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

A knock on the wall took my attention.

Reaper stood in the door, a soft smile on that scruffy face of his.

“Good morning, sunshine.” He took a seat next to me.

“Sorry, Captain.” My head dropped.

“Sorry for what?”

“I fucked up on that mission.”

“We all got out of there in one piece!” He patted my shoulder. “You did great. Like you always do.”

I groaned and threw my head back. “Why am I in the med bay?”

“You don’t remember? Your leg broke. Reynolds says you’ll be able to get the cast off in a couple of weeks.”

I pulled the blanket from my legs. Sure enough, a cast on my leg. The skin black and blue.

“I don’t remember…” A chill ran down my spine. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood. I looked up. Reaper’s brow furrowed, a look that he knew why my skin suddenly tingled.

Standing in the door was a mass of shadows. No. A dog. A big dog. Scarred. Red, glowing cracks for eyes. Thick, long fur. Wings? Horns? What sort of dog had those?!

“Wait…”

Reaper crossed his arms over his chest. “Yup.” He already answered my question before I could form the thought.

“That’s Fenris.” He took a breath. “He’s been worried about you.”

“What?” I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the creature. Even when I blinked, and its form shifted from that dog to a more human-like figure. The lights breathing on its armor mesmerized me. It was a trance. A spell cast on me. So familiar, yet completely unknown. Like a stranger at a bar, with a face you somehow remember in the back of your mind, though you’ve only ever seen them once in passing.

“Hey, you alright?” Reaper squeezed my shoulder.

I snapped to him, blinking. I must have been wide eyed, because he gave me the strangest look.

“Sorry. Yeah.” I shook my head. “I remembered this crazy dream.”

He wanted to hear it, so I told him about it. Every detail I could remember. The shadow figure and its lights. The roots. The itching. Told him everything. Oddly enough, it felt like I was spilling my guts to him. Telling him my deepest fears.

By no means have I ever been religious. I’ve seen too much to believe in an ever loving god, and afterlives. Yet I was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, there may be a hell, and I was destined for its suffering.

“God forgives everyone who admits their sins.” Reaper assured me. “You’ve done the right thing always.”

I sighed. I stared at Fenris from across the room. He hadn’t moved once. Not so much as a rustle of his cloak, or tail. I focused on the way his lights breathed. My own breathing synced with his. Somehow it felt right. Comforting. The coldness of the room nearly faded.

“What is he?” I asked softly.

Reaper shrugged. “No one knows. He doesn’t speak.”

I squinted my eyes at the creature, then shook my head.

“He speaks.”

I didn’t even realize I had said the words. It didn’t sound like my voice.

“What?”

“I...don’t know.”

Reynolds returned with a tray of food and a glass of water. Fenris twisted his frame to allow her through unhindered. She was full of smiles, as she usually was. A ray of sunshine. The tray was set in my lap and she went to work, checking on all the systems I was hooked up to.

"You know, Captain," she said. "People have been coming to me about weird dreams, and spells of sickness."

"Think there was something on that ship?"

"Well, new species often bring new illnesses. Yet everyone I examined was perfectly fine."

"Could it be that smoke?" Reaper gave a nod of his head towards Fenris.

"Smoke?"

"There was a strange gas on the ship. It could have come in with us."

"It's possible. It could act as a hallucinogen." She set a clipboard back to the foot of the gurney. "I won't be able to tell if it is that, or not, however without a sample."

"I ain't going to let anyone back on that ship."

"I wouldn't either." She hummed in thought. "Perhaps if it was left on your suits I could get a sample?"

"You're welcome to try."

I scratched my head. I could have sworn I remembered seeing it falling down Fenris' back on the ship. Looking at him now, there was no sign of it.

He was still staring at me.

They allowed me to leave the medical bay with explicit instructions to take it easy over the next few weeks. What a pain. When I asked how my leg was broken, they told me Fenris stepped on it. That was why that creature was worried. He felt bad that he hurt me.

He was on my mind like that girl I dated early into my career. Picked her up at the bar right after I graduated basic. Went on a date with her the next night and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Her cute smile, those pretty hazel eyes and the way they sparkled under the streetlights. How soft her hands were.

Now I was stuck thinking about the look Fenris had been giving me. The way he reached out to me.

The lights on his armor were the exact same as the ones in my dream. I swear I could hear its voice. Like a lone wolf howling on a mountainside. A siren's song luring my heart and soul closer.

Was I the only one that felt that way? Had this strange connection with that mysterious creature?

By the looks of it; yes.

Fauriei dragged Fenris across the whole ship, introducing herself and him to everybody they saw. Everybody. No one was safe from them. She even reintroduced him and herself to Reaper and me. She did everything she could to sell Fenris. She must have known how uneasy he made everyone.

No one had seen anything like him before. I'm sure he would have been treated like an ardrizi were he not so imposing for lack of a better word. He seemed to affect everyone psychologically. How could he shift between forms and yet appear