Page 67

A time unknown, but a dark day

Why does she keep returning? Weldir thought, as he watched Lindiwe and Jabeziryth converse next to the waterfall.

It was what he counted to be the fourth day cycle of them falling into this strange and unwarranted routine. Every day just past noon, when the sun had faded a little and shaded the area, they both returned.

Either she would be waiting for him, or he was already there.

They always made some snarky retort about the other being late, or that they had shown up at all, before easing into a conversation. Or silence, which they shared pleasantly.

On this day, Jabeziryth climbed the steep, jagged rocks to her, his clawed toes easily finding purchase as he ascended the most difficult path.

For a moment, Weldir wondered what it felt like to have mossy rocks beneath the soles of his feet, if they were as wet as they appeared or dry, if they were slimy, or even cushiony.

Perhaps I should add such texture to my realm. Weldir was always adding to Tenebris and changing it in the minutest of ways to improve its realistic qualities.

Rather than taking his usual spot, Weldir glowered when Jabeziryth took a seat closer to her than normal. He was slightly in front of her and down a level, but if he reached out, he could potentially brush her left ankle. Maybe even her right heel, since her feet were crossed.

Weldir was uncertain if they knew he’d witnessed all their interactions, ever watchful of his mate. He’d remained silent after his initial attempts to warn her and she’d refused to respond to him in Jabeziryth’s presence, skilfully hiding her reactions to his demands that she stay away.

“I swear you get shorter every day,” the little half-Elf teased, leaning back to look at her with a shake of his head. “You probably couldn’t even climb these rocks if you actually tried.”

“I’m a pretty normal height for a human woman, thank you very much.” Then she scrunched her nose up at him and sneered. “Do those horns of yours go deep into your brain to make you this thick of thought? You’re the odd one out here , sir comes-from-a-different-world. We were here first!”

“Watch out or I’ll show you how thick they are by ramming them into your forehead.”

“And I’ll show you how quickly I can wield a dagger. I’m just as sharp of tongue as I am of sword.”

Jabeziryth burst out with laughter. “That I’d have to see for myself, little Phantom. ” Then he stabbed his empty fist forward multiple times as though he had a blade. “I could just see you trying. You’re pretty prickly, you know.”

“Prickly?! I think I’m as sweet as a puppy!”

“A puppy is a small dog, correct?” He offered her a dull and serious expression. “I eat those for my first meal.”

Her mouth gaped. Then a ripple of discontent pulsed across Weldir’s misty being when she let out a mild, although genuine, laugh.

“No, you don’t,” she answered with a chuckle.

She smiles and laughs so freely with others, but never with me.

Even that Anzúli male, Evart, had gained her fondness in easy conversation. She’d always been awkward around Evart, and avoided him as much as possible, but when they did finally speak, it was always with the enjoyment of each other’s company.

It showed Weldir felt something tender for this human female, even if it was small due to a lack of nurturing on both their parts. He had developed a possessiveness when it came to her, since she was his mate, and especially as her beauty was beguiling enough to draw the gaze of many men.

She was entirely oblivious to it.

She made companions where she saw fit, not realising a male’s gaze would remain on her with keen interest whenever she was not looking.

It wasn’t her fault, but it had stirred some peculiar unfamiliarity within him. Although he doubted she’d do anything to betray him, it also didn’t mean that he didn’t have a right to be vexed by it when he thought the person had ill intentions, no matter what they may be.

It had never truly bothered him that she spoke with other males until now. Then again, he’d never attempted to intervene before. Nor had it been with someone he detested.

I told her to stay away from Jabeziryth and she defies me.

Why? He’d told her of the halfling’s past, what he’d done, why he was on Earth.

Weldir had told her he was the very reason Demons were now throughout her realm, causing mayhem and death.

Jabeziryth’s desire for revenge was not unknown to him, although he had yet to truly understand what that entailed.

Likely a war, one that pitted Demons and the Elysians against each other.

I could remove her, Weldir thought once again. I can call her to my realm by force.

He doubted that would go well, and he didn’t wish to be on the sour end of her ire. She already seemed displeased with him, and he had yet to be given the opportunity to correct his mistakes. To gain her favour once more.

