This Soul Magic. Michele Hauf

      One

      I am a mortal man.

      I’m not sure how I feel about losing my immortality. I gave it up freely.

      For a woman.

      Did I make the right decision? It’s too soon to know. It has only been a week since I changed from an all-powerful soul bringer to mere mortal. Yet the woman does seem like a good trade-off. To be a part of Libertie St. Charles’s world is a wonder and a learning experience....

      * * *

      I, Reichardt Fallowgleam, watched through the kitchen window from Libby’s hexagon house as the bold redheaded witch wandered through the backyard garden, here and there plucking a petal to nestle in her basket of spell supplies.

      The sun shone in her candied hair like the clear coat on a Maserati. (I find that car the only thing capable of distracting me from Libby.) Her hips rocked to a rhythm I couldn’t hear. She wore the earbuds often, listening to music from the tiny metal box clipped at her hip. There were so many kinds of music, and I was just dipping my toes into Libby’s favorite genre, country. I had to take it slow, though. So much to overload my new senses in this world—like shiny red cars.

      Generously curved hips shifted side to side, swaying her gorgeous bottom and the flirty hem of her purple skirt. Libby’s ample curves filled my hands whenever I put them on her. Everywhere I touched her she was soft and so warm.

      Yet I had a lot to learn about touching a woman.

      I’d tallied over two thousand years in my lifetime, yet thanks to recent events, I now felt as new and lacking in experience as a newborn. Once I’d been a soul bringer, an angel forced to Fall from Above and assigned to collect souls from this realm immediately following the death of the mortal body. Constantly—24/7, as Libby referred to it—I’d delivered souls to Above and Beneath without regard or judgment for the destination. I had known nothing else.

      Save for the woman now smiling at me from over her shoulder.

      I waved to Libby and received a wink in return. Her long lashes, which she lengthened with some fancy black stuff from a stick, drew me to her green eyes. Green like thick moss coating a lush forest floor. Mesmerizing. Made my heart shudder in a good way.

      My heart hadn’t beaten until a week ago.

      Apparently, as the soul bringer, I had taken Libby’s soul, and her sister Vika’s soul, as well, because I felt I’d been owed after Vika had inadvertently stolen souls from my usual daily rounds. The theft hadn’t been purposeful on Vika’s part; she was a witch possessed of a sticky soul who attracted lingering souls, those myself and other soul bringers couldn’t get to quickly enough.

      According to Libby’s report, I’d been unemotional and hadn’t cared less to strip the sisters of their most prized possession. Vika’s boyfriend, a dark witch named Certainly Jones, had offered up his soul in trade. I had refused the offer.

      When the dark witch had found the halo that contained my earthbound soul—lost after my fall to the mortal realm millennia ago—and had offered it in trade for the sisters’ souls, apparently I had also refused. To have a soul would strip me of my powers and condemn me to mortality. It would also strip away memory of my angelic life.

      What I knew now was only what Libby had told me after the transformation. Yet I could remember why I had finally decided to take that deal. I had looked into Libby’s eyes, and she had promised she would be there for me. And I’d remembered all the times she’d offered me chocolate-chip cookies when I’d come to scrub her sister of souls. Something about the feisty red-haired woman had rapped against my glass heart.

      Placing a hand over my heart now, I was glad I’d made that choice. Yet I regretted the lost power. Libby had detailed the few times she’d seen me move objects or command people to act against their will. I had shaken entire buildings and brought the rain and lightning to this realm. Fierce stuff, that.

      Now, to look at my hands, I felt...less. As if I was missing something. The air also felt wrong. Heavy upon my shoulders. Intrusive.

      Beyond that ineffable longing, I did look forward to learning emotions, something I’d never utilized while immortal. But had the sacrifice of power been worth this new step as a mortal?

      I needed to find out.

      * * *

      He was watching me again. The attention made my ears grow warm and my core tingle. And yet I guessed Reichardt wasn’t sure why he was watching me. The man was like a babe venturing through the big bright world. Certainly he knew the world and all its trappings—he’d retained that knowledge after gaining his earthbound soul—but he didn’t know how to use his newly beating heart.

      I intended to help him learn.

      Because I, Libby St. Charles, was all about indulging one’s pleasures. And if the sexy new mortal fell in love with me, then who was I to protest?

      Plucking a few sprigs of potent dill for a cleaning spell I wanted to try the next time Vika and I were called to do a job, I placed it in my basket, along with various flowers and herbs. Turning, I sashayed down the stone garden path toward the French doors at the back of the kitchen. A tune hummed in my brain. I loved to listen to music while concocting spells and hoped to turn Reichardt on to music, as well.

      Baby steps, I said to myself, reminding of my big plans. I didn’t want to overwhelm the man and push him away.

      Yet this was the first time I’d known—deep down in the depths of my soul—that a man was for me. Even when he’d been the emotionless soul bringer and had almost stolen my soul, I had loved him.

      I believed in soul mates, because the universe could be sneaky like that.

      Reichardt is my soul mate. Now I just need to make him believe it.

      The house I had shared