Page 36 of A Soul to Guide

“I know, which is why I didn’t rip your cloak off earlier. You’re also a very light sleeper and your hearing is better than a human’s. Not better than mine, but you have been awfully difficult these past few days.” The fireplace crackled as if he disturbed it, likely so its flames would burn better. “Still, it’s best you try. If you can travel throughout the night, then we will. Your pretending to sleep has been endangering you the entire time, as remaining in one location is just begging for the Demons to find us.”

Raewyn sighed, hating that she’d been putting herself in danger.

“Fine. I’ll try to sleep.” He did wake her the previous night by trying to remove her hood, and she was tired after the events that unfolded this night. “What is your name, then? If it isn’t Merc.”

“Merikh,” he grunted.

Her whole body drained of heat as her blood ran cold.His name means death and slaughter.

What did she just agree to?

Merikh kept a relatively slow pace in comparison to how he usually travelled, but it was at least faster than how he and the Elf had been travelling the past few days.

Now that he’d discovered what she was, he didn’t have to take into consideration a human’s capabilities. She was easily able to keep up with his pace, though he still slowed so she didn’t trip too often, and her endurance was strong.

She never ran into him, and he figured she measured how close she was to him by the length of rope around his waist. It was barely taut, but the moment there was slack, she slowed along with him.

She’s clever.

Despite her inability to see, with the guide rope and her essentially stepping in his exact path, she was just as capable of making a long and treacherous journey as anyone else. He liked people who took their life and everything it’d given them by the reins, whether it be good or bad.

Those who were in pain, he understood.

Merikh had lived pain, breathed it, bled it. There were times when he’d done nothing but lie in the forest in a ball with his quills extended for protection. There were nights he’d spent whimpering in agony, where he was utterly incapable of moving.

He had more reasons than anyone else living in this vile world to lie down in the dirt belly up and allow wallowing pity to crawl all over him.

But he didn’t, and neither did the little Elf, which sparked a sense of pride within him.

She also seems to be resilient.

Especially when a few warm drops splattered against the coolness of his skull, and he turned to see she had raised her face to the canopy of leaves with a small smile. After last night, discovering all his lies, what he was, and that she was essentially his prisoner, the fact she’d smile at all was proof of her resilience.

With her eyes closed, she allowed the starting raindrops to cleanse her face. Her hood was up, protecting her hair from leaf debris, and she pulled it further up when she brought her face forward.

The rain was inconsistent. One moment, it drizzled, and the next, the sun baked them with enough heat to dry their clothing.

Merikh was wearing a new red flannel shirt and black breeches, the others abandoned at the house alongside his torn cloak. He didn’t have to replace his clothing often, but he also didn’t regularly have to fight with Demons.

He was known, and she was the only reason he’d been attacked at all. Usually, they left him be when they saw him in the wilderness. Though they’d begun attacking him in recent years due to the Demon King’s orders, most were still wary of doing so.

Raewyn was wearing the same plain grey dress she’d worn the previous day, but had forced him to step out of the house so she could bathe. He’d taken that time to retrieve his charms and pull them apart.

He’d kept the bone, bells, and ribbon, while tossing the dill and red berries upon the ground, as they were already beginning to wither. He’d also filled her water sack again via the well, not requiring one himself.

He didn’t eat food nor drink water, which is why he’d told her he’d never share with her. He had nothing to share, and he wouldn’t weigh himself down with useless items just to play pretend.

Not when he’d been originally planning to make her his meal.

However, her presence was offering him something far more valuable than the magic she held – which was what he’d wanted all along.

After years of searching for a way, have I finally found it?

She could be the only answer to his problem, and he’d grip that lifeline by the throat if he needed to. After a hundred and eighty years of searching for it, could anyone blame him?

He looked behind him once more, curious about the woman. Her face was turned off to the side, as if she were listening to the creature he could hear digging through the bushes nearby.

His sight found her throat, the tiny pulse of her jugular.

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