Page 17 of To Trap a Soul

“Don’t you mean the afterlife, then?”

“There is no life in death, merely another world in which souls linger. Those that I have consumed.”

“It’s not fair,” Lindi sobbed out, her shoulders shuddering. She brought her knees tighter to her chest, hating how that made the coarse rope around her ankles scratch at her flesh. “I did nothing to deserve this.”

“Whether that is true or not, there are no other options.”

“This is so cruel!”

Her faith was being tested, and she could feel herself...breaking.She felt abandoned in her hour of need, betrayed that it was the reason she was here to suffer. A woman, a virgin, a fucking sacrifice for someone who apparently wasn’t listening or didn’t care to.

But there was another here, offering her salvation, and she wanted to take it so badly. She didn’t want to die. The fact that all the rules and restrictions she’d followed closely her entire life meantnothingwas terrifying.She wouldn’t be able to go to Eden, she wouldn’t meet her maker. She couldn’t even confront him for abandoning her on the edge of the... the Veil, as those men called it.

If she wasn’t lying in this faceless being’s mist, would she have been allowed to?I don’t want to go to the afterworld. I don’t want to die.

A light wind brushed around her, and it blew a mingle of pleasant scents from the forest, and the light tangle of a pungent odour, all through her. She wanted away from the warm dirt, the light, the fear that clutched her gut like a horrible sickness.

She wanted to remove the leaves and twigs from her hair, have a bath, and feel safe and secure once more.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to die peacefully, and quickly, and go to the heaven she’d always imagined in her old-age death. Instead, she was in this long, lulling limbo where she was conscious enough to have a raspy conversation as she felt her life slowly sapping away. Only to lie here like a grand noble’s meal to two terrible beasts like a pig on a platter – all she was missing was the apple in her mouth.

“Are you a bad god?” Lindi asked through her tears, tucking her face away from the setting sun – despite the temporary salvation it offered.

“I have never taken a life, nor have I ever resorted to trickery. All I do is ferry the souls who are already dead and protect thresholds. I am neither good nor bad, for I am nothing but a carer for the deceased.”

“Then why do you need a wife?! Why would you want to bond yourself to a human?”

“I need servants, and I wish to breed them through you.”

The honesty in his statement shocked her. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

“Excuse me? You want to use me as a... as a baby maker?”

“Yes. I have no other means to do so. I will also need you to collect souls for me and act as my physical form in this world, as I am intangible to it. You would have many tasks.”

The laugh that broke from her was spiteful. “And yet I’m still tied up. It’s not that I don’t have any other choice – you’re just refusing to provide me with any other. If you really were a benevolent being, you would have saved me by now.” She shrugged a single shoulder. “Why should I help you when you won’t even free me?”

“My power is limited outside of my own realm. It is why I’m unable to reveal myself to you. I cannot even touch you, or those Daekura, in order to save you. All I can do is witness.”

“How can your power be so limited you can’t even save me?”

That sounded like a useless god to her.

“I gain power from each soul I eat, but I also waste it in cleansing them, among other tasks. I have, in fact, rather enervated abilities in comparison to other deities of my realm. I need servants who can obtain souls beyond my reach and ferry them to me. I need a mate for that. Someone who, hopefully, will empower me, as I empower them.”

“And all I get out of it is living?” Lindi snorted a laugh once more. “I’d rather not. You sound like a pervert. Why not just take my soul by force if you need a woman so badly?”

Why is he giving me a choice?Lindi didn’t understand why this conversation was even happening. Didn’t most gods do what they wanted without care for humans and their free will?

“Although I very much could take your soul by force, I’d rather obtain my servants consensually. I have no desire to take what is not freely given, and I would like a trusted bond with my female. I am offering you power through me. To live forever, deathless. The ability to go back and take revenge for yourself.”

“I’m not that petty.” She actually was – she was just being stubborn.

However, the idea was becoming more enticing by the second, and he didn’t seemtoobad. At least he wasn’t forcing her, and he seemed to be truthful – from what she could gather. And to live forever while having power did sound pretty generous.

She just couldn’t shake this nagging uncertainty.Perhaps if I was allowed to look upon him, I wouldn’t feel so unsure.What if he was ugly or monstrous? Lindi grimaced at the image of having sex with some unknown face that could even be more horrendous to look upon than the creatures still frothing at her feet.

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