Page 50 of A Soul to Guide

“Please. He’s my guide in this world,” she pleaded. “He helped me get here.”

Merikh bet under that clay white mask and the white mesh-covered eye holes, the man was glaring at him. He wished he could bare his fangs to appear more sinister, but they were always visible due to the lack of flesh on his face.

“You know what he is, right? A monster.”

With anger swirling in his chest, Merikh snarled. He fuckingdespisedbeing called that.

“I prefer the term Duskwalker, you stupid piece of Demon bait.”

Not even the lightest touch of Raewyn’s palm resting over his sternum managed to quell his anger. He did tilt his head at her for it, though.

“Yes, I know what he is,” she stated, her calm, sweet voice managing to ease the tension. “I swear on the Gilded Maiden that he won’t hurt anyone. I promise you this.”

She shouldn’t be making promises she cannot keep,he thought as he leaned back and folded his arms across his bulky chest.

“There, see,” he snapped. “I’ll be as harmless as a newborn kitten.”

The man looked back at the stone temple before sighing. “Okay, I will allow you inside.”

He closed the small door, locked it, and then worked on opening the gate.

“You didn’t have to be so rude to him,” Raewyn bit, the bridge of her nose adorably scrunched up.

“I wasn’t rude,” Merikh snapped back, clearly offended. He crossed one of his arms over his chest and pointed at the opening gate with the other. “He started it.”

If he remembered the start of their interaction correctly, he’d asked to be let inside and the Priest rejected him. The man had judged his bony face immediately upon seeing it and decided Merikh wasn’t righteous enough to enter theirlametemple.

A temple he could have scaled with ease and decimated everyone inside of. Yet, he’d never chosen to do so – although he’d considered it many times.

See? He was perfectly virtuous.

Guiltless, no, but they didn’t know the depths of his crimes against humankind.

“Why didn’t you tell me they could see through your glamour?”

With her hands balled into fists at her side, he thought Raewyn looked one move away from childishly stomping her foot.

He shrugged a shoulder, his voice nonchalant. “Must have slipped my mind.”

It hadn’t. He just knew there was always going to be a battle over him gaining entry. He hadn’t expected to obtain permission, even with her help.

The Priest recognised what she was right away. Their people must have a good relationship with each other.

She rolled her starburst eyes with an annoyed groan in Merikh’s direction. Humour filled his chest; he was becoming smitten with purposefully annoying the little Elf. She always responded with an adorable pout or a cute brow furrow.

Merikh had never had anyone act this way towards him. He’d always received hatred, or fear, or tears for his actions, and her annoyed tantrums were so devoid of those things that he found it hard not to like them.

She’d never cursed at him, or spoken coldly to him. She’d never tried to hurt him or run away from him again.

Actually, he noticed earlier that she’d almost huddled into him protectively. No one had ever sought his protection in a crowd full of people – usually, people were seeking protection from him.

He’d been curious to know if she would immediately out him for what he was to the humans in order to escape from him. The Anzúli were close by, so he thought she might try to go to them by herself if he was overrun by soldiers and guards.

She hadn’t used that tactic, nor had she tried an alternative. Instead, she wisely made sure he could enter the temple with her. It seemed she had accepted the cold, foreboding shadow of his presence looming at her back.

“We need to work on your people skills,” Raewyn grumbled as she huddled into him so she could grab the guide rope around his waist.

Merikh grunted, disagreeing with her completely. His people skills were just fine. A little brash, but he always got what he wanted, and that’s all he cared about.

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