Page 158 of To Trap a Soul

“How?” she yelled, ignoring the bead of sweat that trickled into her eye. She was hot and tired, her insides tight from the exertion while her musclesscreamedin protest.

It didn’t help that thick dust had gotten into every nook and cranny on her person, due to Ari’s and her movements, and the harsh, biting wind. She coughed, and her left eyelid flickered in pain when some grit blew into it.

She placed a protective dome around herself when Ari attacked her instead. Just as he dived for her and was barely an inch away, she expanded the dome with a slam, and he went flying back across the dry grass and dirt.

For a short while, nothing happened as she stayed on the defensive with Ari, who prowled back and forth with snarls. She’d never do anything to actually hurt him, but a part of herwasconsidering cutting off his head. It was the easy way out. To decapitate him and then fly his light skull as far as she could from humans before his body healed and rematerialised in twenty-four hours.

But Lindiwe had never needed to do that before and would only ever use it as a last resort.

“I cannot call Ari to me like I can you. Our fate tether is not as rigid.”

“But you already knew that,” she stated while huffing, Ari giving her a moment of reprieve as he paced before her. He was trying to figure out a new avenue to get past her,thinking,rather than just being purely mindless, like most of her other children.

It revealed just how many humans he’d eaten already.

Unfortunately, he was a terrible conversationalist.

“Let... me try something else,”Weldir said with a sense of hesitancy in his tone.“Don’t move from your location.”

She nodded and remained where she was while keeping Ari near her. Then he backed up and leapt, just as a white flame appeared so close to her face her eyes crossed.

Is that a soul of a deceased human?Distracted, she’d almost forgotten about Ari as she backed up... right where he was about to land.

The soul split in two before her very face, and then a sucking sensation whirled around her as a bright-white light flashed. The ends of her elaborate thin braids swayed towards that suction. An oval disc opened up and, just as Ari was about to land on top of her, he disappeared right into it.

It closed quickly behind him, and if it wasn’t for Ari’s disappearance, she may have thought she’d imagined it.

The area grew so quiet that only the rustling of tall grass and the whistle of wind could be heard. If anything, the sound of her pounding heart, desperate to give up from all the exercise, was the loudest thing to her ears.

Her torso heaved as she looked around just to make sure all was safe, her eyes catching on the wall of spears in the close distance protecting this village.

“Now may I have your attention, little human?”The proudness in his tone was unmistakable.

“What did you do?” she asked, brushing back her heavy, sweat-saturated braids from her forehead.

“Opened a portal to my realm and then sent him back to my mist within the forests quite some distance from you.”

Lindiwe nodded absentmindedly. “A portal...” Then what he said truly registered with her. “A portal?! Since when can you create portals?!”

“Imayhave inspected the runic code of one of Rökul’s portals and imitated it while using a soul. Ingenious, right? He’d be quite angry with me for doing so.”

Lindiwe grumbled incoherently under her breath, but she was very thankful for his quick thinking.He couldn’t have done that sooner?

“What is it you need?” she asked, dusting off her sweaty palms on her orange skirt, having adopted the looser clothing these people wore. They’d also been the ones to braid her hair, as they’d accepted her into their small village, like many others across the world did, with open arms.

Most of them did so selfishly for her protection and aid, but these people were just warm hearted and doted on her because they wished to. They’d also taught her their dialect of language, as Zafrikaan had many.

“I wanted to enquire if you were ready for another offspring?”

How did I know he was going to ask that?she thought with a mean grumble.He’s asked me thrice since Ari was born.

“But it’s still only been four years. And Ari is currently giving me hell.”

And Lindiwe wasn’t quite ready to face him after their last intimacy. She was more nervous than ever, as she suspected he wanted to make it pleasurable for her. She’d been giddy about the prospect years ago, but now that it was a possibility, this awkwardly shy fuzzy creature had nestled its way beneath herflesh. It had a way of thumping around inside her chest cavity like a ball bouncing without rhythm, like it wanted to battle her heart and lungs at the same time.

It constantly made her stomach flutter with nervousness. With want. With desire. And she wasn’t quite sure how to settle it.

She was almost a hundred years old now, for pity’s sake.By this age, I should be well versed in sex.Especially as someone who had been in a very committed relationship for most of it.

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