Page 81 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

After landing in front of her cottage, Lindiwe turned from an owl to a human, proceeded to drop to her knees, then grabbed her hair and had to swallow down the urge to scream.

“She’s pregnant!” she exclaimed, so utterly stressed out about this news that her breaths were frantic, shallow, and her heart raced. “She hasn’t even known him for a month! Oh god, this is so bad.”

Ready to start ripping her hair out, she untangled her fingers so she wouldn’t. She covered her face and shook her head.

“How could this happen?!”

“Well, she did give him her soul readily, and they must have had intercourse since then,” said Weldir, being utterly unhelpful and obtuse about it. “What is that human saying? ‘When a mummy and a daddy–’”

She couldn’t believe the trickle of humour in his alluring baritone voice!

“I know how it happened, just not how they got to the sex part!” She leaned back and crinkled her eyes at the sky dramatically.

“I didn’t even have time to prepare them!

He shouldn’t have known what sex is, or that he has a penis.

Things like this should have come much, much later.

I was hoping to give them some advice once their relationship progressed, but they went from barely knowing each other to being intimate. ”

“Isn’t this a good thing? It means they like each other.”

She shuddered, simply because it had been so awkward having to tell her own son he’d gotten his bride pregnant. Then she’d explained what babies were and how they were formed.

I had to have the birds and the bees conversation after the bee already fucked the bird. She wanted to wail because this was all so backwards.

Once she finished getting her anxiety out of her system, she sighed and let her arms fall. The backs of her hands rested against the grass, and she was so tired from being on edge for hours that she just wanted to close her eyes forever.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for them,” she said, staring up at the cloudy sky.

The rain had come and gone, but the dreary weather continued to linger and threaten them with another downpour.

“She seems nice, and she cares for him. She’s a little shy and reserved, and it’s obvious she’s pretty depressed, but I can imagine how confusing this all is for her.

She was thrown into the Veil, barely saved by me, became the bride to a Duskwalker, and is now going to have his baby all in less than a month.

It’s... a lot. For anyone. I had time to adjust to all these strange changes.

Even Reia is still adjusting. Delora has been thrown into the deep end of the lake headfirst.”

It’s a lot for me to take in.

She’d had no intention of staying in Austrális once she’d given birth. She’d actually been in the mountains of Mongulien with both her babies when Weldir informed her that Orpheus had called out for Magnar , as that was Fennec’s new name apparently.

She’d been over the moon when she’d learned that Magnar had discovered how to heal, had protected his new human, and then had obtained her soul. The woman was pretty, nice, and weirdly enough, accepting of the silly monster who was trying his best.

She’d had no intention of interfering.

Magnar and Delora had Reia and Orpheus to guide them. Except they’re moving too fast to be guided! Things should have progressed at a slower, more normal pace. Not... not this!

“Oh well,” Lindiwe murmured as she rose to her feet. “There’s nothing that can be done now. I’ve told Magnar to take her to Spiral Haven. So long as they get prepared, all should be well.”

“Does this mean you’re staying in Austrális?”

“Of course. I can’t leave now, not when they really need me the most.”

“What about our current young offspring?”

“They will have to wait. I can’t give them their skulls and horns yet.”

She’d need to stay with them for a year or so after they became adults to help guide them and protect them from nasty Demons.

She also needed to stop them from massacring the first town their curiosity led them to and help them get used to humankind.

She needed to make sure Demonslayer organisations in that part of the world didn’t harm them either while they were finding their feet.

Not to mention stopping them from drowning or falling off a cliff.

Basically, she had to keep them from accidentally – temporarily – killing themselves. They had a habit of doing that in a long list of ways.

I like being near when they’re just starting out.

She opened the front of her cloak and reached in to grab one and then the other, holding one in each hand. They both gave a cute squeal when she lifted them into the air and rubbed her nose with theirs, one at a time.

“Once I help Delora give birth and things are stable between them, I can head back to Mongulien.”

It was just a few months. Lindiwe had held onto some of her children for over a year.

April 17 th , 2023

Standing before Leonidas – or Kitty, as he preferred – Lindiwe put her hands up to block his path through the forest.

“You need to leave the Veil,” she demanded, her tone firm to ensure she couldn’t be ignored.

He snorted a huff through his feline nose hole, and on all fours, stepped around her. “Why? I should be fine.”

“Because Jabez and his minions are on the move. They’re hunting, and I’m worried he’s hunting Duskwalkers.” She quickly chased after him. “I’ve already warned the twins, since they’ve been lingering around the centre of the Veil lately.”

