Page 184 of A Soul to Embrace

Jabez scooped his new mate into his arms and lifted her into a safe cradle. “Minds change. You presented me with a challenge, and I chose the best way to overcome it.”

He walked towards where the two barriers met, and waited for Mericato to live up to what he’d said before: he would allow Jabez inside, and her if she were bonded.

“You both will need to be bound if you wish to enter.”

Jabez looked down at Zylah’s skull. “If you think to take my wounded female from my arms, I won’t allow it amicably. With her presence, you have a power over me. Once you have taken us to the hospital or healing area or whatever it’s called now, I will allow you to bind us both, butonlythen. She is currently unable to walk without pain, and if you hold any regret for what you did in the past, you will allow this.”

“You sure have grown cocky in the last twenty-one years.”

Jabez merely raised a brow and waited for Mericato to inevitably lower the ward barring the entrance. Mericato nodded, indicating for the two soldiers behind him to act.

“Fine. I will allow you entry. Don’t make me regret it.”

You probably will,Jabez thought, as he tightened his grip on the only creature in both worlds who had done something no one else had managed.

She made him have a heart he wanted to give.

After they wiped down her entire body to clean it and inspect her injuries, Jabez watched as the Elysian healers removed the last of his female’s wounds with nothing but yellow glowing hands. Their magic glittered and smelt of sage, but was light in its aroma.

When he first brought Zylah here, they’d shared their doubt in being able to aid her due to her extensive injuries. They’d stated she needed surgery first, but he made them try anyway. He was thankful it’d worked, and her natural regenerative abilities had aided the process, otherwise he may have started pulling on his horns in frustration that he’d brought her here for no reason.

Once her chest had closed, and she finally stopped releasing quiet sounds of discomfort that constantly tugged at him, the healers helped her to stand. She patted her right foot down multiple times, checking to make sure it didn’t hurt under her own weight, and her orbs flared bright yellow. She lifted her skull to him.

They’d tried to make him leave the room while they healed her, and he’d told them that wasn’t happening. He knew he waspushing too hard, but she was now his mate, and he wasn’t letting her out of his sight until the council’s approval was stated.

She was precious to him. He’d guard her no matter what they said or wanted from him.

Zylah towered over all of them, and he had a feeling she would be one of the tallest occupants of this city, hands down. Unless, of course, the other Mavka was taller.

He still wanted to know who it was, but Mericato wouldn’t say shit about their identity until their trial was over and they were approved to stay in the city. Self-righteous ass.

“She’s fully healed,” Kusai, Mericato’s translator, stated.

Jabez rolled back a little from where his shoulder leaned against the doorway to glare at them for disturbing his relief. With an annoyed sigh, he stepped to the side and crossed his arms behind his back with his forearms touching and parallel to each other.

“Seems you haven’t forgotten how this works,” the Kusai stated while a different guard – there was a small army of them in the hallway – placed the bindings on his arms.

They looped a belt around each elbow resting against each wrist to secure them together. There was a strap connecting them, so they had something to hold and direct him with.

“Hard to forget that,” Jabez commented with a dark tone, grunting when the guard ensured it was so tight he could barely move his arms.

Then, just to make sure, he attempted to teleport and nothing happened. Re-enforced against strength and magic, his bonds now held him completely at their mercy. Or, rather, that was the belief, since they unwisely kept his legs free.

He had a mean kick, since he’d trained every part of his body to be a weapon.

“Zylah, they will bind you as well,” Jabez informed her in English, as he turned to show her his back so she could see whatthey’d do. “It’s just a precaution. They’ll likely take us to the conference chamber now in order to discuss our admittance.”

She nodded and turned while mimicking his arm position for them to bind her as well. Jabez stepped back from the room so she’d follow, and then he placed himself behind her by half a step so she was protected.

With a nod from Mericato, the guards surrounded them and led them through the central tree’s twisting pathways. Mericato remained behind them.

In his periphery, Zylah’s head twisted one way and the other as she looked around over the heads of the guards to gawk at everything. Although he was a little taller than most, the Demon in him ensuring he was towering, he kept his head down. He wasn’t fond of this walk of shame, and he’d done it many times in the past.

He had no desire to greet the gaze of the few who were awake and lingering through the night. The first sun was yet to rise, and with how dark it was through the windows, he doubted it would rise for quite a number of hours.

It’s barely been a full night here.He knew they were well into a second day on Earth, and he was unused to the slow flow of time.

It meant their movements were unhurried, as if the Elysians had all the time in the world.

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