Page 90 of The Souls Harvest
I master a regular breath - and find the courage - to face her again. Recognition blooms on her face. Her fingers relax. “He doesn’tbelongto Roden, then. He’s nothing like us. And yet, he shares our talents?”
I nod. “Partially, yes.” I can’t blame myself if she digs up some truth on her own.
“How do we know he’s the only one?”
“We don’t.”
She dashes towards me in a rush of doubts but stops by the cot, using it like a barrier between us. “And all the lives he’s been through, every time Roden had someone like me harvesting a kernel of his soul—why can we not just let him be until his natural death? Why— ”
“July,” I push away from the window. “You’ve had a rough day—we all have. Let’s pause for a second and wait for Tabitha’s meeting.”
She hums in response, and I take it as an invitation to leave her room, give her some time to get ready, prepare her list of questions,and breathe.
I make for the door, but her voice calls me back.
“Galen?”
“Yes, Sof,” I smile, searching her face over my shoulder.
“Was there someone here with me while I was asleep?”
I don’t like the sound of this. “I checked on you once or twice. Mack, as well. I think you’ve carved a soft spot in his heart.”
She pinches her lower lip. “Hmm, no, that’s not it. I remember a face and a voice, but I can’t quite place them in my memories. It was pleasantly familiar, and it makes me sad at the same time.”
I swear I’m going to kill him myself this time.
“You probably had a dream. You’ve met so many new people lately…” I look away, conscious that my expression will betray me.
But she rushes to my side, her eyes reduced to two suspicious slits, like when we were children, and I told her she could grow fins if she stayed in the water long enough.
“Okay,” she grins, a smile too broad and too rigid, and dismisses me by waving her hands. “You’re right; shower and food before the big talk.”
I linger by the door while she rocks back and forth on the balls of her feet.
“As you wish,” I bow.
When I open the door, the floor seems quiet, except for high-pitched laughter and quick little steps coming up the stairs.
I turn back just one more time, “You sure you don’t need anything?”
“A million percent.”
“Great. Will you meet me downstairs when you’re ready?”
She clasps her hands behind her, “I don’t need a bodyguard. Please go.”
That sounds more likeLeave me the fuck alone…but I’ll take it as an alternative to not speaking to me at all.
I step one foot out of the door when her voice strikes. “Who were you calling an idiot earlier in the other room?”
My knuckles turn white around the doorframe, and my arm becomes so rigid that it could snap like a twig.
“That was him. You brought me to the only place you shouldn’t have…”
“I didn’t know he was already here,” I drop my head.
“Does he know who I am?”
