Page 229 of A Soul to Embrace

He better be thankful I agreed to this.It would alleviate Merikh’s ire towards him, but he was also doing this to make Zylah happy. She’d been thrilled when he told her about taking a trip back to Earth temporarily.

The synedrus council had only approved a certain number of hours, but here on Earth, it equated to around two days. He figured Raewyn had used her seat to strong-arm the others, since Merikh had been the one to request this.

“I hate how cold it is here,” Raewyn muttered quietly, blowing into her hands and rubbing them together.

Jabez lowered his gaze to the green hedges just beyond the portal’s cage, most of which had their leaves now after being damaged by the sun bomb that had almost killed him nearly seven months ago.

It’s summer, from what I can tell.The fact she was already cold after being here for a few minutes just proved how much Jabez’s body had adapted after so many years of living on Earth. The night air did feel frigid to him, but it would feel lukewarm by the peak of the day.She’d be freaking useless in the winter.

Which is likely why this trip had been planned for sooner, rather than later.

Merikh looked down at the child shivering in his arms, and he pulled the jacket from his satchel to dress her in it. He handed Raewyn the set of socks they’d spoken about earlier, and the demonling screamed as they put them over her feet. They even gave her a set of gloves before they transferred her into Raewyn’s arms.

Other than the socks, the gloves and jacket weren’t common pieces of clothing within Lezekos City. Jabez figured Raewyn had gotten them tailor-made just for the excursion.

Now that he was free from the child, Merikh took a single step through the shrouding black mist with his muscles bunching in tension. He put a small amount of space between him and his precious family, who had sensitive ears, before roaring, “Weldir!”

Once done, he snorted out a huff through his nose hole.

“You called, little one?” a masculine voice stated from above, forcing them all to rotate to the cage behind them.

On top of it sat a figure shrouded in dark robes that hid all his features. Black mist wafted from underneath his hood and the seams of it, hiding him further, as if he didn’t wish to be seen.From what Jabez could tell, he sat with his legs crossed and appeared to be peering down at them.

“So...” Merikh started, casting Jabez a glance before lifting his snout upwards. “It’s true. You’ve obtained a physical form.”

“What is it you need, Merikh?” Weldir asked, his hood tilting slightly to show he’d angled his face towards those behind him. Jabez could almostfeelhis creepy gaze on him.

“Where is the Witch Owl? She’s usually the one who comes when I call you.”

“You mean your mother?” he retorted disapprovingly, his tone stern. “She is resting. What do you need?”

As they spoke, Jabez took a step to the side to see if he could get a peek at the demigod’s face. Even when he positioned himself in view of the open gap of Weldir’s hood, black mist made it near impossible to see anything but a strange yellow glint. His skin looked shiny or glossy, but Jabez couldn’t make out anything else in the impenetrable darkness.

“I’d rather not talk to you,” Merikh grumbled, feeling the same way about his parents as Jabez did with his own. “But I guess you’ll do. It’s your power anyway. Show me where my brothers are.”

Weldir didn’t move a muscle as five seeing discs formed in front of them. Each oval disc had a mirrored surface with black sand glittering around its edges. The centres of them waved and rippled before each displayed a different image.

Jabez could produce such magic, so long as he had some form of the creature’s essence to scry with, whether it be their fur, flesh, blood, or even bone. He wondered if Weldir needed such tools, or if he was able to sense where all his direct descendants were at all times.

Three of the discs produced locations that were familiar to Jabez, each one within the Veil he and his companions currently stood in the middle of. One was of Orpheus’ log-cabin homeand the salt circle surrounding it, another a sky view of a yellow dome with a house in the middle, and the third of a green dome with a similar log cabin to Orpheus’.

One of the remaining two was a known location to most, simply because of the heated springs near the base of the mountain. A pink protection dome sat over the top of a large section of it.

The last disc revealed a place he couldn’t decipher due to it only being the edge of a very large orange protective dome. He squinted his eyes, as if that would be enough for him to gauge where it was, but there was nothing but a mountain wall and a cave entrance to be seen.

“An orange dome?” Merikh asked, tilting his bear skull as his orbs flared dark yellow. “What Mavka has orange orbs?”

“I would think you would know who they belong to,” Weldir answered cryptically, with the mildest hint of humour in his tone.

“Unless Lindiwe has allowed her other younglings to form their skulls, the only Mavka I know to have orange orbs was...Nathair,” Merikh said quietly, his voice at the end dripping with emotions Jabez knew all too well: pain andregret.

“Precisely,” Weldir almost purred.

Jabez watched as the tip of Merikh’s bull tail curled so tight around the tuft of fur at the end it looked like a ball. His orbs flickered with blue as his fisted hands repeatedly opened and closed.

“You mean... he’s...alive?” Merikh asked, his voice raising an octave. “Where is he?”

“North.” The image in the disc shifted to a town built into the side of a mountain. “Mated and happy.”

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