Page 42 of To Trap a Soul

“Weldir,” she cried a little louder. Pressing her sweaty temple against the hay-stuffed mattress, she whispered, “Please.”

“Yes, Lindiwe?”he finally answered in his deep tone, soft and echoing like usual on Earth.

Her body shuddered against the way his sensual voice uttered her name before she released an exhale of reassurance that settled her insides. The tension in her thighs released, and her backside lowered to press against her heels.

“I see. So, it has begun?”

Thatwas all he had to say? While she was kneeling there, trying to bring whatever he made into the world? If he was physical, she may have thrown something at him.

She’d already learned that Weldir just seemed incapable of feeling. Or, perhaps, he just lacked empathy for a lesser being like a human. Who fucking knew?

“Please do something, anything,” she pleaded.

She’d take a pat on the back right now, especially if it made soothing motions against her spine in the process. Even just a wet rag to her forehead would be like a balm to her spirit.

“I can only witness.”

Those words, ones he’d uttered before, caused her bottom lip to tremble even more. She pressed her face against the mattressand sobbed, her heart racing as it awaited the next clutch of pain and tension.

“I cannot even be there, as you are outside my mist.”

“Th-then bring me to your realm.”

“I cannot do that either. You are in a fragile state, and I’m worried we will harm them if you return to Tenebris. You must stay on Earth until you are done.”

So, she was truly and utterly alone.

She knew it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t be there or do anything. From the beginning, he’d told her of that, but right now, she needed a miracle from him. She needed kindness, compassion, and not obliterating emptiness, while she physically felt the opposite.

She wanted warmth, even if it was just words. To be cared for in some way as she did one of the hardest things she’d ever done, in a home where her life had been ripped away from her. She wanted... more.

Just something.

The past seven weeks had been hard. If she hadn’t required food, she would have stayed in Weldir’s realm, but there was nothing for her to eat there. She’d been forced to eat from the forest surrounding the Veil, which wasn’t entirely fruitful and abundant. She hadn’t wanted to scrounge in the dirt, but sometimes there were only hares or edible roots for her to eat – and she’d had to learn quickly how to make herself fire from nothing.

At least she’d learned a few survival skills in the process.

She’d gone through a range of emotions, most of them frantic and confused. She’d had no one to turn to, no one to rely on for advice – because who would know anything about an otherworldly pregnancy or the birth of a god’s child? She’d gone from sick and terrified, to horny, to sad and angry, constantlyrotating on those emotions, but not once had she felt an ounce of happiness or hope.

Yet she’d protected and provided to the best of her abilities, eating in abundance, making sure she was warm and cared for. Lindi, despite her reservations, had made sure it had the best chance of life and health because, even if she didn’t love it, the child deserved her best efforts.

It didn’t help that Weldir spoke so indifferently regarding them.

She often wondered if he spoke more fondly towards her and about them, rather than calling them a servant or just offspring, whether she may have felt better regarding all this. But he was cold and detached in everything he did, and she didn’t think he was even aware of how that made her feel.

She was human. People were full of life, love, and tenderness. To be starved of that for six years, when he could have been something she could have leaned on, was taking its toll on her.

When she’d bonded with him, she’d expected more.

Not once had he truly tried to assuage her fears, which just made her discontented and spiteful. Not once had he tried to learn of her, her life, or anything about her – he hadn’t even deigned to know her name until she’d screamed it at him.

She felt like a tool, and nothing more. Not a wife. Not a lover, as she expected. Not even a friend in their forced companionship. Nothing.

Then, just as she was giving up hope, a spark ofsomethingmaterialised out of thin air.

Lindi gasped in surprise and rushed to her feet. She backed away when a bright-white light, obscured by black sheer ribbons of material wisping around it, formed inside her room. It coalesced tighter and faster, the light getting brighter as the darkness spread and developed a sandy glitter to it.

Her back hit the wall, shooting pain down her legs, just as a half-being materialised in her bedroom and seemed to fill it at the same time.

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