It’s fine. He’s not doing this to be perverted. She chanted to herself, ignoring the strange pleasurable twinge that shot through her when his gloves ran over them. I doubt he even has a cock... Or does he? Her face grew even hotter at that thought, especially when his hands started drifting lower.

The roughness of them caused her body to twitch when he delved them between the lips of her folds. Even though his touch was perfunctory and dispassionate, her body still

reacted to the foreign caress. Her legs muscles tightened in tension and the apex of her clit sent out a throb when his hand moved through the slit of her body to even clean between the cleft of her arse cheeks.

To turn away from her body’s traitorous reaction to being touched so intimately, she said, “You never told me why it is you can use magic.”

“Like I said, no human has been comforted by the answer.”

Reia gave a huff of annoyance before swiping a trailing water drop from her face.

“Look, you can tip toe around the whole eating people thing, but it’s kind of fucking obvious.” His eyes flashed red as his head snapped to her. She tilted her chin up at him defiantly. He hadn’t seemed to like her angry tone or her swearing. “And I’m still sitting here like a good girl letting you wash me. I also agreed to your bargain and fulfilled my end of it.”

He took in a large, chest expanding breath, before he snorted out a sigh. His orbs faded back to blue once more.

“I didn’t start out with ability to,” he said as he started to clean her back. “I came across a group of, what you would call, Priests and Priestesses once in my travels. I had already been hunting for an animal to eat. They were at the wrong place at the wrong time, and I ended up devouring them.” His jaw opened and closed slightly as his tongue clicked inside his mouth. “Their magic tasted foul to consume. However, it granted me the use of it, and I have been thankful ever since. It has allowed me to protect my offerings better.”

He moved down the side of the tub to wash her legs, starting with her thighs.

Somehow, his truthful words didn’t send fear or dread through her. She had a feeling she was already becoming accustomed to the idea of the violence in his past.

I still don’t want to be on the receiving end of it, though.

Reia squirmed a little as a small, strained laugh ripped from her when his hands tickled her feet as he cleaned them. He even went between her toes.

“Ah, yes,” he said when he drew the pointed tip of his claw underneath her foot. “Most of you humans are ticklish here.”

Reia let out a squeal and kicked her leg out in reaction.

Orpheus chuckled, before releasing her foot to clean the other.

Lying on her side, since her body had tried to roll over to get away from him purposefully tickling her, she stared at the wall of the tub with her eyes opened wide and full.

Did... did he just laugh? Her gaze fell to him at the side of the tub in shock. She didn’t know he had the capabilities to laugh, and it had been delectable and charming with the depth of his rich voice.

Once he was finished washing her foot, he curled his finger as he held her firm around her ankle, presenting his black sharp claw once more.

“Should I do it again?”

“N-no!” she yelled, desperately trying to yank her foot away from him.

He brought it closer, almost an inch away, and she laughed with panic.

“Pfft,” he snorted, another chuckle falling from him as he pulled away and released her. “You humans are so peculiar.

It appears as though it tickles you, and yet you laugh... even when I haven’t started yet. I have never understood it.”

She couldn’t believe it. He... he was teasing her!

Reia was lying naked in a tub after he’d just hand washed her himself, feeling spikes of unwelcome jolts of pleasure, and now this monster was teasing her.

She covered her burning face with her hands. This is so strange. This wasn’t what she was expecting at all when she came here.

He eats people. And yet, Reia could feel the stir of humour in her chest wanting to share in his laughter, because even she knew how humans reacted to being tickled was odd. It was torture, she couldn’t think of anything worse – other than pain – but it would make her giggle regardless.

“I have completed the spell.” Orpheus stood, towering over her before making his way to the door. “There is a cloth for you to dry yourself with. Once you are done, call out, and I will show you to your room.”

When he was gone, Reia lowered herself until her lips were under the surface of the water and blew bubbles of annoyance. She allowed the remaining heat to soak into her tired muscles and let her head fall limp as she rested.

I’m hungry and tired. As much as she wanted to stay here, she worried she’d fall asleep in the tub at this rate.

She sat up and sniffed her arms to find no smell on them.

She knew he’d lathered her in something, but she couldn’t find any hint of what it might have been.

Then she got out, wrapping herself in a large sheet that she figured would make do for a towel. She doubted he had the capabilities to make one. Once she’d hidden her nudity, not that it mattered since he’d seen and touched all of her, she called out to him.

He led her down the hallway to the room directly next to the bathing one. The hallway wasn’t in the centre of the house. The bathing room and the one she figured was going to be hers shared the same side of the hall. They seemed to be narrower than the other side where there was a singular door.

That must be where he sleeps. He would need much more room than her considering his size. I wonder if he sleeps on a nest. She wasn’t interested in finding out.

He opened the door for her and ushered her forward with his hand.

“Are you hungry? I am not good with cooking human food, that is something you will have to do for yourself, but I’ll

bring you something you can eat now.”

Reia nodded, and he left her alone once more.

She walked inside the room while closing the door behind her and took it in. There wasn’t much. It was small, longer than it was wide, and there was a place she thought once must have had a window but was now boarded up. The only furniture was a small wooden bed that appeared old and worn as well as side table and a closet.

Because there wasn’t a lot of room, the bed was pressed against the wall shared with the hallway. Three candles had already been lit on the square side table, and Reia walked over to the closet to see what was inside.

Disturbingly, it was filled with white dresses similar to the one she’d worn here. There were no other colours, no pants, shirts, or skirts. Just wedding dresses.

It was off-putting going through them, wishing there was something other than a bride’s dress to wear, but she’d rather not be naked. She picked a simple one that was so plain it didn’t have any lace or sewn designs at all and decided to make it a sleeping gown for herself.

It appeared someone else already had that thought, because it had been cut to be shorter and more comfortable as not to get tangled in their legs while they slept.

Just how many people have died coming here?

Reia couldn’t linger on that thought. That was the past, and they shouldn’t matter to her. They were already dead anyway. All that mattered was her own survival.

She slipped it on with just enough time before he opened the door and laid a wooden bowl on the end of her bed. It was filled with a handful of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and hazelnuts.

“Fruit?” she asked with a hint of curiosity.

She picked up one of the strawberries and took a bite into it, surprised to find it was deliciously sweet.