“Lucifer abandoned his throne in Hell for my mother, and that was uproarious to the demons. They begged Lucifer to return to them, but he refused. Returning to Hell would mean leaving my mother to die. After failing numerous plots, they resorted to desperate measures.”
“Is this story going to take long? Where do you come in?”
“I already skipped through a lot of things,” she replied earnestly. “Let’s see. I forgot where I was at. Oh yes…from their union bore a son. He has a very long name but they called him Trent for short. Every demon is born with an instinct.” She pointed at herself. “I am…was Trent’s instinct. I dwelled inside his mind and thoughts and dreams. He became aware of my existence when he was five years old because of an event I don’t want to talk about. We were friends – the best of friends. He installed a large mirror on the ceiling of his bedroom so we could talk to each other before he sleeps. We divided the time. He owns the day while I walk the night.”
“He is your other half?”
“Yes, two part of a whole.”
“Then how did you two became separated?”
“A courtesy of Arvin, one of Lucifer’s right hand men. By that time, the demons had already given up on Lucifer returning to Hell. They needed a new leader and a new purpose.”
“Naturally, they would choose Trent.”
“You would think, wouldn’t you?” The question was rhetorical. “No, Sayan, Trent was not their first choice. His heart was too…human. They saw more of Lucifer in me. They devised a plan targeting our mother so that I would voluntarily leave Trent’s body and into an empty demon egg.” Her eyes focused inward as she spoke, trying to recall the memories of her past. “I woke in Ethiopia, thousands of years later. They believed that I was the daughter of a god and sent me as tribute to the Egyptian Court. Ramses, an Egyptian prince, fell madly in love with me. He was the one who gave me my name.”
His body tensed. “What does it mean?”
“It means ‘beloved one’. He was as intelligent as he was cruel, but he cared deeply for me. And it was at the Egyptian Court that I met Trent again, only I did not know who or what he was.” She inhaled deeply. “I fell in love with him. It was the first time in my life I was drawn to anyone. The feeling was raw and instinctual as if we were fated…and we were. When I confessed my love to him…he freaked out.”
“Freaked…out?” Sayan was unfamiliar with the expression.
“He was… appalled,” she rephrased her words. “He disappeared from my life and the only thoughts that occupied my mind were that I needed to find him. Ramses, now a pharaoh, was immensely jealous when he discovered that I planned to leave him. In a fit of rage…he decapitated me.”
Sayan’s hands flew to her neck. His eyes widened. “Decapitated you?”
“Remorse came almost instantly. He held my head in his arms and he wept for days. Most of my lovers end up killing me for some godforsaken reasons.”
“Lovers?” He drawled. His eyes darkened with rage.
“I never slept with any of them if that is why your blood is boiling inside your veins right now. It is my mentality and always has been – no man is worthy of me.”
Strangely, her arrogance soothed his ire. “Does that make me…special?”
A grin tugged at the corner of her lips. “You’re an anomaly.”
A proud smile beamed on his face. “Proceed.”
“I relentlessly and obsessively chased after my other half, scheming and plotting my way into his heart.”
“He’s a fool.”
“It was exhausting labor and I always leave our trysts with bruises and scars all over my pride. I have thought of ways to end my existence once and for all. A suicidal immortal, imagine that.” She rolled her eyes. “Apparently there are only two weapons in the plane of existence that can destroy me and I can’t get my hands on neither of them. My eternal life became nothing more than a punishment. I was so drained and exhausted at the pursuit that I did something unprecedented.”
“And that is?” He asked curiously.
“I had my core removed.”
“Core?”
“The core is the demon’s true self – our immortality. If I severed my limbs, new ones would eventually grow back. The detached limbs would just rot and decay. That’s what I did. I severed my entire body from the only thing keeping it alive.”
His eyes narrowed. “May I ask why you would do something so drastic?”
“I needed Trent to believe I was someone else. Appearance can easily be altered with magic, but he will always be able to sense me because of my core. I had to get rid of it. It was the most painful experience I had ever felt.” She winced at the memory. “At any rate, result was the only thing that mattered and I succeeded. I became a girl called Raya and he was madly in love with her. He was many millennia old and it was the first time he had ever taken a bride. He loved her more than any man would his very breath, and he still does to this day. But…” sorrow blanketed her pale green eyes, “…when he found out his beloved Raya was Nala, he abandoned her without a second thought. Raya pleaded to him. She begged – something she had never done her entire life – him, but he still turned his back and walked away. He left her on that wretched cliff just as her time was drawing near. Her cries faded into the chilling cold night. Without her immortality, her body began to rot. It has already deteriorated over the three years of being human, but being exposed to the raw elements accelerated the process. She waited for him and she waited for death to relieve her of the torturous pain.”
