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However, the longer she stared, his orbs turning a darker blue with each second of silence passing between them, the more she relaxed. Her posture softened, and she averted her gaze into the forest as she rubbed at her cheek.

“No, it’s fine,” she grumbled. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I can change back if it will ease you.”

He hoped hecouldchange back.

His legs were stronger than they were moments before, and they ceased shaking. He did wobble when he cautiously drew his hand away from the tree trunk, but he was able to stand on his own with minor swaying.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak out.” Emerie closed some of the distance between them, forcing her neck back even further. “If you want to walk like this, then you can.”

“You don’t like it,” he stated, turning his head away as he internally pouted.

“Sure, I do! I just didn’t know you could do this.” Then, she laughed as she said, “I just don’t like surprises. I like to know what’s happening.”

Is she lying?

It was hard to tell for a creature who understood little about humans. Her expressions often confused him.

One thing he did know about Emerie... was that she wasaccepting.

“I also did not know I could do this.” He had to admit, it was harder to see her like this. He needed to lean to the side just to look at her feet. “But I have seen other Mavka do it. I thought if I walked like you, you would be more at ease with me.”

Her little brows drew together as her pale-pink lips tightened. “But I have been at ease with you.”

His sight shifted to a reddish pink once more, unsure if he should be truthful or not. Ingram wanted to be closer with her, and he worried that revealing the depth of what he wanted, and still didn’t fully comprehend, would make her unsettled.

To test her, Ingram hesitantly reached forward.

Her eyes warily darted to the side at his claws nearing, but she didn’t flinch or try to evade him. When he was able to touch his careful fingertips to her marred cheek and then brush his claws into her hair so he could hold the side of her face, his heart tightened with tenderness.

He decided to just brave it, already frustrated with his obsessive thoughts of her.

“I don’t know how to learn about you. I know your name, and that you are a Demon hunter, but I do not know where you came from. I do not... know why you are here with me.”

Why had Emerie chosen to come on this journey with him?

Part of him hoped it was because she wanted to be by his side after helping him in the mountain stronghold. Did she save him because she had been able to see he didn’t want to be a terrifying monster? He’d been seeking for some way to escape the loneliness that had bitten its fangs into him after Aleron was taken from him, and he thought maybe she recognized that.

I want her to share with me.In the same way he wanted to share with her, but found it difficult to do so whenever it pained him.

He wanted her to take that pain away somehow.

He wanted her to fix it.

She was smart and kind, she must know of a way.

If she had her own pain, Ingram wanted to frighten it away. To be a source of comfort, as she had already been for him – without him needing to ask her to.

But he didn’t know if she held fears or sadness within her.

Since she hadn’t answered him, her lips opening and closing like she was unsure of what she wanted to say, he braved stroking her cheek with his thumb. He was careful of his claw near her eye.

“There are times where you look into the forest with a sad expression on your face. I do not know if that is because of me, or if something else is saddening you.”

Her eyes lowered to avoid his stare. “I’m fine, Ingram. You have enough on your mind.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest. He pushed her face back up to meet his own, not liking that she wouldn’t look upon him. “You smile, but it is only ever at me.”