And right now, he needed to be able to protect them so he could take care of his injured female.

Jabez attacked it repeatedly, his face contorted into a hateful, teeth-baring glare, but none of his attacks broke

through or even damaged it. It sounded as though he was bashing against a glass window that refused shatter.

How did I do this? Usually something must be sacrificed in order for him to do such strong magic, a deal, a bargain. He lifted his palm to look at the crimson liquid that was glittering and disappearing before his eyes. Her blood?

“Or...pheus,” she grated, moving to her knees as she trembled.

He whined in answer, ignoring Jabez to look down at her.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a strained tone, his sight fading to a pale blue in both fear and sadness, both emotions too strong to overcome the other. “I did not protect you, Reia.”

I did not protect her. His pulse beat frantically. I cannot heal wounds. It was jutting from her shoulder blades; he knew a wound like this would kill her. She is going to die.

Quick breaths of anxiety pounded his chest.

But I don’t want to lose her...

Reia winced as she started to go limp, and Orpheus placed his arms under her neck and lower back to support her. She was partially lying in the air, and all she could feel was pain radiating through her back.

Each breath expanded her ribcage, making the area around the dagger ache.

It hurt. It hurt so much. It felt like there was a shard of fire inside her, and it burned.

Seeing he was unable to break through, the Demon King backed off with a terrible snarl, his face less pretty with the

expression he wore.

She reached up to cup Orpheus’ snout, hearing tiny whimpers constantly breaking from his chest. She didn’t know what to say, how to make him feel better. There was nothing they could do to fix this.

“Fine, watch your human die,” Jabez sneered at them.

Then he raised his hands in the air as if he was summoning something. “But I’ll remove the cloaking aroma, and you can suffer through this and then the guilt you’ll feel afterwards from eating her.” The sweet smell in the air began to dissipate slowly. “You have about five minutes, Mavka. You better hope she dies before you’re overcome with hunger at the smell of all the blood in the room and begin to eat her alive.” Then he pointed to the crumbled body on the ground.

“And Katerina too.”

White flashed in his glowing orbs, showing his fear of this, before they returned to the dull blue.

He turned his head back down to her when she stroked up his face. “It’s okay. You can eat me.”

What else could she say? All she could do was ease his guilt if it happened.

“But I don’t want you to die.” She could hear the pain and sadness in his voice like a deep bottomless well, one that never ended. He tilted forward and pressed the length of his face against the side of her own. “You said you would stay with me, Reia.” He shuddered against her, his arms moving around her to hold her closer. “I don’t want you to leave me.”

Tears began to well in her eyes, pooling to the point she could barely see through the murkiness of them.

“Y-you can get another human,” she told him, wrapping her arms around him so she could dig her fingers into his back.

“But I don’t want anyone else,” he whined as shook his head against her. “They will not be you. They will not be brave and strong like you. They will not have the sun in their

hair, or the forest in their eyes, or the snow in their skin.

They will not smell of your scent or have your voice.”

Oh God, what will happen to him when I die? If he didn’t want another human, did that mean Orpheus would be alone, missing her? Wanting no one because they wouldn’t be her?

Although she very much wasn’t fond of the pain she was in right now, Reia wasn’t afraid to die.

“You are precious to me.”

“Oh, boo hoo,” Jabez said, going up the steps and sitting on his throne to watch them while placing his cheek against his fist. “Come on, Mavka. Show me if your kind can cry. This is very entertaining for me.”

To have Orpheus’ pain mocked hurt her heart further.

“You weren’t even this sad when Katerina told you you were nothing but a worthless monster.”

Reia dug her fingers into him harder even though that tensed her back and made the piercing ache worsen. He chose me over her. Even when told lies about Reia and being told Katerina wanted him back, Orpheus had chosen to find Reia instead. He trusted in me.

“You gave me something no one else has wanted to give me, and I don’t want it from anyone but you.”

“And what is that?” she sobbed, her heart breaking further for him. Her tears finally fell, dripping from the corners of her eyes to run over her temples and into her hair.

“Someone who wanted to be by my side.”

Why does this have to hurt so much? His words were more painful than the damn dagger in her back.

I-I don’t want him to be sad, or alone. She’d seen it already from him in the beginning and watching it slowly fade the longer she’d been with him had been beautiful to witness. To slowly watch Orpheus turn from worried and hesitant to warm and affectionate had stolen her.

So without her, someone who needed him to light the candles of his home so she could see, would he sit in the

dark in that cabin alone? Crying, and whining, and yearning for Reia to come back to him?

She knew... had known for a while now that Orpheus was attached to her. That he didn’t like being without her presence even for a few short hours to get her water – not because he didn’t trust her to stay, but because he didn’t like being away from her.

I don’t know if I want to live forever. She wasn’t attached to this world, didn’t have a drive to stay in it. But I don’t want him to be sad for eternity.

She could feel him quaking. She knew he was not okay, and that he wasn’t going to be okay.

I… The emotions that swirled within told her the truth, the truth she didn’t know if she wanted, but felt anyway. I want to stay with him more than anything.

For him. Because he needed her to, because he couldn’t live peacefully without her, and Reia thought she might not be able to live without him either, if she was alive.

“Orpheus,” she whispered, feeling the strength in her body slowly leaving her.

“No, Reia,” he whimpered. “I do not want to find another human.”