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“You have two options. The first is a kind of exorcism. It’s what we do when we have no other recourse. When a spirit won’t or can’t pass over and has become a danger to the living, the soul must essentially be destroyed.”

His brows lowered. “No afterlife, no reincarnation, nothing?”

I nodded.

“No, not that. They’ve suffered enough. What else?”

I held his gaze. “You have to set them free, Ren. You have to forgive yourself.”

Ren

* * *

I stared back at her, into her soft fucking eyes, feeling vulnerable in a way I hadn’t with anyone else, not even Willow. “I don’t know how.”

Somehow, her eyes softened even more. “Let me help you.”

“You’ve seen them, what I…what he…did to them, Jaz. You saw. How the fuck do I let that go?”

She shook her head, tucking her long, blond hair behind her ear. “You need to heal. We may not be able to heal the scars on your soul, or on your body, but the emotional ones? I can help you with those. Right now, with that mess of emotion swirling inside you, especially the guilt, it’s stopping you from moving forward…of them moving forward. Punishing yourself over and over again for something you had no control over isn’t working. It’s time we find another way. It’s time you let me help you do that.”

“I don’t expect you to—”

“It’s what I do, Ren. It’s my gift.” She stood and walked to her bag, and despite how fucked up this entire situation was, I couldn’t help but eat up the sight of her in my shirt and nothing else. I’d tried not to look, but she’d been fucking naked, her smooth inked skin slick with oil. The sight of her like that would be burned into my mind for the rest of my life.

She pulled out a small book, a marker, and a battery-powered hair trimmer. “For the next few nights, I’ll need to come back here to work on your healing and tattoo your sigils. There’s also a ritual to keep the souls calm while we’re doing that. Then I’ll need to come once a week for a while to perform the ritual and repeat a healing session to make sure it sticks.” She held up the marker. “But tonight, drawing them on with a tattoo marker will have to do.”

Jaz stepped over the string and salt line and back to safety. My relief was instant. My fox calmed as well, no longer whining and growling and pacing restlessly. Seeing Jasmine being attacked by invisible hands was fucking horrific. I’d just been about to leave my spot when she finally stopped it.

She motioned for me to sit again and she kneeled beside me. “So, the scars the possession left you with aren’t something that can heal.” Sympathy filled her eyes. “But the sigils will hide them and prevent you from being a target for any souls searching for a vessel.”

I was broken, marked by what happened in a way that would never leave me, and I was making the souls of the people I had a part in murdering suffer, torturing them even in death. Fucking awesome.

There was one way to stop all of this, though.

It was simple. I just had to take one step, one more step, the next time I was at my cliff, and the pain would be all over—for them, and for me.

“You’re going to need quite a few,” she said.

“Sorry?”

“Sigils. You’ll need a lot of them.”

I nodded as her scent washed over me. Fuck. It was mixed with mine, while she was still in my shirt. Christ, I barely stopped myself from leaning forward and pressing my nose to her shoulder and breathing her in. Now my fucking fox was whining again, pawing at the ground to get closer to her.

“They’ll go along here.” She ran her finger across my shoulder, causing tingles to dance all over my skin. “Both sides. One on either side of your throat, here and here. Down your spine, and from the top of your ribs, here…” She pressed a finger to the point just below the center of my chest, and goose bumps lifted all over me. Could she see them? “Down to, well…all the way down.” Her face turned pink, and she glanced at the trimmers. “I’ll need you to uh…shave.”

“And you can do it? The ink?” I asked, my voice weirdly deep, even rougher than usual.

“I can. It’s part of my job. Zinny was teaching me before she had to…” She stopped herself, her throat working. “Before she had to leave that first time. Rome finished training me, so I know what I’m doing.”

My fox growled at the mention of that male’s name, the sound rumbling through my chest. Jaz paused, her gaze darting to mine. I quickly cleared my throat. “And it’ll take a few nights?”

“Three or four. The sigils are powerful and your body, and your soul, will need to realign with each session.” She licked her lips, and my dick stirred. “One person has to ink all of them, once we start, there’s no changing who does it. I know you two fought, but if you’re uncomfortable with me doing it, I could bring Rome. He could—”

“No!” The word burst from me in a snarl. “You can do it.” My skin felt hot all of a sudden, my muscles tight as hell, and I had to fight not to jump to my feet and pace. I did not want Jaz here with him. I didn’t want to see them together. Again, my fox and I were in agreement on that point.

Jasmine ignored my outburst and my fucking odd behavior and popped the lid off the marker. “Okay, then. You ready to get started?”