A Soul to Revive (Duskwalker Brides, #5)

Ingram was not alone in his pain, and she wanted him to know just how much she could relate to him. She hoped it might comfort him in some small way.

However, she promptly shut her lips. Not everyone understands that trauma sharing is bonding.

Not everyone understood that when someone shared their pain with another who had just spoken of their own, the person was just trying to relate. To show them they cared and were someone they could truly lean on who didn’t need to imagine how they’d felt, but rather remember it on a deeply ingrained level.

Unfortunately, it could often be misconstrued as a competition. Or sometimes people took offense to it, thinking they were belittling their pain, or trying to make it feel insignificant.

Emerie quietly sighed through her nose as the floating bubbles glittered faster around his skull. He was still crying his mournful, ethereal tears.

He isn’t very smart. I don’t want to accidentally make him feel bad if he takes it the wrong way.

She also didn’t want to prolong a conversation he already mentioned he didn’t like. He must still be grieving. Loss for humans is difficult to accept, so I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for a Duskwalker.

And, coupled with the fact he’d recently gone through a terrible ordeal back in Zagros Fortress, Emerie could only guess how messed up his mind was.

The fact he was gentle with her at all was a miracle.

She chewed her bottom lip and her eyes crinkled in sympathy for his anguish.

I want to make him feel better, though.



Ingram wished his chest would stop hurting. Why did it have to feel physical? Like a part of him was missing just as much as his kindred, his... twin.

There was a wound just below the surface, right where his heart was. It was cold, like a ball of ice had grown there to replace it so he didn’t bleed out.

If it wasn’t for the little female on his back, he would have attempted to claw at his flesh and dug until he removed it.

He tried to focus on her, on the warmth of her, the weight of her, how she stroked his neck. He tried to take in her pretty scent, or her little fluttering heart, the comfort of her breath.

When that didn’t help, he looked for something around them to take his mind off the unbearable ball of ice. The smell of the grass and dirt, the sap of trees. There were a few small skittering animals, and even a squawk of a bird.

Nothing was strong enough to distract him, or to settle the liquid floating in front of his sight that constantly blocked his vision.

A whimper rattled out of him, seizing at his lungs.

“Ingram,” Emerie softly called, but he refused to answer.

He didn’t want to talk about this... about Aleron... anymore. It hurts too much.

So, he searched for something he could question her about. Anything.

“Hey, can you let me down for a moment?” she asked, and he shook his head in response.

He worried if he put her down, the loss of her warmth would freeze him entirely.

It didn’t matter. She found a way to safely slide off him, and he halted so he could face her. Just as he was about to grab her and throw her back on top of him, she reached her arms out to him.

His head reared back when her hands came up near his skull, unsure of what she was doing. Then she slipped her palms over his shoulders, around the nape of his neck and into the small amount of fur there, before her arms crossed behind the base of his skull. She pulled herself up until her chin was resting on his shoulder, while his beak sat on top of hers.

“What are you doing?” He wondered if she might be trying to choke him.

“It’s called a hug. Doesn’t it feel nice?” she whispered in return, soft-spoken and kind.

It... did.

Ingram placed a hand on her waist, unsure of what he was supposed to do in return. The moment he made contact with her, she leaned forward until her chest was pressing against the top of his own bowed forward one.

A desire to bring her closer nipped at his entire being, from the encompassing way her essence brushed over him. It ate at him, called to him.

He didn’t care if he wasn’t supposed to wrap his entire arm around her and shove her against him, but he couldn’t stop himself. When she started to dip underneath his body while he stood on three limbs, he leaned back and sat with his knees bent, his feet pressed firmly flat, and his tail curled to the side to balance him.

Ingram took her with him, and the changing of positions made her body lay flush with his torso. Her heat radiating through him burned at the frozen ball in his chest, like she was trying to melt it away herself.

With one arm curled around her until he was threatening to claw at her stomach, he wrapped the other across her back until he was gripping her hip.

He squished her against him until she was completely between his knees and huddled himself around her entire form.

And, when she turned her head and buried her face against the side of his neck while tightening her arms around him, something inside him slithered into place. His sight closed and blackened as he took her in completely, allowing all of Emerie to thaw him.

For a few peaceful moments, all he sensed was her.

Her lips were soft against his scales, as was her body. Her breaths were wet but warm, gently puffing over him and causing his fur and scales to lift and ripple from the pleasantness. Her scent was embracing, stealing the world to drown him in her.

Her heart is so... little.

He’d always been able to hear it, but this was the first time it’d fluttered against him. It felt delicate, and its rhythm was so utterly soothing that it was impossible to not be mollified by it.

She is so soft.

He didn’t think he’d ever held something this soft, and squishy, and breakable in his arms before. She was so tiny against his much larger body, not just in height, but also in width. He’d already thought her fragile, but this only deepened it.

And yet, Ingram couldn’t stop himself from tightening his arms around her. He wanted her to turn into liquid and seep beneath his flesh, so she could comfort him from the inside permanently.

Some of her hair pushed over his beak from the light wind, and he sightlessly buried his skull into those magnificent strands until they shielded him. He also brought his tail tip forward so he could wind it around her calves, trying anything to make their contact more intimate.

Even when she sagged against him, like she couldn’t hold her own weight any longer, Ingram made sure to support her with his arms and tail.

He refused to let go, and Emerie never tried to pull away.

It was like she was letting him take his time with it, waiting for him to stop this hug when he was done with it. He didn’t know if he’d ever be.

Although Aleron had held him similarly many times, as they often slept like this, he’d never had another outside of his kindred embrace him. But with Emerie... it was different.