Page 103 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

The first time crossing from Weldir’s realm to Earth together kind of felt odd. Convincing him to leave was a whole other story.

At least Lindiwe felt better after not only confronting Jabez on the ruined rubble of his castle after he and Zylah went to the village, but also discovering he’d since left Earth as well afterwards.

She only knew that because their ability to scry for Zylah was murky and indecipherable, similarly to what happened with Merikh.

She didn’t know how to tell Magnar and Delora the news, but figured in due time it would be revealed on its own, or it would work itself out.

She had her own issues to contend with, and they revolved around a strange entity that had never touched life. Right now, Weldir needed her more, even if he never stated so.

When they arrived above the edge of the Veil, the view of it before them went on forever into the horizon. The midafternoon sun was pleasant. Even in the forest of the surface, shielded by dappled light and much shade, it was bright enough that it was very pretty.

She hadn’t expected to hear a hard thud the moment her feet touched the earth. Or to turn around and find Weldir with his butt on the ground and a pained cringe marring his face.

He placed his hand over his brow to shield his eyes. “Too bright.”

He considers this dimness bright?

He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to it with squinted eyes. “Perhaps it would have been best to come here at night.”

“Are you okay?” she asked, bending over with a frown. “Why are you on the ground?”

A loud, boisterous laugh came from him, frightening off whatever birds dared to land this close to the Veil. Their departure was punctuated with squawks.

“I wasn’t expecting my body to feel so heavy,” he answered warmly, bringing his feet closer with his knees bent.

He rested his forearms on his thighs and looked around with a grin.

“I’m used to feeling nothing and being in weightlessness.

Gravity isn’t something I’ve ever experienced.

Nor this light.” He looked up at the canopy of intersecting branches as his pointed ears flicked wildly.

“I’m not used to so much noise either. I. .. need a moment.”

Lindiwe couldn’t imagine what all this must be like for him, or how overwhelming it must be. She’d kind of expected that he’d just step onto Earth and be fine, like it mattered little to him and the changes would be absorbed in the manner of some arrogant, overly confident god.

His reaction is so... human , she thought fondly, as she knelt between his legs and rested her backside on her heels.

She watched as he lifted the back of a void-black hand to play with the light as it streaked across the back of his knuckles, then turned his face in the direction of a chilly wind.

His flesh rose with goosebumps just as he shivered, but he didn’t complain.

The nostrils of his straight nose flared as he sniffed the air, and his gaze seemed to follow whatever scent caught his attention.

It was impossible to know exactly where his onyx eyes were looking, but the light wind made his long black eyelashes flutter, and he closed one eye in reaction. His hair, around two inches in length, wasn’t as wispy as it was before, but it danced around his forehead, ears, and his long horns.

He reached sideways a little to pick up a twig and sniff it, then a leaf, and even, surprisingly, a rock.

His gaze was curious, although it didn’t particularly appear awestruck. Just someone absorbing a maelstrom of sensations all at once and attempting to adjust while remaining overly calm.

She remained with him silently, having no need to insert herself into the moment. She’d placed herself in a way that he could lean on her, should he need it.

At the same time, she felt her heart growing... shy.

Seeing him in brightness was different. His golden bones seemed to hide from the light but also became more pronounced at the same time. The blackness of his spectral form was darker and more pronounced in shadows, yet in the light, the gold was brighter and seemed to almost glow.

It reminded her of how a set of eyes could appear so different when one was in the shade and the other in sunlight.

It also made his features more recognisable, and the man was gorgeous to the point that it was heart-stuttering. Honestly, she wanted to cover his face in a burlap sack and hide it so not even the forest critters could become lost to his magnificent allure.

His eyebrows were strong, twin arches of thick black hair.

His straight, softly aquiline nose led to thin and firm lips.

His jaw was broad, his chin round, and his cheeks high.

The masculine lump at the front of his throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed, and it instantly called Lindiwe to lean under his chiselled jaw and lick across it.

His eyes had always been riveting, but the obsidian pools were more hypnotising than before.

And his body... Lindiwe wanted to groan while biting her lip.

He wasn’t overly muscled. He had the evidence of them, but they were only pronounced by the fact that he had little fat – which would make sense, as he’d never eaten a damn thing in his life. Long limbs flexed, and the mixture of light and shadows danced all along the lines and dips of them.

The ends of his fingers were tipped with sharp, glossy black claws, while his hands had thick veins covering the backs of them. The kind that could make many women swoon.

She didn’t even care that he was hairless, although she would have liked that too.

Her eyes drifted down to his limp dick and balls, haloed by golden hip bones, and it was nice to see it soft for once. She quickly darted her gaze away with her cheeks heating.

I’m not ogling him. She totally was. He’s trying to figure out life, and we literally spent however long having sex, and already I want to mount him. Oh god, he’d turned her into a pervert.

Well... more than she’d been before.

He was just so damn pretty that her heart stammered in her chest, while her stomach flipped and knotted because he was hers. All hers, no one else’s, and that brought on a deep sense of triumph.

No one else in the world had a partner like her, which made her feel rather special. She fidgeted nervously, bashfully even, as she peeked at him once more.

His eyes were already on her, his ears tipped back, and a lopsided grin curled his lips.

Worried that he’d be able to smell where her thoughts had gone, she rose and held her hand out to him. “Would you like to see more? There’s a whole world for you to discover.”

He regarded her open palm and placed his own in it. She narrowed her eyes on him, a silent warning not to pull her down into his lap, and he complied by letting her help him to his feet. She went to steady him, but there was no need.

