Page 173 of A Soul to Guide

His anger had essentially become non-existent, and his aggression was only present in his lustful actions, rather than in general animosity.

Merikh hadn’t changed. He was still hateful and spiteful, but it was only towards things of his past or anything beyond his ward.

After everything that would not require her to move from between Merikh’s arms was put away, she sighed and turned her cheek towards his snout. She tapped it with the side of her face to steal a bony, lipless kiss.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted. “I’m worried about failing. I don’t want to upset you if I destroy the stone and we can’t figure out a new way for me to go home.”

“I have been thinking on that, and if it comes to it... I may be able to obtain another.”

Raewyn gasped as she turned around. “There’s another stone?”

“I am not the only one Lindiwe gave a stone to. Orpheus has one, although it has a Demon protection charm in it.”

Hope blossomed in her chest. “Do you think he would be kind enough to give it to us?”

“I don’t know, but I also don’t care. I will steal it if he won’t, and I will harm him, and anyone he is close to, if I must.”

“Merikh!” she whined. She would say she was surprised at his hostility, but she absolutely wasn’t.

While she was facing him, he plonked his head on top of hers again to silence her. “I didn’t say I’d kill him, not permanently at least. Is there anything else about your task that is bothering you?”

The way he pried, she had a funny feeling he already knew the other reason. He was just being considerate of her feelings and giving her the option to share and speak about it.

She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his chest. “This spell is the reason I lost my sight. I can’t lose it a second time, but if it becomes too volatile, you or I could be hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me. I will be fine. I will heal within a day, and if you come to harm, I will take your wounds so you don’t have to bear them.”

She wished something so sweet didn’t have to be clouded with such darkness. Still, he’d managed to ease her when she didn’t think that was possible.

“I don’t feel like working anymore today,” she admitted.

She was tired and would likely sleep soon. The next step could wait.

Licking across her lips, over her cheek, and then dragging his tongue over her ear, Raewyn shivered when he rumbled, “I can give you something else to think about.”

Despite the sharp stab of desire that clutched at her abdomen, she reached up to his face to stop him. She wasn’t quite in the mood, since her emotions were all over the place.

“Could you read me more of that story?”

“If that is what you’d prefer.” She liked how he didn’t get all pissy when she denied him.

Instead, he leaned back and pulled her into his lap once he was seated against the wall next to the cooking hearth. Then, he reached up to the table and grabbed the book, as though he’d placed it nearby. She often asked him to read to her, since she couldn’t, and he always complied.

Like she always did when she wasn’t sleepy and he read to her, she asked him a million questions about the book. She wasn’t particularly fond of angsty mystery stories.

She also just adored annoying him.

When she knew she had asked him one too many ridiculous questions, like why the curtains were red or the carpet blue, he shoved the book at her.

“Here,” he said with a small, half-hearted growl. “You read it to me then.”

Her eyelids fluttered when the world opened up in her vision. She looked around, finding she could control the sight, which meant he’d given it to her rather than sharing his own.

It was rare that Merikh did this. He’d only ever done it twice; the first time when she’d run off with it, and the first night they’d had sex and he wanted her to look at him, thinking it would make her want to stop.

She blinked up at him in shock.

She was always taken aback by his otherworldly appearance. When she pictured his face, she always saw his bear skull and upward curling, near devil-like bull horns. She even pictured the claw and sword scarring on it – she’d touched it enough to know every nook and cranny of it.

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