Her Soul To Take

“I’d gladly admit I was generally a dick, but Rae made me want to be...nice...to her. Only to her. Everyone else could get fucked.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
Supernatural, Paranormal, Demons, Touch her and die	Murder, Violence, Torture, Sacrifice, Religion

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SUMMARY

Leon is a demon who has been bound to the Hadleigh family by use of a grimoire for centuries. The Hadleigh family wants to wake up the old god by sacrificing three descendants of the original three miners who survived a mining collapse back in 1899. They say that he is going to come back anyways, so they might as well get on his good side. Hadleigh family consists of dad Kent, his twins Jeremiah and Victoria, his “bastard daughter” Everly (the only one who has actual magic in the family), and his wife. Jeremiah has already made the first sacrifice by killing some 20 year old college student. Which they make Leon go dig up from the grave and haul off to St. Thaddeus church with Jeremiah. Jeremiah throws the body into the mining shaft to finish the sacrifice. Kent decides he wants Leon to become a security guard at the local college, where his kids go and that guy was murdered, to help keep people away from snooping into the crime scene. Also, because making a sacrifice to the old god has also woken up other old creatures. Things called the Eld, that feed on humans. Leon’s job is to keep them away from the college and town.

Raelynn Lawson is moving back to her childhood hometown to finish her last year of college. Her parents, who had moved from Abelaum to SoCal when Rae was younger, have decided to sell their SoCal house and retire in Spain. Rae has always loved the supernatural/paranormal and has her own Youtube channel where she posts her ghost hunting. Unfortunately, Rae hasn’t caught anything real other than some disembodied voices and orbs. She refuses to be like the rest of the Youtubers who post fake stuff and are overly dramatic (looking at you Zak). The first thing she does when she gets in town is go see her old best friend, Inaya, who is also in her last year of college but has just opened up a bookstore. Inaya is unpacking some boxes she recently received as donations from the local historical society. Rae is helping her but she ends up dropping some. She finds a very old, handwritten book in with all the other ones. Inaya wants Rae to have it because it’s written in Latin and has all these diagrams and it looks creepy. Just like Rae likes. 

On the first day of classes, Rae hears about the murder that had occurred on campus. She goes over to the building where it occurred and sees a bunch of yellow caution tape. She takes some eerie pictures and then she gets into a confrontation with a security guard. He doesn’t think she needs to be anywhere near there and she argues back that it’s just caution tape, not a don’t look at this building tape. While talking to him she feels a pressure around her throat, kinda like a Darth Vader hand necklace, and then when she doesn’t respond to that, she feels a pressure on the top of her head. She finally tells the dude basically that he’s an asshole and she walks away. The strap of her bag ends up breaking and all of her stuff falls out onto the ground. She is picking it up when her Inaya walks up. She tells Rae that the security guard's name is Leon and he’s new. 

Inaya introduces Rae to some of her friends - Victoria and Jeremiah. They seem very interested in the fact that Rae’s family is from there. Victoria invites Rae to an art festival in town. She ends up meeting Kent there - he is there with Jeremiah. He tells Rae that he knew her dad in high school. She also meets Everly there, she is at a booth selling (and doing readings) her homemade Tarot Cards. She also has a reaction when she finds out Rae’s last name. Then she does a reading. She pulled a stone tower with flames that she tells Rae means change. A man laying face down in the snow with lots of swords in his back. She doesn’t give an explanation. And then she flips the 3rd card over and then back over real quick but not before Rae saw it - the death card. 

Later (either that day or week), they are out at a bar getting tipsy. Leon is there with another guy (his friend, another demon, Zane). Rae can’t help but watch him and when the two guys get up and go outside, she follows. He asks her if she wants to play a game - the game is basically I’m going to fingerbang you up against this brick wall. 

