshippers did until they created their spells, until a grieving lover created and used this one.” She gestured at Tamuel’s wrist. “Then you destroyed everything they’d created, just so nobody could use any death or soul translocation spells again. Not only could you not tell me what I needed to know, I knew you would never let me have it.”
Seph drew closer, touched her cheek. “My darling girl. Of course I would. If it is what you need to help get over your self-imposed exile and stop grieving, I would have searched the Realms to find someone who remembered it.”
She blinked rapidly. Of course, Seph had no idea what the consequences would be if she used the grimoire ... but she couldn’t let herself think of that guilt and grief now. Not when the answers were so close to being in her grasp. She looked back at Tam. “This is how you got here in corporeal form?”
He nodded.
She wanted to demand why he would do such a risky thing, but too many other questions vied for attention and came spilling out. “But how do you come to have that spell? Did you find someone who remembered it? Do you only have this spell? Do you know the location of the Eleusinian Mysteries Grimoire?”
“Not just the location. I have the entire grimoire,” he said.
Excitement fluttered in her chest. “You’ve got a copy of the entire grimoire?”
“I do.” He smiled. A smile she used to love; a smile that had encouraged her into one mischievous scheme after another, overriding her more cautious nature; a smile that had got her through so much; a smile she had missed like no other when it was gone from her life.
But she didn’t have time for such things now, so steeling herself against it, she said through a tight jaw, “You’re not lying?”
“I would never lie to you, Rinna. Not about the letters I sent or trying to find you. And certainly not about this.”
Her breath a shallow pant as she looked deep in his eyes – he’d never been able to lie to her. At least, she hadn’t thought he could until he’d left and she’d realised she’d been fooled. But what she saw in his eyes now, openness and a need for her trust, it made her nod. Even though she still didn’t quite believe him about the rest, she believed him about this. She held out her hand. “Then show me.”
He snorted. “I don’t have it on me. Do you think I would carry such a thing around, especially down here?”
“Of course not.”
“But I am happy to give it to you after I’m finished here.”
Korinna trembled, her breath a rough gasp in her throat. “You will give it to me?” The very thing she’d been looking for to right her past wrongs? It seemed too good to be true. “Why would you do that? It’s priceless.”
He flicked his hand. “Its only value to me was in getting me to and from this place in corporeal form. But now, its value is far beyond anything I had thought it.”
“How is that?”
“Because I will give it to you only after you help me.”
Chapter
Three
The wonder in Korinna’s eyes evaporated, to be replaced by bitterness. Tamuel swore deep inside. He hated seeing that bitterness in his best friend’s eyes – ex-best friend according to her. Her fury was more welcome than the rancour and disappointment currently dulling the golden-topaz of her large eyes.
“You wish to hold my services to ransom?”
The way she said it – it cut him to the core. That she would think so little of him ... but then again, she already had thought so little of him given she believed he’d left without a word; without trying to find her. And he’d thought so little of her for the same reason.
Someone had got between them, of that he was certain, even if he had no idea why. But now wasn’t the time to get into that. Now he had to make her agree to help him – the rest could wait. He gentled his smile. “No, of course not. But I cannot give you the grimoire until I return to the surface to retrieve it, and I cannot do that until I have finished my quest here.”
“Quest?”
“To find and retrieve my mother’s powers, stolen from her by the ancient Vestal High Priestess, Clodia.”
Her gaze flickered in interest and she turned an accusing gaze on Hades and Persephone. “Clodia is here? Why didn’t you tell me?”
The Goddess of Spring waved a hand at the desk. “You have been rather busy with your research, dear. I’m certain nobody wanted to disturb you with such insignificant news.”
“Insignificant news? The fact that Hades has finally captured the outlaw Vestal High Priestess who tried to steal Goddess-given power – and who was last seen with the HeartsBlood Gem – isn’t insignificant news?” She spun around, pacing to her desk as she mumbled, “It’s like you don’t know me at all.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting upset about it now, especially given our little cupid here has the HeartsBlood Gem with him.”
“What?” She spun around to face him, her hand out as if to reach for the gem. “Why didn’t you start with that? How did you get it? Let me see.”
Tamuel couldn’t help chuckling in appreciation of the fire of interest in her eyes. It reminded him so much of the past when she’d become fascinated by some topic and wouldn’t let up until she knew everything. “To answer your questions, a) I was getting to telling you about it, but you punched me; b) my mother gave it to me after she took it from Clodia in our showdown with her on Valentine’s Eve; and c) here it is.” Slowly, he pulled the gem out from where he wore it under his shirt.
The red glow of it reflected in her eyes as she drew near. “It’s beautiful.” She reached for it, stumbled.
He dropped the gem, the weight of it banging against his chest, and caught her. She trembled, but he didn’t think it had anything to do with excitement. She was almost skin and bone. He’d not noticed it when they’d walked in and she’d punched him. But now he had his hands on her shoulders, steadying her, he couldn’t help but feel how fragile she was. Or notice how the mass of her curly black hair – that she’d always kept scrupulously clean even though she always raked it into a tight ponytail or bun – was matted and oily. Or that the lemon and spice scent of her he’d always loved was overtaken with the distinct pungency of someone who’d not had a shower in days, possibly longer.
What had she been doing to herself? And why the Hella had Hades and Persephone let her get like this? Was she being punished?
