Rebirth (Lost Souls #1)

Chapter 5

S ophia finds me sitting in the grass, the wind still slightly blown out of me. She sits down next to me and when she asks me what happened, I break out in laughter.

“Something good?” Sophia’s voice is filled with disbelief, and I don’t blame her. This doesn’t seem like a place where good things happen.

“I honestly have no idea,” I admit, snickering. “At least I’m feeling a bit refreshed.”

She looks at me, her eyes filled with questions, and then she smiles. Her genuine smile gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, which is something that I haven’t experienced in a very long time. So, I smile back at her.

“He tested me just now.” Sophia looks at me from the corner of her eyes. “Or that’s what I assume he was doing.”

“It is what he would do, sooner or later.”

“I just wonder,” I say while turning to look at her, “what’s it to him? What does he get out of it? Out of all of this, even.”

“I wish I could tell you, but I only know what he wants me to know, and that is unfortunately not that much more than you.”

“I know nothing. ”

Sophia gives me a meaningful look, and I understand. “It might seem to you as if I know everything because I have been here longer. But the truth is that I also do not know who he is or what his goal is.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “All I know, what I suspect, is that he might be as much of a prisoner as we are.”

“But… why?” I can’t suppress a hint of surprise.

Sophia laughs. “I do not know why. All that I know is that things here are not always what they seem to be. Be that for better or worse.”

The smile on her face disappears as something on my side catches her attention. I follow her gaze and see Isra standing there, among the trees, looking at us with what I assume murderous intent must look like. She has bandages all around her neck, arms, and legs, and her skin is sickly pale despite her naturally tanned skin tone.

“What is she doing here?” Sophia asks. “I did not think that he had let her out yet.”

She gets up and cautiously approaches Isra, who looks angry but also as if she’s not completely with us. “Isra? Are you okay?”

Despite the fact that Isra looks directly at Sophia and seems to be at least somewhat aware of her, she doesn’t react.

“Isra?” Sophia repeats.

There’s concern in her voice, and I slowly get up as well so as not to startle Isra.

Sophia reaches her and gently places a hand on her shoulder. It’s at being touched that something seems to spark inside of Isra. A tooth-baring snarl appears on her face, and Isra forcefully grabs Sophia’s wrist. Sophia opens her mouth to react, but before she can, Isra is screaming and throws herself at her. Sophia falls to the ground, with Isra on top of her clawing at her eyes.

Sophia hesitates, clearly not wanting to hurt Isra more, so she only tries to cover her face. I run toward them, grab Isra’s hair, and drag her off Sophia. Isra yells at me, her arms reaching for me and her nails connecting with my skin. She manages to draw blood, and I kick her to get her away from me. She falls face-first into the grass, my foot on her back, thrashing as she tries to get free. A knife drops from the sleeve of her jacket. Where does she keep getting those knives?

“Are you okay?” I ask Sophia.

“I think so,” she answers, getting up and giving Isra a concerned look. Then she leans over the other woman and mumbles words that I now recognize, understand even.

Sophia lowers the spell over Isra, and fiery red magic wraps itself like a rope around her. Isra struggles against the restraints but is ultimately unable to do anything against it. With a flick of her hand, Sophia draws her magic just a little bit tighter. It cuts Isra’s skin just enough that it hurts, and she whimpers in pain.

“Will she ever learn?” Sophia mumbles, clearly not expecting a reply. She sighs deeply and then says, “I’ll go find him. Stay here and watch over her?”

I’m not so sure about staying behind with Isra, but Sophia picks up the fallen knife and hands it to me

“You’ll be fine,” she says with a wink.

I sit down on the grass next to Isra. As I toy with the knife, I’m unable to help but wonder about what might have made her this way. Why she’s so desperate to die, because that’s clearly what she’s hoping to gain by attacking time and time again.

It isn’t long before he approaches, Sophia close behind. He has a stern look on his face, and his yellow eyes hold traces of disgust. I stand and hand him the knife. He takes it from me, his fingers touching my own for a moment, which sends a spark of electricity through me. It courses through my body like a soft hum and settles low in my stomach, making me feel things I definitely shouldn’t be feeling. Startled, with a soft blush on my cheeks, I look up at him and see the corner of his lips tip up in a small smile .

Did he feel it too?

The way he looks at me makes me swallow, my body reacting to him in a way that I don’t like.

He turns away from me and looks down at Isra, regarding her for a moment. She looks back at him without a sliver of remorse for her actions, still snarling and baring her teeth at him in defiance. Ready for him to get it over with and end it. End her . He steps around her, his eyes going over the red magic that’s binding her, as if to make sure that she’s properly secured. He tucks the knife away in the waistband of his slacks and proceeds to effortlessly scoop Isra up. He throws her over his shoulder and stalks away.

“Is this what will become of us? We go insane and try to kill each other?” I ask Sophia as we look at their retreating forms. As that soft humming inside of me dissipates, something else wants me to follow after him.

She looks at me in shock. “Why would you even think that?” she asks.

“Why? Look at Isra.” I gesture in the direction he walked off. “She’s suicidal. She wasn’t like that when I first awoke here.” I frown. “At least, I don’t think she was.” She’s silent for a moment, thinking. “You are right,” Sophia admits eventually. She touches the jewel around her neck and sighs. “When we first wake up here, we do not remember the circumstances that brought us here. We are as you are now, blissfully ignorant.” Sophia smiles, without a doubt remembering something. “Eventually something will happen that triggers our memories. When that happens, everything returns at once, engulfing you.”

Sophia goes silent for a few seconds before she continues. “Time... it passes differently here. Besides the fact that this place is completely closed off from the outside world, something prevents our magic from keeping track of the passing of time.

