Page 63

His accent was layered and thick, reminding her of the pale man she’d met who came from the north of Eyropea – Pryssia, she believed it was called. When Jabeziryth had learned English, she’d never know, but he appeared to speak it confidently. It’d been many years since he’d first spoken to her.

He looked almost the same, except for a few minor changes. He looks my age. Maybe even a little older than her frozen two and twenty. His white hair was a touch longer, a light wind swaying the few inches around his ears.

He lacked the black cloak from last time, but his attire was similar. A cream long-sleeved tunic was tucked into his brown breeches that looked to be fitted to his long legs. He was still lean, but he did appear to have slightly more muscle than what she remembered.

If it wasn’t for his pointed ears, red eyes, and horns, he almost looked human. Although his height was alarming, as he now stood well over a foot above her.

Wanting to keep her distance, Lindi chose to back up further until a bundle behind him drew her attention.

Shit! My clothing. She was nude, and she doubted she’d be able to grab them before he could stop her. Not that she knew why he’d try to.

Regardless, she’d rather not be physical in his presence after everything Weldir had told her of him.

She knew about Jabeziryth, why he’d come here, the portal he’d opened, and how he’d brought the first Demons to Earth.

He wasn’t to be trusted. She also knew of the death and chaos he’d instigated on his way out of the Elven city of Lezekos.

To be bare in front of him, and without her animal changing cloak... Lindi wanted to groan.

“I mean you no harm.”

“Says the Demon,” she finally said, staying where she floated partially inside the waterfall.

“Yes, I remember you used that term last time.” His head cocked to the side as he eyed down her body before drawing back up. “I wonder if you know you inadvertently named us all that very day.”

Her arms tightened around her body, wishing her clothing would magically wrap around her. Her knees turned inwards, and she hoped it wasn’t obvious. It alarmed her that she was naked in front of a man, no matter what he was.

“What do you mean?”

When he must have noticed where her gaze had drifted to, he looked behind him. He cocked a brow at her clothing and bag and then turned back to her. Her features dropped when he took a few steps towards them instead.

“I looked up what that word meant when I learned your language. I found it to be rather fitting, like what the Elysians call us. Daekura means ‘shadow beasts,’ but your version – ‘something insidious and harmful; an evil spirit or devil’ – sounds more like what we can be when we are not evolved. Cruel and evil. Something from the very pits of hell.” He lifted a single arm to shrug with it before kneeling next to her things.

“Then again, I’d rather not be titled anything by the Elysians. ”

“You’d rather be called something so offensive?” she couldn’t help asking, watching him slowly reach down.

His shoulders lifted. “Only if we think it’s offensive, which we do not.”

To her horror, he opened up her satchel, and she shunted her ethereal form towards him. She didn’t dare reach forward and uncover herself. “Hey! Don’t touch my things!”

“You know, you can garner a great deal of information about someone by the artefacts they have on their person.”

“I said stop!” she whined, refusing to move her arms and expose her body or turn physical to pull on him.

He reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of black slipper flats.

He placed them on the ground since they were the bulkiest items in her bag and then continued his rude delve.

He inspected a glass perfume bottle, opening it to smell the sweet osmanthus flowers before putting it back to open her pouches of seeds.

Next he inspected her glass vial of precious hair oil, sniffing its contents before giving a hum of approval.

Then he carelessly placed it back down, and it rolled so close to the edge of the rock that her heart would have clenched if she wasn’t incorporeal.

“No food or water?” he commented, raising a brow in her direction. “Do you have no need to eat? Your ghostly appearance makes you look dead. You don’t appear to have aged at all, either.”

“I’m a Phantom,” she admitted, hoping that would make him stop. She was the only one she knew of, and she doubted he’d know what it meant.

It didn’t halt his progress, and he dug down further.

He pulled out a special ceramic vial that usually held the souls she collected.

Worried he’d break it, she kept just enough distance to stay out of his immediate reach and turned physical.

Then, while covering herself with her arms, she put up a solid, flat barrier between them, and willed tentacle limbs to shoot out from the ground.

They coiled themselves around his arms and throat, and she pulled him back. He fell off the side of the rocky ledge with a yell, and Lindi dived forward. Panicking and fretting, her hands shook as she quickly shoved her undergarments on, then her clothing.

