Page 106 of A Soul to Guide

I guess that’s why he wants to leave so badly.

Raewyn couldn’t imagine doing that. She’d miss the many people she’d leave behind. Her family, her friends, some of the other councilmembers and people who worked within the central tree; she could name twenty people without even thinking about it.

Was there really not a single person in this whole world he would miss or would miss him?There must be someone.She didn’t want to accept that he truly had no one.

It was too lonely of a thought, and it made her heart ache for him.

Suddenly tired and weighed down, she rubbed at her cheek, before doing the same to her eye.

“As much as I’d love to bathe, I’m really tired.”

They’d been travelling for a few days since she’d slept in the cave. Adding her sprint through the forest and then coming a bunch of times, and she was out of energy.

“Eat,” Merikh said, the bags he’d tightened to his torso rustling as he placed them against the stone benchtop. “You can have my bed for the duration of your stay.”

Her heart decided to shyly flutter. “You want me to sleep in your bed?”

“Don’t worry. I plan to sleep on the floor in my monstrous form.”

Her chest swirled with a cold rush. She didn’t know if she was disappointed because he didn’t want to lay next to her in his own home, or because she was kind of hoping to steal his warmth. One thing she did know was that guilt radiated within her.

“But it’s your home. The floor will be hard and uncomfortable.”

“Not while I’m in that form. I actually find enjoyment being like that, and I sometimes choose to sleep on the floor for my own contentment. That’s why I have a rug laid out.”

With her lips tightening, unsure if he was lying or if she was just annoyed, she used her guide cane to walk over to his bed.

Now that she knew where all the hazards were, she would be able to map the area out with her feet over the course of the next few days, not just inside, but also outside. She’d use the magical red glow of his ward dome to learn her placement within it.

Once she was at the foot of the bed, she unthreaded her wrist from the loop of her cane. She and it both freely fell to the bed.

There had been a big pillow, like two sewn together in size, and she crawled her way up to it. Raewyn face planted into it as she mumbled, “Good night.”

“Youknowit’s the middle of the day.” She shrugged in response, Earth’s sun cycle useless to her Elysian sleep cycle. “And I told you to eat first.”

It was too late for that. As soon as she was horizontal, her eyes grew heavy, and her eyelids began to shut. She hadn’t even cared about all the dust everywhere.

“Fine. If I’m not here when you wake, it’s because I’ve gone to the closest town to obtain you food.”

Raewyn didn’t respond, and she heard herself snoring before she’d truly fallen asleep.

Covered in multiple bags filled with plants, fertiliser, and food, Merikh hadn’t expected the sight that would await him when he returned.

He didn’t know what he was expecting when he walked through his cave entrance – perhaps her sitting on the bed or going through her bags.

It surely wasn’t for Raewyn to be on her hands and knees, patting around the base of the bed. Her round arse was pointing to the sky and facing his direction, and he may have gazed at it a little longer than he should have.

He’d held that arse in his hand, touched it, kneaded it, and it was a lot softer than he thought it’d be.

The ground at his feet was wet. From the mixed scents of cleaning products, he could tell she’d chosen to bathe in the lake, or at least next to it.

The stone bench was covered in an array of items. It was neat, like she’d taken care in her placement once she pulled them from the bags.She must have taken her bathing supplies from them.

The urge to laugh tickled his chest when her arse wiggled at him while she patted the ground, just because he thought she might be mortified if she discovered she’d done so towards him. He immediately sobered from his humour when she turned her face and he saw her expression.

Tears were pooling in her eyes, her nose red and glossy.

“What are you searching for?” Merikh asked, since she was on the hunt for something.

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