Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1)(71)

The disgusting truth was she was meeting with Tess for herself. It made Derek’s life easier, and she wanted to help him. She hadn’t wanted to help anyone this deeply who wasn’t family. Ever. It could have been the magic, or maybe the joint journey through darkness. She didn’t know and, frankly, didn’t care. Whatever fucked up thing bound her and Derek together, she would respect it. At least he’d never held her biggest mistake over her head like Josh had. That already put Derek ahead in the loyalty ledger.

Her resolve to see this thing through steeled, Callie opened the door and stepped inside North Side Tarot.

Bells jingled as the door closed behind her. Small lamps sat on every flat space around the cozy room’s perimeter. The shades—each a tone of purple or black—were lit with soft twenty-watt bulbs. Their illumination was swallowed by the dark rugs layered atop one another, and the plush chairs stacked with velvet pillows wedged in the remaining space. For otherworldly ambiance, it wasn’t half bad. The floor was clean and dry, which already put it twelve steps ahead of the Soul Charmer’s place.

A woman in a pale purple maxi dress sauntered into the room from the rear entrance. “How may I assist you tonight?” she crooned, the tone all too reminiscent of the voice Callie’s mother used when she spoke to the neighbors.

Fresh irritation helped keep her steady. “I’m here to meet Tess.”

She dropped the pretense with a shrug. “Oh. Sure. I’ll let her know you’re here.”

Did this woman know why she was here? Had Tess told her she’d be in tonight? Psyching herself out was not helping. Customers might come here to see Tess. Callie hadn’t considered the fact she probably looked like any regular person coming in and seeking emotional relief through magic and massage; the truth was she fit the profile as well as anyone else.

A wingback chair upholstered in black leather was wedged in the far corner of the room. It didn’t quite fit with the tarot shop’s velvety vibe. So, naturally, Callie took a seat there. It reminded her that however calculated Tess’s fa?ade might have seemed, nothing was ever perfect. Not even when you could wield magic.

“I expected you’d need more time to think.” The melodic overtone couldn’t disguise Tess’s wariness.

Callie wanted to relish in the thought that she’d put Tess on her heels, but she wasn’t an idiot. If she knew anything, it was that emotions were easy to fake, given the right motivation. “It was a long day of bad shit.”

She swaddled herself in as much honesty as her mind could manage. A good lie was ninety percent truth, after all.

“Talking with your former—” she paused letting the question dangle for a breath “—employer could ruin anyone’s day.”

Callie nodded. The Charmer was a ninja-level day ruiner. He just hadn’t been the primary source of today’s frustrations. And, well, she hadn’t actually talked to him. Tess didn’t need to know that though.

“Did he confirm what I told you?” Tess’s hard-on for the Soul Charmer kicked Callie’s heart rate up a notch.

“Does it matter?” Playing disgusted with the Charmer was easy when Tess’s need to feel superior to the man was so plain.

Tess barreled right on through the trapdoor. “He’s quite conniving. I’m glad you were able to look past his lies. We can’t purify anything with his deviation blocking the path.”

Communicating with these soul magic wielders became more difficult the longer she was involved. Tess sounded like she should be screaming on a street corner and clutching an end-of-days sign. Parsing out what was insanity and what was part of this complicated, magical world was way out of Callie’s pay grade.

She did, however, need to move things along. As part of their plan, Derek would be in the back room by now, but he’d still have to sneak past the other woman who worked there. Keeping Tess distracted was Callie’s job. Fuck it. She could indulge the crazy a little longer. “How does the Charm—”

“Don’t say his name in here!” Tess spat. Would she react the same to Ford’s name? Best not to go there.

“Sorry. How does he stop you from purifying the city?” The bitter aftertaste of talking purification clung to her tongue like an accidental swig of week-old milk.

“His slime blocks the path.”

O-kay. Tess might actually be legit crazy. “What do we need to do to clear the path?” Lord, forgive her, she sounded like a member of a cult.

Tess held her forehead and closed her eyes, as though wearied by the mere thought of answering Callie’s basic question. Callie shot a glance toward the door to the store’s back room. Derek needed to speed the hell up, because placating a cult leader wasn’t really a skill in her stockpile.

With a heavy sigh, Tess finally answered. “Additional souls can do wondrous acts in the right body. He has access to a wealth of good, but insists on handing them out to any person who comes in off the street. Those people aren’t using them like they should be, to change the world. They’re using them to break from their celestial contracts. That was never the intention of our magic. He knows better.”

Callie had to admit, Tess had a point about the trivial way society viewed rented souls like get-out-of-hell-free cards, and avoided talking about the bigger picture questions about using them, like where the souls they were borrowing had come from. Kind of like hot dogs. “What’s the real intention of soul magic then?”