Page 184 of A Soul to Guide

“You have been out here hunting my kind. What were you expecting? I have been waiting for you to wake up. I had been waiting for you to realise she was venomous and discard her, to bring me back to your side. Instead, you severed all possibility of that the first moment a Demon shot out from the forest with yourregaldemand in place, hissing about how they would get the glory for killing me and bringing backpartof my skull to you.”

“Perhaps I let my emotions get the better of me when I told them to target you after her death, but that doesn’t negate the fact that removing your kind would weaken Weldir. Every time one of you brings back a soul by accident, the stronger he gets, and the harder it’ll become for me to send my army through my portal. You once told me you wanted him gone, but I refused to listen.” Jabez roamed his eyes down Merikh’s body before darting them back to his skull. “I want to know if you still feel the same way.”

He grunted in answer, not wishing to give him a real one.

Jabez, mocking him, grunted in return before grinning. It was a creepy smile, one that showed just how deeply he could see into Merikh. It almost felt like he was peering beneath his very flesh and at his twisted soul.

“I can see that has not changed.”

“I have no desire to get in his way anymore. I do what I can to avoid strengthening him. Eating the heart and head of a human benefits me, but it also stops me from consuming their soul. There is nothing else I can do to hinder him.”

“Perhaps not.” He raised an arm to shrug. “But what I’m offering will damage him from the other side. His task is to prevent Demons from crossing from this world into the Elven realm, but it doesn’t stop me from controlling those present on the other side.”

Yellow filled his sight, and Merikh tilted his head. “What are you proposing?”

“Itireof being here, Merikh. I tire of this realm, the humans, the Demons here. I already tire of hunting your kind. I kill one, and it comes back to life, and suddenly, there are two more for me to have to take into consideration. I killed the cat-skulled Duskwalker, and somehow, he lives, and now he has his own child – another for me to contend with.”

“You started this,” Merikh answered as he folded his arms, hiding the fact that he hadn’t known he had more... family.

Faunus had a youngling?

“Yes, but I still seek to finish this. What the Elves did to me” – Jabez started as he held his hands up to open and close his fists – “I can’t ignore it. I can’t forgive it. When I was locked away, I began to forget who I was. All I saw was darkness. I was mostly alone until they put Demons inside with me, and their voices were just as distraught as the ones within my mind. You can’t fathom what that was like. They made me, and then they discarded me when they couldn’t control me.”

This story sounded familiar. “Are you sure that’s what happened?”

Jabez cocked his head. “You dare try to insinuate I don’t know my own memories? Weldir and the Elves wish to keep me away as though I am some kind of villain, without taking into consideration what they did to me, to my fellow Demons. Why must I be painted as the ‘bad guy’? In many stories, I would be a liberator for those who have been made outcasts. Of course, real evil wishes to stamp out those who would disobey them, but I refuse to allow it.”

Merikh rolled his head. Yep, that wasn’t going to work. If he revealed what he’d learned, Jabez might grow suspicious of the little fairy he had in his keeping.

However, the Elves were at fault for his unsettled mind. From what Raewyn told him, they’d turned a man into a monster.

Merikh also knew Jabez was normal. He still sought happiness, humour, love, and kindness – unfortunately, it was now only limited to his own.

It had once included Merikh as well.

“I’m well aware of how it feels to be in the dark, Jabez. You were the first to pull me out of it, and the one who shoved me back into it.”

“Then why not join me again?” Jabez asked as he offered his hand out. “You can save your kind by doing so.”

Merikh’s arms loosened. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t take any of the Demons here, but you can cross that portal with me.” Jabez’s mischievous grin was full of malice, but it was obvious it wasn’t towards Merikh. It was towards his goal. “I need someone on my side if I face the Demons who remain in the Elven realm. Once they see how strong and fast you are, they will not attempt to harm me, not with the magic I wield along with your strength. You are far more intelligent than your dim-witted brothers, which makes youdangerous.If we work together, we can take control of an army already present in the Elven realm and finally destroy them. Their pathetic city will become mine to live in, a place where all of us, Demon and Mavka, can be at peace. Your brothers can have a place there where they won’t be scorned by the humans in the way the Demons have been scorned by everyone. A place where none of us need to hide.”

Merikh was rendered silent.

Jabez was offering everything he’d once wanted: a place away from here, where he would be accepted, perhaps even respected. A place out of Weldir and Lindiwe’s control and touch.

Jabez had once been his friend, and he’d enjoyed being by his jovial, although pampered, side. The man was funny in his own morbid way.

He lowered his skull so his sight could dart over the ground.What do I want?

“Think about it, Merikh. Forgive what has happened in the past, and we can return to the way we were before. In doing so, your kind will be freed from my hatred, and we can leave here and make our own world.”

“Do not place that burden on me,” Merikh bit as he turned up his white sight. “Don’t give me no other alternative, or I will see my brothers harmed if I choose to reject your offer.”

“I wouldn’t, but unfortunately, they are the only two options available to me. Either I’m forced to stay here and figure out a way to disable Weldir’s ward, or I leave with the only person who can leave with me. I’ve already offered yourbrothersto join me, but they have chosen not to. You can save them from their stupidity or die along with them – but know I do not issue that with animosity towards you. This is war, and even those who choose no side can fall from their inaction.”

Merikh would have thought this was some kind of ploy or trick to trap him, but his stern expression said it wasn’t. Jabez was being truthful, and Merikh was the only one who could, or even would, cross that portal with him.

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