Page 36 of To Trap a Soul

“You have asked for much. For power. For vengeance. To return to your home. For time. For the very life you now have.” His mist seemed to collect tighter against him, in reaction to the sharpness and curtness of his words. “I have given you all of that. I told you having a mate was new for me, so I’m asking for grace if I make a mistake.”

At least he admitted to that, but he had yet to still utter an apology! Perhaps because he was a god, he felt it was beneath him, but Lindi refused to let him get away with it. He neededheras much as she needed him, and she had no qualms holding that over him.

It was the only true power she had in their dynamic. He could take away his magic from her, but she didn’t actually have to produce offspring if she didn’t want to, and her ability to turn physical meant he couldn’t force it.

And she didn’t know his temperament at all to know if she was truly safe from him.

That sudden realisation made her right eye well with more liquid before another tear fell as her lips trembled.I’m such an idiot. I should have just let myself die.So what if she wouldn’thave gone to heaven? At least she didn’t have to put up with any of this.

Why did I try to hold onto life so much?

For her revenge, despite how fleetingly good that felt? To protect others, who would never know? For her mother, who never woke up to see Lindi safe?

She wasn’t actually happy with her choice.

“Just send me back to Earth,” Lindi demanded.

His tone was surprisingly dark as he rumbled, “You promised me.”

“And I will, but not today.” If he wouldn’t give her an apology or at least show he cared about her wellbeing, then she would withhold her oath to him until she felt better – emotionallyandphysically.

“Infuriating,” he growled. “If you won’t give me what you promised, then I will cease giving you anything you desire. Your soul is mine, and I will trap it if I so choose. It belongs in my afterworld.”

Then all the wispy, smoky mist disappeared in a flash – as if he... left.

Lindi waited for him to send her back to Earth, but in the lone nothingness, it didn’t take long for what he meant to become obvious. Her eyes widened as she peered around into the utter weightless, vast, and empty ether.

“No,” she rasped, her eyes widening and frantically darting around. “Don’t you dare leave me here!”

She reached for the rest of her clothing so she could at least put her pants back on, but they were out of reach of her fingertips. She wanted them back on – to forget why they’d come off in the first place. With her hair floating and her tunic lifting to the point she had to shove it down to cover her pubic mound, she wished she could swim through his darkness like he could.

“Enjoy your solitude, female,” the darkness coldly answered.

A time unknown, but a new beginning

Holding a small leaf, Weldir’s coalescing form moved to show solid darkness where he slid the pad of his thumb against its green edge. Pressure radiated across his face, and as usual, he was unsure of the expression that filled it. Perhaps a thoughtful one? He imagined so, considering he was inspecting the leaf and its flaws.

“It still doesn’t look right,” he murmured to himself, as he dropped his hand and lifted his gaze towards the tree before him.

To his eyes, everything appeared either too fuzzy or too smooth. The leaf was tough and hadn’t bent to his touch. He’d witnessed them fold and be rather malleable on Earth. From afar, the bark of the tree – not that he knew the name of it – appeared to mimic those that had formed near the Veil. Up close, however, it was fuzzier than it should be.

The tree’s image shifted until smoothness on the tops of the leaves gave a rough sheen, while the undersides remained satin. The bark did the opposite, and suddenly the trunk looked scaleylike a reptilian, rather than like tree bark.

He threw the leaf to the side, finding this process to be a nuisance due to his lack of skill and understanding, and it fluttered through the air. It disintegrated before it could touch the darkness below his feet. His gaze drifted along the high, arching roots that wove through the liquid black base he’d given his inner world, his stomach – the place in which souls were held.

The ground looked like black ink that reached on forever.

A feminine roar, like she’d done it through clenched teeth, warbled around him. Although it was loud to him, as if it had come from within the depths of his very mind, the rest of Tenebris – his stomach – was quiet.

“Such a noisy thing,” he stated to the air as he looked up. “It’s as if she knows I can hear her.”

She wouldn’t. For what could have only been an hour or so, she’d been yelling at him, about him, to the darkness around her. She spoke to herself, frustrated and annoyed, or sometimes just screamed.

Weldir, try as he might, found her hard to ignore. Since she was in the part of his realm that housed his mind and the depths of his consciousness, using magic to block her was remarkably draining.

So there she floated, constantly being a pest, and he was subjected to listening to her outbursts.

The longer they went on, the more frantic she sounded.

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