Page 74 of A Soul to Embrace

“Look, if you wish to sit like someone shoved a pole up your arse, go for it. Leave others alone. It’sunbecomingto be a nuisance.”

Fayren tossed her head back and let out a giggle. “But it’s just so much fun. It always gets people riled up.”

“It makes people want to toss you into a river. I don’t care how old you are, I’ll do something to retaliate.” A malicious grin filled his features as he eyed the green stalks of the leeks growing in the earth. “I’ll start pulling out all your plants. I’m sure that’ll teach you a lesson.”

He eyed an obvious tomato plant, and the urge was nigh overwhelming.

“Did you bother my chickens?” she asked, bringing her gaze down to his lap.

Pressing his lips together until both puckered forward with the corners turned downwards, Jabez brushed a stray feather off himself. “I merely stole a few eggs. I’m a growing boy. I need all the sustenance I can get.”

“You did all your growing up quite some time ago. How old are you now? Five hundred and seventy?”

“I’m notthatold,” he said with a scoff, before he glanced at her from the side. “Five hundred and sixty-seven. I turn thirty-eight in a few years.”

“By the ever-night, I always forget just what age you truly are.” Her foxy ears darted back, and she shook her head. “It’s so hard imagining living for that long.”

“Try living it. Then again, you’ve almost lived a full lifetime for a human-eating Demon. Is this your two hundred and ninth year? I’m sure the passage of time feels longer for such a pest as yourself.”

“I feel ancient, if I’m being honest. I left your employment because of the arthritis in my knees. I just couldn’t walk up your stairs anymore.”

Jabez glanced over at her once more, this time noticing her features. If he was to gauge what age she looked like in comparison to a human, he’d say she was bordering on sixty-five, if not older.

She still had many years left in her, and her youth was undeniably present, even with age. It helped that she still had a rather spritely and playful personality, and her beauty was just as beguiling.

He was sure he’d added to her wrinkles and the sprinkles of grey in her predominately red hair by stressing her when she was under his employment. He was just as eccentric as her, and they’d often butted heads – especially when he’d been younger and much more immature.

“How’s your mother?” Jabez felt obliged to ask, even though he really didn’t care.

“She’s... good. She knows my life is coming to an end, whereas she’ll live another few hundred years longer.” Her nimble hands, peppered with spots that reflected her advancing years, tightened on each other, but she was skilful in hiding her emotions. “Then again, like you said, that’s a human-eating Demon for you.”

Jabez knew Fayren’s mother well, as she was one of the few remaining Demons who had survived coming to Earth with him. Lettie, her mother, was only a few years younger than him, and due to her consuming Elves as her first food source, she had a similar lifespan to him. Since their fathers were mostly human-eating Demons, all of Lettie’s children were ageing, with Fayren being the eldest. Although, thankfully, some of Lettie’s developed Elven blood had allowed her children to live much longer than their fathers.

He’d watched the woman beside him grow up from a demonling and then surpass him in physical age in less than half his life span. It made establishing any form of bond with anyone hard, as he knew he’d likely outlive their demise.

He didn’t wish to hold people close to him when they would never live long enough to grow old with him.

Silence descended upon them, heavy and filled with sorrow. He hid it as always, his features adopting a mask of indifference.

His ear twitched when she brushed the backs of her claws over the shaved part of his head. “Look at your beautiful hair. What did they do to you?”

“It matters little. What has happened, happened,” he answered with a shrug.

“But I know how much it means to you. My mother told me you shaved your head bald when you arrived here and have grown it as a form of rebirth. To know it’s been altered against your will...”

Jabez reached up and snatched her hand before gingerly lowering it. He gave her a look of warning, one that conveyed this wasn’t a discussion he would partake in. She wisely lowered her gaze and let it go.

He thought his hair may be as long as it was before he arrived here. He trimmed it to keep it from going past the middle of his back, but that’s all he did with it. He rarely styled it and having it in a ponytail was mildly foreign to him.

He just hadn’t removed the tie yet.

“Why did you come here, Jabez?” she asked in a small voice. “The others are all out of sorts. If you haven’t returned to take back your place, then why risk it?”

“I told you why I’m here. Zylah needed someone to explain this to her.”

“Why couldn’t you? You’re not unknowledgeable about females.” Then she coughed into her hand and muttered, “Quite the opposite, in fact.”

He stared at her for a long while, then shook his head and looked out over the garden. He considered not saying anything, but decided she deserved some kind of explanation.

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