Page 31 of To Trap a Soul

She hated the way it caused a pleasurable shiver to run down her spine, and even more so that it was present for her to hear at all. The very decadence, like the smoothest spiced honey, should be a sin. No being, not even agod,should have such an ear-tingling cadence to their voice.

It always sounded a little distant when he spoke to her like this, whereas in his realm it was crystal clear.

With a sigh, she lifted her gaze to the side to look at the alleyway’s exit.Damnit. He’s awake.Her right hand curled intoa tight fist as she bit the sides of her tongue in annoyance.Why? I thought I’d been using enough to keep him in a slumber.

Then she smoothed her features and wore a mask of indifference.

Although deaths from being consumed by Demons resulted in Ghosts and normal human deaths didn’t, the only other way to create them was by her very hands. If his magic touched them, she could obtain their deceased souls.

“I like that I’m able to completely get rid of them, body and spirit,” she admitted, lifting her hood over her head to shroud her in mystery once more. “They don’t deserve an afterlife, not even in your world.”

“But it would empower me.”He said it without emotion, yet she knew he was annoyed.

More power, that’s all he wanted. It’s all he ever wanted. Power, power, power. That’s all they ever spoke about.

And she didn’t want to give it.

She still didn’t know if Weldir was a malevolent entity or not. She didn’t know if he was good or evil, and she worried that aiding him meant she was endangering humankind.If he ever obtained a physical form...What stopped him from destroying this world on a childish whim?

Old gods were known to be fickle and immature beings. She feared she was aiding one and just didn’t know it yet.

Then again, he shared nothing about himself, which gave her no chance to truly trust him. For once she wished he’d elucidate on anything to do with him – alas, apparently that was too much to ask for.

He also obviously cared very,verylittle for Lindi.

Not once had he checked to see how she fared, offered a warm greeting, or even a soothing word when she regrettably shed a tear for her past. With the prolonged silence and the nothingness from him, even when he was awake, he only sharedhis annoyance that she didn’t collect the souls resulting from her kills.

“I’m trying to collect souls, as you have asked of me,” she lied coldly, heading towards the alleyway’s exit. “I have six already.”

She ducked her head out, her curls waving around her chin and neck, and made sure it was clear of people before she walked into the main street. There were no people, and the mix of cold and warm lights from the slice of moon and the widely spaced streetlamps lit the area dimly like before.

It was safe.

The moment Lindi stepped out of the shadows and into the light of a nearby street lantern, her foot sunk. The ground opened up like a yawning mouth and swallowed her whole. Biting back a scream, she fell into pitch-black darkness and floated in its weightlessness freely.

Her hair lifted to flutter around her head, and her cloak wrapped around her body before whisking away. The racing of her heart quickly settled.

“I hate it when you do that,” Lindi said as she folded her arms across her chest – although it was only the second time he’d done so.

“And it costs me mana to bring you here, and yet I feel I must do so in order to collect the souls you have on your person,” Weldir stated, his voice stronger and no longer a whisper.

He stood vertically while she lay horizontally, and she cut him a slit-eyed scowl. Her arms tightened, since she couldn’t argue with him on that front. She also refused to admit the truth that she’d been avoiding him.

No, she’d rather lie.

“Once I’d collected enough, I planned to return to your mist and gift them to you,” she said plainly, looking up to avoid peering at him. “I don’t want to make that long journey needlessly.”

“It is not a gift when it is your task and merely the cost that is due,” he answered, and his mist spread out from him until she could see it.

Then six white souls slipped out from the confines of her satchel, despite its solidness, and into his cloud, disappearing completely for him to do whatever the hell it was he would do with them later.

“You know I prefer it if you shift forms when you arrive here.”

Her upper lip twitched, but she managed to stem the desire to sneer. Lindi turned incorporeal, which, unfortunately, made her tangible to him. If she remained in her physical form, even in his realm, Weldir was unable to touch her – and she liked that he couldn’t force the shift on her.

It was entirely her choice, and she preferred being out of his reach when in his presence.

However, she also didn’t wish to anger him, as hecouldremove her abilities from her – which he had once threatened when she’d gone out of her way to not collect souls. She’d thought she’d done a good job of pretending she hadn’t seen a lonely soul in the middle of a village, but he’d been watching her and had grown annoyed that she wasn’t doing her task.

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