In a blaze of anger, he turned to them, but stilled as her hand landed on his chest, fingers flexing.
Fire zapped over him, through him, almost as if she’d used her power on him. But she hadn’t.
Her gaze flew to his, eyes flaring with awareness. Of him? That seemed impossible. While he’d loved her with a passion that went well beyond friendship when they’d trained together, she had never shown any romantic interest. Their friendship had been close – the closest he’d ever had – but nothing more than that. Not that he’d had expectation for more – the curse placed on him by Eros at his birth made certain of that. The curse had been the only way Eros had of saving him from Clodia; the only way he could take him as one of his own, given Tamuel’s father was only a demi-God and his mother a human witch – not the ideal combination for a cupid; the only way he could stop him from giving into the human weakness of falling in love. A cupid couldn’t get tangled in his customers’ needs and desires. He had to stay separate if he was to help lead the lovers in the direction the Fates desired for them.
Love was for others, not for them.
So, he’d bound Tamuel to him in the only way he could, cursing him to find love for others but never for himself. He had woven a cryptic ‘out’ clause into the curse, but nobody had ever been able to figure out the bit about the broken mirror, equal and opposite. It made no sense – but that was Eros for you. And the God wouldn’t talk about it; he said Tamuel would need to work it out for himself. That was how curses worked.
That was all very well for Eros to say, but it was particularly painful when the way this curse worked didn’t stop him from falling in love – a fact he’d discovered when he’d met Rinna, fallen in love with her, but could never act on it. He could never declare his love while the curse made certain nobody would ever fall in love with him. And given he couldn’t make sense out of the cryptic mirror crap in the curse, he was doomed.
Except ... Rinna’s eyes were lit with something he’d never expected to see there: passion. Desire.
Although, those emotions, while often tied to love, didn’t mean there was love. Perhaps …
No, he was wrong. He was just projecting what he wanted to see – because the truth was, he still loved her as much as he ever had. He’d thought he’d hardened himself enough to no longer feel it, but he’d been wrong.
Even as she’d punched him, he knew he’d been wrong. And now, her fingers flexing against him while she looked up at him like that ... it was doing things to him he didn’t want. Certainly not here, under Hades’ and Persephone’s eagle eyes.
He quickly set Rinna away from him, letting go of her as soon as he knew she was steady, the gem swinging against his chest.
Her gaze finally broke from his and went to the stone. She reached for it.
He stepped back, holding the gem out of reach. “Ah-ah. Not yet.”
Aggravation flickered over her lovely but too-thin features – her chin and cheekbones more pointed, her eyes larger in her heart-shaped face. Her gaze went from the stone to him. “Don’t be a tease. Let me see it.”
“I will, but …” He raised a finger. “Only after you have eaten and showered.”
“You sound like Seph and Hades.”
“And you sound grumpy. Like you do when you need to sleep.”
“I don’t need to sleep.”
She wavered on her feet.
He turned to Hades and Persephone. “Why is she being tortured like this?”
Persephone’s perfectly manicured brows shot up. “Tortured? She is beloved, not tortured.”
“She’s not being tortured,” Hades boomed at the same time. “What makes you think I would do that to someone as beloved to my wife as Korinna? She is looked after as an honoured guest.”
“Really?” Tamuel asked, gesturing at Rinna. “Then why is she skin and bone and wavering on her feet as if she hasn’t had a proper meal or a good sleep for weeks?”
Persephone’s eyes widened as she took a good look at her favourite Soteira and then turned to hit Hades in the chest. “You promised you wouldn’t let her get like she did last time she got lost in her research. How could you have let her do this to herself again?”
Hades stepped away from his wife, rubbing his chest. “I didn’t. I made certain she had three meals a day and came in every few days to make certain she showered and slept.”
“Did she eat the meals? Did you stay to make certain she actually got in the shower? That she actually climbed into bed and went to sleep?”
Hades looked sheepish. “I didn’t think to check.”
“Hello? I’m standing right here.” Rinna waved at them, her motions jerky – possibly due to annoyance, but Tamuel thought it was more likely due to exhaustion and undernourishment. “Stop talking about me as if I’m a baby unable to care for myself.”
“Well,” Persephone said, hands on her hips as she glared at her protégé. “If you managed to actually look after yourself without supervision, I would. How could you have let yourself get like this again? Hades wasn’t the only one who gave me promises.”
Rinna’s gaze dipped. “I didn’t exactly break my promise. I ate and showered ... sometimes.”
“And when was the last time you slept?” Persephone guided Rinna to the lounge in front of the fire – this one carved out of the black rock like the one in Hades’ lounge room, but rather than a jagged bite, its mantel was carved with depictions of spring – obviously Persephone’s work, as were the tapestries on the walls and the colours of spring within the rugs and furnishings.
Rinna rubbed her brow as she sat. “Umm, a week ago?” Persephone angled her a look. “Maybe more,” she admitted softly.
“Hmm. That is hardly keeping your promise.”
“I did better than last time. I did remember to eat. And shower.”
“Not enough. Tamuel is right, you are skin and bone and ready to collapse.”
“I was going to eat but then you came in with Tam.” She gestured at the unappealing lump of lasagne on the desk.
Persephone gave her a withering look. “You can’t eat that now. Hades, please call for more food and ask Dianna to prepare a lovely hot bath for our girl – she needs a good soak. And some relaxing herbs in the water to help her sleep.”