She always required time between tending to their offspring, which he’d been granting her.

When a conversation opened up about how she’d been to other parts of the world, something that drew Jabeziryth’s keen interest, annoyance flittered through him.

She speaks freely, as though talking with a long-lost friend.

They joked in ways that Weldir had never experienced with her, although on a few occasions he had tried, to no avail, to gain her humour.

Is that what she considered Jabeziryth? A friend? While Weldir was trapped in his realm, unable to garner even a modicum of her attention or affection? She’d barely known the male for less than a few days and already their companionship lacked the strife Weldir and Lindiwe’s did.

He found it... demoralising.

The easy laughter, the smiles, the depth of emotion they shared in their stories, the fact that they were able to experience all this in a world he could not touch. Weldir was so far from her, their realms didn’t even collide unless he made it happen by bringing her to him.

He wished he could experience such things with her.

So although her defiance irked him, as he wanted to protect her in his own way, it was how she was with Jabeziryth that truly had his mist agitated. Or maybe he was bothered because she was this way while blatantly defying Weldir, likely knowing it upset him.

And the fact that this child of a male was encouraging her did not leave him pleased.

Jabeziryth had no reason to return. He had many fully evolved Demons to familiarise himself with. He had companions, surely.

He didn’t need to be sniffing around Weldir’s out-of-reach mate.

The half-Demon pretended he understood her plight, but he and she were not the same. Lindiwe truly was other. She was his , and that made her special. She was stronger and more beautiful than the Demons or humans when she wielded his magic for those very reasons.

What does he seek from her? Surely he was there under the guise of false pretences. It cannot be for companionship. Not truly.

They both rarely spoke of Weldir, which somehow made the situation worse in his eyes. They were tiptoeing around her bond with him, as if it was something to be avoided, or perhaps ashamed of.

But Jabeziryth did occasionally, although rarely, mention him. Like now, for instance.

He leaned his lithe body against a wall of rock, folded his right leg so his ankle rested over the opposing knee, and placed his interlaced his fingers behind his head to cushion it.

“So, how does one do ‘it’ with a spirit of the void?” Jabeziryth asked casually, dipping his gaze up to the cloudy sky.

“Excuse me? Firstly, what kind of name is that for him?” Lindiwe blanched, causing her nose to scrunch up in a rather cute way and her tongue to stick forward slightly. “And secondly, how dare you ask me something so... so personal!”

He rolled his head to the side to look at her with a cocked brow.

“Oh, come on. If you’re his mate, I’m assuming you both have done the nasty.

Like how does one fuck a spirit that you can’t touch?

” Then Jabeziryth waved to the horizon of trees before them.

“Do let the world know. We’re all curious; I think anyone would be. ”

A growl rumbled through his realm, deep and quiet.

Why would he be curious?

If he attempts to touch her – whether it be as platonic as her ankle – I will bring her to me before he even has the chance to lay a hand on her.

“I’m not going to dignify your rude and violating question with an answer!” Lindiwe yelled, reaching down while lifting her feet until she found what she wanted. She grabbed a rock and launched it at his head, which smacked him in the temple.

“Ow, fuck!” he barked when his head shunted to the side. “There’s no need to throw things at me like an ill-tempered child.”

“Ill-tempered child?! I should wring your neck.” Then she stood and pointed at him. “You know what? I’m going to do just that.”

He let out a laugh as he tipped his head back, arms once more going behind his head in a relaxed position. He wiggled his back into the crevice as he said, “I’d like to see you try– Uk!”

A thin tentacle shot out from the ground and wrapped around his neck, swaying him side to side.

One hand reached up to claw at the choking limb, while a band of Elvish words glowed around his right wrist when he placed his palm against the ground.

A combination of grass and moss that was present in the cracks of stone grew.

They climbed up her ankles and tripped her so she’d fall to her backside.

Once they both yielded and released their magic, they stared at each other for a short while. Then they both burst into laughter.

“If you must know” – she put her hands up to make air quotation marks – “the ‘spirit of the void’ and I have never actually done it. That question will likely forever stay unanswered.”