Leon feels a summoning by Kent. But it's not the usual “get here right now” summoning that he can’t ignore. It's more like an annoying, persistent summoning. He eventually answers and realizes what's different. Kent doesn’t have the grimoire anymore. He still has his protective amulet so Leon can’t kill him but he also can’t control Leon. Kent tells him that the next soul for the Deep One has arrived and it's time for the next sacrifice. He wants Leon to go fetch him this person and bring them to him - alive. He tells Leon that it's Rae. Leon gets furious and is like nope, absolutely not. Kent’s like but you have to do what I say. Leon lets him know he knows that Kent doesn’t have the book, and without that, he has no control. He starts choking out Jeremiah and tells Kent that he needs to release the summoning or he’ll kill Jeremiah. Kent tells Leon that Rae is a descendant of the Blessed First Three, gods chosen. Leon doesn’t give a flying fuck about any of that. Kent releases him. Leon is free-ish. He still needs the grimoire so he can remove the page with his name in it so no one else can summon him.

Rae has decided she needs to up her game to get more viewers on her channel. She has decided to go to this creepy old church, St. Thaddeus, and take this book that she got from Inaya. She has been studying it, and using Google, and has figured out that it looks like summoning spells. She doesn’t believe in that stuff, but she is going to perform it, and if nothing happens, well…she’ll just fake it. She needs viewers dammit.

When she gets to the church and performs the ritual she is super shocked that it works - someone appears. And that she recognizes him. It’s Leon. She thinks that he followed her there and he is just playing a joke on her. She doesn’t believe that the ritual actually worked, she gets mad and storms out of the church.

Monday morning, she sees Leon again on campus. She asks him for proof that he's a demon and he shows her his incredibly long, forked tongue. She tries to run from him and runs into a church. He just follows her. Unfortunately, so does an Eld. Leon kills it and saves her. He asks her for the grimoire, since it contains his symbol that allows people to summon him. She asks what will happen if she gives it to him, he says he’ll leave, go back to hell. She asks if those Eld will keep coming after her, and he says maybe. He offers her a deal - her soul for his protection. She refuses. And then … they fuck in the church graveyard. Apparently watching him tear an Eld to shreds turns her on. 

Anyways, they go back to her house and someone else has been there. The house is a mess. Someone stole the grimoire. More Eld show up at her house, Leon fights them off her (and saves her cat, Cheesecake), tells her to stay in the house after dark, and drive to school - stop walking. 

He shows up the next day while she’s in the library. Offers the deal again and she says no. He tells her he is going to leave and look for the grimoire and she’ll be on her own against the Eld. She acts all tough like she’ll be ok. That night, she can hear more Eld outside her house, but after a while and some thumping, they go away. Leon is protecting her after all. 

The next day, he is still there, putting up Eld skulls on sticks around her property, says it will help ward off more Eld. Rae notices that he is limping. She tells him to go inside, take a shower, eat, she’ll bandage his wounds, and he can rest. Leon ended up falling asleep and sleeping over 24 hours. He felt safe in Rae’s house, felt at home, which he hasn’t felt since he was back at home in hell forever ago. But…when he wakes up…he is furious. Rae doesn’t want him to leave to go look for the grimoire. She knows she needs him to stay but isn’t ready to offer up her soul (even though she’s offered up her entire body more than once). So she drew a binding circle around her couch. 

Leon is pissed and feels slightly betrayed. He offered her his help and she refused. She tells him she just needs help until she can figure out how to get the Eld away from her. Leon tells her that it doesn’t matter where she goes, they will find her. He tells her the story of the 3 miners. A bunch of miners were mining, and the mine collapsed. A lot of them died, or were killed for food for others to survive. But 3 miners made it out after making a deal with the old god that’s down there. Rae is a descendant, so is Victoria and Jeremiah, and the kid that was killed in the beginning of the book. He tells her to let him out of the binding circle, but she knows she fucked up, so she’s not about to do that. Fortunately for Leon, and unfortunately for Rae, Cheesecake is totally on Leon’s side. Oh, and he can compel animals so he had a bit of an advantage. 

Leon is mad but he also knows he can’t hurt her because he feels things, so yeah, she gets “punished” and enjoys it. He asks for her soul again later. She says no. He tells her he can’t stay, he has to find that grimoire, and get the fuck off of earth. He keeps watch one more night and in the morning, he’s gone. 

