Page 167 of A Soul to Embrace

“Something is wrong,” he muttered, his ears flicking in opposite directions. “Last time I came here, I wasn’t crowded like this.”

“Could it be because of me?” she whispered back, nervousness now clinging to every fibre of her being.

She looked around and found even more eyes upon her. There were so many faces that she couldn’t even begin to describe all their startling differences.

Perhaps he should have glamoured my skull after all.It was obviously putting him on high alert, and she really didn’t like how many people had surrounded them.

Jabez’s features twitched, like he wanted to answer her, but his lips flattened in silence instead. She didn’t know if that was due to thought, or because he wanted to minimise how much they spoke in English before meeting with the Demon leader. Yet his glare only deepened when the person in front of them took them to the very middle of the village.

Some kind of wide and spacious village square opened up, and Zylah’s sight landed on the broken statue of a woman erected on a triangular pedestal. Half of her curvy body remained, while the top half lay on the ground. She had small ethereal wings that were partially shattered, while a motherly smile didn’t match the golden tears that had been painted on her face.

A plaque at the bottom bore runic symbols made up of circles, triangles, and slashes that appeared to represent different letters or even words. She couldn’t read what it said, but it was likely the name of the carved woman.

Jabez halted, and it wasn’t hard to know why.

Before the statue stood a male who had his arms folded and a grand smile on his face. He bore no shirt, showing off the strength in his bulky arms, chest, and stomach, while his loose pink pants hid his legs all the way to his feet. Once more, she noted the odd, soleless footwear.

His hair was white, wavy, and cut into some kind of short mohawk that had been brushed back. A set of sandy horns curled around the front of his temples before going back to jut up behind his head. Multiple golden and silver adornments wereattached to them, as well as bands around his wrists, biceps, and neck.

The fur on her nape puffed up in a wave when she sensed someone directly behind them. Zylah spun while stepping to the side but found no one there.

The spot behind them was empty, yet she...sworeshe could smell someone had been there just a second ago.

I must be nervous.

That was it. Her senses were going wild, her nose, her ears, her sight, and even her instincts – all of them had been screaming at her from the moment she entered the village.

They’d done the same thing when she’d first entered the crowd of pedestrians in Spiral Haven, although it’d been less ominous and threatening.

I didn’t realise knowing so many could see my skull would be this... frightening.She couldfeeltheir judgement, their gazes. It made her fur itch in ways she’d never experienced before.

She realised then that Jabez and the male covered in metal jewellery were speaking, and had been the entire time she’d been turned around. He’d also stepped forward with his hands out as if to gesture or shrug, putting even more space between them since she’d stepped back.

Her gaze fell on the dozens of Demons who were covered in void-like, glistening flesh, and she found it difficult to swallow the lump in her throat. They skulked closer, making her want to retreat while the desire to growl pestered her, but she stifled it. No one appeared to look threatening, but they were strangers, and their approaching proximity had her growing more alert.

Her feet froze when her sight connected with someone who had such strange, inhuman features, she couldn’t even begin to decipher them – some kind of animal she’d never seen before. She swore multiple little horns on his forehead even faintly...glowed.

I thought he said these people were close to completion.Or at least that they’d appear fully human – or Elvish.

Jabez’s voice came out as a low rumble. Zylah sensed the hostility in it despite it being minor, as if he was trying to hide it. She knew him. Knew when he sounded displeased and untrusting.

Zylah spun to the male in the middle, who had a superior aura to him.

Disorientated, she couldn’t seem to get her bearings, and she wished, more than ever, that she could understand what they were saying. Especially as the male’s gaze was narrowed into a deep glare.

Jabez stepped back. He shoved an arm out to her, reaching for her, but only grasping air, since she was too far away. “Zylah, come–”

Before he could finish, he spun on the spot and shoved his hand up in front of him like a blade... into nothingness. Aneuksounded, just as the clogging scent of Demon blood penetrated the air and began to drip down his fingers.

A body flickered into view, their arm raised with some kind of club in it, before they turned completely solid. Their throat materialised in Jabez’s hand and then the rest of them came into view.

I wasn’t wrong,she thought. Someone really had been behind them, but they’d just been invisible!I didn’t know that was possible.

He quickly removed his hand from their throat, purple blood gushing as he did, and they dropped to the ground. The club thunked and rolled, but Jabez skilfully evaded stepping on it as he turned to Zylah.

“We need to leave. Now!” he roared, just as the crowd of Demons closed in on them.

Their expressions changed, most grinning as if they’d been caught in some kind of trap.

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