Page 39 of A Soul to Embrace

She shuddered against him as she cried, and sheathed her claws when she worried she was digging them too deeply intohis tunic-covered back. Her sight deepened in its desolate blue, making the world around her look gloomy and melancholic.

“Fair enough,” Jabez stated, as his body softened and he leaned into her. Then he wrapped his arms around her shoulders to deepen the hold.

The fact that he was returning it bled tenderness into her heart, making it easier to wade through her hurt. He didn’t reject Zylah, especially when she needed someone the most, even when she could tell he was... uncomfortable with it. He even began to rub her back, like he wanted to stroke the pain away.

“Does that feel better?”

Zylah nodded in answer, before nuzzling into the side of his neck affectionately. She almost wanted to start licking him to taste his musky aroma, but instead tongued the drool within her mouth.

Just as she made to thank him, he finally pulled away, and she struggled to weakly hold on.

This may be a pointless endeavour,Jabez contemplated, as he sat cross-legged within their shared cave. Asleep with her back to him, Zylah lay curled up on her side.

He stared at the back of her white skull and dainty antlers, with one elbow resting on his knee and his cheek planted on the knuckles of his fist. The fingers of his other hand drummed against his opposing knee, while he mused on their conversation by the lake.

What a way to make a guy feel like a bastard,he thought, his eyes narrowing in her direction – but notather.

Jabez wasn’t angered by her words, her tears, or her feelings. He found them rather justifiable. What he’d done... a part of him had come to regret it.

I was angry.Katerina, a companion of his, had just died, and the weight of her death had crushed him. It’d taken Jabez almost a year to shed the worst of his anger, his need for retribution.I took my pain out on the feline-skulled Mavka, and then immediately shared his kind’s weakness with my army.

In those months, his dislike for Orpheus, andespeciallyhis blonde-haired female who had delivered Katerina’s death blow, had turned into unbridled hatred. He’d wanted them dead – for her. To finally give Katerina what she’d sought. To make up for... failing her.

For not keeping her safe when she was under his sworn protection.

He wasn’t just a man in a relationship, which was complicated at best. He was a ‘king,’ an all-powerful being. A wicked blend between Elf, Demon, and consumed mana stones. A cold-blooded hunter who heartlessly slaughtered people.

A female in his keeping shouldn’t have come to harm, let alone died.

He hadn’t known how to handle his failures.

But, in the past year of healing, the scorching magma of rage in his chest had cooled into igneous rock. Clarity was produced in the dwindling smoke and steam, and he separated the truth from the lies he’d been telling himself.

He realised his anger hadn’t come from a love that had never existed, but from the crutch of vengeance easing the weight of his wounds. Revenge and fury – these were two things Jabez knew how to navigate.

I shouldn’t have done it.He knew that now, but what did it change? Nothing.

He still wanted Orpheus and Reia eradicated, but at the cost of his friendship with Merikh?Had I not been so foolish, would that bull-headed Mavka have returned to my side?He’d thrown away that friendship so many times when it had been the answer all along.

An answer he’d been hoping would now lie with Zylah, but he pondered if his mistake was just too grand.

Will she grow hateful when she learns it was me?Obviously his army had attacked her in his broad command to attack and destroy the skulls of all Mavka.But I tried to undo that command months ago.

He almost chuckled to himself, but a cold, desolate huff fell from him instead.Her promises are just as empty as everyone else’s.When she learned of the truth, she would abandon him. Her ethereal tears were proof of that.

Since she’d continued to whimper, produce tears, and shiver despite him doubting she was cold, he’d laid his sleeping blanket over her to comfort her throughout the night. She’d wriggled so much that only the top half of her remained covered, the twisted blankets evidence of a difficult sleep.

It would be better if I got up and left now.If he did so sneakily, he could get a far distance between them to escape. Although he couldn’t outrun a Mavka, he was fast and cunning enough to mask his scent with the right herbs and tree bark.

Yet, instead of picking his arse up and leaving, he remained seated. He grumbled to himself as he looked off to the side to inspect the early morning sunlight filtering through the entrance.

He’d been unable to sleep.

He’d been unable to leave, not that he fully comprehended why.I guess in some ways I want to have faith in her.He also wanted to finish her lessons so that she... stood a chance. Themore she learned, the better the likelihood that she’d survive even if he were to disappear.

After meeting her, and learning about her despite their lack of conversation, he’d come to find her rather... charming.

Without turning his face forward, his eyes slipped to the periphery of his vision to look at her.

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