“No. I don’t have such magic. I can only create illusions, cast protections, and other minor spells, but something must be sacrificed for me create them.”
Her sharp brows drew together to create a deep crease between them. “You’re not all powerful then?”
“No,” he answered plainly, turning his head up to watch where he was going better. “My magic is quite minor in strength.”
“How can you even use magic? Demons can’t, and only certain humans can.”
Orpheus was surprised she wasn’t demanding for him to cease cradling her like this. She hadn’t preferred this position over sitting in the crook of his elbow, yet she wasn’t asking to be moved straight to it now that she was awake.
“Some Demons can use very minor magic. However, there is one who can freely use magic and is even stronger than me.”
“Who?”
“Someone you do not need to concern yourself with. You will never meet him.” Despite his constant effort to not squeeze her, he couldn’t stop his hands from clenching around her.
No. She can never meet him. Orpheus tried to make sure none of his humans did, even though he wasn’t always successful.
“Fine, but you still didn’t answer my question as to why you can use magic.”
He said nothing because he didn’t want to answer. They do not like it when I tell them the truth.
“Orpheus?” she said with a frown in her voice.
His eyes turned to black, which was the only way she would have been able to tell that he’d closed them for a short while. When was the last time I heard someone speak my own name?
It was even said softly. It sent a tingling thrill throughout his body, ruffling his flesh and making his insides shudder.
Only a handful of offerings had deigned to know if he had a name, choosing to call him Duskwalker as if that was all that he was, but none had ever spoken it to him.
“Is the answer actually that terrible or do you not know?”
He allowed a tsking sound to resonate from his mind as her words caused his eyes to open. He turned his head down and twisted it to see her.
“I’ll give you a boon.”
Her relaxed body tensed as she lifted her arms to fold them across her chest. “Are you seriously bargaining with me over the answer that could be you simply saying you do not even know?”
He almost felt the urge to chuckle if he wasn’t so serious.
“Yes.”
“Fine. What’s the deal?”
“Say my name again like how you did before, and I will give you your answer.”
“That’s it? You just want me to say your name?”
“Yes, but like how you did before.”
He didn’t want it to sound firm or clipped, or have any tangle of anger or annoyance it. He wanted it to be gentle.
He wanted to be gifted with the same feeling he’d been given before.
“Why, though?”
“Because I do not think you’ll want to say it again afterwards.”
She began to nibble on her lip, catching his attention as he watched one of her front teeth bite at it. Look at how much they yield. He didn’t have lips, didn’t know what they felt like to have them, and he could no longer remember if he’d ever had a set pressed against him.
“Orpheus.” She said it even quieter than before, even gentler, mingled with an emotion he didn’t understand.
Shyness? Sheepishness? Perhaps even coy, like his name was a sensitive secret not to be shared.
His eyes closed once more, his head tilting back until his snout was pointing to the sky as an even greater thrill shuddered within his body. It was so pleasing it even made the inhuman parts of him ruffle and puff beneath his constricting clothing.
He allowed the moment to take him, to allow the feeling that had stolen him to remain. He even paused his steps so nothing disturbed it as it settled into his entire being.
That may have been worth years of torment to hear.
Schluk. Something sharp lanced through his right shoulder, embedding into it before it came out the other side. He didn’t step back at the force of it, but his arms clenched.
His sight opened, his vision red as pain stabbed through his core. He could see the shaft of an arrow sticking out from his chest with three fletching feathers, brown and dull in colour.
A course of a burning inferno flickered beneath the surface of his body. Hot, smouldering. It felt as though it turned into a hand that caressed the goo of his brain and wrapped around his mind to create a dull ache inside it. His vision grew redder, brightening until it was near blinding.
“Too tight!” Reia gasped when he clutched her in his irritated growing state, enough to stir his mind into loosening his hold, but not enough to calm him.
His jaw clinked and clacked when he separated it, his head twisting and twitching as a deep growl began to emit from the back of his throat.
