She tucked her head further against him.

“How do I give you my soul?”

I can live for eternity. Only if it meant she got to be with Orpheus. If I can spend it with him, I’d be happy.

In his home, surrounded by all the things he’d made, in his smell, and his embrace, with all the touches that made her melt for him. Cooking, making ornaments and protective trinkets, and clothes, and tending to the garden. Watching him roam the yard so he could make sure she was safe and protected or stoking the fireplace to make sure she was warm as he asked if she was comfortable or needed anything.

To feel pampered, cherished, admired, and beautiful. To not feel like just the only human that mattered, but the only

living creature in the world that mattered.

To be looked at by glowing orbs instead of eyes that reflected such deep emotions that his ethereal face couldn’t show. She would be content being buried within fur that tickled her face as she caressed all the protruding bones of his body, and the draping fish fins that raised when she brushed her fingers over them.

Reia wanted to be with this strange being who was so completely and utterly different to her, but had a heart that was so tender and gentle that it was more pure than any child or innocent animal.

It didn’t matter that he ate people, that others thought him a monster, not when he cared so much about her that he got upset when she pricked her finger on a sewing needle.

And yet, he’d cut her with his claw tips multiple times in the heat of the throws, was rough and naughty. He was always disappointed in himself after, but Reia wanted to show him that she adored it, that she liked the feel of them.

Reia was his. In body and in heart, all that was left was her soul.

“Your soul?” he asked, lifting his head back to stare down at her.

“H-how?”

She was feeling weaker by the second, and she was worried she’d waited too long to make this decision.

He leaned back in to hold her.

“You just have to want to give it me.”

But I do. Why don’t I... A hot feeling in her chest started to rise like it was coming from her spine.

She slipped her arms away from him to touch at her chest right between her breasts. When that heat touched her fingertips, she felt the unmistakable desire to pull away.

Something started to pull away from her. Beneath her palms, a bright light began to shine, and she cupped her hands around it when it was out of her body. Orpheus

leaned back once more to give her room as they both watched.

At first glance, she thought it was nothing but an orange-red flame, but upon closer inspection, it was actually a woman. A woman made of liquid fire, with hair that flowed up from her head like she was sinking under water.

She had the exact same body shape as Reia, and her eyes glowed with little dots of green.

Is this my soul? The spirit was on her knees. She looked at Reia and then twisted her body to look at Orpheus. She reached her arms out to him.

“No!” yelled Jabez as he stood from his throne, but neither one of them cared to pay him any attention.

“I want you to have it.”

When she started lifting her hands, giving him her soul, the spirit began to float on her knees, still reaching for him like she wanted him to take her. Even her soul wanted to go with him.

His orbs, for the first time, seemed reflective as he stared at it, the colour and shape of it mirroring in his eyes like a glare. He brought his head closer to sniff it, and her soul touched his snout as if she was hugging him.

It was sweet, until he suddenly chomped forward and ate it!

His body ruffled when he swallowed.

Of course, he ate it. Reia shouldn’t have been so surprised, and she couldn’t stop her lips from curling.

However, she thought she’d feel different if she did. That she would no longer be in pain or be dying, but she could feel the life draining from her body.

With the last of her strength, she cupped the sides of his jaw.

She didn’t know what would happen now or if this had even worked. It may have been too late. Reia could still disappear from him. But she hoped that everything would

be alright, and if it wasn’t, she wanted him to know just how much she cared for him.

“I love you, Orpheus,” she said so softly even she barely heard it coming from her, but she looked directly at him, so he knew it was the truth.

His orbs turned bright pink, and once more tears welled in her eyes. He— before she could even finish her thought, she became dazed as her vision blurred heavily and her arms fell limply. He...

Blackness washed over her as she lost consciousness.

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She gave me her soul.

There was a heat in his stomach that didn’t belong to him, but it felt remarkable as it was slowly started fluttering around his body to find a place to live.

Orpheus watched as Reia’s eyes rolled unnaturally into the back of her head as her eyelids slowly started shutting at the same time. Her hands fell from him, one slipping to the side to dangle while the other landed across her stomach.

The pink in his vision quickly turned to white when he heard her heartbeat stop, when her lungs quietened into utter stillness, when blood ceased flowing. She felt warm, but it was fading.

Was... Was I not supposed to eat it? This seemed wrong.

He thought he would feel something, like a connection to her, the ability to feel her presence. All he felt was the fluttering warmth that he thought one might feel when they’d eaten a satisfying meal – even though he’d never experienced something like that.

She was dead. He knew she was dead, could see it, feel it, hear it, but he somehow thought it would spring her back to life. Like the dagger would disappear and she’d reach up to hug him. She is gone?

She can’t be gone. He didn’t want her to be.

“Reia?”

He tilted his head as he bumped his snout against her cheek, trying to stir her back to life.

Deep blue, deeper than he’d ever seen it, filled his vision, making everything he looked at a swallowing colour of sadness.