Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 37: Mind Reader

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Mind Reader

Amelia tried to wake him up the next morning.

Exhausted, Xaphile hid his head under the covers and moaned at her, but she was relentless.

"Phil," she murmured, tapping his shoulder. "Come... we have to start packing..."

Really, she and Ella just wouldn't give up when they wanted something, would they? That similarity had never been more apparent until she ripped the covers off his back and cold air rushed down to meet his skin with chilly kisses.

"All right, all right, I'm up!" he croaked, sitting up with a groggy expression; he blinked dazedly in the light, then yawned and stretched. In the process, he smelled himself and cringed. "Dude... I need a bath."

The warmth of her smile made him flush and look away, awkwardly hunching his shoulders.

"It's open now," she murmured, folding her hands together, "if you'd like to take one, the private baths are empty."

"Don't mind if I do!" he muttered, getting to his feet and shrugging a hooded shirt on. "Thanks."

They parted ways then, and he gathered up some fresh clothes so he could go for yet another soak in the hot springs.

Slinking past the the sparsely filled cavern, he moved into the private bathing area and undressed, then washed himself clean with all the zeal of a priest in the middle of a purification ritual.

And it was a purification ritual, of sorts.

After the nightmarish events of the previous evening, he needed a good wash to clear his head. Rinsing out his long hair, he sank down into the bubbling water and just sat there, knees drawn up to his chin as he stared moodily at the hot water and steam.

And as he stared, he thought.

About a lot of things.

Nearly a month and a half had passed since he'd ended up on Atlas, and still, he had no answers as to why that was. He'd avoided the anxiety by refusing to think about it until this point, but after last night's events, he didn't know if that was going to be a possibility anymore.

Whatever the hell that thing had been... it hadn't been Connie.

So, how had it managed to take her shape?

This place is messed up, he silently murmured, leaning back into the water's hot embrace; the fur on his tail and down his spine drifted with the motion of the liquid. I don't get anything at all.

He soaked for a little longer, but he ended up getting out of the warm water pretty quickly since he felt oddly restless.

He dried himself off and got dressed in the dark robe Amelia had given him, dragging the hood over his horns, then started walking upstairs.

The moment he walked into the Inn's reception bar, however, he froze like a statue. All of the inn's patrons were dead quiet, eyes glued to the two figures standing in the center of the room.

Much to Xaphile's consternation, Ella was standing chest to chest with Sinmir, bristling with fury.

"I don't know who you think you are," she said in a tone of forced politeness, refusing to lower her eyes, "but I'm afraid what you just said isn't going to happen. I won't allow it."

"I never said anything about you allowing it," he snorted, quirking a thick blonde brow. "I do what I want, lass, and you can bet your pasty little arse I'll be following your group with or without your permission. Might as well get used to the idea."