Page 121 of A Soul to Guide

Perhaps they didn’t even want to.

“What were you doing to her?”His rage deepened his voice to what it was like when he was in his monstrous form.

“Nothing!”the bat-skulled Mavka yelped, just as the raven-skulled one claimed,“We did nothing!”

“Then why the fuck did she scream?”he roared, shaking both their heads violently when they tried to push at him.

“We don’t know!”they shouted in unison.

Merikh was so agitated, he’d torn his clothing, his quills quivering at their highest points. He’d freed his tail upon his walk home, and it curled and flicked to the side.

Their answers weren’t good enough. He squeezed his hand around the raven skull’s beak, clamping his jaw together until he was sure it hurt. It was a warning, a threat, one he’d given before. He yelped, causing the bat-skulled one’s orbs to whiten even further in understanding.

“We did not mean to make her cry,”the bat-skulled one said.“Isn’t that right?”

“Yes. We did not mean to hurt her. We were not thinking about eating her once we were done.”

“No, never. We would not eat Merikh’s things.”

It was like they shared the same brain, and it wasn’t very smart. They’d basically just told him an obvious lie, which revealed the truth of what could have happened.

They’d been considering it, and if he had come any later, he may have found her eaten. The rage he would have unleashed would have been so acute, he doubted he would have held back.

He tightened his fists in realisation that he could have lost his own path to escaping this world because of these two half-brained Mavka.

I should never have trusted them!He should never have allowed them to come here and rest.

He didn’t like them any more than the rest of his wretched kind: all fucking dumb, filled with foolish hopes and dreams that couldn’t be obtained.

The only one he held any kind of sentiment towards was Orpheus. He was the only one who saw this world with the same foreboding, melancholic lens. Orpheus was the only one who understood the dark truth of the humans, the Demons, of every living, breathing thing uselessly desperate to live.

He understood just as Merikh that they were nothing but beasts to them all, that they were hated, that there was no kindness for them.

Yet, he still fucking hated him, because he held out hope that he could find a bride.

Duskwalkers weren’t meant to find happiness, find love, or someone to hold them tenderly in the dark of the night. There was no one who wanted to be sheltered in their claws.

Even if offered, no one wanted to use them as their shield. They were never seen as someone who could be trusted, and they were treated as nothing more than horrible, despicable creatures.

Orpheus and he had the same perspective on the world, but where Orpheus allowed his loneliness to fester into foolish hope, Merikh had twisted it into spite.

Towards him, to other Duskwalkers, to the Demons and humans. To everyone, including his own damn reflection.

The twins being here, meddling in his affairs and almost ruining the one potential he’d found to escape?Thatwas a startling reminder of why he’d never wanted them here in the first place.

They were too afraid of him to turn it into anger. Their minds were scarred from the memories they had of fighting him in the beginning, where he’d won, temporarily killing them over, and over, and over again until he gave up bothering.

His sight sunk deeper into crimson as his growl became more pronounced.

Then it began to soften as he took in their orbs, their skulls, their horns, and the submissive way they were letting him hold them.

Even if he didn’t like them, there was a reason he’d never killed them. There was a reason why he’d never crushed their skulls when he’d had ample opportunity to do so.

They were his brothers.

It wasn’t easy to rein back his anger. As he started to calm, he registered that Raewyn had been shouting at him. He’d been too focused on them.

Once he opened his senses again, the thread of a familiar scent caught in his nose hole – one that instantly ignited the flames of his rage.

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