Page 23 of A Soul to Keep

In some ways, she wished he’d smelt of rot and decay. She wouldn’t have been so relaxed within his arms. It would have reminded her constantly that he was disgusting, and she shouldn’t think of him as anything other than a nightmarish creature.

He is not your friend, Reia.

Despite him saying that he was intending to protect her life, she couldn’t trust him. No matter if he was being kind to her, no matter if he wasn’t completely unpleasant to be around, she had to remember, always, that he wasn't to be trusted. Her plan to flee had failed, but she would find another way to be free.

Since she’d been curious, she’d already asked about why he no longer had his black wolves following him. He’d explained that since he’d stopped concentrating on them, they’d disappeared. In order to get them back, he’d have to do the spell again that required him hunting down another wolf to trade its life force, destroying it, for the illusion enchantment.

Apparently, they acted as deterrent to both Demons and humans. If they thought he wasn’t alone, it would be less likely that he would be attacked even though he’d arrogantly told her that attacking him was pointless.

After what she’d seen earlier, she couldn’t say he was wrong or that his arrogance was unfounded.

But Reia had many questions, and she wasn’t sure where to start. He also hadn’t answered quite a few, blatantly and deliberately avoiding them.

“Why did you pick me over Clove?” Reia asked while pressing the back of her skull into the firm flesh of his arm to look up to him. “It was obvious she was more willing to go with you.”

“Because of your anger. You had greeted me, so I thought you had made the choice, but it was your anger that had intrigued me. She also reeked of fear when I approached her, whereas you had not.”

“I was pretty angry with you when you grabbed my throat, but I was surprised that it didn’t hurt.”

“You were angry before that.” She pursed her lips together in annoyance; she hadn’t thought it was so obvious before that. “I did not intend you harm. I had just wanted to see you better.”

“You chose me as your bride because I was angry and not as afraid?”

“You arenotmy bride,” he said sharply, his head turning down and twisting enough to look at her. Even though there was a hint of anger in his voice, his eyes turned a deeper well of blue.

She sucked in a gasp of surprise before frustration bubbled inside her like a corrosive pond in her gut.

“Then why the hell did they put me in a wedding dress?!”

She’d felt ridiculous in it from the moment the Priestess put it over her.

“In order to become my bride, you must gift me something. No human ever has, and I am beginning to doubt they ever will. You will be no different.”

“You’re actually seeking a bride, though?”

His answer was slow to come, but he eventually said,“Yes.”The word was spoken as though it was sticky and unimaginably hard to say with a grated voice.

That was something she was also curious about. He didn’t open his snout to speak, and yet they were able to have a conversation and his voice heldemotionsin it.

His head turned up to look where he was going at the same time she lowered her own to stare at her clasped hands. She was holding her cloak closed to help keep the chilly night air out.

“What must be gifted?”

“No human has ever been comforted by the answer.” She looked up just in time to see the glow of his eyes illuminating just his wolfish skull turn an even deeper blue. “I merely seek a companion now.”

All he seeks is a companion?She blinked up at him as her brows creased together so tightly she felt the pressure radiating through her forehead.Heistruly lonely?

How could knowing that send a wave of pity through her for him? Reia had been alone all her life, she understood his pain, but she’d accepted her fate and lived with it without feeling desolate and lonely. She no longer cared to have a friend. All she wanted was freedom and to avoid the cruelty of being outcasted and shunned as a harbinger of bad omens.

She wanted to walk through a town and be able to speak to someone without their face paling in fright. She just wanted someone to look her in the eyes, to know that she was truly real and valid. Beyond that, she didn’t care.

So how did this creature, monster, nightmare, have more human loneliness within it than she did?Is it because I haven’t been alone as long as he has?She wondered if perhaps she’d feel the same way after living hundreds of years – since it was believed he’d lived that long.

He wasn’t human so she didn’t understand why he’d feel this way at all. Emotions were for people. He shouldn’t have the capabilities to feel anything other than the deep thirst for human blood and flesh, like the Demons he closely resembled.

“What has happened to the other humans you have taken?”

His chest expanded like he was taking in a deep breath as it pushed against her side, before she watched the fogging puff of it snorting past his snout through the bony nose hole like a sigh.

---