His frown deepened. “She died that way?”
“Something like that…”
“Nala,” he warned. “Tell me.”
Her pale green eyes emitted a faint glow. “I allowed the wolves to eat me alive.”
He stared at her, baffled by her words. “You allowed them to eat you alive?”
“It was a faster way to die. Do you expect me to lay there until I turn into a grotesque puddle of …melted flesh? I don’t exactly have a fetish for pain.”
He was at a loss for words.
“When I saw you being surrounded by wolves and so close to death...” she worried her lower lip, “it triggered something inside of me.”
“That was probably the longest and most appalling answer I’ve ever received in my life.”
“You…” she pointed at his chest, “weren’t satisfied with ‘compassion’.”
He caught her hand in his and kissed it out of appreciation. “Will your brother be giving us his blessings today?”
“I have already explained to you that Trent is not my brother. He is the other part of me… my other half.”
“I prefer to think of him as your brother. I am jealous at the thought of him being your soul mate. I should be satisfied with having your body and your heart, but I am still very greedy.”
“You are only victim to your biological nature. And no, he will not be attending. The complications between us cannot be resolved overnight. He left a while ago.”
“Are you fine with that?”
“Our troubled hearts are heavy, but this is only a very small chapter in our lives. I am sure he and I will meet again over the vast distance of time. For now, I have other priorities.”
“I hope to be a very important character in this very small chapter of your life, Nala.”
She leaned her head against his chest. “It is regrettable that your lifespan is so brief. I will not waste any precious time. I love you wholeheartedly. I will have to close him out, so that I can love you and only you while you still live.” He looked down when the fabric of his chest felt wet. “Sayan, I must confess to you that I am terrified.”
“What are you afraid of, Nala?”
“You don’t know what it feels like to walk alone on a path leading to nowhere. In a blink of an eye, all of this will shatter and I will have to continue to walk on that same path, but this time all I have are memories of what I once had. Sayan, I am afraid of walking on that same road again.?
??
“People usually don’t think of the end before they even begin. Smile, my love, today is our wedding day. Let’s not worry that far into the future.”
“You have no idea, do you? How brief your life really is.”
“It still looks very promising to me.”
She wiped the tears away with her palms. “Oh, Sayan…”
“I am honestly getting goosebumps. You don’t have to keep up the act.”
Her delectable smile was far too dangerous. He had never seen this expression before and had strangely taken a liking to it. “So you’ve already figured me out.”
“Your ambassador gave me a few words of advice. He said ‘a fox gets more cunning by the day’, and you have lived so many days.”
“That bastard…”
“I can’t say that I am disappointed. I think this side of you is very adorable too. You may use your mischievous side as an excuse, but I know that those are truly your worries and fears.”
She turned her head to the side to hide the blushing cheeks. “Don’t analyze me.”
“I am your husband, Nala.” He took both of her hands in his and kissed them. “I want to know these kinds of things.”
“Then I have something to say to you.”
“Yes?”
Her pale green eyes were locked on his. “You are a King, Sayan. The women around you will always show you their best side, their smiling faces. There will always be women readily available to you. What you and I both know is that being human means that you cannot escape the trap of your emotions. We are man and wife, Sayan, and that means we will spend a lifetime of bittersweet together. There will be times when we cannot agree with each other. There will be times when we fight, and when you will grow tired of me and seek the warmth of another woman. Perhaps one day, we will need to part ways. If you wish for me to be like other women who see you as a King, then I will always show you my good side and my smiling face. If you want me to see you as your wife, then I will give you all of myself…the good and the bad… and know that it is all the genuine me.”
“Conniving little minx. You only said that so you can wreak havoc in the future without repercussions.” Her eyes briefly glanced to the side and confirmed his suspicion. He swept her off her feet and headed back inside. “How about we skip the banquet and start our wedding night early? I have been dying to touch you since I saw you in your wedding gown.”
“Sayan, you must grant the ambassadors an audience. They came very far to congratulate us.”
“I am a terrible king, after all. No, just for tonight I am not a king. Tonight, I am solely your husband.”
“I think I am a bad influence.”
“You think?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and began their wedding night with a feverish kiss.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
Dahlia Lu, Princess of the Damned
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