Page 83 of A Soul to Embrace

What if someone hurt him while he was gone? What if he didn’t come back? Zylah didn’t want to be left behind, not knowing what was happening. This could be a ruse to leave and never return, and the idea made her chest hollow.

“I’m unsure of how the occupants will feel regarding your presence near the village, Zylah. Mavka were recently banned from entering it.”

“I can wait outside of it, if need be,” she argued. “Just like with the human villages. You do not have to do this... alone.”

His features twisted before he smoothed them back to his indifferent mien. “As you once asked of me, I’m now asking for some time to think. Much has happened from before I even met you, and I need time to wade through it. Fayren made me realise this.”

Zylah waved towards the little fox Demon, who still stood in the shade. “But Fayren doesn’t want me to stay here, and I don’t wish to intrude.”

“Zylah, that isn’t what I meant,” Fayren said, her features creasing in a beseeching and regretful manner. She walked through the shade to approach, which gave her a safe path towards Zylah. “It’s not that I don’t want you here – I just don’t have the space to house you.”

“You should watch your words in the future,” Jabez cut at her, turning his head to give her a small sneer. “Not only have you infuriated me, but now you’ve upset her with your carelessness.”

He is... infuriated?He didn’t look it.

Zylah assessed Jabez’s cooled expression as he brought his gaze back to her, and she realised then just how little she knew about him. It was like he wore a second face; one that didn’t reflect the truth in his feelings. For so long, she’d thought this was just who he was, but had he been... hiding from her?

Did that mean the entire time... he’d been discontented, and she’d just been too ignorant to know it?

A small spark of anger ignited in her chest, and she turned her skull from both of them.

“If this is what you want, then okay,” Zylah stated with a dark tone, her right hand balling into a fist.

For a moment, relief softened his features, and that only made her angrier to the point her orbs threatened to flicker with crimson. She brought her gaze to Fayren.

“If you give me a moment, I will obtain my satchel from your home.”

Zylah spun around and ducked down under the doorway. She snatched her bag from the table in the middle of the tiny home she was forced to hunch inside of and threaded her body through it as she exited.

“What are you doing, Zylah?” Jabez asked, and despite the disbelief in his tone, she refused to look at him.

She was hurt, she was angry, and she didn’t know what to do with these feelings. In the past, she would have just chittered, whined, or growled, but she was beyond that now. She had too much humanity to act so animalistic and brash.

She was realising there was a curse to being intelligent. It had almost been...easierto be so clueless. Now, she had to learn how to wear her emotions without lashing out like a beast – despite how her fur had puffed with the desire to do just that.

“If I am unable to stay here, then I won’t,” she answered, shifting the satchel so it sat more comfortably between her breasts.

A growl slipped from Jabez, and his face dipped so he could glare through his eyelashes. “It’s safer if you remain here. We’re in the middle of the Veil. It’s risky if you go off alone.”

For the first time in her life, a bitter laugh slipped up her chest. “Perhaps foryou,” she snapped out, clipping her maw at him as red flickered in her sight. “But I am aMavka.”

“Excuse me?” Jabez growled, his eyes narrowing into a glare in her periphery.

“Zylah,” Fayren rasped, placing her tiny hand upon Zylah’s forearm, and she regarded the little female Demon coldly. “He’s right. W-we can figure out a solution so you’re more comfortable here. Maybe we can stagger how we sleep, or I’ll set up a shade so you can sleep outside. I know that’s not the nicest, but–”

She ripped her arm from Fayren’s hold.

“I am a Mavka!” Zylah roared at them both, wishing her hands didn’t shake with anxiety. “If I’m unwanted, then I have no reason to remain! If it’s too dangerous to leave the inner ring, then I will wander it until you’re ready to find me.”

Or when she was ready to find him. Or perhaps, by then, she may not want to. Right now, she was feeling all sorts of horrible emotions and she, too, wished to be alone.

Usually she’d cling to Jabez, but the last week had been...hard.From learning just a taste of his past, to having her heat, to the strain between them, to having to go off on a stupid adventure just so she could be taught a bunch of strange and wildly uncomfortable topics. Zylah had also been hiding how she was feeling, and only now that they were filling her so intensely, did she realise just how hard they were to holdin.

Right now, her claws tinged with the desire to lash out. At Fayren, at Jabez, at herself.

It didn’t help that she’d gone from being aroused and wantinghimnot even a few hours ago to suddenly feeling crushed. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong, but did it even matter?

“You will not go off into the fucking Veil by yourself!” Jabez shouted, stomping forward to finally approach her. “I’ll be back in just a few days.”

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