The War Priest (Ars Numina #5) - Ann Aguirre Page 0,3

took care of the guards. However, Magda was shot during the fight and nearly died from poisoning. Magda managed to survive and reunite with a desperately worried Gavriel. As they waited for their boat to return, they had life and love affirming sex, which terrified Magda as she realized that her love for Gavriel triggered her curse. When Gavriel didn’t die on the morning he was supposed to, he told Magda that when the Seer spoke of the curse and said “only death” could stand up to the shade that haunted her, he meant Gavriel, who is known as “Death’s Shadow”. Neither Magda nor Gavriel wanted to return to their previous, so they decided to start over, together.

1.

Until Joss Bristow laid eyes on Callum McRae, she didn’t believe in love at first sight. Her entire body shouted yes, him, he’s the one.

Then she found out he was a monk, consecrated to the Order of Saint Casimir. Now, that was a bad day, but it got worse when Ash Valley exploded, and nothing had been the same since. Life had been a series of bad and worse scenarios since the conclave failed, and she’d rarely felt more useless, tagging along to Thalia Talfayen’s coronation to offer the gift of song.

Because that’s all I can do, all I’m good at.

If she was honest, she’d also wanted to see Callum McRae again, not that he ever spent more than forty seconds with her if he could help it. Earlier, at the ceremony, she had sung a gorgeous rendition of “Fit for a Queen”, and now she was looking for him, but for an enormous man, he had the uncanny ability to disappear.

While Joss was searching, she ran into Mags—and gods, it felt like forever since the security chief had left Ash Valley. “Have you seen Callum?” she asked.

The other woman was observant, but Mags shook her head. “Sorry, I’m on the hunt myself. I have some intel to relay.”

“Oh? Any good gossip?” By Mags’s expression, that was certainly not the case. “Yikes, sorry I asked.”

Mags sighed. “It’s related to the circulation of a drug that’s wreaking havoc in the Eldritch population. Seems like it’s coming from Burnt Amber, too, which makes it a bear problem.”

“He has enough on his plate,” Joss said, wishing she could do something. For Callum, for anyone, actually.

Unlike her cousin, Pru, she didn’t have a hidden knack for leadership. She had a beautiful voice and she’d recorded a few songs, made a modest living from it, but that wasn’t very useful, currently. And unlike Mags, she wasn’t the pride badass, either. Her tendency to look on the bright side might come in handy, Joss supposed, but during dire times, people got tired of those who were endlessly chipper and full of sunshine. They started wondering if her mood was chemically enhanced and suggested random drug testing.

“I’m aware,” Mags answered, “but facts are facts.”

That ended the conversation, and Joss watched Mags round the corner before resuming her own search. Like most Animari, she had a heightened sense of smell, but there were so many people wandering around that the scent trails had been crossed until it was tough to tell where Callum was. More than once, she found where he had been; he didn’t linger in one place for long.

If she understood him at all, he would be leaving today. The Golgoth were marching on Burnt Amber, massing near the borders, and there had already been skirmishes. Callum must be anxious to get back, to ensure that his people were safe. His commitment to duty was one of the things she admired about him; Joss hadn’t told anyone about her crush, but she was easy to read, so people were already starting to tease her. That had to stop.

She’d accepted that she couldn’t have what she’d first wanted from Callum. Untouchable described him perfectly—and she got that—but she hadn’t given up on the idea that they could be friends. There had to be a reason why she’d had such a visceral reaction to him. Maybe he was destined to be her bestie or something.

Not that he was cooperating at all.

Though she didn’t find the head of the bear clan, she ran across a few of his people in the courtyard. Unabashedly curious, she listened to their conversation, lingering nearby with the pretext of checking her phone. They were still scrambling the signal so a close inspection would prove that she was eavesdropping, but she was interested enough in bear gossip