Page 16 of A Soul to Guide

She didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

“Go inside,” he demanded. “I saw through one of the windows there’s a well. I’ll go check if theprincesscan have more water. Maybe she’ll even take a bath so she doesn’t stink.”

Her lips parted in mortification, and honestly, just in shock that he would say something like that.

“I don’t smell that bad!” she yelled when he walked down the steps. Then most of his sounds became muted when he touched dirt.

He was completely gone when the slight jingling of bells ceased around a bend.

“I don’t... do I?”

She’d been rubbing the pouches tied around her waist against her body, so she didn’t smell too bad. She sneaked a sniff at her armpit, and she thought she smelt just fine.

She reached her hands forward so she could guide her way to the door and then made her way inside. She touched all the walls to familiarise herself with the layout, counting her steps as she did.

There was very little furniture, as if it’d been ransacked over time. There was, however, a singular chair and a low table.

There were two rooms, one that was empty, and another that had broken bits of timber and a de-fluffed mattress. She went cold when she understood this was the ‘nest’ he spoke of and backed out of the room in horror.

Once she mapped out the walls of the house in its entirety, she did the dimension math in her head of how many steps each wall was from each other. She went through it all in her mind’s eye, and once she had, her confidence within the space grew.

Merc came in not long after and placed a sloshing bucket on the ground. He also started up the fireplace and boiled it.

Since he was crouched down in front of it, she accidentally bumped his side as she crouched next to him, following the sounds and smells to know where the fireplace was. The fire crackled as it came to life, and the heat that billowed from it was utterly pleasant, as was the sweetness of the wood burning.

“Can I really have a bath?”

“No, there’s no tub, but I’m sure you want to get clean. I’ll leave so you can have some privacy to wipe yourself down.”

She leaned closer and rudely sniffed at the air right next to him. Over the course of their time together, she’d grown fond of his scent, like that of a draflium flower, and she’d already missed it.

“You need one now as well. You smell like ash.”

“I’ll wash myself outside near the well. I’m not so picky about the quality of my water, so long as it’s clear.”

Along with his smell, she also found his voice nice – even when it was being used for rudeness or to curse. She’d never really touched him, so she had no way to gauge what he looked like. All she knew was that he was very tall, and very strong.From the times she’d accidentally bumped into him, he appeared dense with thick, large muscles.

Were he not a human, she may have tried to get to know him on a less friendly and more intimate level. His personality, although abrasive, wasn’t truly unpleasant to her. Raewyn had always been soft but resilient. She could handle anyone, and most people tended to like her because of it.

Her parents had been reclusive, preferring to throw themselves into their work, which is why they’d never applied to join the council. She, on the other hand, had been invited when most were supposed to submit forms.

Underneath Merc’s callousness was actually a person who cared on a deeper level. He wouldn’t have obtained the water for her, cleaned away the spiderwebs, or offered her privacy if he didn’t. Sure, he let her go a little cold at night, but that was her own fault, since she’d never voiced her displeasure.

Bubbles began to pop at the top of the water heating inside the fire. Merc removed the pot and placed it on the ground, the muted thud informing her he’d placed a cloth underneath it, so he didn’t burn the flooring.

“Do I really smell that bad?” she playfully asked, with her lips pursed but curling upward.

“No, but women tend to their hygiene better than men.” His clothing rustled as he stood. “Eat while it cools down. I’ll go outside, wash, and check the surrounding area to make sure it’s safe.”

When the door thudded shut, Raewyn sat down and finally removed her bag from her torso. She dug through it, and her shoulders turned inward at how much food she had left. She’d been rationing it, but Merc said the closest town was still a few days’ walk. He’d never told her how many more, oddly vague about it, but she was beginning to worry about how much she had left.

She ate the last of what was soft and likely to begin spoiling.

Once she was done, she finally removed her boots and massaged her feet through her socks. They ached terribly, and she was relieved to have freedom from her foot prisons.

The two-handle pot was hot to the touch, but she wrapped whatever was beneath it around the handles and lifted it off the ground. From feeling the main room before, two of the windows didn’t have curtains or blinds.

However, the room that wasn’t once a Demon’s nest had only one window, and its curtain was fully intact.

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