Page 33 of A Soul to Guide

As she touched them further, coming to the tip of his snout, she understood he had a bite that could kill. There was no material covering his jaw, but there was a cloth tied around his upper fangs, covering his nose hole.

“It helps to minimise the scent of fear and blood.”

This was why I found it so difficult to hear him breathe. His breaths were muted by the material.

“How did you come to be?” she asked in breathless wonder as she began to touch down his throat, and the softest fur she’d ever felt tickled her fingertips.

“I was born, obviously.”

“By?” Just as she touched the fur around his shoulders and chest, he grabbed her hands to stop her.

“You Elves really don’t have any idea whatWeldir has been up to?”

Her brows drew together. “Weldir?” She scoffed. “That demi-god has no power to create creatures.”

His laugh was cold and empty. “Sure, he does. Give him a mate, something he can touch by binding it to himself, and he is able to create life.”

Raewyn’s eyes widened as her lips parted. “But he doesn’t have a physical form! He was born half-created.”

“So, therefore, he has half the ability, as long as he is in his own realm,” he added. “The one your kind gave him the power to control.”

“Well... not us,” Raewyn grumbled, retracting her hands completely to cup them to her chest. “Thank you for allowing me to touch you.”

She wasn’t sure if he understood the significance of what he’d done, allowing her to see in her own way, but it calmed some of her fear. She didn’t like the unknown, and she’d been fretting the entire time that he was a Demon.

He could definitely be much worse, and there was still much she didn’t know, but at least she could picture the face in front of her now.

A white bear skull with two scars, one across his snout and another down his right eye socket. He likely had dark brown or black bull horns. She knew he had fangs, claws, and fur, and he also said he had red orbs for eyes? She imagined they floated in his empty sockets, but she hadn’t been able to feel them.

“I don’t like being touched because I don’t like others discovering what I am.”

“Anything else I should know?” she asked nervously. “Do you have wings or a tail? Venom?”

“No wings or venom, but I do have a bull tail I keep hidden.” Then, after some thought, he added, “Be careful of my back, forearms, and calves. I have echidna quills I can extend as protection, and they are exceptionally sharp. When I’m calm, they lay flat against me, but if you walk into them while I’m aggravated, you’ll likely impale yourself.”

Raewyn swallowed thickly. “G-good to know.”

From what she knew of his body, he was taller than her by a few inches, but not that many. Since she was six foot seven, she thought he might be around six foot ten, maybe eleven? He was bulky from what she’d ran into a few times, strong, and he was chubby – he had a meaty gut that wasn’t thin but like he had fat surrounding his muscles.

He was huge, then, to her as an Elysian. Her kind were often tall and lean because of their high metabolism and Elvish physique. He was tall and near three times the width of her.

She scratched at the side of her neck awkwardly. “Even with your glamour, the humans were still a little scared of you.”

“The glamour does nothing to my height or frame. It only makes me appear human.”

Maybe if I hadn’t been wearing my blindfold when the magic was active, I might have seen the glow of the spell and realised something was wrong.

She’d worn it to protect her identity, but she held a little regret for it now. She wouldn’t have followed him into the forest.

She saw nothing currently, since he’d removed her blindfold, so it must mean it was only active while humans were nearby.

Raewyn thought he’d back away from her now, but he remained crouching over her. She was cornered.

Her right ear flattened when he pinched the pointed tip of the left one. “I knew you were hiding something under that cloak. I just didn’t expect it to be your hair and ears. I, at first, thought you were seeking to find the Priests and Priestesses because you were one of them, just someone special.”

“I never told you I was looking for them.” Her lips pursed in realisation before she narrowed her brows in his direction. “You were following me in Clawhaven.”

“Says the person who followed me through the market,” he bit back. “Do you know how many times I lost you because you couldn’t keep up?”

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