Page 46 of A Soul to Embrace

“No. I had other means. Those females would be considered concubines.”

“What’s a–”

“It’s a similar role, except the female only keeps the company of one man.” He purposefully left out that they usually tended to someone in a position of power.

Not that he’d had one for nearly two centuries – before Katerina, to be exact.Jealous little female wouldn’t share.He hadn’t particularly minded, as he’d grown disinterested in bedding Demons who had ulterior motives.

“Did you speak with them?”

Please. Someone strike me.

“No. I’m not the kind of person to share my thoughts with others.” Jabez had always found it hard to lay his heart and sins bare to anyone.

Not even Merikh had been gifted the worst of his dark thoughts. Sharing from the depths of the hollowed-out holewhere his heart should be... he was rather uncompromising on the matter.

Satisfied, Zylah returned to the story, only for her head to perk up seconds later. His ears pricked higher in alert when she darted her skull towards the entryway.

“I hear creatures approaching,” she stated quietly.

At first, Jabez heard nothing. Then, in the distance, footsteps crunching within the forest became loud enough for him to detect. He couldn’t scent them, but he figured Zylah could by the way she sniffed the air.

He quickly propped himself into a defensive position while eyeing their protective barrier of sun. If it was a Demon, they were safe for many hours.I doubt they’re humans.If they were, they could only be Demonslayers foolish enough to come to these hills.

The stronghold wasn’t that far to the west from here, after all.

Jabez had picked this small mountainous location purposefully, as there were fewer Demons in the area. It was far enough away that Demonslayers approaching would be infrequent, but close enough to the stronghold that it’d give quite a few Demons a spook about choosing this as their home.

Only more advanced Demons chose this area, which meant they were wise enough to leave them the fuck alone.

It was also the only stronghold connected to an Anzúli temple in all of Austrális. Jabez knew it to be the western temple, as each section of this continent had just one: northern, southern, eastern, and western.

“I can’t smell them yet,” Jabez stated as he flicked his hood over his head, readying himself for any potential confrontation. The bright sun showered this area heavily and left him incapable of walking out without protection. “Can you decipher what species they are?”

Zylah carefully placed her book against the ground and hopped into a crouch to crawl closer. Just as she went to poke her head out, he grabbed the back of her dress to stop her so she didn’t give away their position just yet.

“One scent is strange,” she stated, twisting her head in a show of puzzlement. “It smells human, but not. The other...” She chittered before sinking back into the cave and darted her skull to him. “The other is Mavka.”

Jabez cursed under his breath.

“Does it smell like the ones you’ve met?” he asked, shoving his hood over his head more to hide his identity, not that it helped.

“No. They smell different.”

Her answer didn’t particularly matter. No Mavka would be pleased to see he was still alive.Unless it’s Orpheus or the feline Mavka, I doubt they’ll recognise my scent.He just needed to remain hidden, and they’d likely think he was some strange Demon.

“Perhaps now would be the time to tell you I don’t have an amazing relationship with your kind,” he admitted, causing her orbs to shift to dark yellow. “You will have to speak to them without me and make them leave. Do you think you can do that?”

“Why–”

Before she could finish, a stick breaking close by stole their attention. Those approaching were doing so steadily.

“Are you sure she’s this way?” a woman’s quiet voice drifted over the distance.

A frown pinched his forehead when he tried to take in their scents, but it was hard to detect them past Zylah’s gentle tangle of jasmine and violets. His nostrils were also stained with the smell of humans, cooked food, and straw roofing.

But they were familiar, and he tried to figure outwhoexactly they were.

“Her scent is strong now,” a male answered, his voice gruff, deep, andveryinhuman.