Chapter 1094: Tsundere Cat Sorcerer [Part 2]

Chapter 1094 – Tsundere Cat Sorcerer [Part 2]

She scrubbed harder.

The cold water helped again.

By the time she finished, she felt calmer. Damp, shivering, offended, but calmer.

She stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel, glaring at the bathroom like it had personally witnessed her weakness.

Then she spotted a perfume bottle on the counter.

Runa narrowed her eyes.

Perfume!

Good, a civilized weapon.

She picked it up, sniffed cautiously, and found a clean scent, powdery, soft, slightly floral, nothing like Lux’s ruinous darkness.

Perfect!

She sprayed it into the air.

Once.

Twice.

Then, after considering the scale of the enemy, several more times.

The bathroom filled with fragrance.

Runa lifted her chin. "Ha!"

No pheromones landed in her nose now.

Only soap, perfume, marble, and victory.

She dried herself carefully, then pulled Lux’s shirt back on because there were no other clothes yet and walking around naked would only give fate more ammunition.

The fabric slid over her skin.

Still his.

But now the soap and perfume formed a defensive wall between her and disaster.

Hopefully.

Her eyes drifted back to the bathtub. Still dry. A den.

Runa stared.

The cat instinct whispered approval.

She walked to the bathtub, climbed in, curled up, and tucked her tail around herself.

"Strategic rest position," she muttered.

Yes.

That was what this was.

The porcelain was cool beneath her. The towel softened the edge where her shoulder rested. The bathroom smelled of soap and perfume. The walls blocked the worst of the mansion’s scent.

Here, Lux’s pheromones could not reach her.

Runa curled tighter.

The cold shower had done its work too well. Now her body felt heavy. The heat had faded into exhaustion. Her eyelids lowered despite herself.

Her breathing slowed.

The perfume blurred into softness. The marble light dimmed. Sleepiness crawled over her like a cautious animal, settling over her shoulders, along her spine, into her tired limbs.

Her eyes closed.

Then warmth touched her.

A blanket settled over her body.

Runa stirred faintly.

Something lifted her.

Carefully.

Arms beneath her back and knees, carrying her from the dry bathtub as if she weighed nothing.

Her mind floated between sleep and memory.

For a moment, she was not in Lux’s mansion.

She was young again.

Too young to be feared.

Too ambitious to sleep properly.

Curled over books in her father’s study, ink on her fingers, cheek pressed to parchment after studying until the candles died.

Then warmth.

A blanket over her shoulders.

Her father’s quiet sigh. "You will burn the world tomorrow, little star. Tonight, sleep."

Strong arms lifting her. Safety before she learned safety could be broken.

Runa’s throat tightened in sleep.

She curled closer to the warmth carrying her now and refused to wake.

If this was a dream, she did not want to leave it.

The scent was not Lux.

At least, not like she smelled in that room.

No sharp pheromone edge. No seductive pressure.

Just warmth.

Her lashes fluttered.

Through the blur, she saw a man’s face.

Not clearly.

Only the outline.

Dark hair.

Calm eyes.

A mouth that did not smirk this time.

He looked down at her quietly.

Runa tried to speak.

Could not.

Sleep held her too deeply.

The man laid her onto the bed.

Not on top of the sheet.

Under it.

He tucked the blanket around her shoulders with almost irritating care, making sure her tail was not trapped awkwardly beneath her. He adjusted the pillow. Drew the sheet higher. Then paused.

Runa’s hand, half-asleep, had caught his sleeve.

Again.

Her traitorous fingers refused to release him.

The man stayed still.

Then, very gently, he loosened her grip one finger at a time.

When her hand finally fell back to the bed, he placed it beneath the blanket like she was something fragile enough to deserve arrangement.

Runa’s chest ached.

Father?

No. Not father.

Her father was gone.

Long gone.

A small object clicked against the bedside table.

Runa’s eyes opened a sliver.

A candle?

No flame at first.

Then a soft glow bloomed.

The candle released fragrance slowly into the room.

Lavender.

White tea.

Silverleaf.

Something old and calming. A scent made to quiet magical sensitivity, soothe unstable nerves, and drown out stronger invasive traces.

Wait.

Candles had scents now?

Or maybe rich demons had weaponized comfort.

The man’s voice came very softly. "For the pheromones."

Runa’s mind stirred.

Lux?

No.

Maybe.

He should still be with his girls.

He had smelled like sin before.

This one smelled warm because he had made himself warm.

The thought drifted through her half-sleep like a candle reflection over dark water.

A hand hovered briefly near her hair.

Did not touch.

Then withdrew.

Respecting the boundary even in sleep.

Runa wanted to open her eyes fully, to accuse him, to tell him she did not need help, to inform him that sneaking into bathrooms to rescue sleeping sorcerers from bathtubs was inappropriate.

But her body refused.

Her soul refused harder.

Sleep pulled her down.

The last thing she saw was the man stepping back from the bed.

The candle’s glow framed him.

Dark hair.

Broad shoulders.

Quiet face.

Then he disappeared.

Not through the door.

Through shadow and gold.

Runa curled beneath the blanket, the perfume and candle wrapping around her like layered protection.

Her breathing steadied.

This place was dangerous.

Lux was more dangerous.

And his kindness was the most dangerous of all.

Because chains announced themselves.

Warmth did not.

And after centuries of stone, Runa’s body remembered too easily.

Her fingers curled into the blanket.

The bed smelled clean now.

No heavy pheromones.

Only the calming candle, soap, and the faintest trace of a man who had chosen not to wake her.

Runa slept.

Deeply this time.

Not as a cat hiding in a tub. But as a woman, wrapped in warmth, held for one brief moment by a memory that hurt less than before.

And somewhere in the dark between dreams, she thought she heard her father’s voice again.

Tonight, sleep. Tomorrow, burn the world.