Page 62 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

Wiggling her fingers while crouched on a tree branch, Lindiwe leaned to the right and then left, following the progress of an anaconda on the forest floor as it prepared to strike an unsuspecting critter. The prey it was after was partially hidden behind the leaves of a tall shrub.

Just as the anaconda parted its segmented jaw slightly, Lindiwe lunged from above. Its big head thunked against the dirt and squirmed below her. Its long, lengthy body looped one way and then the other, while its tail flicked fallen leaves around with a loud rustle as it tried to get away.

Once she straddled it safely, a shadowy dagger formed in her right hand, and she lanced it vertically behind its skull. It squirmed for a little longer before contorting tightly, and then... went languid.

The instant she evaporated the blade, blood welled around the wound. She released her scent-masking spell, and the child clinging to her chest lunged.

Their jaguar fangs were sharp and strong as they bit into the back of the anaconda’s neck.

Their white feline skull caught a small patch of sunlight peeking through the maze of twisting canopy above.

It glistened across smooth bones before scarlet covered the young Duskwalker’s snout as they feasted.

Their newest child wasn’t even halfway done before their cute little legs began to fuse together. The further they ate down its tail, the more their legs became one until they grew their own.

Ha! I knew that would work.

Despite this child having a jaguar skull, she’d purposefully not fed them any more of the large forest cat native to Zazil, a country within South Unerica. She’d wanted to see if she could make them semi-serpent if she fed them a snake, and she was pleased she was correct.

That just leaves your horns, she thought, dusting her hands, then became incorporeal to ensure they didn’t turn on her. I feel a little bad that I’ll have to take the nearest city’s cattle.

Other than the rare wild deer that had survived the Demons, Zebu cows were easier to find, and the city had quite a few of them to help feed their people. Another breed of cattle was what she’d given to Valko, the maned-wolf-skulled Duskwalker.

Lindiwe winced at her mistake. Maybe I should have found Balam a smaller snake? They were quite large, and she was sure that’d mean they were heavy.

Balam pushed up with their little humanoid arms and sniffed at the air. Their head dipped a little, their neck unable to support it fully.

When they slowly wandered off with a sooky little hissing wail, Lindiwe turned corporeal for them. They immediately slithered over and climbed her legs with malleable claws, grabbing onto the bottom of her skirt.

She picked them up and then helped them curl their tail around her torso to teach them they could do it. When it registered, they held on tight and buried their snout into her bosom. They rubbed against her to cover themselves in her scent, like usual.

“Ugh. I was right. You’re heavy now,” she said with a groan.

It was unusual for her to have to cock her hip to hold them, but they had to be the size of a human one-year-old, despite only being about three months old. And that was only counting to halfway down their tapering tail.

“I wonder if I’ll still be able to fly with you.”

“Walking through that forest will be dangerous,” Weldir said, his rich voice distant as always when he spoke to her through their bond.

“Eh.” Lindiwe shrugged and then headed in the direction of the city – she hoped. “It may be teeming with Demons, but they hunt me at their own peril.”

Still, Weldir had a good point.

Deciding it was safer, Lindiwe switched back to her Phantom form. Not because of the Demons, but due to the number of poisonous frogs, and venomous spiders and snakes. She was more afraid of them than any nightmarish void-fleshed monsters lurking.

And I thought Austrális was bad.

“It’s been a while since I went to my homeland,” Lindiwe murmured, looking around at the shaded forest.

“Do you want to return there for a little while?”

“No. I was just comparing the deadliness of the fauna between the two. I’m going to collect more souls for you in North Unerica, and then you mentioned you wanted one more child here, and one around Pyrssia, the Sing Empire, and near Siran.

We only have one in each of those locations, and the Demons’ numbers have been growing there. ”

“As well as Greenisland, as we have none there thus far.”

“There too. A-and Austrális? I’d like one more there, just in case.”

A sort of giddiness ran through her, revealing that Lindiwe’s mind had grown... perverted. More children meant more intimacy between all the touching that was already happening.

