“I dinna.” He dragged a hand down his face. If they were sisters, that meant she was the baby he’d put on the boat to America. It was fucking crazy. “Gods, it was so damned long ago.”
She squinted at him, skeptical. “You really expect me to believe you didn’t know.”
“Aye. It was over three hundred years ago, and you were an infant. But it changes nothing. She’s too dangerous for you to see again.”
“She’s not as bad as you think. She’s ruthless, but I swear to you that she isn’t evil.” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.
Dread washed over him like a wave of tar, followed quickly by a fiery spark of anger. “You don’t know that.”
“I think the souls have poisoned her. They’re dragging at her mind with their desperation to leave her. Her familiar keeps her in check when she loses it, but I can persuade her to give yours back, I know I can. Especially if I can convince her she doesn’t need to be holed up in her magical world.”
The idea of Esha going back there, to face Aurora in one of her rages, made his head feel like it was going to blow off. “Out of the question! You canna see her again. I will no’ allow it.”
“You don’t get to decide!”
“The hell I doona. Aurora must die. It’s the only way.”
“It’s not that easy! She’s more powerful than you can imagine. Convincing her to give it up is safer than a fight. And it could save my sister as well as you.”
“She’s no’ really your sister, lassie! She’s a monster. She’s stolen souls and killed when it suits her. She’s killing me as we speak.”
“I just need time with her! Just half a day. You have at least three more days on your medicine. Give me half a day to try. “
“Never going to happen!”
“Fuck you, Warren.” She glared at him, then turned and stomped up the stairs.
An hour later, Esha was still stewing over what Warren had said. Even the steaming water of the hot spring couldn’t wash away her pissy mood. After stomping around her room in circles, she’d felt like the walls were closing in on her. So she’d come down to the basement, where she might be able to wash away some of her
rage.
It hadn’t worked, so now she was sitting on one of the big boulders with her towel wrapped around her, still gnashing her teeth over their conversation.
Who the hell did he think he was? She could deal with Aurora, she just needed one more try. Brute strength wouldn’t work with her—she could already tell that her sister was stronger and more skilled than she. A bit of an ego-check, that was. But Aurora was older and powered by the souls she’d stolen. Esha didn’t stand a chance in an outright fight.
No, the key was convincing Aurora that she didn’t need Warren’s soul, or any of the others. It was like—like heroin. A poison that Aurora was convinced she needed. As she was convinced that she was only safe holed up in her magical world. Getting rid of those shadows was the only way to save both Warren and her sister. She just needed to figure out how. Because when it came down to it, she’d pick Warren over Aurora, and this was the safest way for him.
“Esha.” Warren’s voice shook her out of her trance, and she looked up to see him stepping off the stairs. The dim torchlight glinted off his golden hair, and the shadows that he cast made him seem all the larger.
“What?”
He stepped through the steam that filled the stone room and stopped before her. “I wanted to apologize.”
Her jaw almost dropped. “Really?”
“Aye. I haven’t liked being in this city. No’ being able to navigate or fight back against the souls… well, I’ve never felt so fucking helpless. With you in danger, out of my reach, I lost it.”
She looked at him, standing so tall and broad, and realized that with his strength and skill, he was never at a disadvantage in normal life. Of course this had thrown him off.
“You were still an ass,” she said.
“Aye. But you’re precious to me. I only realized how much when you were trapped with Aurora. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. I lost it when I thought of you facing her alone.” He walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands, his expression so heartfelt and torn that it made her heart ache.
“I was an ass too. If it comes down to it, of course I choose you over her. Giving me one more chance with her is the safest way. We don’t stand a chance of winning in an outright fight. I just need a few hours.”
“I won’t let you risk your life for my soul.”
Esha flinched even as her heart soared. He wanted her life more than his own soul? The thing he’d wanted more than anything else for centuries? It wasn’t that simple, though. “But with your sickness, your soul is your life now. You won’t survive if she keeps it. You’ll just be incapacitated and in misery.”