Free Witches' Bane (The Soul Eater Book 2) by Pippa DaCosta

me.”
    At that, Cat sprawled sideways and spread her hind legs and forepaws as far apart as possible, soaking up all the desk space.
    “She doesn’t look much like an assassin.” Shu pursed her lips, suppressing a laugh. That laugh…oh, that laugh told me the truth. She’d known all this time and deliberately kept it to herself. I’d kill her for that, when I had the time to think of something creative.
    “Tell me about the damn arm,” I grumbled.
    “Okay, so I tried to trace the witch, but she’s gone.”
    “Thank you for stating the obvious. Without your astute observations, I may have missed the fact that there isn’t a witch attached to that arm.”
    “You missed the cat shifter bunking with you.” I gave Shu the silent death stare, and she continued with a smirk. “There’s nothing left of the body belonging to this arm anywhere on earth.”
    “Burned?”
    “No. Gone. No earthly remains at all. Had there been anything left of her, I could have traced it, but the spell bounced back. Which makes sense when you consider the magical residue coating the arm and who it belongs to.”
    “Who?”
    “You.”
    “What?”
    “It’s yours.”
    “It’s obviously not my magic. I brought you the arm. Are you confused?”
    “What kind of ten-cent sorceress do you think I am? Your magic is all over this arm. It reeks of you. I could smell it as soon as you brought it to me, but I needed you out of the way to be sure. If we had access to a forensics lab, I bet the thrust pressure and signature of the cut would point straight back to that.” She pointed at my sword, currently sheathed and leaning against the filing cabinet.
    I glared at Shu, at my sword, and at the damn cat. “That’s impossible. I didn’t kill the witch, and I definitely didn’t cut off her arm. Why would I?”
    Shu sighed and crossed her arms. “Did anyone have access to your sword while you were at the museum?”
    “It was here.” Osiris had broken in to leave his gift basket of body parts. He could have taken it, but why would he cut off a witch’s arm and bring the sword back without telling me? None of this was making sense. Although he had reacted to my mention of the snake-headed jackal mark.
    “If someone did steal Alysdair, it wouldn’t account for my magic being all over the arm. I must have been there…”
    “Could anyone be drawing magic out of you?”
    My memory flashed to the witches doing exactly that, but that had been years ago and I’d know if someone were feeding off me. I’d feel the drain. If anything, I was restless and bloated with power, not weak from a lack of it. “No, but it wouldn’t be the first time witches tried.”
    Shu leaned in closer and peered into my eyes. “Your eyes are dark.”
    After too many tainted souls, my eyes turn black, a reflection of the darkness within. I hadn’t looked in a mirror recently, preferring to avoid my gaze altogether, but considering the slippery uneasiness crawling over my skin, I’d take Shu’s word for it.
    I calmly blinked back at her. “I devoured a priest earlier. Cat and I killed three more.”
    Shu rolled her eyes. “Whose priests?”
    “No idea. They wanted Osiris’s tablet.”
    “Are you sure it’s the tablet they wanted? Could it be connected to the arm, to you? Could a priest have gotten to you and made you kill the girl this arm belonged to?”
    “No, no way. Priests are a pain in the ass, but that’s all. They can’t make me do anything. Besides, I didn’t kill her. I’d know if I had. It’s not something I’d forget.”
    “Isn’t it?” Shu asked. “You’ve been acting like a dick lately, more than usual.”
    “Just come right out and say it, why don’t you.”
    “Irritable, twitchy. Last week you threatened a client, and I quote, ‘ I’ll tear out your guts and serve them on a platter to the river beasts. ’ You said those words to a paying client whose only crime was a false alarm, and you’ve been lax on keeping your power