Soul Cursed, page 6
That was when she spied the door, slightly ajar, on the opposite side of her room. Where had that come from? Her suite comprised of this living and study area, her bedroom and an ensuite. There wasn’t another room off it. Why would Hades have added a room—
Persephone! She’d obviously asked Hades to create a room for Tam to stay in as part of her suite. Why on earth would they do that? They had never situated any other interview subjects near her suite, let alone created another room that led right off her living area.
What in all the Hells was Seph up to? And was Tam in on it?
She gave him the side-eye. He didn’t notice, too taken with his breakfast to do more than stop to breathe. A smile flickered, unbidden, on her lips. He had always loved breakfast the most of any meal, even when the fare had been minimal through various parts of their training. Perhaps he’d been hungriest then. She’d never asked. But it had always been enjoyable watching how he tucked into the food they were given to break their fast. He always ate like there was no tomorrow. But then again, he’d kind of lived like that too. At least, he had when she’d known him. A cupid version of a mid-teen terror when he’d first moved to the mountain camp, he’d been turning into the grown-up version before he’d disappeared.
Her smile faded.
Anger returned. And a terrible sadness along with it.
She pushed at the sadness, grabbing at the anger, wanting it to fill her. But the sadness remained. She had to get over it though. She needed to go with him to visit Clodia, especially given they had the gem. The ancient witch was rumoured to know things about the ancient Gods and even more ancient magics that lay at the heart of the very spell she wanted to use from the Eleusinian Mysteries Grimoire. Talking to the Vestal High Priestess would bring her one step closer to completing her vow. Which meant, she would have to spend up to a week with him. She could rope in these wayward emotions and desires to get what she wanted. She would rope them in. It wasn’t like he could return her feelings after all; he was a cupid and she was … well, her – a useless, damaged witch of unspecified heritage who didn’t deserve love after what she’d done.
He glanced up at her, smiled. “I missed this.”
His words, that look, made her want to cry, but instead, she nodded and gave her attention to her breakfast.
“I’m surprised you haven’t jumped me yet.”
“What?” Rinna’s head snapped up. The spoonful of eggs on the way to her mouth dropped, landing with a splat on the edge of her plate, spraying across the table and spattering her Yummy Sushi pyjamas. She didn’t seem to notice as she stared at him, her big topaz eyes widening, a stain of red painting her cheeks. “I wouldn’t ... I didn’t ...”
For a moment, Tamuel wanted to tease her for misunderstanding his words, but the need died as fast as it came. He had never been able to stand to see her pained in any way. So, rather than teasing, he gestured to the gem hanging against his chest. “For this. I thought you’d be more interested in looking at it than eating breakfast.”
“Oh, I ... um ... Yes. Of course. I am. Very interested.” She picked up her spoon, staring at the mess she’d made on the table and her pyjamas. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did any get on you?”
“None. But it did get on you.” He waved a hand. Magic prickled in the air and the mess disappeared.
She swallowed hard. “Impressive.”
“Hardly.” It was the kind of simple spell she’d mastered long before they’d begun their training – where he’d struggled for a long time, his cupid and warlock powers not seeming to play well with one another. Until she’d befriended him and begun to help and they’d discovered their powers had a certain symbiosis together, hers helping to rope in his and allow him to get a handle on them; his feeding into hers, allowing her to do more complicated spells than she should have been able to at such a young age – an indication of the promise of the powerful magical practitioner she was bound to become. And it had grown. He sensed it before he even entered her room yesterday. Her power was a tang on the air, a constant vibration emanating from her skin, glowing in her eyes. But there was a strange wrongness about it. Was the wrongness why she hadn’t used it to clean up such a simple mess?
And come to think of it, why had Dianna been so concerned with making certain Rinna had everything she needed? Surely someone with as much power as Rinna had in her little finger could summon anything she wanted? He half-expected her to click her fingers and call the HeartsBlood Gem to her. And yet, hands clenched in her lap, she asked, “Can you tell me how you came to get it? All the rumours I tracked down said it was used by the Vestal High Priestess Clodia and then lost with her when she disappeared.”
He focused on her question – his could wait until she was more comfortable with him again. “It didn’t disappear. It was tied into the garden of the Vestal Temple in Roma where Clodia laid her curse to take my mother’s Goddess-given power for her own. She used it to amplify her magics to place the curse and channel the power into herself from my mother.”
“What a misuse of its power.”
He nodded. “Yes. We think that misuse was why her spell backfired. Rather than transferring the powers to Clodia, it transmuted them, pushing them down deep inside my mother, attached to her eternal soul. Her powers travelled with her through her incarnations but she wasn’t able to use them because the transmutation had the unfortunate side-effect of energising Clodia’s curse, like a battery.”
“Why would it do that?”
“Protective magic gone haywire? Clodia couldn’t take my mother’s powers as long as they were hidden inside her and the HeartsBlood Gem hid itself where it was last used until I found it. We planned to use it to reverse the curse, but Clodia had also been tied to the area.” He told her of what had happened, of how they had almost lost everything until her mother sacrificed the power that should have been hers to open the rift into the Void and pushed Clodia there. The powers had disappeared into the Void with the evil priestess-witch.