She just managed to poke her arms through the sleeves of her tunic before he crawled his way to the top ledge she was on.

She grabbed her bag and returned her jars and soul-collecting vial, but gave up her shoes since she doubted she had time to shove them back inside.

Just as she reached for her cloak, she and Jabeziryth grabbed it at the same time.

“I truly won’t harm you,” he swore, and Lindi didn’t believe him.

She pulled with her right arm, wincing when she heard his nails – or claws, or whatever – tear into her cloak, and she gave it some slack again. She lifted her left hand with her palm facing him. “L-let go, or I’ll use more of my magic.”

She worried if she turned intangible, her cloak wouldn’t come with her since he was holding it. She couldn’t let him have it. It was a precious gift, the only thing that allowed her to shift into a raven, and she needed it. If he kept it or ruined it, she’d be heartbroken.

“You’re making me out to be a bad guy here. I only wish to talk to you.”

Then, as if he wanted to prove he was harmless, despite his claws, fangs, and ridiculously tall height, he yielded and let her cloak go.

The issue was, Lindi wasn’t expecting him to.

She squealed when she stumbled backwards from the lack of resistance and began to go over the ledge of the waterfall.

A massive hand wrapped itself around her wrist, warm and surprisingly gentle, and pulled her back onto solid ground.

Lindi yanked her arm away and drew her feathery cloak to her chest. His red eyes followed her, and they seemed to lack any hostility or callousness. They were observant, and she hated to think how much of her body he’d seen while she’d been bathing.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice him come up behind him. He’d been quiet, freakishly so. He probably snuck up on me on purpose.

She shuddered to think what that could have meant for her if he’d had ill intentions.

“Some of the more... intelligent Demons have noted you using this waterfall to bathe in the past few weeks. A large raven that isn’t a Demon flying over the Veil is odd, and cause for concern.”

Lindi’s blood ran cold. I was watched?

“What do you want?” she snapped, stepping back from him as she donned her cloak. She was now ready to escape if she needed to. “W-why did you follow me here?”

“They gave me your description, and I thought it might have been you. You look human, but you don’t smell like one, just like before.

” Once more, his gaze flittered down her body, and she realised then that it had always been observational and nothing perverted.

“I’ve never heard of a Phantom. No human has ever been able to turn into some kind of spirit or bird before. Are there more of you?”

Her lips tightened. Should she give him any information? What harm is there? She knew what to keep hidden and what she shouldn’t. At least, she hoped she did.

“No. I’m the only one.”

“As far as I knew, only Anzúli can use magic.” He tapped a pointed claw at his forehead. “You don’t have a third eye like them.”

Swallowing thickly, she said, “I’m not one of them.”

“Then how did you come to be here?”

Lindi bit the sides of her tongue and stepped back a little further, her eyes narrowing.

“Not a question you’ll answer?” Instead of looking annoyed, Jabeziryth leaned forward with his arms behind his back.

His short hair swayed around his pointed ears, as if the strands had caught a light gust of wind.

“There’s only one being I know who can wield magic such as yours, and it’s doubtful he can touch this world.

I had my suspicions then, but seeing you use your magic in person. ..”

Her expression became more closed off, and she tightened her hand on her satchel while curling her fingers around the neck of her cloak. She prepared herself to flip her hood up and transform.

He might be fast, so I’ll have to jump.

The shift was near instant, so she doubted she’d touch the lake below before she shifted.

“Phantom, you can either admit your tie to him or not, but you’re a half-dead creature who can wield shadowy magic and does not age.

You reek of magic that doesn’t belong to you.

” Then he straightened and grinned before cupping his broad chin.

“Actually, this is perfect. He doesn’t answer my call when I stand in his mist, and I have been trying to speak to him. ”

He’s a lot more intelligent than I could have ever given him credit for. He’d managed to summarise her bond with Weldir with such little information.

“Why do you want to speak with Weldir?”

Jabeziryth was slow to answer, as if he wanted to be careful with his next words. “I just want to talk with him. Perhaps even obtain his assistance. A mutually beneficial agreement, if you will.”