Page 46 of The Souls Harvest
“Just do it. Put your head against my chest and pretend you’re hugging me.”
“Fine.” Not that he needs to ask me twice. I lift my arms and loop them around his neck, resting my ear over his heart.
He smells clean with a hint of coffee when he whispers, “The night you harvested that woman’s soul, you left me a longer message. You said something about stolen souls, but also that that woman’s soul glowed red.”
I tense and cling to him harder.I didn’t…My message was broken. I wrote it on a piece of paper…I didn’t…
I shake my head, faking surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Whatever it means, we need to inform…”
Who? The Chapter?
He distractedly runs his fingers up and down my stretched arms, leaning closer to whisper, “After what you told me about the Turret? I didn’t want to feed your dangerous curiosity. I thought I could find something out about it, but there is no mention of such souls in any books I could put my hands on without raising suspicions.”
Why did Roden decide to leave those memories intact? Is he playing with me?
This is not a coincidence. I start shaking.
“You cold?” Galen asks, tugging me closer into his warm embrace.
“I’m fine. What do we do now?” I snuggle against his body, hiding my face in the soft cotton of his hoodie.
“Wedon’t do anything. You have a crossing to worry about. Don’t think I forgot about it. I will keep digging around.”
“Be careful, please. Especially if I’m not here to save your ass before kicking it for being reckless.” I look up with a tentative smile and sigh with relief when he smiles back.
He nods. “I can’t risk asking too openly about what happened to the weird red soul you captured. But I’m still a Deleteri leader; I’ve got some strings I can safely pull without taking the whole freaking web of security down. I’ll be fine.”
This is taking a dangerous turn, and I cannot even ask him to stop investigating when I’m the one who gave him the information. If I don’t call the Chapter’s attention to Galen by saying or doing something stupid, this will certainly do it.
A low rumble in Galen’s chest snaps my attention back. “What is it?”
He cups my shoulders and gently pushes me away. “What we’ve just discussed, don’t talk about this with anyone. Not even Popplewish.”
I blink fast, shaking my head, “Not a word.”Especiallyto Popplewish, if I don’t want to crack the already thin line that keeps the Chapter and Roden from changing their minds about me.
“Good,” he smacks a quick, innocent kiss on my forehead, and Ihear a swarm of giggles behind me, followed by a rehearsed cough. “Don’t turn just now,” Galen adds, brushing my cheek with his thumb.
“Lucretia and her subjects?” I play with a string of his sweatshirt, wrapping and unwrapping it around my finger.
Galen lowers his face to mine, and a plume of dark purple escapes his perfect mouth as he says, “All of them, and they’re walking with their heads turned towards us.”
“I swear, if one of them face-plants into a wall…”
His soft laugh against my lips sends shivers down my spine. “Lucretia has tugged them along. Not without throwing daggers at your back with her eyes, though.”
“Galen?”
“Hmm?” His eyes gleam with the same spark flaring within me.
“When I come back…”
“Yes…?” His breath warms my face and my mind.
“I want to talk about this.”
“Lucretia’s plans to eliminate you?” He places a delicate kiss on the corner of my lips.
“Us—”