Even though Leon has warned Rae about the Hadleighs, she still hangs out with Victoria, as long as Inaya is around. But Jeremiah gives her the creeps, so she tries to avoid him. He gets her alone and is just … weird. He invites her to their Halloween party, which she agrees to go too, because everyone is going, and they can’t kill her if everyone is there right? Also, with Leon gone, she needs to figure out how to protect herself, and she thinks she can find something at the Hadleigh's house. 

Rae gets creeped out being in the cabin alone so she takes Cheesecake and goes to stay with Inaya. Whilst driving, she runs into three humanoid like creepy ass figures (we find out later they are Gollums). (To be completely honest, this part creeped me out so much, I had to put the book down for a bit.)

Leon is still around, watching Rae without her knowing, while searching for the grimoire. He calls his buddy, Zane, for help. But Zane already knows where it is. It’s with Everly (remember, Kent Hadleigh's daughter that has real magic). Everly disappeared shortly after Rae arrived in town and no one has known where she is. Zane tells Leon that Everly has an Archdemon (Callum) on her side so Leon should not even try going around her. Zane also tells Leon that he has his own human pet - the sister of the first sacrifice, Juniper. Juniper was supposed to be the first sacrifice but she escaped the Hadleighs and now she is out for revenge. 

Of course Leon doesn’t listen to Zane’s warnings and goes in search of Everly. He finds them and the Archdemon kicks his ass for a while until Everly steps in. Leon tells her that he isn’t there on Kent’s orders, in fact, he was freed from that bastard. Everly admits she stole the grimoire and stuck it in the box to be donated but she never thought that Rae would end up with it.  She asks if Rae is still alive and Leon says yes, he has seen to it. She asks Leon how come Leon got so upset when Kent told him to bring Rae to him. He tries to lie and give a bullshit answer but she tells him she’ll let Callum finish him if he doesn’t answer. He admits that he feels something for Rae, he thinks he might even love her. Everly tells him she will give him the page out of the grimoire that has his name in it, but he has to do something for her. He needs to keep Rae alive. If another sacrifice is made, the old god will become too powerful, and Everly might not be able to kill him if that happens. 

On Halloween, Rae and Inaya go to the Hadleigh's house for the party. Rae thinks she’ll be safe with all the people around but she’d be wrong. Jeremiah spikes her drink. A couple walks up to Rae and starts dancing with her, then leads her to the bathroom. The girl shoves Rae down by the toilet, sticks her fingers in her mouth and makes Rae puke. Rae is like WTF. The girl tells her that her drink was spiked so unless she wants to stay drugged, she should probably throw it all up. Rae complies. She then realizes that the guy is Zane and he introduces her to Juniper. The bathroom door then opens and Leon is there. 

Rae tells Leon she is there to try and find something to use against the Eld to help protect her. They go up to Kent’s bedroom, they hook up, then Leon leads her down into the basement where Kent keeps all his most precious things…including where he kept Leon. Rae finds a whole room of artifacts that Kent had sent Leon down into the abyss to get. She feels a certain way about a knife, so she takes that. They return to the bedroom, and Kent is there with a gun. He threatens to shoot Rae. Leon tells him if he does, Kent will die next. Kent says Rae isn’t going to die today but he has enjoyed watching his children compete to see who could get her first. He then tells them that his children are competing because whoever loses, gets sacrificed as well. 

Kent lowers the gun and lets them escape. They run into a Gollum in the woods, Leon kills it. He then takes Rae and just runs into the next town where they stay at a hotel. She lets Inaya know what happened (Jeremiah drugged her) and asked her to keep Cheesecake for a few days. Victoria calls her and tells her that Kent is dead. She implies that she did it, tells Rae she isn’t even sorry, and says “Congrats you survived”. Rae is excited thinking she gets to go home and this is all over. Leon tells her just because Kent is gone, doesn’t mean it's over. Kent had a whole little congregation of followers who are still around and will still want to complete the sacrifices. But she wants to go home so badly that Leon agrees. 

