Free Between the Shadow and the Soul by Susanne Winnacker

buy?”
    Mikael tilted his head with a smirk, then he handed Darko his once-again empty mug. “You’re lucky I’m in such a jovial mood tonight. Usually this would cost you more than a couple mugs of Dragonblood.”
    When Darko returned with the refilled mug, Mikael took his time relishing in its smell and taste before he finally started talking. “For a family like the Vogels, it isn’t easy to remain in the shadows. Being related to Corbin Vogel has its disadvantages. The family left the USA after he burnt at the stake and saved himself by calling up the dead. Of course there was a huge outcry among our kind when the Vogels appeared in Cologne. I’d actually hoped they’d both join my efforts, but I quickly realized that they were trying to stay in the good graces of the Brotherhood. That’s why I was quite surprised when Rebecca showed up at my booth a couple of years after their arrival to buy herbs and tinctures. She didn’t talk much, so I assumed she needed them for her family. But then she started coming every week. Eventually she told me that she’s secretly working as a healer.”
    “That’s a risky thing to do in this town,” Darko said thoughtfully. Maybe he could use that information to his advantage.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
     
    N ela pushed her curtain aside for the fourth time, then she dropped it and sat back down on her desk chair. She needed to talk to someone about what happened after church. She couldn’t talk to her parents, especially not her father. They’d get worried and possibly even tell someone. She didn’t trust that guy Darko one bit but that didn’t mean she wanted him to end up in the Brotherhood’s Witch Tower.
    What he’d offered her was the one thing she wanted desperately, the thing that kept her awake most nights. Even now her magic was simmering under her skin. Would it only get worse? Perhaps. But it was easier to bear than a life in a cell or an end at the stake.
    She raised her hand to her shoulder. Her actions in front of the cathedral, a little bit of accidental healing magic, had already made her tattoo spread. It was only the “I” at the end of “Consimimur Igni” that was elongated and it wasn’t that obvious if you didn’t look too closely. Some might think Claudius had made a flourish at the end of his phrase. Of course the Brotherhood would know what it really meant.
    The bell rang. Nela jumped up and hurried down the stairs, reaching the door before her father. He gave her an odd look when she ripped open the door. Finja, a thick woolen hat on her head, a few blond strands sticking to her forehead, grinned at her. She looked exactly like her mother who stood beside her, except for the missing wrinkles. Her father had a neatly trimmed gray beard. Nela smiled and invited them in. Nela’s father and Mr. Krenz shook hands when Nela’s mother walked in, wearing an apron. She’d spent the last two hours in the kitchen cooking a four-course meal.
    “Is dinner ready?” Nela asked in German. Her family spoke English when they were alone but her parents had taught her that it was rude to do so when other people were around. They switched easily to German since she spoke it as well as English, and her parents only had a light accent.
    “Not yet. 15 minutes.”
    “Can we go up to my room until then? I need to talk to Finja.”
    “And you can’t do that with us around?” her father asked, disapproval plain on his face.
    “Let her be, Felix,” her mother said. “But you come down when I call you for dinner.”
    “Sure,” Nela said, already dragging Finja up the stairs. “Whoa, not so fast. What’s gotten into you?”
    Only when they arrived in Nela’s bedroom did she release Finja who pulled off her hat and coat, and dropped them on the desk chair. She tried in vain to fluff up her hair, which stuck to her skull thanks to the hat.
    Nela plopped down on her bed, suddenly nervous. She’d known Finja for as long as she remembered and yet