Page 134 of A Soul to Guide

Then, she curled into a ball as her eyes peaked open for just a second before closing.

Within seconds, she already appeared a hundred times better. Merikh looked at her arm, and orange flared when he realised he’d been the reason she hadn’t been getting better.

I shouldn’t have interfered.

The Witch Owl looked down at her hands and opened and closed them, wincing as she did. Lava streaks had grown over them.

“Weldir will heal you if you go scampering back to him,” Merikh coldly stated.

Then, he stepped back and threw his arm in the direction of his cave entrance, showing her he wanted her to leave.

He wouldn’t offer any thanks. She had a mountain of emotional debt she owed him. A person wouldn’t thank another for returned money, and he considered this the same.

She stood and faced him. “I must speak with you first.”

“There is nothing I want to say to you, and I’m not interested in anything you have to say.” He stepped back so she could better see he’d pointed to outside. “Now, get out.”

Her left jaw ticked. She stood her ground, lowered her head slightly, and glared up at him.

“What are you doing with this female? How did you find an Elf on Earth, and why did you bring her here?”

“What I do and who I keep within my home is none of your business.” When he reached to take her arm, she turned incorporeal and evaded him.

Her voice sounded distant, despite standing so close to him in her ghostly form. “You cannot have an Elf as your bride, Merikh.”

His footsteps stumbled when he slipped through her, and he twisted his head in her direction.

“You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do. Now get your wretched Phantom arse out of my fucking home!”

He didn’t chase her; he wasn’t an idiot. He couldn’t touch her, so there was simply no point.

“You shouldn’t speak to your mother that way,” she bit back, floating around his home like a fly he couldn’t squash.

Merikh’s laugh was dark. “You and I both know I stopped thinking of you as a mother, Lindiwe.”

“She is from the Elven world. You cannot keep her, Merikh. She needs to go back there.”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do!” he yelled, wincing when Raewyn curled up tighter and rubbed her face against the bedding.

“And you must stay here.”

His rage was like an inferno, swirling tighter and tighter until it was strong enough to swallow up everything and spit out destruction.

He left his own home, knowing she would follow. Whatever damned conversation they were about to have, that she wasforcingon him, he wouldn’t allow it to disturb the unwell woman on his bed.

Once he was outside, he turned left to go around the bend of the Veil’s cliff. The ward ended right next to three trees, and he thought this was an appropriate place to speak with her. It wasn’t out in the open, and hopefully, they were far enough away on the other side as to not bother Raewyn.

He stood with the swell of the cliff just behind him and to left. The trees were at his back, and he waited for the Witch Owl to flutter herself in front of him.

“If you wish to speak, you will do so human. I will not speak to a Ghost.” Once she did, he folded his arms. “What I do and where I go is none of your concern. The fact you haven’t learned this yet just makes me question your intelligence.”

“You cannot go there, Merikh. You must stay on Earth or find somewhere else to go. It cannot be there.”

“Why?” he chuckled, allowing yellow to fill his orbs in true humour. “Because Weldir will be punished if it’s discovered he created his own children?”

Her eyelids flickered, giving him the truth.

“The problem is,Mother,I don’t give a fuck what happens to that demi-god.” Then he raised a hand so he could tap a claw to the side of his snout. “Actually, the idea of him being tortured by his own creators brings me immense joy. Now that you’ve put it in my head, I hope there is some form of trial where I can tell them all about what he has been doing here on Earth.”

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