34
Wrapped in her soul magic, Maia walked through the door and into the chemist’s shop where they'd met Isak earlier. It was dark and empty now, but every bit as dusty and unsettling as earlier. She really didn't want to know what floated in some of the jars on the shelves.
Maia released the magic and gritted her teeth against the jarring sensation of the ground under her feet and gravity pulling at her bones again. The ground seemed to tilt; she slammed her hand into a shelf as she wobbled, but the dizziness passed in a few seconds. She was glad it was too dark for her mates to have seen her through the window. They already worried about her; the last thing she needed was for them to see her nearly hit her ass on the floor.
"Okay, Isak," she whispered. "Time to cough up the island’s location."
The vision she'd seen earlier had changed everything. She'd rather stay the hell away from Isak and everything he represented—a strange newness and a threat to her relationships—but the saints' circle was broken, leaking magic and somethingelseinto the world.
How long before thatthingcame for the reborn saints—for Maia and her mates? They needed to take out the threat while they still had a chance, and the first step was shutting down the saints' circle.
Fix it instead,Sephanae whispered as Maia silently crossed the orderly, dust-covered room.
"Oh, nice of you to finally show up," Maia hissed in a whisper. "Where were you earlier?"
I can't go with you when you soul-spear,she replied, and then with exasperation she added,don’tyou realise it takes immense energy to speak to you this way?
Huh. Maia hadn't even given it thought. She'd assumed the saint could drop in whenever she felt like it.
"Fine, you're off the hook," Maia breathed, quieter as she reached the staircase Dani had come thundering down this afternoon. "Any idea what to expect from Visake? She's not gonna fry me for breaking into Isak's shop, right?"
This isn't his shop; he stole it.
Right, that checked out. "Semantics."
Viskae isn't a fighter. She's not one for cleverness or long games, either.
"Whatisshe good at?"
Mistakes, Sephanae replied dryly.Occasionally at fixing them.
"You know her well, then?" Maia asked, heading up the stairs with extremely careful steps.
She's my cousin,Sephanae replied.You should be more worried about the boy.
Maia winced. He wasn't young enough to be called a boy. He wasn'tthatmuch younger than her.
"That's comforting," Maia breathed, but barely audible as she reached the last stair and scanned the space at the top.
There wasn't a hallway with rooms branching from it. It was just a wide open space with a low, messy bed in the middle, imposing furniture, and clothes thrown everywhere except in the drawers. A window let a slit of light fall over the bed, illuminating the naked man sleeping spread-eagled on his front.
Maia rolled her eyes, suppressing a sigh. No worries about waking him; apparently he slept like the dead.
But then he twitched, a whimper in his throat, and she suppressed a groan. Nightmares—of course he had them after what he’d been through.
But she couldn’t let sympathy stop her. Even if she knew how terrifying those dreams could be herself.
Alright, how to play this…?
She smirked, spotting a chair beside his bed and approaching slowly. She shoved the stack of clothes—a see-through black shirt and leather trousers—onto the bare floorboards and claimed the seat, humming a silent song to cover the room in a bubble, trapping any sound they made so her nosy mates couldn't hear.
Besides ... she was going to be Maia, the snaresinger, and there was still a part of her that was afraid to show them that side of her.
Still, she stretched her legs out in front of her and said loudly, "Nice ass."
Isak startled awake, limbs flailing in panic and his legs tangling in the sheets under him as he rolled over, reaching blindly beside the bed.
Maia snagged his walking stick and admired the animals carved into the wood. "Looking for this, perchance?"