AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d just finished fastening the last button on my shirt when he knocked on the door, far more gentle than the wake up call. Still, I jumped. Anticipating the Spirits always left me on edge.
Despite walking in balancing a tray of options, he managed to catch my glance as I peeked down the hallway before shutting the door. Our eyes met for a split second, but he said nothing about it.
“Where did that dress come from? You didn’t have any bags last night.”
“I did. You just didn’t see them.” I waved a hand over the robe I’d been wearing and let him watch as it shrank to almost nothing. “It’s not really a spell that will win me any battles, but it’s useful for my job.”
“And here I get to conjure spiders and run a little faster than everyone else.”
“It’s not really… It’s not normal to tell people which spells you have, you know.”
He lifted a shoulder. “You told me.”
True. I’d been far more open with him than any other marks. But then, none of them had made sure I had a warm bed in the middle of a blizzard. I’d never been a part of their journey. There had been no pull in the past once I’d called the Spirits.
Atlas slathered a knife full of butter across a thick slice of bread and shoved half into his mouth. I had no clue how he could make such a mundane task look so seductive, but there we were.
I poured two cups of tea, handing one to him before sitting in one of the floral printed chairs by the hearth.
“How long did you say this could take?” he asked after the food was gone and he’d fixed the fire.
“It’s never been more than an hour. But I’ve also never called them in the middle of a job.”
“I see.” He peeked at the clock hanging slightly crooked on the wall.
“Do you have a hot date to get to?”
Snorting, he shook his head. “No. I’ve got to leave for a few days. Do something for Bash.”
His words washed over me as my delicate teacup fell to the floor and shattered. I jumped to my feet. “Leave? You cannot leave.”
“As a grown man, I can assure you, I’m perfectly capable,” he said, crouching to pick up the larger pieces of porcelain.
“No, no. It’s not that. It’s just that… we have to stay together. Until… it’s done.”
He froze, eyeing me suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the anchor for the Spirits. I have to stay close, or they cannot find you.”
He clapped his hands together, startling me. “Well then, that’s the answer to all my problems. I’ll just leave, and you stay. Then they can’t find me, and it’ll be over.”
“No, Atlas. If the Spirits cannot find your soul, they will call Death to find it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the very first marked soul I ever damned was my brother’s. And when he ran away while I was sleeping in the room next to him, the Spirits made me watch as Death dragged him off to hell.”
7
“What do you mean ‘come with you?’”
Dropping the last pieces of the broken teacup into the small bin beside the door, I turned to face the man that was quickly becoming a pain in my ass. Wrecking my emotions and turning everything that had become routine upside down.
“Bash is making me gather the Yule logs from the covens. I have to have them here by the night of the Solstice celebration.”
“Well, you’re going to have to tell him you can’t do it.”
He crossed his thick arms over his broad chest, looking down his nose at me. “So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me, if I go and you don’t, I’ll die. Dragged off to hell by Death himself. Oh! And I also have to live through the most painful moments of my life again while you stand back and watch. And I find myself at the mercy of some ghosty named Future. I also have a choice in none of this, but you absolutely refuse to come with me for the one job I’ve been given for the entire holiday season because you ‘don’t want to’. Even though you spend your time traveling the coven territories, anyway. Does that about sum it up?”
