The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (100 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

Its eyes turned to look up at him. It chuffed, the breath from its nose kicking up loose dirt.

Jackal and Fenris joined Reaper. They watched him quietly.

“It’ll come back, right?” Reaper asked.

“Strong.” Fenris clacked its jaws. “It will breathe again.”

“How did you turn it to our side anyway?” Jackal asked. “I thought they were mindless.”

“I reached into its gut.” Reaper said.

“You did what?”

“I didn’t know what else to do!” Reaper sighed. “The soul is in there somewhere, right? If you rip it out, the body is a lifeless shell. Right?”

Fenris nodded.

“That’s what I thought. If I could get it and pull it out, then maybe it wouldn’t try to eat me anymore, but when I got my arm in there all the way, it stopped. It looked me in the eye.”

“That’s disgusting…”

“I could feel its...thoughts I guess. It didn’t want to die. It would fight with us instead of against us if I let it go. So, I did.”

Fenris gave a huff and knelt down next to Reaper.

“Not safe here.” It said. “Skuladr will eat it. Betrayed master.”

“Even if it comes back to life, that thing is gonna come back and eat it? Can’t it fight it again?” Jackal asked.

“Without pack, death.”

“It helped us. Can’t we help it?” Reaper asked.

“Not safe.” Fenris shook its head. “Hunger. Eat everything.”

“It didn’t eat us after it joined us.” Reaper stated.

Fenris stabbed its hand into the beast’s chest. Reaper and Jackal both jumped up in shock.

“What are you doing?! Stop!” Reaper grabbed its arm.

Fenris dug around in the reldul’s chest for a moment longer. Then in a mess of tendons, wires, veins, and flesh, removed its hand. An orb with shades of purple swirling inside as if it were a galaxy speckled with stardust. It shook the orb mostly clean and held it out to Reaper.

“Safe.”

Reaper took the orb with both of his hands and looked it over. He had not gotten the greatest look before at the one from the skaginvar. Now that he could take his time, he saw just how beautiful and familiar it looked. A cosmos of sparkling stardust painted every shade of purple he could imagine.

This was a soul.

Did they all look like this?

Did his?

He could not get over the fact that what he was holding was something unimaginable. What he thought was intangible. The smoothest glass he ever felt. Frail like a crystal ball, yet it held something powerful. It held life. He held the orb close for a few moments.

“Come. Jackal, we should eat as well. Regain our strength. We still have a ways to go.” Reaper smiled.

Everyone gathered around to sit near each other. Some pulled up crates, or logs so they would not have to sit in the dirt. As Fenris and Jackal sat down with the group, the two soldiers who had slipped away returned with a crate full of glowing orbs. Hands and faces covered in the pearlescent oily blood of eos. The crate, albeit small, was filled to the brim with the orbs. It was set down right in front of Fenris and both young men grinned, showing off pearly white teeth.

“What the hell?” Jackal lowered his meal packet to his lap.

“Well, we were thinking that Fenris has to eat, too, right?” The taller of the young men rubbed the back of his head.

“And he eats these crystal ball things! I think…” The other nodded.

Jackal smiled. When he looked at Fenris, his smile only grew bigger. The valkyrie sat there, staring at them. While it looked like a ferocious statue, Jackal could feel the shock it couldn’t show. As a wolf, its tail thumped softly against the ground, ears straight up.

“Got...souls for...Fenris?” Its head tilted.

“Yeah!” The taller one said. “You gotta eat to get your strength back!”

“That was one hell of a fight. I wish I could do that.” The other showed a fist.

“You wish you had the balls to do it.” His friend teased.

“I do, too have the balls! Did you see the size of that thing? It was as big as the ship!”

“Hey, Mervyn, Elijah!” Sparrow shouted. “Get your asses over here and eat! Where the hell have you two been?!”

Jackal started to laugh.

“Didn’t you do something like that?” Reaper asked, pointing at the two soldiers hurrying over to Sparrow.

“Huh?” Jackal leaned forward to look at him around Fenris. “What are you talking about?”

“After Spec joined us.” Reaper stuck a full spoon in his mouth. “You snuck her some food after we hadn’t seen her eat in a few days.”

“You would’ve done it if you weren’t such a pussy.” Jackal grinned.

“You mean like that time she had you by the neck over a cliff edge?”

“Whoa, yo, that was different. She was going to kill me.” Jackal had almost spat his food out.

Fenris looked between the two as they bickered back and forth. Absentmindedly, it picked an orb from the crate to eat.

Reaper laughed.

FORTY-NINE

After everyone had eaten, Reaper gave the order to mount up. He could see the unease in moving forward with this. So many of them had already passed on in a way they wished they never saw. The dead deserved better. Mjolnir reasoned it as a warrior’s death and an honorable one. Jackal drove the lead vehicle, switching Nostradamus out for Ianisse. This put Mjolnir in the rear gunner’s seat with the biggest weapon of their arsenal, nothing more than a heavy, metal bat.

“Cap,” Jackal said into the radio, “Are you sure this is a good idea? We barely have any ammo.”

“Well timed shots is all we can go for. We have heavy hitters, let them take the lead and we’ll back them up with what we have.”

“Yes!” Mjolnir cheered, raising his oversized hammer into the air. “I’m itching to bash some monster heads in!”

“How many you got?” Yaaranam called.

“Fifteen! My hammer is thirsty for more.”

“Bet I’ll kill more than you.” She grinned behind her helmet.

“You’ve a deal, friend.”

Jackal clipped the receiver back on the dash and cursed under his breath.

“Man, this is gonna be