Page 36 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

Orpheus was obedient – he’d always been. The fact that he could be punished meant he understood commands and consent, and the latter had never been discussed. No, instead Katerina wanted that as a way to fuel her hatred.

He stopped licking her when she asked. Sure, he’d made the mistake of doing so, but he’d quickly righted his behaviour. Because everything was always in her control.

“Weldir... can you take these and then destroy them?” Lindiwe asked, wanting to unload the weight in her arms.

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 was no 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 the witch who 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.”

“Had you been able to open your heart at all to me, had you not scorned my very presence, I would have aided you.”

Hell, the diadem Lindiwe had tried to give her may have ensured her freedom, had she not so rudely rejected it.

“You did everything to keep me there! I asked for your help, and you said no.”

Lindiwe tipped her head. “In the beginning. I was hoping if you survived that you might come to love Orpheus. I always intended that if it was impossible, I would remove you and take you to a human village.”

The woman’s lips thinned and her eyes narrowed. “Well how was I supposed to know that? You didn’t tell me.” Her eyes darted to Jabez at her side before quickly looking elsewhere. Oh, the regret there was unmistakable. “If you told me...”

“Had you not put up a wall against someone over a prejudice that wasn’t even true, you would have seen what kind of person I am.

” Lindiwe waved her hand to the side. “I didn’t marry a devil, nor am I a witch.

I married an Elven god, one of his ” – she pointed to Jabez – “and we have been trying everything in our might to protect humankind in any way we can, from him , from Demons. The magic you were so disgusted with is Weldir’s, and it’s not evil, nor is it unholy. ”

“Are you seriously blaming me , the one who was taken from her home? I’m the victim in all this! You should have been a decent person and saved me when I asked for it.”

“Yes, I can see my faith in you was misplaced,” Lindiwe conceded, bowing her head.

“I apologise for that, and all the hurt we caused you. Truly. And no, Katerina, I’m not blaming you for all the trouble we put you through.

I’m just informing you that had you been less stubbornly closed-minded, you could have saved yourself. A long, long time ago.”

Gosh, Lindiwe knew that on an intimate level.

The number of times her own decisions and actions had burned her, with no one else to truly blame but herself, was endless. The number of times she could have made a different decision, could have saved herself, and chose wrong had burrowed deep in her heart and her psyche.

Lindiwe had made her own hell, and she had to live in that nightmare.

She wouldn’t blame Weldir for it. He may have given her the key to the door of this life, but she’d willingly opened it.

“That’s a horrible thing to say.” Katerina lifted her chin. “You are a callous fucking bitch.”

“What I read was horrible.” Then Lindiwe smiled falsely once more. “And a fucking lie.”

Katerina’s expression paled before reddening with anger. “How dare you! What I went through–”

“Your faith is entirely vain,” Lindiwe said over the top of her. “You disregarded the tenets of your faith when it was convenient for you.”

Katerina scoffed. “How would you know anything about my faith?”

“Because before I was forced to make a choice between life and death, I was a follower.”

She folded her arms tightly across her chest. “Yes, well, I won’t damn my soul like you.”

“Katerina, you tainted your own soul long before you met Orpheus. I know that your core beliefs in your heart do not value your god’s teachings – the kindness and acceptance he stood for.

Instead, you corrupted his love and twisted it to suit your desires, your hate, your disregard for the emotions of another person by taking what he wrote out of context to incite cruelty .

Whether it be how you spoke to me or treated that Duskwalker.

That is not love. That is not what he taught us. Only he can cast judgement, not us.”

Instead of refuting the accusations of harm and twisted faith, Katerina screamed, “You can’t make me fall in love with someone I don’t want to!”

“You’re absolutely right, and you shouldn’t be forced to.

But you saw a monster, and hated him and everything he did because it suited you.

You perpetuated lies by calling him a devil brought from hell, and me a devil whore, because it fuelled your anger.

You never cared about your survival so much as your undeserving ego. ”

“Ugh! What would you know?” Katerina turned to Jabez. “Aren’t you going to shut her up?”

“Why?” Jabez asked, cocking a brow. “I’m interested in hearing what she has to say.” Then he shrugged as he added, “And she’ll likely turn into a Phantom and mutter on anyway.”

She almost laughed at that, because he was right.

“Orpheus wasn’t good enough for you because he wasn’t beautiful,” Lindiwe continued, before eyeing Jabez.

