Void Domain, Book 04 полностью

Not while I’m here. P-probably. But you have to tell her that I’m here. Though if she thought Prax had killed her and was just wearing her skin or shapeshifted into her, things might be a little different. If she was even close to half her mother’s daughter, she could easily hurt Prax.

“You think I would lose to a pathetic mortal?”

Juliana’s strong. Way stronger than I am, especially if you were right about regaining our magic after touching the crystal. And, as you mentioned before, you’re currently in one of those pathetic mortal bodies.

Shalise felt her body flex. Prax made no large movements, he just tensed as many muscles as he could.

Part of Shalise’s uniform tore around the shoulder.

“As pathetic as this body is, it is far superior to her with my gifts. She is not the only one who regained something they lost from the crystal.”

Just talk to her. If you tell her, Shalise thought to Prax, she will probably try to get you out of my body.

“Then our goals are aligned.”

Prax stopped. He stopped and turned to face Juliana.

She jumped back, dropping into a fighting stance.

Oh yeah. She definitely knows. It was a strain to try to roll her eyes, but Shalise tried to anyway.

And it worked. Her vision twisted up for a brief moment before centering on Juliana. Unfortunately, it was not thanks to her efforts. Prax rolled her eyes on his own. She could feel his amusement as he looked over Juliana’s stance.

Prax brought his hands together, pressing down on each finger individually. Each pop gave Shalise a little mental jolt. She had never liked seeing people pop their knuckles. Popping her own felt disgusting.

But Prax continued, ignoring her silent outbursts.

“Are you wanting to fight me?”

“Maybe.” Juliana cracked her own neck, giving Shalise another shudder. “What did you do to my friend?”

“You follow me this far and you have to ask that question? What would you do if I said that I merely took on her appearance. The real one is back near the crystal.”

Don’t taunt her! Just tell her. You’re wasting time. Shalise wanted nothing more than to slap him. Or herself. Or whatever. This is going to get annoying really fast.

Prax rolled his eyes again as Juliana tried to both keep her eyes on him and glance back over her shoulder.

Not that she would see anything. They had come too far for them to even hear the noises of the battle echo down the corridor.

Juliana’s fingers tensed into fists. The metal coating her arms and chest started moving and flowing, though she took no note of it. Subconscious activation?

Prax was telling the truth about that as well, it seemed.

“I’d say you’re lying.”

“Why?”

Juliana’s eyes looked her up and down. “You did such a terrible job of looking like her, there wouldn’t be any purpose to changing your shape. And that mark on your chest,” Juliana pointed a finger out.

Prax made a show of gripping the rag that had once been a shirt. The demon tore it off without a second though. Shalise didn’t even get a second to protest the impropriety of it all.

Interestingly enough, even though she felt embarrassed, none of the associated actions came with it. No glance to the side or heat in her cheeks. Just the vague feeling of being embarrassed without actually being embarrassed. It was an awkward sensation.

Probably because Prax felt absolutely no embarrassment or shame at being half-naked, save for a partially damaged bra. None of the demons Shalise had seen in the prison actually wore clothes.

Maybe a security measure, but Arachne never wore anything either. Not unless the armored chitin counted. Now that she thought about it, she had never actually thought of Arachne as being naked.

Ylva, on the other hand, wore clothes. They were very bad at covering anything. It might have been less lewd had she worn nothing at all.

So it was probably a cultural demon thing, rather than any real disregard for Shalise’s modesty in particular.

Shalise mentally frowned. Thinking about that brought another distressing topic to mind.

There was a very-definitely-with-no-doubt-about-it male demon inside of her body. More than that, there was a male demon in control of her body.

And that male demon had just started to make her body chuckle.

Shalise did a quick mental rewind to see if Juliana had done something chuckle-worthy. Unless gaping counted, she hadn’t.

He was laughing at Shalise.

I-I swear, if you do anything to my b-body. I’ll–I’ll–I’ll sic Arachne on you. You’ll be sorry.