steps easy and demeanor calm. He didn’t feel demonic, but Vika pressed her back to the couch and absently reached for her grandmother’s nail.
“They’re gone,” he said quietly. “War and Pain. Grim took them out of me.”
“As a favor?” she asked, not believing the warlock would do anything so kind.
“No, I had in mind to put them into Grim when I had opportunity. The demon initially resisted, but then, it was gone. Poof. Like that. I think Grim stole them for himself. All I know is I’m clean of demons for the first time in half a year, and it feels beyond amazing. So light. And now, sitting in the darkness? It’s a comfort.”
“But Grim. What will he do with them? It’ll be nothing good.”
“I’m sure not, if he can control them. Which he may have the ability to do. He’s powerful, Vika. But I feel as though he’s out of our lives for now.” He clasped her hand and kissed it. “How are you?”
How was she? She felt the same as usual after one had been tossed about and through a tussle. And yet, not warm, or even whole. Empty.
“Soulless,” she said, her heart stilling at the implications. “It had to be done. So let’s not get into an argument about what I should or should not have done. It’s over. The soul bringer got his due. The Nacht März was not issued. The world is as right as it can be. At least until you decide to steal another dangerous instrument from the place of all demons.”
“Never,” he rushed out. “I promise you that.”
“What if Grim wants something?”
“I’ll let him go at it. I swore to you I would not return to Daemonia, and I stand by that promise.”
Did his eyes seem greener? Not so dark. Alive with warmth, they compelled her as had the beads about her wrist. Solace.
“I believe you,” she said, and then tilted up her chin to kiss him at the corner of his mouth. “Thank you, dark one.”
“You have nothing to thank me for. You are without a soul. I could have prevent—”
She put up her palm, and he understood to drop the subject. “Vika, I uh...I put your sister upstairs in her room. I found her in the kitchen.”
“Libby? Ohmygoddess, I didn’t think about her. She was...?”
CJ nodded. “The bastard took her soul, too. You should go to her.”
“Yes.” She handed him the teacup and rushed up the stairs to find her sister just waking on the bed. “Libby?”
Sitting on the middle of the bed, her sister took one look at her and started to cry. “Oh, Vika! I love him. How could he do that to me?” She pounded her breast with a fist. “It’s gone. He took it without a care. After we’d...after... Oh!”
CJ crept into the room, put a hand to Vika’s hip and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to leave you two. You should be with your sister right now.”
She clutched his shirt. “I don’t want you to leave.” She knew she sounded frantic, but hell, she was. After all they had been through, could he so easily walk away from her now?
“I have to. I have something to do at work.”
“You’re not going after Ian Grim. Tell me you’re not.”
“The warlock has nothing I want or need. But I won’t stop until I get your souls back,” he said. “I can’t.”
She gripped his shirt, stopping his retreat and wishing she had some kind of containment magic. “It’s over, CJ. Leave it as it is. Because I know you’ll offer your soul for ours, and what is that going to change? Nothing.”
“My soul may be more valuable to the soul bringer than yours and Libby’s together. I’m filled with knowledge of multitude magics—”
“No! I won’t hear of it. This is not some one-upmanship between you and the warlock. This is me. And you. And I don’t want a lover without a soul. Hell, you just got it clean of demons. Don’t you want that?”
“I don’t want a lover without a soul, either,” he whispered. Brushing a kiss over her hair, he stepped back and shuffled down the stairs.
Vika clung to the door frame, following his retreat. Her heart shuddered against her rib cage, and her skin grew cold, so cold.
Of course. She was damaged now. Cold and soulless. How could any man want that? By tossing the bone whistle before the train, she had sacrificed not only her soul but also her relationship with CJ.