Free A Soul For Atonement (The Soulbearer Series Book 4) by Crista McHugh Page B

wondered if he would’ve done the same. His mother was a member of one of the strongest elvan bloodlines in the empire, and he’d been specifically bred to carry on the family tradition of containing the god of chaos. Quertus believed the elvan blood would slow the eventual madness, and Callix’s earliest memories included learning spells to protect the Soulbearer and contain the malicious soul inside.
    But all that changed when a knight was accused of murdering his best friend. Even though Dev was found innocent, he still asked for punishment. And the Mages Council, knowing Callix’s reluctance to carry on the family tradition, sentenced him to become the Soulbearer’s Protector.
    The thing Callix had loathed as long as he could remember had been lifted from him.
    Only now, it hung from his neck like a millstone.
    And there was only one way to be free of it.
    Ivis, give me strength. I’m going to need it .

Chapter 10
     
    Arden tucked the last of her things into her pack and glanced at the afternoon sun. With a little bit of luck, she might make it through the pass before nightfall. She’d already wasted too much of the day recovering from Sazi’s spell. She knew where the stone was, and she had even less time to find it.
    “Come along, Cinder,” she said to the wolf perched on her bed with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.
    He hopped down and followed, acting completely unconcerned that this would be his last night in a warm bed for the foreseeable future. His tail wagged as though they were going to hunt rabbits, not search for a portal to another realm. And he certainly didn’t seem to be aware of how dangerous this mission had become.
    But Arden knew. The awareness that slowed her steps as they descended the stairs made it difficult to look her father in the eye when she reached him. This could be the last time she saw him, and the overflowing emotions in her heart failed to reach her throat. When words failed, she flung her arms around him and said, “Thank you, Father.”
    He drew in a sharp breath, then returned her hug with even greater intensity. “I wish I could go with you, Arden.”
    “I understand.” She let go of him and pointed to her head. “He’s going to be pissed off, though.”
    “I’m sure.” Varrik gestured to his study. “I’d like to show you one thing before you go.”
    When they entered, the first thing she noticed was Sazi stretching her shiny, dark wings. Then she noticed the oval-shaped mass that rippled where the wall should’ve been. “What did you do?”
    “I spent most of the night creating a portal that will take you to the place where Syd was captured,” Varrik replied, rubbing his hand through his hair.
    So that explained the dark circles under his eyes this morning. “And how long will it be active?”
    “I’m afraid this one will close as soon as you and Sazi pass through it. The distance is too great for my magic to keep it open much longer than that.”
    All at once, the mission didn’t seem so impossible. The portal easily shaved a week off their travel, granting her more time to search for the entrance to the Realm of Chaos.
    That is, if she could convince Loku to show her where it was. She hesitated to release him from his confinement as long as her father was within striking distance. But once they were in the Ornathian kingdom, would he cooperate? Or would he thwart her at every turn?
    “We do not have much time, Soulbearer.” Sazi maneuvered a pack past her wings and onto her muscular shoulders. “I can feel the portal starting to close.”
    “Wait,” a man said from the hallway. Callix ran through the doorway wearing a traveling cloak and carrying a pack whose contents threatened to spill out. “Is there room for one more?”
    Arden opened her mouth to say there wasn’t, but her father silenced her by placing his hand on her shoulder.
    “So you decided to live up to your potential?” he asked his apprentice.
    “More like make sure chaos