He’d just needed a few minutes and was now able to walk seamlessly on his own. He brushed the backs of his knuckles underneath branches to gently lift them out of his way, his gaze upwards and drifting around.

He was taller than she expected, almost reaching seven feet, but it shortened with each step as if he wanted to match her a little better until he was just a head or so taller.

She looked at him, only to shy her gaze away with her cheeks heating. “Uhhh... are you able to conjure clothes, or should we procure some for you?”

In her periphery, he looked down at himself, and it was obvious the thought had never crossed his mind. He lifted his face in her direction and cocked a brow.

Shadows, so thick they looked like layers of material, surrounded his body to give him a dark-grey, nearly black robe that had flaps around his shoulders. If he’d created clothing underneath, she didn’t know. She bet it was weightless, even if it looked heavy from afar.

“Is this better?”

She turned to him fully with a smile. “Much.”

“I can even give it a hood, if you’d prefer,” he said, as he made one form. The shade of it instantly hid the gold of his skull.

Lifting her hands, she waved them. “No. Just the robe is fine. It’s not normal to walk around naked here.”

“I’m pleased.” The hood disappeared, and he gave her a relieved smile. “I thought perhaps my appearance was suddenly off-putting.”

“Not at all! I, uh, actually find the new you rather beautiful.”

She couldn’t believe he’d think that, when she’d just spent days, maybe even weeks, riding him.

Seeing his ethereal face between her thighs had turned her on so much she’d been a little embarrassed by how wet she’d gotten, especially when it was obvious he was looking up at her all heated and naughty-like.

“Is that so?” he asked with a hum of humour.

She backed up when he prowled towards her. When her back met a thick tree trunk, her spine went rigid. He placed a hand above her head and dipped his horned head lower as he lightly grasped her chin and forced her to look up at him.

“I’m finding this side of you rather cute, Lindiwe. I can still hear your heartbeat, so fast and nervous, but your body betrays you in a way I couldn’t sense before.”

His stupid, handsome voice sent a shiver cascading over her, her nipples pearling so fast as her stomach flipped. Her eyes darted between his, and she licked her lips when they suddenly felt dry – although her pussy was the utter opposite.

His nostrils flared at her scent, and he released her chin to grab a lock of her curls, rubbing it between his fingers. His voice was husky as he rumbled, “You are being very distracting.”

Lindiwe ducked underneath his arm and backed up, and he instantly frowned, bothered that she’d fled him. It’s like sex is all he thinks about. And if she let him sweep her away, they wouldn’t get very far on Earth at this rate. Seems I’m going to need to have the control for both of us.

His eyes narrowed into a glare. “Come back here, little mate.”

“I-I was actually wondering...” she said, placing her hands behind her back while putting more unwanted space between them – for her own sanity. “Since I have a Phantom form, do you have one as well?”

A soft, disappointed growl huffed from him as he straightened and withdrew his hand from the tree. “Of course. That ability stems from me.”

A bright smile curled her lips as giddy playfulness swirled in her chest. “Can I see it?”

“Sure. I don’t see why not.”

I imagine it will look like before. Like mist and cloud, except maybe denser.

She was half right.

When he turned incorporeal, his body – all of it visible – swirled like thick, matte-black smoke. What she hadn’t expected was his eyes to shine entirely gold, or for golden streaks of mist and dust to rotate within the swirls of his cloud.

He stepped closer, despite the fact that he floated off the ground by a few centimetres, and stood over her rather magnificently. Sigh. Even his Phantom form is too handsome.

And if it was the same as when she touched any of the Duskwalkers’ brides when they were in Phantom form, then she should be able to touch him. She doubted they’d be able to feel each other, though.

But she wouldn’t be able to escape him now if she used it as a way to flee him and his touch.

“Now that you have seen it,” he said, his lips pulling into a grin, “can we resume what you tried to run away from?”

Immediately knowing exactly what he meant, she couldn’t help her eyes widening. But she had two reasons for asking if he had a Phantom form, and it was so she could be prepared for a little fun.

He turned physical, and she shifted to intangible. His smirk fell, and his eyes narrowed darkly on her as she backed up with a smile. When he shifted forms, she did the same, ensuring they were on opposite sides of life and death so neither could touch the other.

“Lindiwe,” he warned.

“Weldir,” she sang in answer.

His deep chuckle was a little more threatening than she expected it to be. “You do realise this will have consequences for you if I catch you.”

For the first time in her long life, she laughed so hard she felt it in the pit of her soul. “I guess I’d better not let you catch me.”

Weldir’s expression gave new meaning to the description of one’s gaze darkening. “Vexing female.”

I have much to show you, and there is more to the world than this. There was a way to frolic in it, live it, play in it. Lindiwe hadn’t done so in over three hundred years, and she’d like to do it with the being she’d waited so long for. I want to show him how to live.

She laughed, turned physical straight away, and waited for him to do so as well. She didn’t really want to play a game of tag, or hide-and-seek, or whatever it was that two beings who could transcend life and death with their very bodies might do.

Instead, she held her palm out. “Can I hold your hand?”

He halted and stared down at it with a puzzled frown, his lips tightening.

When he pushed his hand into hers, his claws gingerly tickling across her flesh, warmth radiated between them. It swelled in her chest, especially when he regarded her oddly with one side of his lips quirked up, while they walked together through the forest and the world he’d never touched before.

Hand in hand, together, alive and real.