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Despite knowing it was probably stupid, Reia went outside the next day even though the effects of Orpheus’ spell had worn off.

Orpheus was still gone. I totally could have left. He hadn’t returned through the night like she thought he might. He hadn’t shown up even the next morning.

She’d made a complicated dinner to fill her time, ate slowly, and experimented by dyeing a dress orange with the carrots she had. She was disappointed when it came out terribly because she hadn’t used enough, then mashed up the boiled carrots into her food. She refused to waste anything.

But mostly, Reia had remade his gift multiple times because she’d hated everything until she finally came up with her final idea. She hoped he liked it. She wasn’t sure if he would since they would need to be worn on his person and might be distracting for him.

Her sleep had been restless. She usually slept well when she knew Orpheus was around. That made zero sense to her, all things considered.

It meant she’d woken later in the day and almost missed her chance to be in the sun in the garden while having her breakfast. She often looked down at her pale skin, wishing

the sun that came through the mist was strong enough to make it darker.

It was warm, but barely.

Then, she trained with her sword like she did everyday, whether he was here or not. Since he wasn’t here to watch her fail, she tried different and new moves, hoping she could catch him off-guard the next time he trained with her.

Spooking the Duskwalker was becoming her goal.

She hadn’t been going at it for long before a Demon came to watch her.

“Delicious, tasty, blood-filled human.”

“Oh, go away,” she sighed at it, rolling her eyes before continuing her training.

She heard it lick at its mouth, slurping disgustingly and loudly like it wanted to be heard.

“Your meat will be tender. Your bones will feel good to crunch after I suck out the marrow from it.” Reia tried her best to ignore it, annoyed in her presence since it sounded feminine. “Come here, let me have a taste. Just an arm, or a leg, or your eyeballs!”

“You’d like to eat me, wouldn’t you?” Reia turned to it and raised her brow as she met its red eyes dead on. “To rip my intestines out and gnaw on them?”

She was somewhat human formed, but she had horns similar to Orpheus and a long tail. She was black, they were all that void-like colour, but it appeared as though she had feathers coming out of her as she walked on all fours.

She gave a shivering ruffle, her feathers puffing from her.

“Yes, yes, yes!” she squealed, a bright grin showing her long and multiple sharp fangs, similar to that of a shark.

“Intestines and stomach. I like the way it burns.”

“Why a human? Wouldn’t animals be just as good?”

The Demon swiped her purple tongue over her lips.

“They don’t scream. Humans have the sweetest song when they die, begging and pleading.” She cupped her hands together, having to lean her elbows against the dirt

as she interlocked them. “Oh, please don’t eat me! I want to live!” She made a wailing sound. “Don’t eat my children, take me instead.” She gave an even bigger grin. “I always eat their young first, makes them taste better after.”

Reia came forward to stand just in front of it, so that the only thing separating them was the salt circle. This one didn’t smell as foul as most did, and she wondered if perhaps the more humanity they had, the better they smelt.

“How many have you eaten?”

She tried to swipe at Reia with her claws, ready to gouge, but her hand buckled at the invisible barrier. She gave an angry hiss before narrowing her red eyes.

“It teases. The longer it takes for me to get you, the more painful I will make it, tasty human.”

Reia raised the tip of her sword at it.

“How many of my kind have you killed?”

“Seven ending screams I have swallowed!”

“I’m catching up to you,” Reia smirked, her lips curling with humour. “You will be my fourth Demon.”

“You do not eat Demons!”

Reia swung her sword sideways so swiftly the Demon didn’t have the time to react. Her head fell with a thud, rolling through the barrier and making Reia retreat in surprise. Her body fell a second later on the other side.

Ew, ew, ew!

Purple blood was on her feet, and the head rolled closer to her before looking up towards her when it stilled. The Demon’s mouth opened and closed uselessly, but it was no longer attached its body and eventually stopped. Reia booted it to the other side of the salt circle in disgust.

Well, that was fun! Reia had teased a Demon and then killed it! She’d protected the house herself. I wonder how Orpheus would feel about this. Her lips pursed together, knowing he’d probably be disapproving.

When blood continued to leak from its headless corpse, her eyes widened. Oh fuck! Oh shit, oh shit, oh fuck!

Blood had dripped from its neck into the circle carving and into the salt. What if it broke the protection there?

Reia quickly ran inside, pushed the chair in front of the kitchen counter, and reached to grab the salt and the spike he used to carve. She bolted outside.

Digging into the carving while nothing was around to attack her, she flung bloodied salt out of the ground, cringing when she saw more seeping into it. She looked up at the Demon’s lifeless body lying there.

Oh crap, I have to move it. Reia wasted no time. She stepped outside the salt circle and began to yank it away so that its neck was facing the other way. He’d be mad. So, so mad if I knew I wasn’t inside the circle.

She kept looking around, worried he’d come and catch her red-handed.

He didn’t, and Reia was inside it once more carving into the ground until there was no more liquid and filled the crack with salt.

Here she was thinking she might be able to help remove the Demons that loitered around their home, and instead discovered that wasn’t going to be possible. She hadn’t thought about what would happen when the spray of blood fell.

She slumped back when she was done, sitting on her backside and staring at the ground. He’s going to notice that. If how she’d carved it wasn’t so obviously different to the rest of the line, the blood on both the inside and outside of the circle made what she’d done plainly obvious.

She knew other Demons would come and eat the body, but this was enough evidence for a scorning.

“That was naughty, little human,” a deep voice said to her from within the shadows.