A Soul for Vengeance Read Online Free Page A

some much needed distance between her and the man who was breaking her heart all over again. But she refused to let him see her cry. She fought to keep her emotions concealed, her face as hard as her cousin’s and her voice as cold. “Then so be it.”
    She kept her steps slow and deliberate until the shadows of the narrow hallway consumed her. Then she ran back to her room, the sound of Cinder’s padded feet following her through the twisted paths of Conclave. Once she was behind closed doors, she sank to the floor and let the tears fall. The fire wolf nudged her with his muzzle, inviting her to run her hands through his coarse fur and cling to it while she cried.
    “Forget about Dev,” Loku said. “You’ll always have me, and I promise never to hurt you.”
    “So you say.” After his little demonstration in Sazi’s tower today, she doubted his sincerity.
    Loku replied with a snort of disdain. “If you wish for me to abandon you like Dev—”
    “Just shut up and let me mourn.”
    “No, I refuse to let you cry over a man who obviously is too stupid to know what he has. He’s not worth your tears . ” He paused, filling her mind with an image of a man with long black hair whipping in the wind, glowing yellow-green eyes, and lines that chaotically danced across his skin like lightning bolts. It was the same form he’d revealed to her in a dream many months ago, a glimpse of what he’d looked like before his body had been destroyed. “If I still had my body, I’d prove to you that you didn’t need any other man but me.”
    The seductive tone of his words snapped her from her world of self-pity and halted her tears. Over the last year, she’d come to view Loku as a confidant, a friend, but never a lover. She could only imagine the trouble she’d be in if she accepted his invitation. “Thankfully, you don’t have a body.”
    “But imagine what you’ve been missing.” A breeze bathed the back of her neck as though Loku was standing right behind her. “I’d make Kell look like an inexperienced boy.”
    More images flooded her mind—scenes of tangled bodies and tangled sheets, of two people caught in the throes of passion. A rebellious spark of desire ignited deep inside, flushing her skin. A whimper rose from her throat. She closed her eyes and surrendered to the world Loku painted for her, only to realize that she was the woman in the scenes. Her mouth went dry, and her pulse quickened as the man’s face came into view. She knew that dark auburn hair, as soft as silk, and the eyes the color of evergreens.
    Dev.
    Fury replaced her lust. She jumped to her feet so quickly, Cinder tumbled back on his haunches. “That wasn’t funny, Loku.”
    “You did that,” he replied, his voice laced with acid, “not me. If I was in control, it would have been my face you saw as you came, my body giving you pleasure.”
    Arden pressed her hands against her flaming cheeks. Her legs twitched, forcing her to move from one end of the room to the other. “I can’t stay here. I can’t be near him any longer, not after he made very clear he wants nothing to do with me.”
    “Then leave.”
    “I can’t.” Even if she could sneak past the spell that held her prisoner, where would she go? Crawling back to Kell? No, she couldn’t do that, not after she’d chosen Dev over him. She reached for the comfort of her mother’s necklace, the object that had always served as her anchor in times of trouble, only to be reminded once again that it was gone. She’d lost it the night she fought Nelos.
    “I can help you. I know how to get past the Empress’s spell,” Loku teased. “I even know where you can find your mother’s necklace.”
    She froze, weighing his offer with care. Why would be offering to help her now? “What makes you think you can do that?”
    “I am still a god, you know. I’m just trapped by your body.”
    “And what do you want in return?”
    He chuckled. “I just want you to be happy, my little