They return home, after getting Cheesecake, they hit up the local market for snacks. Leon stays in the car, says he will watch the door, while Rae goes inside. Jeremiah and his buddies are in there. Jeremiah thinks he has won but Leon bursts through a window. Jeremiah had put some of his friends outside to deal with Leon but hello? He’s a demon. He got rid of them easily. Jeremiah…is another story. Jeremiah killed Victoria and sacrificed her to the god. Since he completed 2 out of 3 sacrifices, the old god has rewarded him with some gifts. Supernatural strength that Leon says his mortal body cannot handle for a long period of time. 

They manage to get out, only because Jeremiah doesn’t want them at the moment, he has other ways to get them, and return to the cabin. Rae is so close to telling Leon that she accepts the deal. The only thing that’s holding her back is the fact that it's not a temporary thing. Giving up your soul to a demon is kind of a permanent, forever, thing. But she doesn’t get to tell him before (what feels like) an earthquake hits. Leon says it's a Reaper. He urges Rae to go. Tells her that he can distract the Reaper until she gets awake, and then he’ll meet up with her. He gives Rae the paper with his sigil on it, tells her to summon him, and he’ll come. Rae believes him and leaves. Leon may be a demon but he’s not invincible. The Reaper kicks his ass and leaves him for dead. 

Rae realizes after she left that Leon was lying, so she turns around. She finds Leon, basically dead, in the woods. But he’s not alone. Jeremiah and his cronies are waiting for her. They take her and leave Leon there. 

They take her to St. Thaddeus to perform the ritual. They carve a sigil into her then throw her into the mining shaft. She lands in water and she starts trying to find a way out. She hears something in the cave so she starts swimming. She picks the wrong way though and ends up in a dead end. No way out and something in the water coming for her. She still has her knife and the piece of paper with Leon’s sigil in it. She figures, maybe it's not too late. She doesn’t remember what she read in the book or on Google, but she carves his sigil into her thigh, repeating that her soul is his, and hopes for the best.

Meanwhile, Leon is still laying in the forest. He isn’t exactly dying, but he is too injured to heal quickly and on his own. Then he hears a very quiet “My soul is yours” and he starts feeling all warm and tingly. By giving her soul to Leon, she gave him strength which helped him heal a lot faster than he had been. It took a few minutes before he was able to get up and run, but then he set off to find her. 

Back at Rae, the thing finally came out of the water. The old god has come to claim Rae. He tells her that she belongs to him and she’s like the fuck I do. He is trying to get her to come with him, but she fights. She can hear what sounds like thousands of people screaming in agony, and she knows if she goes with him, that will be her fate as well. The god grabs at her and realizes that she has another sigil on her as well and this pisses him right the fuck off. He starts, basically, throwing a tantrum and drags her underwater. She still has the knife and she just starts swinging it, cutting at whatever she can get, trying to get away. She hears Leon's voice in her head telling her not to give up, to keep fighting.  She gets away and Leon tugs at their bond (very Rhysand of him) for her to know where to go. He pulls her out of the water and she passes out. She wakes up with Leon carrying her out of the woods, it's storming pretty heavily and Leon says the god is furious and throwing a fit. She tells him she can still hear the god in her head screaming at her and Leon says it’ll fade, the god can’t take her now that she gave her soul to Leon. Leon also tells her that Everly is a witch and is planning on killing the god and now that Rae has injured it and weakened it, maybe she can succeed. 

Now that Rae was safe, Leon had one more person to eliminate - Jeremiah. But when they arrived at the Hadleigh house it was on fire. Juniper and Zane were there. Juniper said Jeremiah is gone and so is the rest of their little congregation of old god worshipers. 

The temper tantrum storm lasted for days. The old mining tunnels became a sinkhole and were all destroyed. St. Thaddeus still stood but the roof was caved in. 

Bonus Chapter - Rae, Leon, and Cheesecake went to Spain and spent a few months with her parents and sightseeing. Being a demon, Leon can sense spirits, so he takes her ghost hunting to get real footage for her YouTube channel. He takes her to this old abandoned house. She remarks how much she loves it and that she always wanted a place like this. They ghost hunt for a bit, fuck a little bit, and then Leon tells her that he bought this house for her. It’s super haunted and he knew she would love it.