The Lost Souls (The Holy Trinity #2.5)(47)

“Xan…” Fifi reached for him, but he quickly sidestepped her.

“No!” he yelled. “I’m not losing her again!”

“I know!” she yelled back. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll get her soul back…or something. I don’t know, Xan, just please, you need to calm down!”

“You can’t get a soul back,” Onyx said matter-of-factly. “Once a soul returns to nature, there is no getting it back. It’s gone.”

Fifi glared at her, and Onyx shrugged. “He needs to hear the truth, only…” Onyx trailed off and pursed her lips together. “It doesn’t make sense. Trinity should have died the moment her soul was taken back. At least, according to what we’ve been taught…that’s what should have happened.”

Xan’s heart began to pound. “So, what does that mean?” he demanded. “Does she still have her soul or what?”

“No, she doesn’t.”

Xan looked to the owner of the voice and found a tiny blonde Gaje peeking out from behind Marko.

“Who the f*ck are you?” he demanded and Marko went stiff.

So, Marko had gone and found himself a fat? who, by the looks of it, he cared about quite a bit.

“I’m Carrie,” the girl said, stepping out from behind Marko.

Xan nearly dismissed her, but then he didn’t. There was something…something familiar. He could sense…something. He stared at her, and she stared back at him, and he kept staring, searching for something to confirm what he was feeling.

That was when he saw it.

A flicker in her eyes, and then it wasn’t Carrie’s eyes he was looking into anymore. It was Trinity’s eyes—big, green, and beautiful—looking back at him.

He didn’t even realize he was falling until his knees hit the ground.

“How?” he whispered.

Carrie bent down in front of him. “Trinity’s soul,” she whispered. “It’s inside me.”

In the background, he could hear Marko trying to explain to the rest what had happened. He heard the shocked gasps of the others, heard them toss ideas back and forth, trying to rationalize what could have happened.

“I still don’t get it,” Marko said. “The oldest soul…it goes to the most powerful, doesn’t it? Why me? Why Carrie? She’s not even Romani.”

“Did you pay attention to anything when we were kids?” Onyx asked, sounding exasperated. “It isn’t just about power. The oldest soul goes to the most powerful…and the purest of heart.”

Xan didn’t care why Marko and Carrie had gotten the soul, he was just glad they did. Reaching for Carrie, he placed both hands on either side of her face and gently brought her closer to him.

“Does she still love me?” he asked, running the pads of his thumbs under a pair of very familiar, very beautiful green eyes.

A tear slid down Carrie’s cheek. “She does.”

Xan fought back his rising emotions and nodded. “What do I gotta do, fat??” he asked, his voice hoarse. “Just tell me what I gotta do to get her back.”

Instead of Carrie, it was Marko who answered.

“I’d say we have a dragon to find.”





Glossary


This interactive glossary will return you to the first instance of the word or phrase defined when you click on the underlined term.



baró. Romanian for “big man”; used to refer to a leader or king.

bun?. Good.

clan. A group of families or a grouping of households.

copil (singular), copii (plural). Baby or child.

Da. Yes.

dark magic. Unnatural magic, essentially trapped death. The use of the fifth and forbidden element, spirit, will turn all light magic dark. There are consequences for calling on dark magic; the severity depends on why the darkness was summoned and the purpose it was used for.

Dou? v? rog. Two, please.

Dupa moartea. Until death.

fat? (singular), fete (plural). Girl.

fat? mea. My girl.

frate. Brother.

Gaje. Anyone who is not of Romani descent.

Gypsies (plural), Gypsy (singular). Members of a nomadic Caucasoid people of generally swarthy complexion, who migrated originally from India, settling in various parts of Asia, Europe, and most recently, North America.

light magic. Natural magic made up of the four natural elements found in nature: earth, air, water, and fire.

mam?. Mama or mother.

Mereu. Always.

nature. Is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. “Nature” refers to the phenomena of the physical world and to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

pack. A group of certain animals of the same kind, especially predatory ones.

Pan? la moarte. To the death.

Rom (singular), Roma (plural). One or more Romani people.

Romani. As a noun, the Gypsy culture or people; as an adjective, pertaining to the Gypsy culture or people.

Skin Eaters (aka Skins). A highly advanced predatory species derived from humanity, devoid of a soul, with supernatural abilities and a taste for human flesh.

Skin Eater origins. In 1078 AD, the eldest son of a Romani clan baró, gifted with an affinity for all five elements, used Spirit to end the lives of the men who had brutally murdered his entire clan. As punishment for his bloodlust, he was condemned to always hunger for blood. For cutting short the lives of hundreds of innocent people, he was condemned to live out their lives, and the lives of their unborn children and their unborn children, in a never-ending cycle. He would never know peace or life without suffering, and was condemned to a soulless life of eternal pain, shrouded in darkness. He was called Mullo, the first Vampire.