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Ingram stood on all fours to follow her.“It will be faster if I carry you on our journey. You are slow, and I can move throughout the night.”

As she was climbing up the stairs, she glanced back with her lips tightly pulled to one side. She opened her mouth to say something, only to shut it.

“I’ll think about it,” she stated, confusing him on the matter.

At the pace they’d walked today, they wouldn’t make it to the westernmost point of the Veil for over an entire moon cycle. If he were to carry her on his back, he’d likely halve it – and even more so if he were to sprint on all fours.

He’d find out later why she was hesitant and attempt to change her mind.

Ingram wanted this journey over sooner rather than later, hoping to bring back Aleron as quickly as possible. That was his goal, and every day without his kindred left a crumbling hole in his chest. He wanted to fill it again.

The female said nothing about the fact he’d followed her inside, and she simply laid down with her back towards him. After a few moments, she rolled to check on his whereabouts.

“You should sleep too.”

He nodded and obediently laid down where he was, thumping to the ground in a curled heap. Even though it was early night, Ingram drifted off due to the consistent lack of sleep over the course of the past week.

His dreams were unpleasant.

The images that haunted him flickered between hazy memories of his pain: the sharpness of evil human faces inflicting them, and the Demons who had hunted him. And, in each of his darted gazes around the stone room or the gloomy forest, Ingram searched for his kindred – only to find himself alone.

Even in sleep, he could tell his heart had accelerated and his breaths had sharpened. The whines and yelps of his memories mixed in with the present ones that quietly burst from him.

Unable to cope with the intensity of his nightmares, kicking and clawing to be free of them, he jerked to his feet to escape. He paused, his orbs opening from blackness to a pale blue of combined fear and sorrow as he reorientated himself in the human dwelling.

On shaking limbs, his skull turned to the closest noise and scent.

Despite the darkness, her orange mass of hair was vivid as it lay sprawled around her on the distressed wooden flooring.It looks... warm,he thought, remembering how it had almost singed his palms in the sunshine.

He took a singular step towards her.

She smells nice.Almost sweet... and comforting. He wished he knew the names of the plants she reminded him of as he took another step closer.

I can hear her heart.It was tiny in comparison to Aleron’s. It sounded fragile, likeshewas fragile, as he took that last step.

Standing right next to her, he watched her sleep for a little while. Some of the anxieties in his chest faded at her lulling breaths, the way her chest waved in and out, and at her... peacefulness.

He was envious of it. He wanted her to share it.

Ingram hesitantly and carefully lowered himself into a curl with his back touching hers. He was ready to leap away and pretend he hadn’t been seeking the comfort of her unwitting touch if she woke.

He waited, then eventually eased when she didn’t.

It was such a tiny spot touching him, perhaps just the small of her lower back pressing against his ribs – his spikes jutting over her sleeping form – but the warmth of her spread into him. It soothed the rapidness of his heart and lungs, heating him as it travelled throughout his body and down his limbs.

His pale-blue orbs first lifted to just blue, realising simply this was enough to quell some of the loneliness that had been weighing on him. The longer he stayed there and listened to her heart, focussed on the rhythm of her breathing, and took in the scent of her, the more his sight gradually shifted to its normal purple.

She may not be Aleron, but for now, for tonight, she would provide him the tranquillity of sleeping next to someone.

It might have been the contact between them that allowed him to finally have peaceful dreams.

The only thing was... when he woke, he realised he’d changed positions. So had she. He was lying on his stomach with his arms and legs folded and tucked underneath him, whereas she was on her side. It brought more warmth, more touch, and comfort.

I am too restless to sleep.He was still exhausted, but his dreams – although pleasant – had been of Aleron. Somehow, behind the veil of those dreams, his loss lingered, tainting those precious moments he’d experienced with his kindred.

Ingram searched for a window in this unfamiliar room. The waning half-moon was high, and he thought it may be the middle of the night.

He slowly lifted his head as to not disturb the female who had curled into a ball with her forehead resting against the side of his biceps. Her knees were also jabbing into him, but he didn’t mind.