Read Online City Of Souls by Vicki Pettersson - Free Book Online Page B

couldn’t risk drawing anyone’s attention by switching up my routine without notice.
    So despite my newfound power, status, and knowledge, I still had to kowtow to a mortal man I hated. There was a silver lining, though. Everything belonging to Xavier also belonged to the Tulpa. My real father was my fake father’s benefactor. In return for money, Xavier fronted the Tulpa’s many businesses. My ultimate goal? Bring them both down…but in order to do that, I had to stick close to a man I’d despised for years. Xavier.
    So that’s one of the reasons why Olivia Archer—casino heiress and social debutante—regularly worked an eight-hour shift where she’d earn less than she’d spend on a bottle of wine. It was another way to get inside Valhalla’s hallowed walls, which we believed was the headquarters for the Tulpa’s organization. Xavier had initially refused me, and then, when he realized I wouldn’t be swayed, started me in the gift shop, hoping that would cure this inexplicable whim to actually work for a living. It hadn’t—I wanted more than spending money; I wanted retribution—and so the news that he wanted to see me at his home office before my shift even began had me holding back a smile…and had Ginny, my small-minded boss, grinding her teeth.
    “Maybe he wants to give me a raise,” I told her with false excitement. More likely he was going to move me to a new, more socially appropriate department now that I’d proven I wasn’t giving up. Ginny huffed and turned away while my coworker, Janet, gave me a hopeful thumbs-up. I hoofed it down to Uniforms, used the adjacent locker room to change into a more Oliviaesque outfit, and handed in my work clothes for a fresh set that I might or might not need the next day. I locked these away in my appointed locker—I couldn’t be caught ferrying around a Valhalla uniform if a Shadow did happen to track me—then headed to my car in the employee lot, where I was both surprised, and not, to find Felix waiting.
    “You my babysitter?” I asked, purposely keeping my tone light. Anything heavy looked like it would knock him over. He was dressed in his usual jeans, with a faded gray T-shirt, untucked, and hair streaked with caramel highlights, deliberately unbrushed. But the expression on his face wasn’t one I’d ever seen on him before. He’d aged a decade since the night before.
    “Yes, and you’ve been naughty,” he tried, but his grin slipped from his new face. “Come here and let me give you a spanking.”
    “My daddy would kick your ass if you tried,” I said softly.
    “Your daddy wants to kick my ass anyway.” He snorted. “And yours, for that matter.”
    I put a hand to his arm, steadying us both for my question. “Vanessa?”
    “Micah’s taking care of her.” Tears welled so quickly, they’d clearly been lurking beneath the surface. “It’s going to take time, though.”
    I nodded because there was nothing to say. Normally we healed in an instant from mortal wounds. But there was nothing normal about what the Shadows had done to Vanessa. “I’m so sorry, Felix.”
    “It’s not your fault.”
    I shook my head. “They were angling for me, and I broke the safe zones, plus—”
    “Jo!” His voice must have come out even more loudly than he intended, because even he jumped. “They’re Shadows. They’d have done it anyway.”
    I hesitated, biting my lip. “I saw you, Felix. When Warren told us they wanted to make a trade, Vanessa for me…” I didn’t look away when he flushed because I wanted him to know I’d seen…and I understood.
    He looked me in the eye then, so serious it was like I didn’t know him. I
didn’t
know him, I realized in the next moment. Vanessa’s torture had changed him. He looked more like Hunter now; something had touched him in a way that he would always bear a scar. I too had the same sort of scar. “No. Warren was right. No matter what they did to Vanessa, we wouldn’t have made a trade. Not