Between the Shadow and the Soul by Susanne Winnacker Read Free Book Online Page B

her life so much easier. Maybe not in this case, since the guy seemed more than capable with his spells, but in general. She squinted through her watering eyes. They burned almost as badly as her back by now. She could make out the outline of the guy. So close up he was a head taller than her. That didn’t make her feel better. Her hand with the pepper spray twitched. Maybe this time she would be quicker than him and then she’d run, even if she couldn’t see where she was going.
    “Okay. Apparently this isn’t going to work,” the guy said impatiently. “If you prefer to stay a blubbering mess, then be my guest. I won’t stay to let you assault me again.”
    Reluctantly, Nela lowered the pepper spray a few inches. Her muscles were so tense, she was sure they would snap any moment. She’d healed the boy in front of the church, but that had been instinct. She wasn’t sure how she’d done it. She tried to focus on her eyes, on the watering and burning, but nothing changed, except that her tattoo began tingling as if it could sense that she was trying to perform magic.
    “What are you doing? You’ve gone all cross-eyed,” the guy asked. He was so close that he was all she could make out with her blurry vision. “I’m going to touch the skin next to your eyes now and then you’ll hopefully feel better. I’m not good at healing magic, so I can’t promise anything.”
    Nela flinched when his cold fingertips touched her skin. Her fingers around the pepper spray tightened again but relaxed when her vision started to become clear and her eyes stopped watering, even though they still felt slightly raw.  She blinked once and the guy dropped his hands. She took a step back, glad to have some distance between them. “Thanks,” she forced herself to say. He didn’t smile but gave her a nod.
    She examined his face closely, searching for a sign of familiarity, but she’d never seen him before. How could that even be? Wasn’t he registered with the Brotherhood? “Shouldn’t you be more worried about doing magic in public? People could see you,” she said eventually.
    He raised one black eyebrow. “What about that boy you healed in front of the church with the guards of the Brotherhood only feet away? That’s what I’d call reckless.”
    Nela tensed. “You were watching?” She took another step back but could feel the magical barrier tingling against her back. Her tattoo flared up angrily until she leaned forward a bit. Though she seemed incapable of walking through the invisible wall, the snowflakes that had started falling passed right through it.
    “I’m always on the lookout for witches and wizards who aren’t opposed to working spells. Magic is in our blood. I could never live without it. I don’t want to. There hasn’t been a day in the last few years when I didn’t use magic.”
    Nela’s eyes grew wide. How did he do it? The iron from his tattoo should have poisoned him by now. He had to be lying. “If that were true, you’d already be dead. Your tattoo would have killed you. Everyone knows that. You’re a liar.” She was sick of this. Why was she even still talking to him? Her parents were probably already searching the entire city for her. “Let me out,” she demanded.
    He seemed taken aback by her harshness, but Nela didn’t care. He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not lying. I never received a tattoo.”
    “That’s impossible. Every witch and wizard gets a tattoo when they turn sixteen.”
    “Not where I am from.” Before Nela could ask him where that was, he went on. “And even if I had received the Binding, I know someone who could undo it and allow you to work spells as you were meant to be.”
    His eyes bore into her and this close up she could make out his iris. They were indeed black and there was something in them, something dark and desperate that made Nela nervous. His expression was carefully guarded. From looking at him, you couldn’t tell if he was lying, but he had to be.