"Well... I wouldn't want to keep you from Maurice. He's an excellent cat." And Maurice had clearly taken to Riley as well. His gaze flickered to the side, making the beautiful mistake of meeting the priest's eyes, captured immediately in that fathomless blue. Could you drown in the sky? Liam might be finding out in this moment.

For his own self preservation he looked away out over the ocean before laughing. "I'm not sure orange cats count. They're not known for their wisdom."

But generally animals did like him, and Liam liked them. If he'd not had his soul snatched up by a demon bargain when he was too young to know better, there'd been a light in him as well, one that was being strangled and starved moment by moment, though some small spark remained.