Page 63 of A Soul to Keep

She was lucky and smart. He’d woken in time to prevent them from getting inside and he thought by dawn – since it was night-time – they would have made their way inside.

Then Orpheus left his home to make his way to where she’d dropped the amulet. The dagger was gone, but the circlet tiara remained undisturbed. He bent over and picked it up, placing it in his pocket before returning home.

He checked the garden to find it was trampled, but mostly intact.

There was one last task he needed to complete, one that required he go to the stream to fetch more water. He was uncertain about leaving her, worried she’d run, but she’d promised him she wouldn’t.

He thought she might be asleep the whole time regardless.

There was blood all the through the house,hisblood streaking across the ground. He would spend the rest of his time cleaning so that Reia could wake to a clean and tidy home.

It was only when Orpheus was done bathing in the tub, removing the remaining grime from his body, did he discover Reia had awoken. He’d been walking past the door to head toward the living area and poked his head inside to check on her, as he’d done often over the many hours she’d been asleep, to see her sitting upright in his bed.

If the sight of her as she sat with her knees up, arms folded and head buried against them hadn’t already unsettled him, the sound of a sob would have.

He tentatively entered the room, unsure if she would want him near her right now. In the past, the humans always preferred it when he was as far away from them as possible when they cried.

“Why are you crying?” he asked softly, tilting his head to the side.

“I miss my family.” She held her legs tighter. “I’ve missed them for so long.”

He slowly crouched down on knee next to the bed, lowering himself so he wasn’t a looming figure over her.

“What happened to them?”

He didn’t know if she’d tell him. She’d refused to before.

“I killed them,” she cried, her back heaving as her breaths shuddered. “They’re dead because of me.”

The desire to touch her with a comforting caress was too much for Orpheus to bear. He sheathed his claws and slipped his hand between her knees and head, lifting her face so she’d greet him.

“The Arachnid of Sorrows showed you your family, didn’t she?”

Her lips trembled when they parted on another sob before her head nodded.

“I saw my mother, my father, my baby brother. I heard their voices. I haven’t seen or heard them for so long. Not since I was a little girl.” Her brows drew together and her forehead crinkled into so many creases. He’d never seen anguish this deep on a human before. “A-and they’re all dead, all because of me. Why couldn’t I have died too?”

“How did you kill them, Reia?”

She tried to turn her face away, but he cupped the side of it and kept it firmly faced toward him.

“I brought the Demons to our home.” Heavy tears fell faster. The lines of her glassy eyes pink and raw, her nose and cheeks puffy and red. “I’m a harbinger of bad omens. That’s why the villagers forced me to offer myself to you. They wanted to get rid of me because all I do is bring death!”

“What is a harbinger of bad omens?”

He’d never heard of such a term before.

“It’s someone who brings Demons to those around them. Someone that the Demons don’t kill while eating everyone else.” Her hands raised to clutch his wrist as he continued to hold the side of her face. “I hid in the corner and let my family die. I-I did nothing to save them. It’s all my fault. I think two or three Demons attacked my home, and I brought them there by my cursed luck. I-I’ll probably get you killed too.”

“There is no such thing, Reia,” he answered with a subtle shake of his head while trying to not make it rattle. It was the truth, he knew it to be. “Were you afraid?”

“No? I don’t think so. I just remember sitting in the dark and covering my ears from the gross sounds.”

So, she’s always been with little fear.

“Demons like the taste of fear, and once they have killed, they are consumed by what they are eating. If you weren’t afraid, they were probably too distracted by the blood of your family to even know you were there.” She shook her head, telling him no, as she opened her mouth to rebuff him. “If you were quiet, made no noise and stayed out of sight, without your fear guiding them to you, they wouldn’t have been able to smell you if your scent was already strong in your home.”

“But if I hadn’t just sat there, I could have—”

---