“You being here is proof of that. You chose someone pretty on the outside over someone pretty on the inside. They both eat humans. There’s no difference between them in this regard, but one only does so because he thinks humans are beneath him, because they are food for his army, because human life is meaningless to him.

And he sees no issue in turning on those around him if it gets him what he wants, or if their usefulness to him has run its course.

Orpheus, since meeting you, has tried everything in his power to avoid eating humans.

You picked a Demon who feeds on the destruction of humankind and did so knowingly because only an idiot would think a Demon to be a saviour.

But you did so because that face of his is unfairly handsome. ”

Jabez chuckled before squaring his shoulders back. “I can’t deny any of that. Can I, Merikh?”

A grunt came from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see he was far, far too close with his arms folded.

Katerina opened her mouth to speak, and Lindiwe closed her eyes while putting her hand up to quieten her.

“Whatever else you have to say, I don’t care for it.

I understand your manipulative, narcissistic mind on an intimate level, and I don’t think I want to be subjected to another word of it.

I didn’t come here to speak with you anyway. ”

“Then why is it you’re here?” Jabez asked, his red eyes drifting down her body before snapping back up. His upper lip pulled into a sneer. “Surely it’s not to speak with me.”

“Just so. I have a question.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure I’m feeling benevolent enough to answer it though.”

Lindiwe rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. “Why? Why her? Why a human? Why take her from Orpheus?”

“I believe that was four questions.” He leaned to the side to look at Merikh. “That was four, wasn’t it?”

“I wasn’t listening,” Merikh rumbled.

“No. Too busy imagining all the best ways to claw off her head, I see.”

His answering grunt was in confirmation.

“Why not her? She’s pretty, and I found her quite entertaining as she bossed Orpheus around his home, with him none the wiser to her hateful gaze.”

“What makes you think she’ll find you any better?

” Lindiwe countered. “She hates Duskwalkers, and you didn’t consider the impact on your companion?

” Then Lindiwe shifted slightly towards Merikh.

“She thinks your kind are disgusting creatures that deserve the most painful death. This is what he’s brought to you. ”

Merikh shrugged his meaty shoulders. “Like I give a fuck.”

“See?” Jabez said, gesturing towards Merikh. “He doesn’t care, and neither do I. As you stated earlier, I have a pretty face. That already makes me better.”

He had the callousness to say that right in front of another Duskwalker.

Lindiwe laughed. “You’re perfect for each other.

Egotistical, arrogant, and self-absorbed.

” She laughed harder until she had to hug her aching midsection.

She may have overdone it just a smidge to be as condescending as possible.

“You’re going to drive each other up the fucking wall, and I’ll be alive to watch it strangle you both because you’ll hate it. ”

“You may have Weldir’s magic, but you definitely don’t have his foresight.”

“Foresight?” Lindiwe stated curtly, because she’d never heard anything more absurd than that power-lacking demi-god having any foresight. “Ahh, Jabez, you have no idea.”

“You’re beginning to annoy me, Lindiwe.”

She wiped away a fake tear. “Fine. I’ll say what I really came here for.

That woman noted how she wished to kill Orpheus.

” Lindiwe sobered from her humour and gave them all a malicious grin, even the confused Demons sitting to the right.

“If you come near him again, I’ll make sure you regret taking her.

I’ll rip out her spoiled and rotten heart and I’ll eat it myself before her dying eyes, then I’ll take her soul for Weldir to eat, and she can spend eternity in his realm, and we’ll make sure it’s worse than the hell she is so afraid of. ”

Katerina’s bottom lip fell in disbelief, and Lindiwe soaked in the utter horror in her expression.

“If you want a real monster, Katerina, I’ll give you one.”

“That’s quite the threat,” Jabez said, cupping his jaw. “Kind of makes me want to try.”

“I see you were able to regrow your arm,” Lindiwe retorted, interlocking her fingers behind her back. “Try regrowing your head.”

Then she spun around and headed towards the exit, slowing as she passed Merikh without looking up at him.

“I’m disappointed in you, Merikh,” she murmured.

“Me?” Merikh exclaimed while touching his chest with a claw. “What the fuck did I do?”

“You helped.”

Then she continued on.

“Is no one going to stop her?!” Katerina yelled.

“There’s no point,” Jabez responded with a sigh. “She’ll just turn intangible and avoid it. She can literally do what she wants.”

Exactly.

At least he had some sense.