Page 126 of A Soul to Embrace

“You spoke of yourself as if you were someone else,” she stated with a whimper, the bottom of her orbs breaking like glass. Ethereal tears floated around her eye sockets, obscuring part of her vision as she gripped at her chest right where her heart felt like it was bleeding. “You deceived me.”

“Yes,” he admitted, his expression empty. She’d never known how cold crimson could look until it was reflected in his eyes. More than ever, it sent a chill through her. “It’s the most cunning form of manipulation.”

“Why?” she whimpered, her claws cutting deeper into her flesh.

“Because you couldn’t speak properly at first, and then you lacked the comprehension skills tounderstandwhat the fuck I was saying until recently.”

“I know that!” Zylah shouted, her tears floating faster and disappearing into glitters. “But I have been able to understand everything for weeks.”

“And we began to speak about it. As I told you, I would eventually explain all this to you, and I preferred to do itmyway. Not forced upon me by a pair of Demons in a dusty bookstore.”

“It’s not my fault you fell asleep and dropped your glamours!”

“I never said it was,” he replied, his brow furrowing. “Before I could speak to you about this, you went into your heat cycle and I was forced to take you to Fayren. I prioritised what I thought was most important for you.”

“How was that more important?” she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “I would have preferred to know the truth first.”

“Because if you came to hate me for what I told you, you had knowledge that would protect you in the future.”

Zylah didn’t know how to respond to that. It sounded like heforesawZylah’s reaction, and correctly summarised that she would feel a mingle of betrayal, hurt, and anger. She wanted to believe he’d chosen the events of the past few days purposefully to protect her, but she just didn’t know how to swallow this.

The tightness of his folded arms loosened a little, and he let out a small sigh. He ran his fingers through his long hair, brushing it back from where some had fallen over his features.

“Zylah, I have lived an exceptionally long time. The pain that lack of knowledge could have caused is far more brutal than me withholding the truth from you for a few more days.”

It didn’t feel that way. Currently it felt like her insides were being gouged into ribbons, just like her flesh had been torn apart by Demon claws. Because ofhim, because of his stupid kingly decree to have Mavka hunted by Demons, because of his personal aggression againstherkind.

“You were the one who shared our secret,” Zylah said with a curt whine rattling her chest. “You were the one who wanted us destroyed. Because of you, they...hurtme.”

“I know.”

“Why?!” she screamed. “I have never hurt anyone purposefully! I tried tohealcreatures I found, hoping they would stay with me. I never attacked Demons unless provoked. I stayed away. I... I evenhealedyou! Why do you hate us so much that you want us destroyed?”

“I don’t hate Mavka,” he answered quietly, averting his gaze to the entrance of the cave.

Rain was collecting at the entryway, and she realised then that this wastheircave. He’d brought her... home.

“Then why?” she rasped, her voice cracking from her anguish.

He covered his face in what could only be exasperation before palming it downwards.

“Because my age doesn’t prevent me from being an idiot?” he said, lifting his palm away with a noticeable scoff. “For a hundred and eighty-seven years, that human woman I told you of was my companion, andshehated Mavka. The wolf-skulled one in particular. In her own right, she had every reason to, despite her own shortcomings. She wanted revenge, and I sought to give her that.”

“What did he do that was so bad?” Zylah asked, lifting her hands in exasperation. She just couldn’t see anything being worth death for the entirety of her kind.

“What they did to each other is exactly why I took you to Fayren’s. I wanted to prevent that from happening to you.” When she shook her head to signal she didn’t understand, as she couldn’t fathom how intimacy could be wrong, he gave her a sigh. “It’s complicated. It’s nearly two hundred years to unpack, and much of it regretful on my part.”

“Then try?”

“I don’t fucking know how!” he roared, unfolding his arms to swipe through the air like she had. She startled at the loudness of his yell, the bass of it, and the fact he’d gone from emotionally empty to distressed within a heartbeat. “My best friend was a fucking Mavka! That’s why I know so much about your damn kind. I watched him grow intelligent, helped him do so, just as I did for you. I’ve never hated your kind, but Ididcare for my human companion enough to not care about anyone other than Merikh. Orpheus meant nothing to me; he would just be another death among thethousandsI’d already caused. Human, Demon, Mavka, it didn’t matter to me so long as those under my protection were content.”

“But what about the rest of us? Those who had nothing to do with Orpheus. You wanted usalldead by sharing our secret.”

“Because I was angry, Zylah!” he shouted, his nose crinkling in rage. “Orpheus’ little bridekilledKaterina, and I was angry, Iwas mourning, and I only know how to destroy what displeases me. I also needed to hurt Weldir long enough to lower his ward so that my people could leave this wretched fucking realm! That required me killing your kind in order to weaken him. Any time I tried to fuck with his ward, he would awaken and near kill me.”

Her enclosed fists loosened. “So this is about the vendetta you have against the Elves?”

The moment those words left her, she realised she should have figured it out sooner.He said he lived in a castle.She should have put it all together. Onlykingslived in castles, only those in a position of power built and governed villages like Spiral Haven.

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