Page 189 of A Soul to Keep

“And, you keep following them,” she replied, her voice deep and yet completely feminine. There was strength in it, confidence and sensuality. “You’ve been a very good human in letting me guide you.”

“You’re lucky I have.” She met her humour with an upturn of her chin. “It’s only because you made the garden grow, and that Orpheus trusts in you, that I was able to follow your clues to the bookshop.”

“Perhaps it is instinctual that he trusts me.”Ah yes. A person who speaks in riddles, just my favourite thing.Not. “Are you not going to step out of the salt circle?”

She pointed to it separating them. She would question why she wanted her to leave it, but she didn’t need to. Reia, with a confident raise of her brow, turned ghostly as she stepped over it. There was nothing the Witch Owl, or any other creature lurking in the forest, could do to her now.

She didn’t look surprised as she curled her lips into a smile.

“Did you know I was going to be taken by the Demon King? Is that why you gave me all the books?”

The Witch Owl tilted her head to the side so that all her thick and curly dark brown hair fell over that shoulder. She flashed Reia a wide grin of teeth.

“Not at all, but it wasn’t hard to guess what would happen. You wanted to learn how to wield a sword, and I gave a way to teach. History wanted to repeat itself, but it did not expect a girl to be her own knight in shining armour.”

A mocking snort of laughter burst from Reia. “I got stabbed in the back by a dagger and died, some hero I was.”

The Witch Owl turned her head to the house.

“But you were his. You killed his past and gave him a future he has always sought. How does it feel to be a Phantom?”

“Like I can escape the world.” She folded her arms across her chest and lifted a brow at the strange person before her still sitting in the tree and kicking her legs. “You knew I would become one if I gave him my soul, so why didn’t you tell him?”

“Sometimes mystery leaves us wanting more.”

“Then what of the children’s book? It was very funny where you left your feather.” She scoffed while tightening her arms. “Beauty and the Beast, really?”

The Witch Owl tilted her head the other way.

“Didn’t you enjoy reading it to him? Your story is not the same, but you still fell in love with someone which most find hideous.”

It was becoming annoying that all these different beings were watching them.

“But the beast was a dick in the beginning, Orpheus was kind to me the entire time.”

“He was also worse. You were almost eaten many times. I didn’t think you would survive, and yet here you are, speaking with me as though I have done something wrong.”

Reia inhaled deeply through her nose before letting her outward breath soften her muscles. She was feeling a little offensive for no reason.

She helped me. I have no reason to be rude.

“Okay,” she conceded with a sigh. “Why are you here now though?”

“Why can I not be? You are a product of my design. Can I not speak with you when I am the reason you are here?”

“Is there something you want to say to me?”

“Is there something you want to know?”

Tension filled her muscles once more. Reia’s little patience was only at ease when with Orpheus. This woman looked human, but was undeniably strange.

“You are the one who guided me to come speak with you and waited for me to do so. I would rather be inside with Orpheus if there is no point to this.” When she didn’t say anything or react, only one question came to mind, one that caused her to frown. “Why are you even helping him? What’s in this for you?”

The Witch Owl flipped her leg over the tree branch before moving the other over as well, then she fell backwards to swing upside down by the backs of her knees.

With her hair bundled inside the hood of her cloak as she hung there, she cocked her head to the side.

“Can a mother not care for her child?”