Page 60 of A Soul to Guide

Merikh was a Duskwalker, a facelessfreak.Why did he think he had the right to touch a female with a face carved by an angel?

Her round features, dark freckles, pouty full lips, and flawless brown skin... He didn’t think a single human could compare.

And her eyes...He envisioned their mesmerising colour of rich brown with an incandescent white starburst in the middle. How could anythingnot be stupefied looking into them?

He backed away from the side of the bed, his orbs a brighter hue of red than usual as he sat down against the wall.

Since he acquired a few things yesterday he’d never purchased before, he was trying to figure out how to make the tool he wanted.

He hadn’t liked how that drunken fool had run into her, nor did he like that she was so hesitant in unfamiliar environments. The fact she almost went arse up inside the bathtub caused him alarm.

Although the tool he was crafting would mean she’d require less of his assistance, something he was weirdly content with, he was sure it would make life easier for her. He just hoped she didn’t take him giving it to her the wrong way.

If she wished to cling to him, then he would be more than accepting, maybe even a little... prideful. Still, he wanted to give her the option, especially since he’d rarely ever been given a choice in his life.

There were many things he would have chosen not to do but was always forced to, one way or another.

Merikh examined the item he’d already pulled apart in order to understand how it was constructed so he could recreate it. He’d tried to do this as quietly as possible while she slept. He picked up a broken rod of timber and turned it this way and that.

Maybe it was a part of his nature to destroy things to understand them.

Now that he somewhat understood how it was made, he began fashioning his own version – one that would be better suited to its possible user.

After about two hours, Raewyn finally stirred.

Since he’d restarted his task multiple times, he wasn’t finished when she rose to sit up in the bed. Her white sleep dress dropped down her shoulder. Merikh quickly looked down and away when he couldn’t stop himself from staring at her starburst eyes – almost like he’d missed them in the hours they were closed.

Foolish,his mind spat, yet his sight kept drifting away from his task to her against his will.

She never righted her dress over her shoulder, even after she rubbed at her eyes and lazily blinked them. She looked like a lazy bunny peeking out from the grass, docile and guileless.

Sitting up but leaning on the arm with the shoulder exposed, she was unaware that a predator was tempted to lick at his snout in her direction.

Resting, then watching her sleep, had twisted something in his mind.

So had the previous day.

Watching her cry and then being able to calm her himself... had been a new experience for him. He’d never been someone’s comfort, nor had he ever had someone choose to lean against him so openly like she had. Cling tohisside.

It mattered naught, though, which was why he wished to reject it and turn whatever affections he had stupidly allowed to grow towards the Elf into self-loathing and emptiness.

She would eventually show him that whatever kindness she turned towards him was from a place of fear or wariness. Of isolation and desperation, rather than of comfort.

“Merikh?” she asked, her voice so raspy and sleep-laden that his fur and quills began to stand on their ends from its pleasantness.

“Here,” he answered, although it came out more like a grunt.

Her drowsy smile was small, but it was faced in his direction. It made Merikh completely uncomfortable, since he didn’t think he’d ever received a smile from someone who knew what he was.

“I feel a lot better,” she sighed contently.

Raewyn reached up and slipped off the bonnet that he realised had been keeping her hair tamed so as to not mess it in her sleep, and out spilled her white hair, loose and no longer braided. There was a glossiness that must have come from the product he could scent in her hair. She’d obviously applied a fair amount before going to bed.

Although he knew it to be longer, since her braids came halfway down her back, the newly unbound corkscrew curls made her hair appear shorter. They bounced around her shoulders, brushing the backs and sides before they settled their fall.

He reared his head back in surprise, not sure what he’d been expecting. He’d thought her hair was nice before – the braids had suited her – but he liked this more, where her curls were free and loose. Her hair looked soft and glossy, innocent and playful at the same time.

“You were asleep for almost an entire day,” Merikh commented casually, not hinting at anything he may be feeling.

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