Page 28 of A Soul to Embrace

So he could proposition her.

I’ll also pinch a few more books, and perhaps some parchment for us to write on.Now that she understood the concept of speech, he was fine-tuning sentence structure – something that was complex. He couldn’t just point to words and say, “This is whatwhen, orhow, orwhomeans.” They were intangible concepts, and they required more repetition because evenhestruggled with how to explain them.

“Jabez,” Zylah called, her voice no longer monstrous due to her being in her humanoid form. She whacked him on the shoulder a few times. “Come.”

Desiring to stay in her shadow for protection, and seeing no issue with deviating from their listless path, he followed Zylah’s direction. He was curious to see what she’d scented, and why, for the first time in their travels, she wanted to go a certain way.

She took them to a flattened area of grass and pointed to it. Jabez knelt down on one knee in the middle of the squished stalks, his ears flicking as he touched the tracks and disturbances in the dirt that indicated something large had lain there.

“Mavka,” she stated, crouching next to him. “Like lizard?”

He eyed her as she spoke before inspecting the grass once more. He picked up a singular loose scale and sniffed it.

She’s right, this has the scent of a Mavka. Only a few hours old too.He scanned the area to see that its path came directly from the north, then headed east – the direction they’d been going.

“A lizard Mavka?” Jabez asked, cupping his jaw and furrowing his brows in thought. When recognition flashed within his mind, he waved behind his backside. “With a tail and a raven skull?”

Zylah nodded. “Yes. I have–” She chittered the words she was missing, waving her hands around. “Him.”

“You have met him before?”

She nodded, patting the end of her snout. “Human female. Orange hair.”

“He was travelling with a human woman with orange hair?” he asked, trying to fill in the gaps of her speech for assistance.

Zylah chittered appreciatively, her orbs flaring bright yellow. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her little bunny tail wiggling happily.

His humour in her tail’s reaction was short-lived, as something became apparent.

“You’re fucking joking,” he bit out, just as he picked up a stray hair. He sniffed it, but he wasn’t totally sure of the semi-familiar scent. “That little bitch... shesurvived?”

How had a measly human survived whatever catastrophic magic had nearly disintegrated Jabez? Because if his assumptions were right, and he had a big feeling they were, this was the same redheaded woman who had almost killed him. It had to be, considering she had battled against him with two other Mavka brides – Reia and Zylah’s mother. He couldn’t remember her name. Even the Witch Owl had faced him that day.

Just to make sure, he turned to Zylah. “Did she have a burn scar on her face?” He ran his hand down the left side of his face.

“Scar?” She mimicked him before nodding. “Yes. This.”

The growl that escaped him was beastly.How?How had she survived?She died in my arms.Or rather, his meat shield had disintegrated in his hands until even he started to burn from the false yet very real-feeling sun bomb that struck the centreof his castle. Not even his skintight sun barrier spell had been able to survive it, although it likely had aided in him not being destroyed instantly.

At least I now understand why that woman assisted them.Somehow, the raven skull had gotten her on their side after his twin, the bat-skulled Mavka, had died.She was skilled in battle, so she’d either been a soldier or a Demonslayer.

With a snarl, Jabez fisted the Mavka scale that would disappear from the world in a day, leaving behind no trace of him.

It doesn’t matter.How she survived was pointless and inconsequential to him. Hopefully their paths never crossed again.

When Zylah quietly chittered in unease and fidgeted by scratching at her forearm, his anger waned. His aggressive sounds were making her uncomfortable.

He eventually sighed and dropped the scale. Jabez looked up just as a subtle breeze fluttered his clothing around his torso and whisked his hair forward.

Screw it. It’s mere retaliation.That’s what happened in war. He made many moves, and he knew they – especially the Witch Owl – would eventually make their own. He could allow his annoyance to fester, or just accept it as part of the callousness of war and hate.

His lips did curl in the strangest form of pride.You were close, Lindiwe.

Had Zylah not saved him, he doubted he would have lived much longer. He would have bled out, his magic sickness would have killed him without healing assistance, or a Demon would have eaten his unconscious body.

Your own grandchild thwarted your plans.When she discovered this, he could only imagine the unbridled rage she’d feel.

He’d been fighting against that woman for centuries, and they’d gone toe-to-toe so many times he could no longer count them. She thought him cruel because of what he’d done to her children, but he often wondered if she ever realised he retaliated just the same.

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