Page 179 of A Soul to Steal

He...lovedit – even if it annoyed him right at that moment – mainly because he smiled for a lot of his ramblings, especially when talking of his old friends, his job, Emerie, and his family. Aleron learned more this day than he ever had before.

I want to smother him in affection while he speaks to me.

Instead, Aleron was stuck holding him as they flew closer to Merikh’s ward. In the distance, a bright-red dome glittered right against the Veil’s canyon wall.

He also had questions, but was unsure if he wanted the answers.

Why did his Gideon suddenly...change?Of course he appreciated it, but he went from a pale, lifeless being to someone who had so much colour he sometimes turned pink. His dimples were prominent, his mossy-green eyes alight with emotion. He’d started to play with him again, like in Tenebris, returning to the wonderful creature that had captured Aleron’s heart to begin with.

As much as he adored learning about him, it still felt like Gideon was holding back much.

There were times Gideon appeared tired not long after waking, or he looked off into the distant horizon with a sombre expression. When Aleron asked about them, Gideon would either smile and tell him nothing was wrong, or he’d talk about something that didn’t seem relevant at all.

Gideon didn’t realise how much that hurt.

Aleron wanted his pain, to share it with him, so if in the future Gideon succumbed to it once more, Aleron could bring him out of it. He wanted to discover and consume his bride on everylevel, not just the ones the little human had figured out brought Aleron contentment.

He wanted to be... trusted with Gideon’s most vulnerable self. In the same way he wished to share his own disquiet, but refused to because Gideon wouldn’t.

Perhaps this is what truly brings me discontent.

His mind was in a million places; a number he couldn’t even count and yet it dotted within his conscience as a festering swarm.

Aleron also didn’t want to go to Merikh’s cave.

A part of him had avoided it even when they flew past it over a week ago, due to unpleasant and distressing memories. He only came here for the chance to be reunited with his twin.

As if to make matters worse, his whole torso filled with hateful disappointment when they started to descend past the Veil’s edge and into Merikh’s ward. Without needing to land, the area smelt empty of his kindred’s scent.

Ingram is not here.Every day that he wasn’t reunited with him brought on a deeper, frustrating desperation.

He tried not to feel resentment towards his bride for it. However, the happier Gideon became, the more Aleron wished he’d just remembered everything when they arrived here. He wished the male had just trusted in Aleron and had come with him when he asked.

He would have been with his kindred within a day.

Ingram had been nearby. Not close enough to take in his scent, but enough that if he went in the direction Weldir had pointed, they would be together.

It had been almost a month since then. As time passed... as days ended and began, he grew more afraid. Austrális wasn’t small.

What if we never find them?

Restless, Aleron carefully placed Gideon on his feet with his wings shifting behind him.

His sight morphed to red as he took in the lake that glistened, despite the late-afternoon shade cast over them from the rock wall. The waterfall he usually found soothing did nothing but irritate his senses. Everything smelt clean and fresh, but because it was empty of his kindred’s scent, it aggravated him.

He drew his enraged sight over the area: the tree that rustled with two large boulders beneath it, the grass, the entrance to Merikh’s cave. It settled on the back of Gideon as he placed his guitar on the ground.

Aleron snapped his skull away from him, angered with himself that he could shine such a colour upon his precious bride.

It is not his fault.

It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t remember. It wasn’t his fault Aleron had been separated from his twin to begin with, and that was why he wasn’t with Ingram now. Gideon was not to blame for his death.

No, that was due to Demons and the Demon King.

His sight shifted to a deep well of blue as he drifted it towards the Veil’s forest. A certain direction captured him.

Only a few months ago, he and Ingram had been fleeing to this very place – only for Aleron to perish not even a few metres beyond the tree line.

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