Free Imperial ((Imperial) Web of Hearts and Souls) by Jamie Magee

are rarely called to relieve; they live in peace, and knowing that I was standing this close to those precious souls was almost more than I could handle.
    Vade let his voice fall into place with the others. Though it was just a whisper against my skin, it was so powerful that my focus shifted; his voice, the hum of his skin, and the regal authority that he always had, pulled me closer, dared me to see the side of him that no other soul had, the giving, compassionate, soul that he was.
    He leaned his shoulder back, allowing my head to shift just enough for his lips to find mine once more. His kiss was deep and powerful, laced with the commanding flavor of mint. He released my lips just as quickly as he claimed them. He was a brilliant spirit. I knew he was purposely causing me to gasp, causing me to pull in more energy than I would have if I were given the opportunity to abstain.
    The power swarmed within my core. I felt an awakening. For an instant, I would swear to you that I had no idea what the emotion of wrath or anger felt like, that I had no idea what any of the other sovereigns’ emotions felt like. I would swear to you that all of existence was euphoric. At this moment, I felt more powerful than when my Creator retrieved me from death, more powerful than when my reign was established, my First was created… almost more powerful than the first time I felt Vade’s rush.
    The room didn’t weaken as I took all I needed and more; it intensified, the souls gave more, as if their gifts were endless, as if noticing and appreciating them were vital for them to rise to the next level of their existence.
    How could that even be possible?
    “There is more to see, my adored,” Vade murmured as he urged me to walk forward.

     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    I began to gain my senses as I stepped forward away from the energy source that had provided for me so abundantly. I felt like the sovereign I once was, powerful and deadly. I remembered that I was furious that I had been hidden in death and now war was engulfing the world I’d left behind.
    Carefully, I began to arrange my arguments in my mind. I knew Vade had had eons to shape his point of view, and I would only have an instant to rebut them.
    If that power I was just immersed in existed, why was there a war? In fact, was there even a need for my kind in the first place? Maybe that is what this was all about: our Creator had no need for the role our souls were meant to play. Maybe that is why lines were crossing. But that didn’t explain the wars in The Realm, the dead I saw trapped, or why I’d had to be cloaked to escape my sentence of death.
    The voices grew silent, as did the music, and in the darkness we moved forward. I knew that Vade had progressed us from one place to another. Manifesting with Vade into new rooms was always gracefully done, sometimes so gracefully that it took you a moment to realize you’d gone from one place to the next. The only reason I was aware that he had moved us was that I sensed my First, along with his line…and of course the ghostly essence of mine. We were at the mansion but in a room that I had never seen.
    Out of the vast darkness, a small candle came to life in Vade’s hand.
    Curiously, I glanced to my side at him. A candle was a rather weak display of any essence of his power.
    He turned to face me as he raised the candle so the glow of this simple light revealed each of our faces.
    “Each day I came here,” he began in that sensual voice of his, “I let your memory move through my being.” His eyes moved across my confused expression. “I remembered every word you ever spoke to me…every touch of your skin…of your soul. I held that memory and drew power from it. I dreamed of this day…one candle.” He glanced down to the innocent white candle in his hand. “I lit one candle for each day we were apart.”
    And with those words, light came. For as far as the eye could see in every direction, there were candles lying