Page 53 of A Soul to Embrace

“I did do that, didn’t I?” he answered with mirth, humour glinting in his gaze to the point he could feel the heat of it.

“You ate my mother?” Zylah asked, her voice returning to that rather sweet cuteness he preferred. Surprisingly, her tone held curiosity more than disgust.

“In all fairness, I was rather livid at the time,” he stated in his own defence. “You’re a rather devious woman when you wish to be. It’s not often one would defy me, let alone trick me. You played your role rather admirably, and I’ve always respected you for that moment, despite how much it angered me at the time.”

Delora’s lips parted in surprise, likely not expecting his response. But it was the truth, and how he’d always felt about it.

“Let’s just say I have a rather nasty temper. I’m also a very cunning man. Sure, I atea littlebit of you, but I knew my torture would be fleeting and have no lasting repercussions for you. You’re a Phantom. Your revival ensured anything I did meant little, except for how it affected your psyche.” Hisbrows narrowed as he remembered that day, and it wasn’t with fondness. “I also did truly want the Mavka beside you to come to your rescue, which he wisely didn’t. I also didn’t want to allow the Demons to consume you and grow any additional abilities. It was either me or them, and I guarantee you, their bites would have been nastier.”

“W-why didn’t you want the Demons to gain abilities?” Delora asked, her lips tightening in uncertainty. “Isn’t that what you wanted all along? To strengthen your army?”

“I can’t develop Phantom abilities.”

Jabez knew it at the time, since he’d consumed Lindiwe a few times, to no avail. But he’d threatened the woman with it to incite fear and make her watch over her shoulder constantly – to haunt her as much as Phantoms could haunt others.

“Sometimes Demons have the ability to gain attributes from those with magic, or even venom from certain creatures – both things I can’t do. I’m fully formed and not a full Demon, therefore any additions to my abilities must come from either being taught the magic, the runes, or consuming mana stones.”

Her lips pursed, and her eyes darkened in annoyance at him. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Have you ever considered that I allowed my fellow Demons to evolve, but not reach a higher level of power than me?” A rather hollow smile curled his lips. “You forget they eat each other. When they had no need of me, or saw a chance to gain the leadership I held, what would have stopped them from turning on me? A Demon with the ability to turn incorporeal would have been a tough opponent to face, even with my ability to teleport. What would you have done if a Demon had the ability to turn incorporeal and slip inside your ward, your very home, soundless, scentless, and without warning? What then? I couldn’t teleport within your ward, but could they have movedthrough it with an intangible body? What would have stopped them from doing that to me in my very own home?”

It was something that had worried him constantly about Lindiwe, and why he’d put special wards in place to protect himself while he slept. He’d always hated the paranoia – which had the hairs on the back of his neck and on his arms rising – that she could be lurking where he couldn’t sense her.

“You could have just let me go,” she muttered with a pout present in her voice and her bottom lip sticking forward.

He rolled his eyes at her ridiculous statement.

“Do you know how powerful fear is? It is the biggest tool in my arsenal. Your fear of me, his rage towards me, made you both predictable.”

“Predictable, huh?” She scoffed at him, while averting her gaze. “I bet you didn’t see us showing up at your castle.”

He smiled at her for that. “No, but that wasn’tyouridea, was it? Lindiwe is as unpredictable as you can get. She has lived over three hundred years and has the experience you lack. Her fear turned into motherly rage, and with the power of a god on her side, she is the only being in this forsaken realm who can best me. Without her, what you did never would have been a possibility.”

Delora gave him a rather bored look, her head lifting back superiorly. “It sounds like you admire her.”

“Don’t you?” he rebuffed, cocking a brow in astonishment. “I may hate that fucking pest of a woman, but underestimating your enemy is foolish. I have never been a fool.”

As if she was done with the current conversation, he watched her expression turn spiteful and scheming. Her gaze slipped to Zylah beside him.

“He tried to kill you,” she said quietly. “You were nothing but a baby.”

“Did I?” Jabez countered. “I’m not in the game of harming children, no matter what they are.”

Delora’s back went rigid, and she clutched her skirt until the backs of her knuckles paled. “You tried to break her skull!”

“Did I?” he repeated, once more cocking a brow. “Or did I attempt to drive a poor mother who clearly loved her child to take action? How about the father who quickly turned on his own sibling?” Without removing his cheek from his fist, he shifted his gaze to the forest beside them in thought. “You’ll be surprised to know just how powerful love can be. I had no intention of truly harming her, otherwise I wouldn’t have made a show of it.” His eyes slipped back to her. “Or given you the opportunity to prevent it. Devious, no?”

“You’re a fucking sicko,” Delora rasped.

“I have been called evil so many times over that it gets old. What happens in war is devastation.”

“A war we want no part in!” Magnar snapped out.

“And yet... it’s a war you have been part of from the moment you took your first breath.”

At Delora’s confused face, and Magnar’s head rear, he sighed.Why can they not see it?Why must he spell this out for every single one of them?

“I actually have very little hate towards Mavka,” Jabez admitted, finally lifting his head to sit upright. He wiggled his shoulders back to give a superior air to his aura. “Sure, I have a deep hatred foroneof your kind and his bride, but the rest of you don’t particularly matter to me. But you are the children of Weldir, and he’s prevented me from taking action for centuries.” He gave a singular, knowing chuckle while shaking his head. “And none of you humans are enraged by it. Then again, you would have to know that the devastation of Demons upon your world solely rests in his untouchable hands.”

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