A low chuckle slipped past his sharp fangs. “Only an idiot would attack them.” His short-furred feline tail curled at the end. “You need to stop worrying. I won’t allow myself to be harmed again.”

“You say that, but his ability to teleport may render that argument moot.”

He shrugged. “I’ll rip him to shreds if he tries. His ability to disappear isn’t enough to save him from my claws. He’s already tried, and failed, to capture me again.”

His muscled biceps flexed with each movement as he carefully traversed through the forest. The backs of his hands grazed over twisted tree roots and rocks, while he looked one way, sniffed the air, and then brought his feline skull forward.

“Please. For once, just listen to me,” she pleaded, running in front of him and throwing her arms out. “He knows your skulls aren’t indestructible. He’s already tried to kill Orpheus.”

Leonidas sighed, and his yellow orbs turned black when he hung back for a moment. They opened, and he shone them at her. “You said his female companion is dead. Isn’t she the one who wanted Mavka dead?”

“It’s more than that. Jabez has his own vendetta against your kind, and he’s become... unhinged since she died.”

It’d only been half a year, and his movements had been.

.. different. He left his castle often, rather than remaining inside it.

He was more aggressive, more violent, to the point that the moment she saw him in the Demon Village, she got out of there quickly.

There was a dark, crazed edge to his eyes that was more apparent than ever before.

Something in him had snapped, and she didn’t want to know what the result of it was.

“Even if it’s just for a little while, I think it’s best if you all leave the Veil for a few years. Let things die down. Especially you, since your home was taken from you because you left it for too long.”

“I’ll consider it,” Leonidas stated, stepping around her again.

That’s his way of saying he won’t!

Unlike Orpheus, who had stopped hunting humans due to wanting to make them his companion, Leonidas hadn’t. He was younger than his brother, but far more intelligent.

But it doesn’t make him any smarter sometimes.

He also couldn’t be told what to do, and he liked roaming the Veil as much as the surface. He was strong, formidable, and unimaginably quick – even compared to his brothers. He thought this made him safe.

He’s able to befriend some of the Demons.

Does he think that sets him apart from the others?

It didn’t matter if he’d made friends with some of them; Jabez didn’t care about such things.

He’d kill Leonidas and then those Demons under the guise that it progressed his war and vendetta.

He’d destroy anything and everything, so long as it gave him what he wanted.

“They’ve entered the village,” Weldir told her as she watched Leonidas walk off, unsure of how to change his mind.

“Ugh!” she bellowed, raising her hands with tense fingers because nothing was working out for her right now.

She was out of time. It’d taken Delora and Magnar days to get to the centre of the Veil, and during that time, she’d been hunting down her wandering children to get them to leave. She wanted them on the surface, where it was safer.

Talking to the twins was impossible, as they hadn’t obtained enough humanity yet. Getting them to leave had proved futile; they preferred to chase her through the forest like they were playing a game rather than listen.

At least I know Merikh is safe, she thought solemnly, watching Leonidas’ tail swish before his backside disappeared into the blue-white mist. He’s travelling through human towns still.

I can’t help any of them if they won’t fucking listen to me.

“Keep an eye on him,” she bit out as she pulled her feathered hood tighter over her head.

“I always do. I’m watching them all, Lindiwe. I will tell you if something goes astray.”

She nodded her thanks, growing more tired and irritable by the day. She shifted into her owl form and quickly lifted off to head towards Spiral Haven.

I was hoping to get rid of the haunted ones there before they arrived. There would likely be many souls waiting to be harvested, and she’d intended to rid the village of them before Delora and Magnar made it there. But I had to warn my children first.

The woman being given a fright from a few Ghosts was nothing in comparison to the danger Jabez presented to her children – even if she was pregnant and in a fragile state.

I feel bad for her. I know her mind isn’t well.

Despite the light beginning to return to her deadened eyes, she just didn’t seem all that happy.

And being pregnant with one of their kind really heightens our emotions.

From what she’d witnessed, Delora was really struggling, just as Lindiwe had when she’d first started carrying them.

Nathair had been the hardest, as he’d been the first.

Hopefully Magnar is wise enough to not bring her to the meat market.

She unfortunately doubted it. She knew her children, including how the level of their humanity could affect whether they made bad choices or not.

He probably doesn’t even know she’ll be able to see the Ghosts, unless Reia mentioned it.

One of her infant babies accidentally unlatched from her feathers, and she dived to catch them in a taloned foot before they reached the treetops below.

That was close. Last thing I need is to chase after one through the forest... again. Thankfully it was a rare occurrence.

She flapped her wings faster to get to Spiral Haven as quickly as possible.