The Dragons' Bathhouse: A Reverse Harem Enemies-to-Lovers Soulmate Romance

44

"You're not okay. You're not, and they're not. And it might be all my fault." The wood nymph babbled out and Eden squinted at her, trying to make out her face in her inability to see. Her heart twisted at her words, pain shooting through her system at the mention of them.

"If you're talking about the time-stop. You've done me a favour, thank you." Eden told her, shaking her head. "Thank you for letting me know. Thank you for letting me see. This is for the better. " She tried to turn, tried to leave but Seri stopped her, a vine to her wrist.

"You don't understand, do you?" Seri whispered, her voice was awfully soft, so soft that it blended into the rain and Eden struggled to hear her. "The moment you told me about how you felt about them, about the fire in your chest. I already knew. I didn't think humans wouldn't know about this—"

"I know they are my soulmates!" Eden snapped, her voice cracking at the ends as she spoke. It was broken like her heart. "I know they are my soulmates, but they hurt me. They hurt me. They tried to kill me with the spiders...The pearls."

"The pearls? That wasn't them. That was your nasty roommate! Eden!" Seri shook her then, her branches unfurling to prevent her from escaping. Her leaves shielding them both from the rain. "You think they sentenced you to death? They didn't! They saved you! They saved you right before the Grandmother sentenced you to death. They stopped her before the stone could spread, before you were frozen forever and they healed you the best they could."

"T-they...They didn't put the pearls in my bag?" Eden gaped at her, blinking wildly as her vision flickered. Her mind was a mess at her words, confused and disoriented. They didn't deny anything when she asked so she had assumed that the pearls had been a prank.

"Of course they didn't! It was one of the humans, they smelled her scent on the pearls. She's being properly punished by the Heavens for her crimes. Bitch deserves it for being jealous of you so it serves her right."

"You-You're lying. D-did they put a spell on you? Try to convince me to go back? I won't okay? I won't. The spiders were real, I have a scar to prove it, don't try to convince me—"

"Oh, that was real. They fucked up on that one." Seri sighed, muttering under her breath about stupid boys and gods. "They need you, Eden. You need to go back. You need to go back, right now!"

"Seri, please. Please," Eden begged. "Please don't tell me that."

"Why are you angry with them? Is it because they bullied you? Because they tried to kill you? You know, they've never really tried to kill you, the entire time they only wanted you to leave to go to the Human Realm—"

"And I am doing just that okay? They've wanted me gone from the start! I listened! I'm here!" Eden cried, angrily tugging at her best friend's branches.

"They are stupid. But they don't mean what you think they are saying, they've never wanted to reject you this way. They only wanted you safe."

"Safe? Safe from what?"

"From them!"

"You must be joking. Them? Are you fucking kidding me?" Eden laughed then, her chuckles empty and sad. She shook her head. "All they've done from the moment I met them was hurt me. They hurt me and they bullied me, they made my life fucking miserable." She inhaled sharply, letting the poison spill from her lips. "Maybe they didn't try to kill me with the pearls, but they stopped my death at the very last second because they were scared."

Eden's voice grew deadly cold, steely and sharp in the wind. "They were scared of the guilt that would come. And they think they owe it to me as my soulmate to save me. They were afraid of death from a possibly broken bond and they only cared about themselves! THEY DON'T LOVE ME!"

She panted from her outburst, her words settled in her own head and tears dripped from her eyes. They were guilty, and as they had said, they wanted her gone despite knowing that they were soulmates. They didn't love her. They only loved themselves. And that was why she continued to cry to the memory of her past.

"Do you know why they wear black all the time?"

Seri's question was sharp like a knife through butter, it sliced into her with a coldness that scared her. Seri spoke to her as if Eden were scum, as if she were a piece of shit at the back of her shoes. Nervousness crawled into Eden's heart, a worm that wiggled in her chest and made her heart race. Seri continued to speak despite everything Eden had said, and that made a shiver of anxiety dance in her mind.

"W-what?"

"Do you know what they eat every day for every single meal?"

"What are you trying to say Seri?"

"Do you know what they did for you? Have you ever looked at your own eyes?"

"I-I just didn't see the need to look at myself. My sight is blurry. It's still crap."

"You can see colour, right?"

"Yeah. I can—" And Seri was transporting her on the wind, carrying her to shelter. She stumbled at the sudden change in environment and Seri pushed her forward. Eden inhaled sharply, glancing around wildly at the white tiles of the bathroom. She was in a bathroom, one with clean white tiles and a simple monochromatic design.

"Look in the mirror Eden. Look at your eyes and tell me what colours are they," Seri commanded. Eden blinked nervously as her best friend pressed her against the ceramic sink. She stared at the blurry blob of her peach skin, at the mess of colours.

"S-Seri? What do you mean my eyes are always black—"

They were not black. Her breath hitched in her throat as she stared. The colours that greeted her was not the usual dark brown of her lineage. Her left eye was a soft, silvery-blue cerulean while her right was a golden red that appeared like fire in the night. A flash of clarity was the last cruel strike that she needed to melt her hardened heart.

"My eyes," she whispered, pressing her face closer to the mirror without Seri's harsh hand. "They're not mine."

"No. They are not, just as how the skin of your back is not your skin." Seri agreed, her voice soft as her vines unwrapped from Eden's body. "Nobody survives a whipping from the stones of the volcano from the Heavens. Minor gods can die from those types of weapons. That and a medusa's sight? You were not just one foot in the grave. You were buried within it. Death was inevitable for you and your eyes were gone for good."

"What did they do?" Eden whispered, her eyes continuing to dart between the two colours. Their colours. "What did they do?"

"They exchanged everything with you. Your wounds, your eyes. They took it all and now. Now they will die. They will die and you're the only one who can save them."

A/N: Read the completed book including a Patreon/Amazon-only epilogue here: https://www.patreon.com/tinyeyecat