Page 66 of A Soul to Guide

Even if that had been his intention originally, even if it was still possible, she decided she would just... trust him. It was better than the alternative – being fearful.

“You’ve got a look on your face. I don’t trust it.”

“Have you eaten a lot of people?” She bit her tongue when she realised she’d just made the conversation darker. She should have asked something else, but it just slipped out.

“Do you really want the answer to that question?” His tone was aghast, but also hesitant.

“Sure,” she answered in a small voice.

“Fine.” His grip was tight again, but for an entirely different reason. “I have eaten around a hundred and ten humans, perhaps a little more.”

Raewyn gasped. “That’s so many! Why?”

This time, when he cruelly laughed, it was echoed, as if he’d parted his jaws to let the full malevolence of it resonate.

“Because I needed humanity, and that was the only way I could obtain it. Plus, I’m not particularly fond of the humans, or anyone, for that matter. Their loss was my gain. We would not be having this conversation coherently otherwise.”

Raewyn turned her head away, unsure of how she felt about learning this. At least with Demons, they were mindless when they ate people until they fully formed and grew skin. Only then could they suppress their uncontrollable desire to feast on flesh.

That usually happened after only a little more than a dozen, perhaps more with the humans, since they were smaller.

What he was talking about was killing just because hecould, because he wanted to.

“Remember that farming town?” he asked. “How they wouldn’t permit us entry due to the recent murderer in the southlands?”

Raewyn didn’t like where this was going. “Yes?”

“He’s currently holding you.”

Her face drained of warmth. “But why? They-they said he... you... were going around removing people’s heads and hearts! How could you do such a thing? You’re basically a serial killer!”

If he wasn’t eating the whole person, it wasn’t out of hunger or insatiable desire to consume them. He was thinking rationally. It was immoral. Wrong. That was... pureevil.

When he didn’t answer, clearly not intending to, Raewyn pushed at him. “Tell me why or put me down.”

A reddish-pink glow sparked in her vision. Then, in a quiet, almost shy voice, he grumbled, “I got fat.”

Raewyn paused, not believing what she’d just heard. “What?”

The glow got brighter before it faded.

“When I was first fully formed, I was hollow. I had no muscle, no fat, and all my bones sat outside of my skin, as if I was so thin there was barely any room for them. As I gained mass from consuming flesh, I got bigger, fuller, until all my bones sunk beneath my flesh. Once I achieved a certain size, my muscle continued to grow, but so did my fat content.”

Her jaw fell. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing! It was as though he wasinsecureabout it.

He was much wider than her, bigger, stronger. Even now, she could tell her knee was digging into a muscled, yet thick gut. Her legs were parted wide just to accommodate his side.

“So, I wondered if there was a way to achieve humanity without having to gain more muscle or fat. I learnt eating their heads and hearts, although slower, was just as effective.”

Okay, so what he’d done was still wrong, but why did such a simple insecurity soften her opinion of it? It made him seem... normal.

She’d had her fair share of feeling too thin and incapable of gaining weight. She imagined it was the same for him, just on the opposing end of the spectrum.

She’d always been self-critical about her own height, weight, and even foot size, but she’d never turned that same judgement on another. Who cared about a person’s body size or weight? She’d never minded, since all that mattered was their heart.

However, since she’d lost her sight, a person’s textures, sounds, and scents were how she decided if their external was attractive to her.

She kind of liked them soft, although not many Elysian Elves were plump due to their genetics and food consumption.

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