“I vowed that night to do everything I could to get my mother’s powers back. I’ve been following every lead for the last eight months. I managed to find out Hades and Zeus took Clodia from the Void and put her in Tartarus as punishment, but the power wasn’t with her. I tried everything I knew to open the Void to search for it, but nothing worked. Only the most extreme burst of power will tear it open. And I don’t have access to that kind of power.”
“Why didn’t you ask a God or Goddess to open it for you?”
“You know their feelings on entering the Void. Hades and Zeus only did it because they were furious with Clodia and wanted to personally punish her. There was no way they would open it for me. Besides which, I realised, even if I got in, I wouldn’t have a clue how to go about finding where the powers are. The Void is, for all intents and purposes, endless after all. So, my only chance is to speak with Clodia. She’s opened the Void before, so must know how to gain the power to do so. I also need her to tell me how not to get lost in there, how to find the powers and then get out again with them intact.”
“And you need the gem to speak to Clodia?”
His fingers closed around the blood-red stone. “She is tied to it in the same way my mother is. I think I can use it to get the answers I need, but also, to transfer the power from wherever it is back into my mother when I find it. But while there was a lot of research – primarily yours – that stated it could be used in this way, there was nothing to tell me exactly how. Nothing I’ve done has made it react in any way since Jules gave it to me.”
“Of course it didn’t. The gem, whether it is truly a piece of a Goddess’ heart or not, was created by a Goddess aligned with mother nature. Its spells and power can only be untapped by a female with a like power.”
“That makes sense. Although, if that’s the case, then how am I to use it?”
“You’d need a female to help you use it. Although, given you inherited some of your powers from your mother, you most likely will only need the witch to act as a channel and not use her actual powers. It probably would have worked for you if your mother had just held it with you.” She frowned. “But she should have known that if she’d held the gem even after she lost her powers – the gem would be happy to whisper its secrets to her. Why isn’t she here with you?”
“Because I didn’t tell her what I was doing when I asked for the gem.”
“What?”
“She would never have agreed with my plan and would have tried to make me take back my vow. She says she’s perfectly happy with her lot.” He shook his head. “But I know she can’t be. Not when it means she won’t get to live forever with her soulmate, my father. Not when her human death will lead to his. I see the sadness in her, feel the pain of the loss that is to come in knowing her death will snuff both their lights from this world. And I can’t ... I have to ...”
She placed her hand over his as he shook his head, words failing him. Her lips trembled a little, eyes full of an empathy he’d not felt from anyone but her in all his long years.
For a long, timeless moment, they stared at each other, hands gripping, her beautiful eyes on his, knowing, understanding; just as she’d done so many times when they’d been friends. It comforted him, wrapping him in warmth. He eased forward, his hand coming up to cup her face. “Rinna.”
She turned her head, lips finding his palm; warm, her breath slightly damp as she pressed a kiss into his skin. Her eyes closed, long lashes a sweep of darkness against too-pale cheeks.
He held his breath, wanting her to stay where she was and yet move closer.
Her eyes opened, she looked up at him.
A punch in the heart, the stark want there. “Rinna,” he whispered again.
An alarm peeled through the silence – the chronometer.
The sound broke the spell – of him, of her, of them. She jerked away, her chair skidding back, the nasty squawk vying with the alarm.
He blinked. Looked up at her. She seemed to be as shocked by what had almost happened as him. “Rinna ...” he began.
The chronometer beeped, a voice replacing the shrill alarm: “The veil is thinning. Alignment adjusting ... adjusting ... The Underworld’s position has changed. Time has shifted. One week in the Underworld is now equal to two hours in the Earthly Realm. The clocks will strike twelve on All Hallows’ Eve in one and a half weeks Tartarus time. Allotted time lost: two and a half weeks. Alignment still changing. Further alarms will be forthcoming.”
He stared at the chronometer to verify the words he still couldn’t believe. “Shit.”
“You used my voice? How? Why?”
He looked up, met her confused gaze. “I pulled it out of my memory vault – I missed you. Besides, something about the specs reminded me of you. I should have known you designed it.”
They stared at each other for a long moment until she blinked, took a step back. Cleared her throat. “Umm, well, we should get going before you run out of more time.”
“You want to come?”
Her lips quirked. “You don’t think I’m going to let you go wandering through the Underworld and into Tartarus alone, do you? You don’t know anything about all the nasties down there that could stop you from getting to Clodia’s cell.”
“Isn’t the Hells-Key supposed to help with that?”
She picked at her cuticles as she stared him down. “It doesn’t shield from everything. And the Underworld will fight you all the way, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“And you do? I got the impression you never leave these suites.”
Another shrug. “I’ve been out. When I need to talk to an interview subject. You need me to go with you. Not to mention, you need my help to work the gem.”
“You could tell me what I need to know now. And I could ask Dianna or one of the other Soteira to come with me. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.” What was he doing, giving her an out? He wanted her to come.
“Don’t you want me to come with you?”
