Page 9 of A Soul to Embrace

The Mavka, unable to float, bounced up and down as she fretted. The water was deep enough that his toes barely scraped the muddy floor, and he watched as she instantly sunk before clawing at the surface. She let out screams, clearly afraid of the water, and was too panicked to get to the edge. Water sprayedin all directions, and she constantly spat it out with orbs bright white as she searched for an escape.

Jabez tilted his head.If I let her drown, it will give me time to escape.She wouldn’t be able to stop him, and he’d have a clear conscience, as she would eventually heal herself to breathe once more and find her way out of the water on her own.

She was already afraid of it, which meant she knew she couldn’t swim – proving she’d be fine if he were to abandon her.She’s done this before.

Yet his lips flattened as he narrowed his eyes at her. His ears darted back with vexation as his mind spat,Oh, fuck it.

Jabez swam closer to the Mavka throwing water in every direction and grabbed one of her small antlers. He dragged her to the edge of the lake while making sure her skull remained above the surface.

He released a bellowing roar when she latched herself to him, and he was forced to bear her weight as she scratched at his flesh. Her hand claws dug into his shoulders and back, while those on her feet gouged at his calves. With his own head beneath the water, he shoved her towards the edge and then forced her over onto land.

Hissing in a breath of pain, he sunk beneath the surface to hide the nasty wounds she’d just scored down his back and legs.

“Fuck. There. Now we’re even,” he bit out, squinting his eyes in a foul glare. “You saved me, and I saved you.”

He looked over his shoulder while pulling on the skin. They were deep wounds, flaring open to reveal muscle, and he bit out a curse.

He drifted his gaze up due to her whimpering. She knelt on the edge and grasped his shoulder, her whining doubling in its volume. Teal magic radiated a glow in the water. His injuries began to heal, stitching shut on their own, and he watched them form on her own body instead.

He gave a sigh of relief.Without my magic, I would’ve needed to let them heal naturally.

Once done, she backed up and sat in a crouch position away from the water. She clamped her hands against her exposed sternum bone with blue orbs and offered him a bunch of fast, incoherent chitters.

She’s sorry.Jabez just shook his head.Had she not tried to retrieve me, she wouldn’t have needed to bear the wounds she gave me.

Tsking, he swam towards his tattered mauve pants. Jabez dragged them into the water with the herbs and weed flowers and set about cleaning them.

He eyed her as he did.She’s trying to communicate.That’s what those chitters meant.Perhaps she’s not as low in humanity as I thought.The fact she was even attempting to meant she could string her thoughts together in some form to knowwhatshe wanted to say – just nothow.

It was likely all a garbled mess of emotions and not real intelligence.

After a good sniff test once he was done scrubbing, he donned his pants before he exited the lake and then sat down beside it.

Clean, hydrated, and fed, he felt remarkably better.

He no longer felt like a filthy animal, and the headache that had been pounding in his temples subsided. Which left him with the constant sickness that rolled in his gut due to the magic depletion that continued to plague him – and would only be exacerbated if he attempted to use it.

He had nothing to give.

I wish she hadn’t saved me,he thought, as he sat a small distance from her.

Had she not been shuffling the rubble above him, he could have laid there buried and waited for his magical essence to reignite. Sure, he still would have faced the sickness regardless,as he’d used too much of it, but it wouldn’t have been as bad. He could survive hunger and blood loss, but this was far worse than any injury or missing limb.

He would have eventually climbed out of the rubble and found a creature to feast upon before he went hunting for a human to steal their limbs. Then he would have used forbidden magic to regrow his own severed arm and leg. He would have used vines as phantom limbs to obtain movement until he did these things.

It wasn’t the first time he’d regrown an arm; Orpheus had bitten one off in the battle they’d fought almost two years ago.

Had she just let me be...

Jabez sighed in acceptance and defeat, then brushed the long white strands of hair from his face. He paused when he felt a large bald patch on the scalp around his right ear.

Crawling to the lake, he peered into his reflection. An angry glare filled his features as his lips curled back.

A curved line from his temple to the nape of his neck had all been burned away. He vaguely remembered the severe burns that had covered most of his upper body. He could only imagine the state he’d truly been in when this Mavka found him, and the loss of his hair was evidence of how numb he’d been to it.

He touched the point of his long ear before fingering the lack of hair around it.It took me centuries to grow it to this length.He was annoyed he’d need to restart.

Once more, it had been a show of confidence.

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