Page 18 of To Trap a Soul

“What about protecting others who will be brought to this cliff?”

Her lips tightened into a hard line. “How many women have been brought here before me?”

“Those that brought you here? I didn’t see them, so I am unsure. They’re all different, although they chant the same words, pleading for the cleanse to cease. It is not a cleanse but a plague of Daekura – and nothing they do will end it.”Then, when Lindi didn’t say anything but rather glared at his nothingness, he sighed.“Dozens. I am unsure how many. Most are thrown from the cliff before I can speak with them. Only a handful are discarded on the edge here like you to bleed outor be eaten as an offering, abandoning you so they may run before the Daekura come.”

Her hands bunched behind her back as her annoyance deepened. Why did her heartachefor all those women more than it did for herself? Was it because she’d experienced their pain, their fear, their helplessness?

This horribleness needed to end.

I could go back and see my mother.Perhaps Weldir would let Lindi help her on their farm, so she wasn’t alone, especially as Allira wouldn’t be able to maintain it on her own.Gosh. I’m so worried about her. Please be okay.

“Make your choice.”

“I don’t know!” Lindi yelled, her chest heaving with anxious breaths.

Her heart was beating so hard in worry that it was causing her wound to throb unbearably, and she was being forced to make an unbelievable decision on the cusp of death. Her mind was foggy, her thoughts disjointed and lazy. She wasn’t in the right state to make such a decision!

“Then so be it. I will try with another–”

“W-wait!” She wriggled, as if that would help her face him when she had no idea where he was, and then fell towards her front. Her nose peeked over the edge of the Veil’s canyon, and she suddenly wished she could shuffle away from it. “Please wait. Please don’t go.”

His sensual voice had been oddly comforting, and it had been nice to know she wasn’t alone as she lay there.

“I told you – I am a witness. It is all I can do for you sacrifices until you die.”

A droplet fell from her eye to run down her cheek, onto her nose, and down below. “So, you’ll stay?”

His voice held such a gentleness when he said,“I will remain with you until the end.”

She didn’t know if she was just trying to hear kindness in him that didn’t exist, or if he really was, but she needed that more than anything. She needed someone to care right now that she was in pain and scared, and who wouldn’t abandon her just because she didn’t give them what they wanted.

Why was it his choosing to stay that convinced her the most?

“What would it entail? What kind of power would I have? What restrictions? I-I can’t make a decision without more understanding.”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear you have any time left.”

A cold blade of fear cut down her spine, and she gasped as she looked down. Right there, just beyond her foot with less than a palm’s worth of space between her and them, stood both the dark creatures. They were pushing each other as they snapped their jaws at her, ready and waiting.

Her skin crawled in disgust, and Lindi screamed when one braved shoving their hand through the sun to try to grab one of her ankles. They missed when she rolled onto her side to get away from it.

“Okay! Okay! I will give you my soul. I will give you my life.”

“I have your vow on that? That you will become my female, and you understand what is expected of you?”

“Yes!” she squealed, thankful the creatures didn’t brave ducking their hands through the sun a second time – especially as one was now writhing on the ground in pain.

Its finger bones were showing, as if its very void-like flesh had melted from being in the light for less than two seconds.

“Then our deal has been struck.”

As if to punctuate that, Lindi stopped squirming, and a strange orange flame was pulled from her chest. She gasped, despite the lack of pain or even feeling.

It was then, and only then, that she saw any part of him.

His hand, tipped with long nails or perhaps claws, reflected the light of the flame as if he were made of clear glass. It glistened and flickered like a reflection, and the same happened to his body when he brought the flame closer to a leanly muscular chest.

Lindi gawked at him, at what it revealed, while also offering very little.

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