Oh, she definitely could, but she couldn’t ignore that someone was talking to her, whispering so close to her ear.
Her eyes darted around to find the white blur that had obviously been the one creeping up behind her. For a long while, she saw nothing but bodies of different heights and shapes crowding around her as they walked.
There! She saw a torrent of white feathers that were worn over a person that looked completely and utterly like a dark-skinned human being. It was worn like a cloak, covering her face and the pristine white dress she was wearing.
The moment Reia saw her, their eyes met for just a moment. She ducked behind a building while waving her hand towards herself beckoningly.
She grabbed Orpheus’ shirt and started pulling him. She wants me to follow. And Reia wanted to know why. She also wanted to know why there was a human here.
Yanking him, she fell out of his cloak in her haste to follow the feather covered woman. He stumbled after her, trying to cover her with his cloak as she turned the corner.
Reia just saw her before she disappeared around a different corner, like she was only walking away.
“Reia, what are you doing?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. “We cannot leave the Mavka behind.”
“Please, we have to go this way.”
She pointed down the laneway, and he covered her bare hand with his own.
“No. We must go back.”
Shit, we’re wasting time. What if the woman disappeared while she was explaining to him what she’d seen?
She had two options. Go back with Orpheus and hope she didn’t lose this strange woman, or force him to follow her.
“Follow me, Reia,” a whisper said into her ear. “I cannot remain here for long.”
Her head spun to look behind her to find the space was empty.
She knows my name. What did her words mean?
She turned her head up to Orpheus. Something inside her was telling her she had to follow, that it was important, that this mattered.
“I’m sorry.”
Reia ran, heading down the street before he could stop her.
“Reia!”
She ignored him as she held onto her mask to keep it down. Her new shoes patted against the hard dirt ground as she gave chase, searching everywhere through the eyeholes of her mask for a flicker of white.
Reia went down a street that was more like a laneway when she saw her duck into it. She was gone, and it was a dead end. She spun on the spot.
Where’d she go?!
Orpheus was with her not even a second later, and she ran into him when she turned. His eyes were a fierce red and a terrible growl was coming from him.
“You promised to stay with me!” He grabbed her arms and squeezed them in anger. “I would not have brought you here if I knew you would do this.”
“A woman was speaking to me,” she said, forgoing her quietness in her panic of losing her. She continued to search around the empty area. “She knew my name, Orpheus.”
“And you thought following her was wise?” He leaned closer as the depth of his rumbling grew darker. “If she knows your name, then she knows what you are.”
“It looked like a human.”
She ignored him to look around, desperately trying to find her. Her eyes grew wide when she finally noticed the shop name at the end of the laneway. Black Cat’s Bookshop.
“There!” She pointed to it as she grabbed his hand to start pulling him that way. “We need to go in there.”
“Are you going to run from me again if I don’t?”
“Yes,” she answered flatly.
With a snarl, he started storming in that direction, forcing her to sprint between certain steps to keep up with his agitated strides. He shoved the door open, making it slam against the wall at the same time a bell rang above.
He started searching between aisles of books, looking for the woman she’d spoken of. He looked hostile, like the person might not be safe if he found them.
“There is no one here,” he said to her when he was done. “No one but the shopkeeper.”
Her heart sunk, and she turned her sight to the Demon who was staring at them wide-eyed with cat ears poking up from his head while whiskers twitched on his face. She noticed a long tail swaying from behind him as he retreated behind the counter to hide from Orpheus, who was obviously seething with rage.
“But—”
Her words were cut short when she saw a white feather on the ground near her feet. She bent over and picked it up, twirling it in her fingers when she brought it to her face.
Orpheus covered her fingers to hide them while allowing the feather to be free above their hands. He leaned in to sniff it.