Page 55 of A Soul to Embrace

“Please, Zylah,” Delora implored, reaching out to place her hand against the dirt and leaf debris, when it was obvious she wanted to touch Zylah’s knee. “He’s not a good person. He’s hurt so many people.”

“So have I,” Zylah answered, her orbs shifting to a deep blue in sorrow. She lifted her palms to stare down at her curved, sharp claws. “How many have I harmed? I’ve gained much humanity, and whenever I have been attacked, I always wish to defend myself. How am I any different?”

“It’s not the same, sweetheart,” Delora cooed. “You probably attacked when provoked.Heattacks because he’s a fucking asshole.”

“But he cares about me,” she said with a whimper. “He teaches me.”

“Because he wants to use you!”

That hit a little too close to the truth.

Jabez placed his cheek on his fist once more. “Have none of you ever wonderedwhyI know so much about Mavka?A bystander can’t learn intricate and secretive knowledge of another species without good reason.”

Delora turned a rage-filled, tearful gaze to Jabez. “Because you’ve pulled them apart like a creep?”

His eyelids drooped in annoyance at her pettiness. “Because I was once friends with a Mavka. For quite a long time, may I add.”

“No one would befriend you,” she sneered, her nose scrunching up in distaste.

“No? How about Merikh? The bear-skulled Mavka,” he answered pointedly. “For decades he was my companion – long before I knew of Orpheus, long before you were ever born, human. I doubt you’re aware, since he’s a reclusive loner who has a deep dislike of everyone, including his own kind.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Magnar asked, shaking his silly fox skull.

“I cared for him, taught him, just as I’m doing for Zylah. I likely have more knowledge to share with her than you ever could.” His gaze tipped to the soul floating between Magnar’s antlers. “I even watched the first time your kind bonded with someone.”

As if appalled, Magnar hid Delora’s soul from him with both his hands. “You can see it?”

“Is it strange that I do?”

“Those who aren’t bonded usually can’t see it unless they’re another Mavka.”

Jabez pondered this for a moment. He shrugged.

“It’s likely because I’m an Elf. We have the ability to see essences and magic that would usually be hidden to a human.” He curled his free hand forward to glance at his claw-like nails with feigned boredom. “My point is: you have no idea of what I want, nor why I’m helping Zylah. Please keep your unsolicitedand false assumptions to yourself. You know so little that you’re nothing but a tiny blip on the string of history.”

Delora’s lips parted in disbelief at his sharp rudeness, but he remained indifferent to it. He despised people thinking they knew him and his reasonings when they clearly didn’t.

“So, Zylah,” Jabez prodded, tilting his face to her rabbit skull. “What decision have you come to?”

Zylah looked between them, before her shoulders turned inwards. It was obvious her gaze fell to the ground with the way her skull dipped forward.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.”

Tears gathered in Delora’s eyes, and a strange whimper fell from her lips. “But... but we’re your parents.”

Zylah shifted nervously, then shrugged – which was new. He’d never seen her do that before. “I don’t truly understand what that means, nor why it matters. You abandoned me.”

“We didn’t!”

Zylah clutched her left biceps and turned her head away, in Jabez’s direction, as if she needed to see him. Her orbs shifted to deep blue. “But I have been alone.”

He took in the solemn colour of her glow, then sighed.

“Because that’s the natural evolution of Mavka,” Jabez stated in their defence. “You likely grew your antlers and then ran off into the forest like a wild creature. That’s not their fault.”

He had no intention of manipulating the truth for his own benefit, not when it could have a deeply traumatising impact on Zylah’s mental wellbeing in the future. He doubted she’d been abandoned and had just taken the next step in a Mavka’s life – one that meant they’d transitioned into adulthood.

Zylah shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I... knowhim.I wish to stay with Jabez.”

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