Page 122 of A Soul to Guide

Not at the twins, but at someone else entirely. Someone who had come here, was likely the reason the twins had come here, even though he’d asked her to never be within his presence, his home, his territory ever again.

The Witch Owl,he mentally snarled.

He turned his head to search for her, and a whisp of white ducked within the Veil.

“Merikh, I said stop!” Raewyn shouted from behind him. “Leave them alone! They weren’t doing anything wrong. They just got a little excited.”

She was too quick to defend them, especially when curiosity from a Duskwalker could result in death.

“Please don’t hurt us. We won’t do it again.”

He didn’t know which one spoke, but it still sliced at him in a way he found deeply uncomfortable.

The twins took his new bout of aggression as being directed at them, even though his grip was loosening. So had Raewyn, who bounced forward with the intention of trying to stop him.

Unfortunately, he’d tossed the twins back, letting them go, and Raewyn grabbed at his arm he’d just dropped. She’d likely been going for his side to pull him back.

She sucked in a sharp, pained breath.

The scent of blood lifted into the air.

All three of their orbs turned red in hunger.

Shit,was all he could muster.

Holding his breath the moment he got a whiff of it, Merikh only hadsecondsto spin in a circle. He caught her in his arm, making her gasp as he impacted her stomach, and tossed her into the lake before the twins attacked.

Her scream was swallowed up by deep water as Merikh continued to spin.

He wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the raven-skulled Mavka who had dived after Raewyn. The other was scratching at the grass where drops of her blood had fallen, licking at it and diminishing the scent.

It allowed Merikh to breathe through his mouth.

He threw the raven-skulled one to the ground, and he rolled across it for a few metres, his limbs and thick lizard tail flailing.

Raewyn broke the surface of the lake and sputtered water as she searched for the edge in panic.

“Stay in the water!” Merikh shouted, worried that if her hand was still bleeding, she’d become a target.

Unfortunately, the quills on his left arm were coated in her blood scent.

The bat-skulled Mavka lunged for his arm and bit down around it with Merikh’s hand deep in its mouth. Some of the quills broke inside its mouth, the top part having very little flesh to destroy. The Mavka yelped when the broken shards must have lanced his tongue.

Merikh faced no damage from his quills being broken. They were painless to break, since they were like hollow hair follicles.

He did, however, roar at the deep cut of fangs slicing through his flesh.

Merikh dug his claws between the Mavka’s fangs to dislodge the jaw from his arm, the pressure becoming unbearable as it tightened. The bat-skulled Mavka begun shaking his head while tugging backwards, which only made the pain more severe. At this rate, Merikh was going to lose his hand down the Mavka’s throat – he could almost feel it.

Merikh did the only thing he could think of.

With his fingers flat and together, Merikh sliced his claws into the side of its neck like a blade.

The bat-skulled Mavka’s yelping cry caused the other’s orbs to flare a brighter red in rage for his twin. He sprinted for Merikh, who was still being held immobile, and barrel-rolled into him.

With his caught arm still being tugged and his body being shoved to the ground the opposite way, his shoulder dislocated, and the popping pain sent him over the edge.

The small thread of control he had on his instinctual rage snapped, and his sight darkened to its red hue.

---