Page 117 of A Soul to Touch

I don’t want to tell her.He would have to share the truth.

However, he knew Mayumi would pester him about this. She would ask and ask and dig. This was something far too strange and significant for her not to. It was her soul, after all. She would want to know about something that had to do with herself.

With a heavy sigh, one that even caused his fangs to part just enough to let it through, he moved his sight away from Mayumi to her soul. He petted it again with the back of his claw.

“From what I know, my father is a soul eater. He collects them and then keeps them in the void. He can eat as many as he wishes, though he can only keep one for himself – my mother. Duskwalkers can only consume one soul, and that soul will become our... bride.”

His sight flittered to Mayumi’s face just long enough to take note that it appeared somewhat confused.

“You asked me about Orpheus, the Duskwalker who would venture to a human village every decade for an offering. You asked me if the last one he took, Reia, was still alive.” He gestured to the soul in his hand by bouncing it in her direction. “This is why she is. She gave Orpheus her soul, he consumed it, and she is now eternally tied to him. She is his bride.”

He thought Mayumi would be angered to find out that she was at risk of this happening to her, considering he was holding hers, but she just leaned closer with a thoughtful expression crinkling her features.

“She is also a Phantom,” he continued.

Mayumi shrugged. “I’ve seen Ghosts, but I’ve never heard of a Phantom before.”

“Ghosts and Phantoms differ in what their anchor is and how they died. Phantoms have living anchors, and that is what we Duskwalkers become when we consume a human soul. The Phantom’s life is dictated by the length of ours.”

“Is that why you took it?”

“I don’t think this can be taken.” His tone was serious, but it didn’t reflect the way his heart suddenly quickened in his chest. It swelled with tenderness, suddenly feeling overfull. “The better question would be... Why did this come out of you, Mayumi?”

Her gaze finally met his with her eyes widened ever-so-slightly.

“It must be given,” he stated.

Could she perhaps... feel something for me?More than just desire and general fondness in his presence?

“I don’t know why it came out of me,” she answered with a shrug.

Then she turned her head away from him, her shoulders turning inward. He thought he may have seen her bite her lips together before her face disappeared from his sight.

Orpheus told me Reia gave him her soul because she loved him.

With his free hand, Faunus reached towards Mayumi and cupped the side of her face. When he tried to steer it towards him, she struggled while trembling. But from the glimpse he’d managed to catch, her face was blistering red. She’d never blushed with embarrassment with him before, and even the ear poking out from her hair was flushed.

Letting her keep her face hidden, he released her as everything within him suddenly went into motion. His heart was sprinting, causing his breaths to struggle. His body went warmjust as his flesh ruffled, causing everything sticking from him to puff and lift.

Realisation was dawning.

He didn’t know the true depth of her feelings, but he had won some part of her heart. His orbs, which were already pink, brightened in colour.

“Well...” she grumbled from under her hair. “Are you going to take it?”

Even after what I’d just told her, she wants me to take it?

Like someone had unleashed an arrow straight into his big heart, he was pierced with a sharp coldness. Deep, swallowing blue infiltrated his sight.

Gingerly, he slipped his free hand under one of hers and lifted it. Then, he placed the back of his other hand into hers.

“No.” He carefully shuffled her soul into her palm and then released her. “I will not take your soul.”

“What?” she gasped, turning to stare at him and then her soul floating above her hand. It didn’t seem so small now that she was the one holding it. “Why not?”

That invisible arrow managed to somehow twist within him. “Because I cannot.”

Her brows drew together just as her lips pursed. He thought he saw a hint of anger.

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