Page 116 of To Free a Soul
Her beautiful face pulled into a tight expression, and her eyes narrowed at the small disc, no larger than a handheld mirror that floated between both her hands. She lifted her gaze away from it to watch the frothing waves crash upon the sandy shore before her. The horizon was nothing but ocean.
A serpent skull slid in beside him to watch Lindiwe silently. He pointed to the water.
“S-P-E-L-L?”
“You want me to spell the word ocean?”
Nathair gestured yes, and Weldir complied. Then his offspring made a wave motion with his left hand in a backwards direction.I see. I’ll have to teach him how to spell a word, and then he will have to come up with the corresponding word sign.That complicated things, and would make this journey longer, but so be it. They had ample time, and Weldir was willing to be dedicated to this task; he would spend every moment he could with Nathair until they completed it.
He spelled Lindiwe’s name, so Nathair could do so with his fingers. Once more, his orbs brightened to yellow.
“Weldir...” she started, her glare strengthening at the waves. “How... strong are you right now?”
“Decently so. I haven’t spread my mist for quite some time to recuperate my mana store, just in case.”
He wanted to keep their options open should he or she need his strengthwithouthim being forced to slumber.
He’d kept his promise last time and had only been missing for three months. It’d been seven years since then – at least, from what Lindiwe had told him. It was now nineteen twenty-four, she’d said.
Then again, it could’ve been a week to a year ago since she’d told him, as his concept of time was skewed. It didn’t help that if she moved around the world too quickly, he’d lose track of the seasons, as Earth’s hemispheres had opposite rotations. If it was winter in the north, it was summer in the south, and she could often experience the same season twice in a year.
Her shoulders lifted sheepishly while she brought her chin in, and a rather malicious grin curled her lips. It was an unusually evil expression on her sweet face.
“Would you be willing to use a soul for me?”
Taken aback by her request, he was unsure if he had enough power to maintain such a debilitating usage of it. “Why?”
“What if I enter his castle, place a ward around the room they’re in, and you open a portal from within the ocean into it? I wouldn’t have to fight if we did that, and then I can just drown them both. Two birds, one big gulp of water.”
Weldir offered silence. What could he say?
That does sound like a suitable and rather ingenious plan, despite how that will impact me.
A question arose, though.
“Wouldn’t you be trapped in the room with them? You cannot turn into a Phantom and wield my mana at the same time. You must be physical for it to remain.”
She fiddled with her fingers. “I’m not afraid of drowning, when it’ll just bring me to you.”
Weldir allowed a curt growl to push through their bond.
“Oh, come on! Technically I’d be doing it to myself, and it’s not like I would bedeaddead.”
“And what if Jabez survives beyond you? He is anElf, Lindiwe. His lungs are bigger and stronger than yours.”
“His doors open inwards, so the water would lock them in, and if I did it in the middle of the day, his only escape would be out the window and into the sun.”
“What about Valko?” he asked, reminding her of their current maned-wolf offspring’s infant state.
“I can just leave them with you.”
That perked Weldir’s interest, as it was rare he was able to interact with his own offspring after the night of their birthing. Still...
“I don’t like this.”
“Please?” She fluttered her long, pretty eyelashes and pushed her bottom lip forward a little.
Something became startlingly apparent to Weldir in that moment. He was undeniably weak to this human female, and unfathomably smitten with her at the same time.
