Page 66 of To Free a Soul
When she turned incorporeal, one by one, they began to float and then disappear.
Then Lindiwe spun in the direction of the Veil’s centre while turning tangible and flipping her hood over her head.
“Where are you going?”
“To Jabez’s castle.”
“Is that wise?”
“No, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
Lindiwe had questions she wanted answers to, and threats she wanted to lay at their feet.
Closing her eyes, Lindiwe pushed her ghostly body through the thick doors of Jabez’s castle and his protective ward. Unafraid, she shifted from a Phantom into a human and traversed the grand entryway.
Her bare feet slapped against the cold stone, echoing around her in the dreary and barely decorated interior.
She didn’t know where she was going, but she followed muffled voices coming through a set of doors to the right. When she pushed them open, a spacious room lay beyond. There wasno throne, as if Jabez didn’t feel the need to have one, but there was a lounge at the very back.
Seated upon it was a pale woman with black hair, with a horned, handsome Demon next to her. Lindiwe regarded Jabez’s black horns, his surprised red eyes, and his chiselled features with a dull expression.
To his left on a different seat was Merikh, who was draped over it as if with boredom. As if he hadn’t just violently shoved his own brother from this castle, from that woman, coldly and cruelly. To their right were a handful of other Demons, but the only notable one was a young woman with patches of void marring her light complexion, bright-red hair, and matching red fox ears and tail.
Jabez had his right arm around Katerina’s shoulders as if he was consoling her, but she didn’t look too upset to Lindiwe. There was no stain of redness in her cheeks or eyes. Actually, she looked remarkably healthy for someone who had, apparently, just spent horrible, torturous years with a mindless, cruel captor.
Merikh immediately got to his feet with a snarl and bared his fangs at her, the red hue of his orbs deepening.
“You–” Jabez started.
“That’s her!” Katerina yelled, pointing at Lindiwe while pulling Jabez in front of her as if he was a living shield. “That’s thewitchwho kept me imprisoned.”
How many times have I told her I’m not a witch? It’s like she doesn’t want to listen.
Jabez, the arrogant bastard, leaned back in his chair, squishing Katerina a little before she edged out from behind him. He draped his arms across the backrest of the lounge, placed his left ankle on top of the opposing knee, and cocked a brow.
“You have quite the hide walking into my home,” he stated with a disinterested expression.
“You won’t let her take me again,” she cried, gripping his black baggy pants. “Y-you promised me.”
“Katerina, I have absolutely no interest in saving you from the choice you’ve made,” Lindiwe told her as she walked deeper into the room. “You chose to leave, and so be it.”
“If you think you can change my mind–”
Lindiwe burst out laughing, and the boisterous sound of it echoed within the room. “Change your mind? I’ve realised that your mind will never be changed.”
Showing no fear, she walked past Merikh, whose bear skull followed her every movement. At the last second, her eyes slipped to the corner to regard him. Only to tsk as she stormed past him.
“I’ve read your journals,” Lindiwe continued. “I know how you feel.”
Katerina’s blue eyes widened. “Those are private!”
Lindiwe rolled her own eyes. “If you cared for them at all, you wouldn’t have abandoned them for anyone to read.” Then she stopped when she was in the centre of the room and gave them a mocking smile. “It’s like you were hoping they’d be read by Orpheus.”
She shrugged a shoulder and folded her arms. “He deserves to know what a disgusting thing he is, and how I was trapped there.”
Lindiwe’s smile softened. It was false, the face of someone barely biting back rage. “You, Katerina, have always been in control of your own fate. You could have escaped at any time.”
“How?!” she screeched, and Jabez cringed at the sound, his pointed ears darting back. “By running through the Veil by myself? I wanted to live! Free! Not get eaten by a Demon.”
