Page 123 of A Soul to Steal

Should I remove my shirt?He’d managed to retain his clothing the last time he’d been transported to him.It’s caked in blood. I don’t want him to see it.

Just as he moved to do exactly that, his body turned transparent. He floated, but he didn’t mind feeling weightless. At least the pain faded.

Perhaps he should have figured out how to do it on his own.

Alright. Here I go.

Darkness swallowed him within an instant.

When he opened his eyes, a bright-blue sky appeared, and he squinted against the sun. Reappearing in a curled-up position, as though he’d been lying on his side, he lifted to his hands and knees in his incorporeal form.

Below him, land passed in a blur of greenery.

Miles above the ground, he noted the tops of trees swaying with the light wind, a river sparkling in the distance, andmountains not far to his left. Gideon lifted his head at the whoosh of a large set of wings and took in Aleron’s impressive wingspan from behind.

He reached out towards him, relieved to see him.

“Aleron,” he called, only to suddenly turn physical.

The yell that came from him was more like a scream as he plummeted headfirst towards the ground. Great! He was fully healed, only to splatter against the fucking ground.

Icy cold wind cut through his clothes and hair, and the speed of it instantly made his eyes water. His arms and legs flailed, while his horror-struck eyes searched for an answer to stop falling to his painful death.

He tried to revert back to his incorporeal form, but he couldn’t figure it out. His panic didn’t always allow him to think.

“Gideon!” Aleron roared.

He managed to twist in the air so his back could face his impending doom. Relief clutched his gut when he saw Aleron diving towards him.

“Aleron!” he yelled back, reaching his hand out to his outstretched, clawed one.

His wings flapped faster as he chased Gideon through the air. Then he eclipsed the sun.

His mind and vision split into two as a memory tried to tangle and morph with what was happening in that moment. Aleron diving for him in another world, just as he was now. His hand stretched out with his orbs white, as fear clutched at Gideon’s throat.

Aleron eclipsed another bright sun, while heat and the glow of lava shone just below his feet instead of greenery.

For a split second, time seemed to slow.

Emotions, ones that didn’t belong to the current Gideon, slammed their way into his chest like a sledgehammer. Theintense power of adoration, hope, trust, and reverence collided into him like a ball.

Breathless, Gideon tried to blink himself back into only seeing one image as Aleron’s warm hand took ahold of his wrist. An image flashed of a large lady with golden corkscrew curls and pupilless eyes that peered deep into his own. He saw his reflection in them.

He remembered her – the sound of her voice, her regal saunter, the way she brushed her nose against the tip of Aleron’s fanged snout. He also remembered how she’d been the one to drop him off the edge of an invisible platform.

Before any more of that time within a weird Elven deity realm could come back to him, he was shoved into the safe cradle of Aleron’s arms.

He panted out strained breaths, his eyes wide.That was the sharpest memory that’s come back to me.Much of it was missing, but he now had the face of the Gilded Maiden Aleron had told him of. What he’d been told helped fill in the rest.

“You chose me,” Gideon whispered, referring to his vision.

Aleron cocked his head but didn’t respond.

The Duskwalker hovered them in the air, keeping them in place with his wings. They almost curled around his body as though he was about to be wrapped in them, the tips meeting, only for them to shoot back. Aleron required large flaps to support his heavy weight.

They began a gradual descent to the ground, but Gideon could barely pay attention after his revelation sucker-punched him in the gut.

His eyes bowed in anguish, as guilt once more prickled on the back of his neck.He chose me, even when he’d been told letting me die in that lava would bring him back to life.

---