“I do ... I just … I thought, after you believed I left and didn’t write, that you wouldn’t want to spend more time with me than absolutely necessary.”
Her mouth worked for a moment and she looked down at her lap. “About that ... I ... I ... Maybe there is something to what you say about someone intercepting our letters.” She cleared her throat, glanced up at him again. “Besides, I want to speak with Clodia myself.”
He stared at her, expecting her to look away, but she didn’t. Despite all the changes, the spark of the girl he’d once known was still within her. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
He shrugged. “It makes more sense. We can save time by discussing the gem and the spells we might need to use as we travel. Now that I’ve lost a few weeks, it seems like the best option.”
“Oh. Of course.”
Was that a flash of hurt in her eyes? Damn, he didn’t mean to make her feel rejected – he just didn’t want his eagerness to show too much. He leaned forward, stilled her fingers as they clenched in her lap. Her gaze met his, boring into him as she frowned a little. He wanted to kiss that frown away. He swallowed hard. “And it will give us time to discuss what happened after Eros took me. And maybe, we can make plans to find out why someone meddled after ...”
“After?”
“After we’ve finished here.”
She looked down, the dark sweep of her lashes against the shadows under her eyes doing all sorts of things inside him – things he gathered close, not wanting her to see. No point in spooking her by the violence of his feelings. She could never love him back in the same way.
“Okay.”
“So, you want to find out who kept those letters from us after we finish this?”
Her smile faded, replaced by shadows in her eyes. “One thing at a time,” she whispered.
He nodded quickly. “One thing at a time.”
She stood. “So ...” She cleared her throat. “I should go get changed and attach the Hells-Key. You need to do the same – that suit will get wrecked down in the tunnels.”
“Dianna said there’s clothes for me in the room.”
“Good. Umm ... see you back here in a few hours.”
“It will take you that long to get changed?”
She smirked, eyes glinting. “I see you are as yet to read the instructions for the Hells-Key. You’ll need some recovery time.”
He grimaced. “Does it hurt?”
Her lips curled into a small smile. “Not as much as you think it would given you have to attach it to your chest. But it does take something out of you.” She backed up a few more steps. “I’ll see you when you’re ready.”
“Okay. I’ll …” She’d already disappeared into her room, the heavy carved black doors slamming shut behind her. He let out a sigh. “Well, that went better than expected.” She’d forgiven him – maybe – and she was helping him, so he would have more time to make certain that forgiveness stuck and maybe they could start up their friendship again. Life would be much more tolerable with Rinna in it.
He only hoped the Hells-Key spell wasn’t as painful as she’d made it sound – although, considering Hades created them, it was probably going to be worse.
Chapter
Seven
Tamuel glanced at Korinna as she marched stoically by his side. She seemed nervous – shoulders held tightly, eyes darting around. Not that he blamed her. The journey was proving to be difficult. More difficult than he’d thought it would be with Hades’ Hells-Key melted into his chest.
He touched the still-throbbing place where the Hells-Key had magically become a part of him half a day ago. By all the Realms, it had hurt.
He glanced at Rinna again, spying the red skin showing above the V of her dark grey, long-sleeved Soteira tunic. She seemed unphased by it. Yet his powers were still sparking and fighting it every step, not wanting to accept what was basically death magic anywhere near it. Rinna had been right – it had knocked him for six and he’d lost consciousness for over an hour. Then it had taken him another hour to stop his limbs from shaking so badly he couldn’t even stand, let alone get changed. The upshot of which was he still hadn’t gone into his mind vault to retrieve the memory of the sigil. A problem for when they returned.
He frowned down at the witch at his side. “Do you wear the Hells-Key a lot?” That would explain why she wasn’t affected by the magic of attaching it.
“No. I don’t need it most of the time – only when I want to interview a soul who’s down here that Hades can’t bring to his palace for reasons of security. Why?” She glanced up at him, grimaced. “Still feeling it, aren’t you? We could have waited a little longer – the chronometer hasn’t gone off again and according to the map, the path to the Gates of Tartarus will only take us a few days at the moment.”
“How long after that to Clodia’s cell?”
She shrugged. “The map won’t show us until we step into Tartarus. The Underworld and Hell Realms are too large to put on a hundred-thousand maps let alone one.” She showed him the map. “This has been spelled to show the most direct route.”
“Kind of like Google Maps.”
“Google Maps?”
He shook his head. “Never mind. So it tells you how long the journey will be?”
“There is an indicator here.” She pointed at an hourglass image where the sand shifted from the top bowl to the bottom. “However, because things constantly shift and change down here, it’s never certain how long a journey will take.” She glanced up at him again. “I wish we could stop so you could rest but now we’re in the tunnels ...” She looked around them. “It’s best not to stop.”
“I don’t need to rest.” He waved his hand, not wanting to show weakness in front of her – he’d just got her trusting him again, after all. “I was wondering how come the Hells-Key didn’t affect you like it did me?”
“Oh. Probably because it’s not fighting against my magic.”
“Why not?” It should have, given her magic was one of life and healing.
