Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 52

With his back to the wall and his eyes checking all directions for as much as a moving shadow, Malachi descended the stone staircase as quietly as possible. He could tell from his last encounter with Sam that her Powers were getting weaker. Which was strange because she was getting older, so her Powers should have been getting stronger.

There was absolutely no reason that she should be growing weaker and her Powers diminishing.

It had always been Malachi's job to find a way to get Sam's Powers from her. He was the one who made the plans. He was the one who told people what parts they played in his plans.

And in the past few months he had made no plans.

Because for some inexplicable reason he had been demoted from plan maker . . .

The only thing Malachi could think of to explain why she would be weakening would be if someone else was making plans and executing them behind his back.

Even though Sam was his job.

Ever since a few months ago things had been strange. He'd notice that people would suddenly stop talking when he walked into the room. Kraven had been avoiding him, refusing to answer his questions about why he was no longer in charge of Sam. And refusing to say who he'd placed in charge instead.

He kept saying that there was no one else. That they were just avoiding Sam for now.

But clearly that was a lie.

Because clearly there was something going on with her.

So clearly someone was doing something and they were doing it behind his back.

For a while he had managed to convince himself that he was just being paranoid about his thoughts. But his encounter with Sam proved to him that he wasn't.

Someone was making plans that he was supposed to be making. And what was worse was that he wasn't being told about it.

Malachi stepped off the stairs and into the hallway. To avoid making any unnecessary sounds he had taken his shoes off in his room. He needed to get to The Oracle without anyone knowing.

Usually if Malachi was bothered by something, or needed answers, he would talk to Kraven about it.

But in this instance he got the feeling that he was the one making the plans behind his back.

So that meant that the only way to get answers would be to ask The Oracle, which was kept in a locked room that everyone thought only Kraven had a key to. But as second in command, Malachi had a master key that allowed him access to any and all rooms on the property.

Malachi came to the door leading to the room where The Oracle was kept. He knew he would find the answers to all of his questions in there. Pushing aside the guilt he felt about going behind Kraven's back, he tried not to dwell on the fact that he was also about to touch one of the man's most treasured possessions.

Respect is a two way street, he thought, if he can't respect me enough to keep me in the loop, then why should I show him a courtesy he's refused me?

For eighteen years Malachi had been in charge of dealing with Sam. It was his job to find a way to get her Powers from her. No one else really cared whether she lived or died.

But Malachi did.

He'd prefer not to have a young girl's blood on his hands, so he had been trying to come up with a way to get her Powers without killing her—at times he'd gone completely out of his way to ensure that she stayed living. And there was no way he was going to let someone ruin all of his plans before he even had a chance to execute them.