“That was Isra’s trigger, learning how much time has passed. How everything she once knew is long gone. In a way... I can understand that it broke her, that it took from her the will to continue on.” I swallow, becoming acutely aware of the possibility that my own returning memories could have me end up as unstable as Isra.

“Either way,” Sophia says, interrupting my thoughts, “you do not have to worry about it, not yet at least.” Her words are not as reassuring as she probably intends them to be.

In trying to avoid her eyes, I find myself looking at my hands. It makes me think about something else that I don’t want to but need to know. For the sake of my own peace of mind.

“Sophia,” I start, my voice unsure about what I’m going to ask her. “Is it possible that he took my wedding ring?”

“It is,” she answers hesitantly. “It is a remnant of your previous life and thus has no place here.” Sophia takes a deep breath and throws a quick yet nervous glance around us.

“I know that I promised that I would help you to see your husband again.” She’s silent for a moment. “But he is in a bad mood because of Isra. This makes his temper even worse.”

I know what she’s steering toward. “I’ll take full responsibility if he finds out. I won’t tell him that you helped me.”

“I am not sure that he will believe you.”

“If I stick to my word and you deny being involved, why would he think that you would be willing to help me?” Sophia is still unsure, fidgeting with the fabric of her dress.

“You know what, I’ll just do it myself,” I huff, growing rapidly annoyed. Something tells me that there is more to her sudden reluctance, seeing how this was her idea to begin with. “That way you don’t have to risk anything. I should be able to figure it out.”

Sophia looks at me in surprise upon hearing this. “Are you certain about this?” Her words are enough to anger me, because for sure she doesn’t believe that she can set me on this path, back out and then underestimate my abilities as well? It’s not her place to turn her fear and hesitation on me as well. Not when I want—need—to do this.

I shrug in an attempt to shake off my discomfort. “No, but I’m a quick study. And you shouldn’t risk yourself for my sake.”

Sophia smiles weakly at me, and I return her smile. Although it feels very strained from my side.

“That being said, I better go and study. See if I’m able to find the right spell for the job,” I quickly say, just to get away, and I leave without looking back at her.

My hands push open the library doors and again I linger on my finger once more, on the missing ring. Whatever I might end up finding out, I’m well aware that the chances are that I won’t like it. In fact, I’m certain that I won’t.

“ L et us spar,” Sophia says one day, while I’m buried in a mountain of notes.

“Let’s what?” I look up at her from papers, brows raised in confusion by her proposal and the enthusiasm in her voice.

“Spar. Fight. It is the best way to find out how much you have progressed.”

I’m hesitant, especially looking back on when I... sparred with him. Sophia doesn’t leave me much of a choice as she practically drags me out to the garden. “I’m not sure if I’m quite up to this just?—”

“Tonug do o i a p purgel napta telocvovim.” Energy crackles, and Sophia comes at me before I even realize what’s happening. She blasts the spell at me, fully intending on hitting me, and I only barely manage to cast a protection .

“Taba pir monasci bransg zimi aqlo adohi.” A web of ice-blue magic erects itself in front of me, symbols woven throughout the pattern flickering with energy.

The fire-red attack collides head-on with my defense and causes an explosion of sound. Sophia doesn’t give me any time to adjust as she re-casts her spell and comes at me a second time.

“I dlugam lonshi trian lu ia he bransg.” My protection is a different one in hopes of finding out if this will change the impact of the collision.

Indeed, this one seems to absorb the attack instead. When Sophia’s fire-red circle connects with my ice-blue one, hers freezes over and the protection wraps itself around the frozen circle, taking the magic into itself. There are red flickers for a few seconds until they fade into nothing, like a candle being blown out.

“Good,” Sophia yells, “but defense is not everything. Micma cnila busd teloch. ”

She is right, of course. I’ll get nowhere by only playing it safe, so I quickly change my tactic. “Lonsh hubardo tibibp iadnamad.”

It’s an active defense spell, for it not only blocks the incoming spell but it also makes it fracture back at its caster. Sophia’s spell bounces against the defense and audibly shatters. It’s like glass being smashed to pieces. The sharp, broken pieces get turned around and flung back at the original caster. It catches Sophia by surprise and startles her into a quick defense.

She recovers her footing, and in response I cast my next spell as fast as possible. “Monasci teloch cro odzi busd aao ial pir gah.”

Sophia notices my attack a fraction of a second too late. She casts her defense and comes to realize she’s just a little bit too slow.

My attack shoots through her unfinished defense and hits her full on. She falls to the ground and coughs up blood, waving at me that she surrenders.

“You are quite the sneaky one.” Sophia laughs. “What did you do to make the spell non-lethal?” She procures a folded piece of fabric from a hidden pocket in her dress and uses it to wipe the blood away. Sophia then uses a healing spell on herself while looking up at me, genuinely curious.

I extend my hand and help her on her feet as I say, “I just took out the deadly part.”

Sophia laughs, no longer coughing, a sign that her magic is helping her heal. “Were you aware of the result that would have, or was it a gamble?”

“Both.”

She grins. “Risky. What would you have done if you were wrong and ended up killing me?”

“I would have figured something out. Hopefully.”

This makes her laugh out loud. “I like this dangerous side of you. It has potential.”

More blood trickles out of the corner of her mouth, and she carefully cleans it up once more. “I’m certain that he will agree,” Sophia adds, making me flinch, which earns me a chuckle from her.

“What makes you say that?” I ask her while fighting the urge to look away from her, for how uncomfortable that simple statement makes me feel.

Sophia gives me a coy smile that looks almost wrong on her face, but she doesn’t explain herself. She doesn’t really need to, though, because there’s a fluttering in my chest that has me rubbing my sternum. A soft push and pull that almost makes me look over my shoulder. Almost makes me look for him .