Page 8

“Would you like to have a name?”

His eyes jerked to her, unsure. “I’m not allowed to have one.”

“No one has to know. It can be our secret.”

There was a war behind his eyes, thoughts fighting against each other. Naomi didn’t know much about his culture, so she let the proposal hang in the air without insisting, lest she overstepped a boundary she didn’t know existed.

“You would give me a name?” he asked, unsure.

“Yes. It’d be an honor.”

The frown deepened a little more, but instead of rejecting he said, “I’d like a name.”

Naomi thought carefully, trying to think of what name would give the same vibe as him. Common names came to mind first, but they sounded too silly for him. Bobby the krampus, James the krampus, Henry the krampus… they were too unserious. Then, she tried to think of keeping the initial K, and went through all the names starting with that letter.

“I have it!” she exclaimed, jumping on her seat. “Kilean!”

“Kilean?”

“Yes! It’s with a K, to connect it to krampus,” she explained. “And when I hear Kilean I imagine a mysterious, attractive man, for some reason. So it feels perfect.”

His eyes widened a little. “Attractive?”

Naomi’s mouth fell open. The thought hadn’t occurred to her, but now that she said it, she realized it wasn’t a complete lie. Yes, he was strange and unfamiliar and not completely human, but there was handsomeness behind the monstrous features. It felt weird to confess that to herself, but there was no going back now.

She cleared her throat. “I mean… yeah.”

“Oh.”

He sounded, and looked, genuinely surprised. He scratched his hooked nose with one of his long nails, eyes darting away.

“You are pretty,” he conceded, awkwardly. “For a human.”

In any other instance she might have felt offended by the comment, but instead it felt endearing. She fought the smile pulling at her lips.

“Thank you.”

Meal finished, he looked around the space, studying every inch with genuinely curious eyes. Not sure how to proceed, Naomi took the dishes and brought them to the sink. What were they supposed to do now? She had told him he could stay until he was fully healed, but other than talking, she didn’t know how to entertain him. He was clearly trying his best to have a conversation with her, but Naomi guessed there was a limit to how much he could speak before it exhausted him entirely.

“Healing is faster when I rest,” he told her.

She turned around to him standing by the kitchen door.

“You can sleep in one of the spare rooms,” she offered.

He shook his head. “The bed would be too small for me. I can sleep on the floor here.”

He pointed at the living room, in the space between the two couches and the fireplace. It was a big enough space to fit him, indeed, but the floor must be uncomfortable. And he was still injured, too.

Before she could protest, he said, “That would be the most comfortable option for me.”

Sighing, she nodded. “Okay, I’ll let you rest, then. If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

Naomi watched as he settled in front of the fire, partially curled up into himself, then left him alone and wandered to her room.

She felt unsettled leaving him alone, as if she was letting a guest fend for himself in an unknown environment. In a way, he was a guest in her house, but also wasn’t, and it felt very disorienting.

To distract herself, she picked up her e-reader and dipped into a fantasy romance book, now curious to look at magic with a different approach. She read for a couple hours but when her eyelids felt heavy, she decided to take a nap, too.