She settled back onto her boulder, just as Jabeziryth’s features twisted into a look of disgust. “Seriously? That’s fucking boring, minus the fucking part.

” He placed his hands behind his head once more and reclined.

“I figured he’d want offspring or something to help him, like what he makes you do. ”

Lindiwe opened her mouth, but promptly shut it. She turned away to look at the forest.

She never corrected him, and that at least drew some of Weldir’s faith in her. She still doesn’t trust him. When he looked back on their conversations, she’d wisely shared very little about their bond, their deal in it, or anything that could be considered useful.

She was keeping him emotionally at arm’s length and uninformed, at least in some regard.

But Weldir still didn’t like any of this.

And when Jabeziryth reached into his bag to offer her some kind of fruit, and she willingly took it, both of them sharing a meal he’d never be able to with Lindiwe, he wanted this all to cease.

He didn’t like that behind all his crankiness and annoyance, the root of the issue may actually be...

Am I jealous? he thought, looking off into the darkness behind him. I cannot do any of this with her.

He could not sit next to a rushing waterfall in the physical realm and feel the breeze together with her. He couldn’t sit with her and experience the sun or shade, or the water spraying against his skin until tiny droplets collected upon it. He could not share in a meal or offer her such a fruit.

He’d never been able to, nor may it ever be possible to experience such ease with her. She was further from him than ever in every way, and closer to Jabeziryth in ways he didn’t appreciate.

Yet neither had done anything to warrant such envy, other than sharing in each other’s amicable presence. He felt all this entirely on his own.

Although it upset him because he’d never made his dislike of Jabeziryth unknown to her, she obviously wasn’t doing any of this to cause such an emotion. She was seeking a personal connection, something that Weldir couldn’t give – or, rather, hadn’t been giving. Something he didn’t quite understand.

And realising that somehow made guilt roll with his jealousy, making his mist collect tighter against his form until there was obvious strain.

But I want these things.

It pained Weldir in his own way to be separated from the physical world. He was so different, and sometimes it felt as though he didn’t exist in reality.

He wanted to be able to share in her laughter and bring it forth from her. The more he thought on it, the more he wanted to bridge the vast gap between them, and the more he realised she’d been trying to do just that in her own way when she asked to deepen their relationship physically.

And then he’d been detached and callous, as she no doubt already thought him to be.

He looked back at the viewing disc as a heaviness settled over him.

“I will speak to him,” Weldir said through their bond, his tone more annoyed than he wished it to be.

Lindiwe paused just as she was about to take a second green lumpy fruit. With her hand out and touching it, her features twisted into something pained before she took it.

“Why now?” she whispered, looking away from Jabeziryth when the male’s sensitive ears twitched in reaction. “You said you didn’t want to.”

“It’s what he seeks from you, ” Weldir stated coldly.

Because it will surely reveal the truth about his intentions. And then Weldir would get what he wanted, which was her absence from his presence.

I would like to have your attention back. Even if it was disjointed and stilted. I would like to show you I can do the things you sought from me.

“Is he talking to you?” Jabeziryth asked, tilting his head and leaning forward with abject interest. Too much interest.

She nodded to him, yet answered Weldir with, “You don’t know if that’s true.”

No, Weldir was making the assumption despite no longer knowing if it was true or not. But he wanted to separate them, and he would use any means necessary in his power – without potentially upsetting her. Doing so forcefully would gain him no ground.

Then once I have proven I do seek a deeper bond, I’ll place her in a different part of the world.

Somewhere, anywhere, that was as far from Jabeziryth as possible.

Especially as he had no desire to give this male what he wanted, and he didn’t wish for Lindiwe to be caught in the middle of it. If his assumption was correct, then she could potentially be in danger if Jabeziryth and his Demon companions turned on her.

He wanted to prove to this female, this human, his own damn female, that he was... trying. That he would like to give her the things she sought – like companionship in ways he could not fully achieve – even if he found little value in them for himself.

In his own way, he wanted to make her content, like she’d been at this waterfall for the past few days. To protect her, even if he couldn’t do so by his own hands.