Page 153 of A Soul to Embrace

“I’ve... seen it. I watched Orpheus’ bride offer her soul and him eat it. I wasn’t even surprised when I watched it happen, or that a soul was involved. It was just an answer to a question I never knew I had.”

“Okay,” she replied quietly, letting her arms fall to the side. She managed to stifle any whimpers and held back the bottoms of her orbs from shattering.

Jabez tilted his head back and butted his chin against her chest. Noticing the wavering in her orbs, his eyes bowed. “Zylah, I can’t–”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now,” Zylah admitted. Feeling rather hollow, she didn’t want to hear therest. She didn’t want to hear that he couldn’t or wouldn’t, nor whatever lame reason as to why.

She also refused to let him continue, in case he tried to say there was something... wrong with her, or that he wanted toleaveher again. He’d come back when she’d truly feared he wouldn’t, but she constantly had this nagging sense that he was trying to make it temporary.

She didn’t want to believe that. She wanted his continued presence to mean that he felt deeply for her, and maybe... just maybe, the longer he stayed, the more he’d want her.

He nodded before his arm loosened. “Do you want me to let you go?”

Zylah shook her head. She liked being held, even if she was upset.

Perhaps it really was silly of her, but she wanted to believe she could change his mind. All he saw were flaws in himself, but she wanted the parts he couldn’t seem to see.

She didn’t care if it was wrong, if others thought less of her, so long as she got to see this...caringside. He understood she was upset, and he seemed to think well enough about her to know she’d figured out why he was so hesitant to tell her. She appreciated that, just as much as she felt the hidden compassion he had for her by simply holding her comfortingly.

She longed to believe it all had a deeper meaning, and that she wasn’t being silly.

I want to embrace all of him.The good, the bad, the happy, and the sad. She’d longed to hold his body, but now...I want his soul to embrace.

To hold it, keep it safe, maybe even nurture it.

“Do you want to go outside?” he asked, appearing to grapple for a way to make her feel better. “There are many places I can take you in an instant that you’ve likely never seen. The beach, the north, the top of the highest mountain in Austrális.”

Zylah shook her head again. She didn’t know what she wanted right then.

My chest hurts.

Jabez’s right ear twitched at the shuffling and movement he heard behind him. With his eyes closed, his face lifted towards the sky, and seated in a cross-legged position with his back facing the entryway, he listened to Zylah.

He’d not long ago awoken after another deep and restful sleep and had managed to teleport from her limbs without disturbing her. She’d struggled to fall asleep, and it had taken effort on his part.

I wonder if she’s still upset.

He’d tried his hardest to make it up to her, since he knew he was the source of her disquiet. However, she hadn’t wanted to go anywhere, she’d been less enthused about talking, and she hadn’t even wanted to read. Instead of hunting like he’d planned, he’d teleported to the human cornfield village to raid one of their butchers and returned to find her even more distressed than before he’d left.

She’d been awfully clingy.

That wasn’t something he was usually inclined to enjoy. He generally lacked anything warm and fuzzy within him, sohe found clinginess abhorrent and frustrating. He didn’t like the clutching, as if they thought they could possess him and take his non-existent heart for themselves. He’d liked his bed-companions as distant as he was, to be there for the sex, maybe some playful teasing, and then to get up when they knew they were overstaying their welcome.

Katerina had been a little different, as she’d been his companion for a long time. In some aspects, she’d become his sole confidant, but he never shared anything important pertaining to his feelings. Just his plans and goals. She’d sip wine and offer pointless human ideas and sentiments while trying to fuel her hatred through him. Then she’d try to redirect his thoughts to the destruction of Mavka, and therefore, Orpheus.

The idea of falling asleep next to her left him paranoid that she was lying to him as well and would eventually stab him in the heart while he was unaware.

So absorbed in herself, she never even noticed him growing more and more distant with each year – especially towards the end.

But with Zylah...

His lips twitched to curl in humour at himself.

The more she’d clung to him, the tighter he’d tried to make her latch. Her body was sensitive all over, and even just running his fingertips through the fur of her back had her trembling for more. She was exceptionally receptive to any kind of touch. Whether it be his palms running over her, or his fangs scraping against her, his tongue, his lips, even his long hair, she reacted to it.

By the time he had his cock inside her, he realised he was trying to consume hertenderly.He never fucked with tenderness. Sure, he could be entirely focused on someone else’spleasure, rather than just his own, but Zylah’s clinging had him trying to get closer, deeper, or hold her as tight as possible.

What he found distressing about it was that the damn hole in his chest felt like it was growing something. Each of her soft sounds, her claws trying to dig, all of it ached behind his sternum as he gave long and slow thrusts.

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