Imperial ((Imperial) Web of Hearts and Souls) by Jamie Magee Read Free Book Online

mouth. The lot of them were gifted manipulators causing you to look in one direction as the world around you fell apart.
    I glanced to my side to find Mazing’s waiting auburn eyes. We had never discussed this incident. There was no reason to. My mind’s eye showed me, in flashes, what had occurred during that deadly fight. Scolding her or lashing out was pointless. I knew she felt guilt, pain, and regret.  Emotions I knew all too well.
    “Glory. Something isn’t right,” she said in a hushed whisper as she glanced at the level of The Realm we were leaving.
    She had a point. If that coupling had occurred between Colton and Cadence, then Cadence’s scent would not have been on a lower level; she would be with Colton.
    “I didn’t sense Colton,” I replied as I tried to read her rigid body language.
    “Lilies,” she said in a whisper.
    That one word caused me to freeze. A lily was the scent of grief. An entirely different line, one that never caused any trouble at all. At least not during my reign.
    “Are you telling me that the chosen petal for Colton was not from his line?” I seethed.
    She swallowed harshly. “I’m telling you that the girl I pulled from Colton’s bed carried the scent of lilies. If she carried his line’s scent, I would have realized it was not in his control. I understood that he was playing me. Having his way with any and all lines.”
    Wrath. That was seeping through my soul. It was so powerful that I felt the stare of Rasp and glanced behind me to find him gazing up at us from the stone he was on.
    I glanced to Mazing once again. “So the Veil is as thin as a cloud, dead are trapped, battles have occurred on the first level of The Realm, humans were involved—lines crossed long before this day—and the Reaper suddenly decided to offer us a reprieve from death,” I summed up sharply, still not comprehending what was occurring now, why we were pulled back into this world.
    Mazing rolled her shoulders once, a tell that said she was getting ready for a fight. “Bring it,” she fumed. “They would not be pulling us out unless they needed something from us. There is no telling what this boys club has been up to while we were chilling with the dead in the Cathedral.”
    “No one is getting anything from me,” I stated with a stern stare. She was my only possession and she knew that. She also knew that she and Vade were never the best of friends—that the fact that her acts took me away from him was not going to win her any favors. “What happened between me and Vade had nothing to do with you. He will not harm you,” I swore.
    Gently, she reached for my arm. “He would never do anything to bring you misery. For that I know I am safe.”
    A sly smile edged to the corner of my lips. I reached to squeeze her hand before I casually brushed it away. I was beginning to tremble, and I didn’t want her to sense that weakness. “He already has. He left us. He did not avenge us.”
    “How do you know that his actions have not led to what was below?” she asked as we rose further into The Realm, to levels where Escorts were more freely seen, not that I could see any now.
    I was sure Rasp was cloaking us at this point. He was deliberately hiding our return. Something Vade could not have done. If anyone had seen Vade enter the Veil and return cloaked, they would have no choice but to believe I was with him. That he had finally woken up and claimed the rush that once was his.
    That didn’t make me any happier. I never gave a damn what anyone thought of my actions. An argument Vade and I often had. He’d tried to teach me to rule with absolution, something that could only be done if you took your time and weighed every action, every outcome, and always saw your line as an extension of yourself. I understood my line was me. But with the emotion of wrath as my power, taking the time to think was not my style—at all.
    I stared forward into the now purple sky. “Vade is anger. The one