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“Soul flames?”

“Yeah.” She pushed down on the top of Orpheus’ wolf skull as though to have a better look at... nothing. “Duskwalkers are soul eaters. I gave Orpheus mine, and it looks like me but made of flames. However, we figured out that only the bonded pair can see the black strings that tie us together, and other Duskwalkers and Phantoms can only see the flame itself.”

“Phantoms?” Emerie rasped out.

As if to demonstrate, Reia turned ghostly in Orpheus’ arms and began to hover.

“Oh shit!” Emerie shouted with her posture stiffening. She pointed at her, waving her forefinger up and down. “You’re like Lindiwe, the Witch Owl lady!”

Reia turned solid and plopped back into Orpheus’ awaiting arms, and he was quick to curl them tight around her with an annoyed huff. He brushed the top of his snout underneath her jaw.

“You’ve met her?” Reia asked, her features twisting into mild concern.

“Well yeah,” Emerie grumbled, averting her eyes to Ingram beside her. “She’s the one that told us to come here.”

Reia’s lips thinned, and she turned her face up to Orpheus. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”

At Emerie’s confused head tilt, Orpheus lifted his snout in her direction. “The Witch Owl is dangerous. She has helped us many times, more so now than ever before, but she never truly explains her reasons. All she says is that she is Mother.”

“Yeah, she explained that you’re all brothers,” Emerie said, rubbing at the side of her neck in uncertainty. “I just promised to help bring Ingram here.”

“You have not explained the purpose of these soul flames,” Ingram butted in, his orbs an even darker yellow.

“It means that she is my bride,” Orpheus gently stated, brushing the backs of his claws against Reia’s cheek. “That she is eternally mine, in body, heart, mind, and soul.”

“I... see.” Ingram hummed, cupping his hand around his beak in deep thought.

However, his tail tip squeezed around her ankle, and her chest tightened so quickly and powerfully that it hurt. She yanked her foot away, causing him to dart his skull in her direction before she tucked it underneath her butt on the chair.

Her reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Reia’s expression had turned dull but not spiteful, while Orpheus and Magnar tilted their heads. Emerie fought back with a broken and weak smile.

Just at that moment, the front door opened, and a billow of cool air pushed its way inside. Her relief at the distraction from their conversation was immense as Mayumi sauntered inside with a big Duskwalker in tow.

She’d almost forgotten that Faunus had a cat skull with backwards-curling ram horns. He was already in his more humanoid form and wearing a pair of pants.

It surprised Emerie just how different all four Duskwalkers truly were from each other.

Now that Orpheus had rolled his sleeves up, she was able to see the multi-spined, curving fish fins that lay flat against his forearms. They occasionally rose to their full lengths, coinciding with his orb changes. He had an upward-curling deer tail, and seemed to be mainly covered in long wolf fur and short deer fur. His horns were long and twisty as they spiralled back and up behind his wolf skull.

Magnar, on the other hand, was covered in a mixture of fur and long feathers that sprouted all around his neck, shoulders, and back. His tail was long, the tip just brushing against the ground, and appeared to be fluffy like a fox’s. His fox skull was the thinnest out of all of theirs, but his antlers made up for that by being the most daunting.

Then there was Faunus, who had short fur all along his body, and little lizard spikes going down his back and forearms. She imagined they no doubt went down the backs of his calves like Ingram’s too. His tail was long and thin, with short fur, and it was very animated as it curled around Mayumi’s thin waist.

Removing their horns or antlers from the equation, Magnar appeared to be the tallest, with Ingram a close second, then Faunus and Orpheus.

Ingram was the thinnest, and had the most bones on the outside of his body, from what she could tell. Magnar was denser, but not by much. Faunus was thick with muscle, but Orpheus appeared to be the strongest.

They were each so different, even all the way down to what she assumed were their base orb colours.

Ingram’s were purple, which she knew for certain. She guessed everyone else’s by what she had seen the most from them. Green for Magnar, which often darkened in colour whenever Ingram appeared to be looking in Delora’s direction. Orpheus’ were blue, and even he occasionally had a green flicker in his orbs.

Faunus had walked in with bright-yellow orbs, and he was quick to dart them around the room as he tucked Mayumi into his side. He was the only one who had a gold-filled crack down the left side of his bony face.

“Did I miss anything important?” Faunus asked, his voice booming through the quiet like a hammer.

When everyone shrugged, he nodded. Then his orbs turned a fierce red as he approached Ingram so swiftly that he barely had time to react.