Bear Reign (Alpha Guardians Book 7) Read Online Free

want to free their spirit. Allow them to move on to the next world.”
    “I do, I do want that. How can I do that?”
    The woman pursed her lips, thinking.
    “There is a way, I think. If you were to destroy the Loa, that might work. If you pulled him out of the human world, yanked him back into the spirit world by the roots. Then destroy him…” She took a deep breath. “You would need a way to kill a Loa, though. Very rare.”
    “Could you find such a thing?” Sophie asked, excitement stirring in the pit of her stomach.
    Another considering glance.
    “The magic you would need to do this thing, it would be so dark… You would never be a white witch again. You understand?”
    “Fine. Anything,” Sophie insisted.
    “If the Loa does not kill you first, the stain on your soul will. You may not… you may not enter the same afterlife as your sister, white witch. Would it be worth that to free her?”
    Sophie didn’t even hesitate.
    “Of course.”
    “Fine,” the priestess said. She pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled something on it, handing it over the fire to Sophie. “Wait until you hear from me again, white witch. Do not approach the Loa without the object I will bring you. To do so would be to assure your failure.”
    Sophie opened her mouth to respond, but the priestess picked up a bucket of black ash and banked the fire without notice, vanishing into the darkness leaving Sophie alone in the quiet night air. Sophie stumbled back down the rambling back alleys of the Gray Market she’d followed to find the priestess in the first place, emerging near the front doors of Sloane General.
    Once she was back in the Gray Market’s hazy street lights, she unfolded the piece of paper the priestess had pressed on her.
    It had but two words: Papa Aguiel.
    Closing her eyes, she knew the first moment of elation she’d felt since the moment she’d woken in her bed, knowing instantly that her little sister was no longer in the world.
    Vengeance was so, so close… and she would have it.
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    S ophie stood across from the rambling residence the Alpha Guardians referred to as the Manor, biding her time. She’d stood here for four nights already, gone so far as to break some of the house’s minor wards. All because she was following a tip from a Gray Market acquaintance who said that the Guardians were pursuing the same quarry as she.
    Papa Aguiel .
    The name rang through her head, over and over until she thought her heart might beat to the rhythm of his name, until her veins ran thick with the sound of it. Pa-pa A-gu-iel, Pa-pa A-gu-iel, her heart seemed to say.
    A flurry of activity drew her attention to the front steps of the Manor. Several people stepped outside, and Sophie raised her binoculars. There, on the ground. A dark haired man in a long black coat, utterly collapsed.
    How had she missed this, the one person her contact had told her to watch for?
    Ephraim Crane. Soon-to-be Alpha Guardian. Immortal.
    And most importantly, genuine article djinn. Those weren’t exactly floating around freely these days, so she needed to focus.
    She could not screw this up. It was her only chance to save Lily.
    Free Lily, not save her. She cannot be saved , a quiet voice in the back of her head protested, but Sophie shoved it deep down.
    She’d worked so hard for this moment. She’d handed the keys to her store over to Dawn, suddenly and without explanation. She never planned to return, though Dawn didn’t know that.
    She’d closed up her house, given Dawn a big draught of cash to take care of the tabby they kept in the shop and any other incidentals. Claiming she was going on a long-term cruise, Sophie had simply… slipped away from her old life.
    And now she was here, on the cusp of everything she wanted. So, so close.
    The group at the Manor’s front door managed to get Ephraim to his feet. Sophie had seen but a single photo of him, nearly as blurry as his face was now from such a distance, but it was enough to know