Page 113 of Demonic Cage
They attacked the demons, and all of them died. Why? Why now?
I can’t shake the overwhelming feeling that I had something to do with it. I don’t know how.
I sigh. I can’t wait any longer.
I go to the bathroom, which is as dark as the Demon King’s room. I lock the door and look in the mirror.
The demon blood I’ve been drinking over the past weeks has had its effect. Every part of me glows like virgin snow. My blondish-purple hair is almost as long as it used to be. It’s like the purple highlights are growing from the roots. In my eyes, I can see the waves of the water surrounding my homeland. They almost seem to move. My pouty lips are fuller than ever. It’s as if the Kraldem’s blood has already started transforming me.
I take a deep breath. There’s no point in delaying any longer.
I swallow one of the celestial orbs, placing the other two in my pocket.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then I clutch my chest as if a rope is tightening around it, black spots appearing before my eyes. I fall to my knees, and death pulls me under.
There are no cries of seagulls, no crashing waves. The sand burns, the ocean is dried up. I can’t find anything to enjoy about this place, staring at the beach with empty eyes.
Movement catches my attention. Lavian appears out of nowhere. His fingers are bloody. I just stare at him. They’re bloody as they were when he killed Mathys.
He looks at his hands, frowning, then back at me.
“You finally came,” he says, walking towards me, but something in my expression makes him stop.
“Why did you attack the demons?” I ask coldly. “It was a—”
“A suicide mission, I know,” Lavian says softly, and the pain in his voice makes my muscles relax. He crosses his muscular arms over his broad chest. “But we had no choice because… in war, sometimes sacrifices serve a greater purpose.”
I narrow my eyes. Isn’t that what Darya said?
“Were you really there?” he asks. It takes me a moment to realize he’s referring to Mathys and when Darya somehow made us invisible. I nod slowly, not taking my eyes off him.
I read somewhere to never turn your back on a killer.
“How is that possible?” he asks, beside me now. “That we didn’t see you?”
I look at the dried-up ocean. A breeze touches my skin.
“You killed the boy.”
In the distance, I hear seagulls.
“Lotte, please, look at me!” he says seriously, and I do.
I see a broken look. Centuries of fighting his own soul.
“I hate doing this,” he whispers, sitting next to me. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“That’s exactly what I needed to see,” I reply flatly. “That you’re just like them.”
Lavian is stunned.
“You can’t be serious! Lotte, if we didn’t kill the boy, Darya would turn him into a demon! Use him against us, and he’d die in the war, anyway! The Kraldem would sacrifice him as a soldier.”
“You could have taken him with you. That boy was good…”
“No, Lotte. He wasn’t. The demon blood in his veins was already flaring up. A demon-blooded can’t come to Herebu.”
“I have demon blood in me!” I snap, and a seagull cries out in the distance. “Would I never have a place with you?”