She was learning that when she was comfortable and her desire welcomed, she could be quite the tease. It seemed to be having a weird impact on the shadowy demi-god.

Gosh, I miss actual sex, though. Weldir was still expanding his mist’s reach, and although he’d covered many great distances, it wasn’t the same as it once was.

She hated this slow progression. She wanted it, and she wanted it fucking now.

Well, at least I’m getting plenty of orgasms, she thought. But I don’t like how weird my mind and body are getting about having babies now.

The thought of having one, knowing that something of Weldir’s was growing inside her, was making her have heart-panicking lewd thoughts. She didn’t like that it was beginning to turn her on, and she often felt the need to scrub her mind of unclean, impure, depraved thoughts.

It also brought on a deep sense of fear.

One that sat in the forefront of her mind constantly and was one of the reasons that she was trying to avoid being in his realm and presence as much as possible.

Which was difficult, considering she was horny a lot – probably a healthy amount – and he kept catching her masturbating when she was trying really, really fucking hard not to be caught anymore.

Weldir had, unwittingly, offered her a freedom she hadn’t had before: sexual control over her own heart, mind, and body. She’d never realised how much she needed that, or how it would also end up leading to all this.

My heart keeps hurting whenever I look at him. Or talk to him. Or think about him. Or anything involving Weldir, really.

And it wasn’t a cute little tender pang, either.

It was a horrible, heart-wrenching clutch that was so strong, it was tearing the tendons holding it in place. It caused a nauseous pit in her stomach that made it hard to swallow or breathe. The more they touched, the agony of it worsened.

I think... I’m– She shook her head. No. Don’t even think it.

She doubted he’d be capable of truly returning that affection, and.

.. even if Weldir could experience love in the same way he could perceive desire, there was a glaring issue.

One that would always be present. One that would not change.

One that made her heart hurt so bad she wanted to cut it out of her chest cavity with the very shadows she wielded.

They couldn’t be together.

He’s stuck in that world. Yes, she could visit him, but it wasn’t real.

He couldn’t be in the mortal, living world with her. He couldn’t breathe air with her, couldn’t touch the wilting petals of autumn, feel the sun, or... the warmth of her skin. Their relationship would be a falsity that continued on, and on, and would for as long as her soul belonged to him.

And that was so saddening that on the odd occasion, she found tears forming over it. Too many times she had to swallow the lump in her throat, push down all this tender affection, and smile.

Lindiwe no longer believed he was just ‘pretending’ in order to make her content.

That he was, unmaliciously, playing the part of a supportive husband.

She could no longer deny his care, consideration, and.

.. kindness. It was always there. He made himself available in any and every way possible – sexually, emotionally, and even mentally.

He may have disappeared for many years, but he had tried to support her through many of her personal trials.

Sure, in the beginning he’d failed often, and had been accidentally callous, but now?

Now Weldir could almost be sweet, on top of the fact that he’d always been patient, and he tried his hardest to compromise.

He showed interest in everything she did, as well as in their children and their progress.

He wanted her near, always. She’d denied that for a long while, but it was apparent that he preferred her in close proximity.

I wish this wasn’t happening. She had been growing fonder of Weldir to this point. Of a literal entity of mist, shadows, and a dark void. One who could not truly leave his realm. She couldn’t even see him when he did, even if he was standing right before her.

I don’t want to stop being intimate. A woman had needs, and she deserved to have them met. But I can’t fall in love with Weldir.

Love had to be an impossibility, when their realities would never meet and become one. It would be utterly pointless otherwise, and only ever painful.

So when did her lust get away from her to allow this foolishness? She’d known from the very start that she couldn’t allow it, so why did she? Or was it Weldir who reached his ghostly hands into her chest to pull on her heartstrings, just like her soul?

I need to figure out a way to stop it.

Lindiwe didn’t want to go back to hating him, but she couldn’t swing entirely in the opposite direction either. She needed to barricade her heart from him. Lock it so tightly behind a protective, impenetrable cage that he couldn’t pry the door open.

Lindiwe worried what would happen to her otherwise.