“I wanted to use the salt you have for my food to make it taste better.” She grabbed the salt bowl with both hands as to make sure she didn’t drop it. “And I can do things for myself, you know. If I’m too short to reach something, I can use the chair.”

“I am sure that is true.” She yelped when his arm knocked into the back of her knees, knocking her over while the other came to support her back. She was cushioned into the cradle of his arms. “But I will be upset if you are harmed.”

He placed her down onto her feet, and Reia couldn’t help the small blush that rose into her cheeks.

Ever since her bath the previous night, she’d noticed that Orpheus was feeling more confident around her. He wasn’t as wary about being close to her, and although none of his actions had been sexual since then, there was a tenderness to them. Just like now, where he held her in his embrace so he could place her down on her feet, or when he’d held her face outside.

When she started to peel the potatoes, he came up beside her to crane his head over her shoulder.

“Would it be alright if you showed me how to do this?”

“You want to learn how to cook?” She continued to cut away the dirt-covered skins into a bucket inside the metal basin. “I would be happy to, but if I do, I’m sure you’ll try to do it for me, and then I will have nothing at all to do.”

It was as if Orpheus worried she’d break a nail doing even the simplest tasks. It was charming, but it meant there wasn’t a lot for her to do. He didn’t even like her cleaning.

“If it is something you enjoy, I will not take this task from you, but I would still like to know how. I once did, but that was a long time ago.”

“With the woman who lived here for a long time with you?” She bit her lips together when she realised she’d asked him a personal question she knew he wasn’t fond of answering.

“Yes.” He surprised her by replying swiftly. “She taught me how, but I have forgotten.”

Is he becoming comfortable enough to talk to me about her?

This mystery person played in Reia’s mind, and curiosity ate at her constantly. She had so many questions about a person who had stayed with him for long enough to ask him to build this house, a garden, furniture.

She must have lived here a long time.

Reia didn’t turn to him, trying to appear as casual as she could while he stood so close to her that she could feel the heat emitting from his body.

“Who was she?”

“Someone like you,” he answered, making her tense when she felt his claws brush through the ends of her hair. The disturbance of the strands tickled her scalp. “Someone who was not afraid of me.”

She only stepped away from him so she could take her now washed potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and onions to the side so she could begin to cut them. He followed so he could watch.

“What happened to her?”

He was silent then. The kind of silence that told her he was either uncomfortable telling her or uncomfortable by his own answer.

“She did not want to stay with me,” is all he said, and she got the impression he wouldn’t say anything more about it.

“Why is it that you cut the carrots like that? The other humans made them thinner.”

She paused as she stared down at the thick slices of carrots she’d been cutting. “I guess it’s because I like them to be firmer in the middle. I kind of enjoy the taste of raw carrot.”

“Hmm. They have different tastes when cooked and not cooked? I thought it was only to change their firmness.”

Reia laughed. “I’m guessing you’ve never eaten a vegetable in your life, but no, cooking them changes the way some vegetables taste. It’s not only about how firm they are, but it also changes the textures. Cooking them in a pan without water also changes the taste, but I prefer to have soups and stews if I don’t have meat.”

He brought a hand up to cup the side of his snout in thought. “You will make different food to what you’ve been making now if you have meat?”

“Of course. I can make much more. If I had flour, I could make bread, and with honey I could bake sweets.”

“I don’t know what those ingredients are.”

Once she was done cutting the vegetables, she began to finely chop the other herbs she’d asked for.

“Well, flour comes from wheat, and honey come from bees.”

“What are bees?”

Reia turned, frowning up as she faced him.

“You don’t know what a bee is? It’s a flying insect that’s fuzzy with yellow and black stripes.”

His head tilted, making that slight rattling sound like his skull was filled with tiny bones.

“You are talking of those stinging bugs.” His mouth opened and closed slightly as his tongue moved to lick at the top of his mouth. “They hurt my tongue. Why would you add them to food? They don’t particularly taste good.”

Reia covered her mouth as a laughed escaped her by accident. His eyes flared into a pale red to show he was angry at her laughing at him, or at least annoyed.

“We don’t eat them, Orpheus. They live in a beehive and collect pollen, so they turn it into honey inside their nests.”

His orbs changed to blue once more, and he turned his face towards the darkening outside just beyond the window.

“Would it please you if I brought you a hive so you could you get honey? There are some just outside the Veil.

Demons don’t like them because they sting when attacked.”

A trickle of tenderness warmed her chest.

“Yes, it would.”

A loud crack of thunder boomed before the first signs of rain pattered in heavy drops against the window.

“Then I will bear being stung to get you honey.” Orpheus took a step back. “I will have to learn how to cook another time. I must go outside to keep the Demons away.”

“All you would have needed to do now was crush the tomatoes until they were like a paste, and add everything, including some salt, into the water until they were soft.”

A spark of yellow flashed through his eyes. “Thank you.”

He left to go outside, and Reia continued to cook her early dinner until it was ready. By the time it was, the rain outside was heavy and loud, showering the house with a downpour.

When she peeked through the window, the clouds were so dark that it already appeared like night had arrived, even though that was still an hour away.

It was a violent storm with lots of quick strikes of hot yellow forking across the sky.

Reia placed her bowl of soup onto the table, but she didn’t sit down. Instead, she walked to the front door and opened it, peeking her head outside.