She placed her hands over the sides of her head, digging her fingertips in. Why is this even happening?
If they wanted to harm Orpheus, why not just do it at the cabin? It was obvious that the Demon King had power, so she didn’t understand why they were going through the trouble of taking Reia. The woman had said it was to help her, but why help her at all?
He said he’d taken other humans from him. But they’d never said if they’d rescued them or killed them themselves.
Why harm Orpheus at all? Unless they didn’t want to harm him and just wanted to take something from him. Did he steal something from them? She couldn’t see him doing something like that.
They obviously like to torture him. Laughing at his pain, his loneliness, his grief at losing the offerings he’d probably tried so hard to befriend, just like he had with Reia.
Orpheus told me the Demon King doesn’t like Mavka because he can’t control them. Was it so simple? Because of a tyrant not being able to make a creature submit to his will? But it’s the woman that wants him.
Fuck. She dug her fingers in harder. This is so messed up.
After some time passed, Reia only left the water because it had chilled. She grabbed the towel and dried her body before wrapping it around herself.
Maybe I can sneak out of the castle and wait for Orpheus outside. Then there would be no need for him to face them.
She exited the washroom, hoping to find the room empty, only to see the woman sitting at the vanity table staring at herself in the mirror. She’d been brushing her already brushed hair while smiling at herself.
“Finally,” she sighed, the brush thudding against the table as she placed it down. “I was beginning to think you’d drowned in there.”
“Sorry, I was thinking.”
“I understand. I’m sure you’ve got a lot to process.” She turned to face her while remaining seated. “Just know that everything is fine now.”
“Thanks,” Reia answered as she walked towards her dress.
Is she really going to make me change in front of her?
She was just sitting there, sparing Reia no privacy.
She tilted her head expectantly, and Reia stemmed the desire to groan. She wasn’t uncomfortable walking around naked in front of a Duskwalker, but the idea of being bare in front of a human woman was making her anxious.
“Like I said, you don’t have to be ashamed.”
Once again, that word ashamed was being brought up. It made Reia more insecure.
The woman was curvy, with large breasts and a very beautiful face. Reia wasn’t comparing herself to her, but she couldn’t help feeling as though this woman was doing just that, and obviously felt superior.
Shoulders slumping in defeat, she lowered the towel. Trying as best as she could to hide her breasts and squeeze her thighs together, she reached for her dress.
Reia didn’t miss the disgusted twitch in the woman’s upper lip, her eyes dark with an ugly emotion.
“I knew it.”
Reia stopped reaching and instead faced the woman bare, refusing to show a single shred of bashfulness. There was nothing wrong with her body, and she wouldn’t allow this woman to make her feel as though there was. Orpheus thought she was beautiful, and that was all that mattered.
“Knew what?” Reia snapped at her.
“You’ve had sex with Orpheus.”
She felt her confidence crumble and turned her head down to look at her own stomach. Shit, I didn’t think she’d understand what they meant.
She quickly grabbed her dress to shove it over her body.
The woman mistook Reia’s body language of wanting to hide the wounds on her stomach because she rose to stand.
“Like I said, you don’t have to be ashamed.” She began to lift her dress, revealing her tied underwear, as well as her navel. Reia’s eyes widened at what she saw. “I’ve been in your shoes.”
There were five semi-moon scars on her stomach. Scars that mirrored the freshly healed wounds on her own lower belly.
“You...” Reia’s knees nearly crumbled in shock, revolution, disgust. “Your...”
She’s had sex with Orpheus. She’s...
She lowered her dress. “My name is Katerina.”
She’s the fucking woman!
She couldn’t believe this.
“He’s told me of you,” she blurted out.
Yeah, he’d told Reia of their story, but not her name nor the fact she was still alive!
Her lips turned into a cruel pout, her eyes crinkling with humour. “Of course, he has.”
“That was nearly two centuries ago!” She stumbled back a few steps. “How-how are you even still alive? You should be dead.”
Gesturing her hand towards the rest of the castle, she said, “Jabez has been keeping me alive with his magic. He’s handy when I need him. I kind of like him too. He’s a jerk, but he’s also quite pleasant to be around.” Then she shrugged, starting to pat and stroke the front of her dress to smooth it over her body and back into its proper place. “And I can’t possibly have sex with human men. He’s the only one who could even try to satisfy me, and even that sometimes isn’t always guaranteed.”
Questions. So many questions swirled around in her mind. She’d wanted to talk to her from the moment Orpheus had told her about Katerina. To ask her why she had done what she did, why Orpheus couldn’t win her affections. Why Reia had ended up in his cabin instead, slowly, but surely beginning to care for him when this woman couldn’t.
“You lived with Orpheus for five years. If you wanted eternal life, why didn’t stay with him?”
“Stay with Orpheus?” she scoffed, folding her arms across her chest. “Because he’s a Duskwalker. He stole me from my home, made me live in a cave.”
Unable to help herself from leaping to his defence, Reia retorted, “But he built you a house.”
“Because he wanted to keep me compliant!” She stomped her foot, her arms folding tighter over her large chest. Her shout made Reia recoil. She didn’t seem angry with Reia, but angry with Orpheus and was venting her frustration. “He gave me whatever I wanted because it meant his own gain. I was trapped in a damn house that was so small I could barely breathe, and I wasn’t going to go running through the Veil to escape like some idiot. I spent five years with that monster hoping for a way out.”
But he’s not a monster. She’d thought that too at first, but then he’d shown her how sweet he was. He wants to snuggle like a puppy with its master. How could anyone think of Orpheus as a monster after spending an extended period of time with him?
“You know how it feels,” she said beseechingly. “He changed our bodies for himself! Just so he could have sex with us, and we had to give it to him or else.”
She was making it sound like... like Orpheus had forced himself on her, but he’d never done that to Reia.
And I asked him to do this to me. Sure, she didn’t know what he would do, but she had wanted all of him, and he’d given it to her.
She’d never felt ashamed of it. Never regretted it. And a part of her enjoyed seeing his claw scars on her abdomen, the evidence that they were able to share moments of passion because of it.