Sin & Spirit (Demigod of San Francisco #4)(79)

I dug into his chest, knowing my body was really close, that my soul mate was right beside it. If I needed an escape hatch, I had it. I could use all the energy I needed. Probably.

I gripped his soul and tried to straight-up rip it out.

He sucked in a breath and clutched at his chest. My energy dimmed significantly. No soul popped out.

He reached for the keys again, and I went to work on his prongs. Something showed up in the corner of my vision. I glanced over, hoping it was Bria. A black shape skittered away. That was getting annoying.

The first prong broke, easier than it had been earlier that day when I’d tried this with Daisy’s kidnapper. The second broke, too, but not as easily. The third I struggled with, bending it, then twisting it, pulling. Each movement elicited a grunt. Each time he paused.

Loud footsteps preceded Bria slamming her hands down on the side of the car door.

“Alexis? That has got to be you. You’re like a damn strobe light right now.” She straightened up and stepped closer to the driver’s-side window opened a crack in the warm day. “Well hello, what have we here?”

The man reached again for his keys. He shrugged, then shrugged again, as though it wasn’t intentional. “I’m just on my way home from work.”

Bria’s eyes flicked across his face, then to a collection of items he’d laid out on his passenger seat.

“Nope. You’re—”

His spirit hopped, right in front of me. It jumped from his person to hers.

Immediately I was on it—digging into her chest, finding his suction-cupped soul, and popping it off. He slammed back into his body, and she fell against the car, breathing deeply.

“What are you?” he asked, his voice quavering.

She laughed and wiped her brow. “Part of the spirit police, asshole. And guess what? I play the bad guy.” She curled her fingers through the opening and ripped backward, shattering the window. The next moment she slammed her fist into his face, pulled back, and did it again. She ripped the door open and grabbed his shirt front, ready to batter him a third time. His head lolled and a bruise was already forming. She had this well under control.

Thinking of the others, I turned back toward my body, only then realizing how exhausted I felt. My eyes drooped and my limbs felt like lead. My energy was nearly depleted, had to be.

Moving by sheer force of will, I pushed through the space, something that was harder now that I wasn’t reeling myself in, like I was trudging through waist-high snow.

“Uh-oh.” A strong arm wound around my waist, supporting me. “I think we overdid it a little, huh?” Harding winked at me, his side touching mine. “Sorry I’m late. What’d I miss?”

“Something isn’t right with you,” I said, trying to stand on my own and finding it difficult. “Why do you always disappear for our battles?”

“A lot isn’t right with me, and because I can’t get too involved or I’ll be noticed. Trust me, when you have a magic like mine, like yours, the big dogs take notice. As you can attest, or have you been asleep for the last few months? I’d prefer those big dogs to not notice I’m around again. With that watch you have, it’ll be two Spirit Walkers for the price of one, know what I mean?”

We drifted through increasingly shadowy fog, our path unclear, my comfort with him at an all-time high. I was happy to be shepherded this one time. To take a break.

“You handled all that well,” he said, and midway through the sentence his voice broke off, replaced by the thought-speak of the spirit realm. “Some things were…extreme, but you mixed your limited training with your logical brain and acted accordingly. You saved the day. I’m proud of you.”

I did the equivalent of huffing out a laugh. Deep, soothing spirit wrapped around us now. Except I didn’t know how Kieran was, if they’d stopped the bleeding. And I needed to make sure Bria brought that guy in.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Harding covered my hand with his. “Calm. We’re working our way back there. Your people are handling things, don’t worry. But you need to rejuvenate. Your Demigod does it by swimming in the ocean, and you and I can do it by walking through deep spirit. It’s cleansing. Refreshing. Tell me if I’m lying.”

He wasn’t. I could tell from the way I was soaking in our surroundings.

“It seems like Hades has the most dangerous, sneaky types of magics,” I said, thinking back. “How could a normal person handle a Possessor?”

“How could a normal person handle a bolt of lightning dropping out of the clear blue sky, straight for their head? Magic is messy. It’s brutal. You always have to be prepared, and to do that, you have to amass people around you that can handle the different facets of the various gods. It’s the only way to stay on top, because each of the gods, mighty and not so much, have some sneaky, cunning magics. To combat them, you need something in your arsenal that speaks the same language, that can see through the ruse, as you can do with most Hades magics. Your Demigod expanded his protection base when he met you and then brought on the exceptional Necromancer. But if he hopes to make it in the magical world, he must find more people like you—those who can expose the secrets of other magics.”

It sounded as though he thought that would be a simple thing to do. As though people that important in their magical discipline were hanging around on street corners, waiting to get picked up. As I was seeing firsthand, people like me were collected. Stolen, sometimes.