Page 19 of Demonic Cage
“Let go!” I hiss at Darya, who had been supporting my arm to help me stay on my feet.
He does so, and, I immediately have to cling to the wall. My whole body is trembling. There’s no denying that the post-overdose – as I call them – honeymoon days are over. Of course, it never lasts days, just a few hours. Plus I took too much.
I look at the silver-haired man. Four pills. Four pills weren’t enough for him to disappear. So, either my mother was right, and I really went crazy, and I’m currently imagining things within the walls of a psych ward, or Darya truly is the Demon King, and he brought me to his realm.
“Where are we?” I ask. Darya tilts his head to the side.
“Your friend said that you’re taking a strong antidepressant… and other things. You changed after you returned to the table. Since you took the pills, you haven’t spoken the Filizi language.What kind of poison did you take, and how long until it disappears from your system?”
I can’t help but laugh. Poison. No one has ever called my medication that, except Bengt.
“You understand our language,” Darya continues, perhaps mistaking my mocking laughter for surprise. “You speak every language in the world. But the poison suppresses your abilities. That’s why I asked.” He looks at me questioningly. “When will its effect wear off?”
A shiver runs down my spine at the thought. I start to fiddle with the bandage on my arm. So, it appears I didn’t understand his language once I’d taken the medication.
The man remains patiently silent. I realize I’m waiting to see that usual look I get from others. The disdain. The disbelief.
I don’t get either from him. Just curiosity, and something else too intense to name.
“Well,” I begin, trying to retrieve from my mental lexicon what it is I’m currently taking. “The effect lasts a few hours, then it’s one or two days until it’s cleared from my system.”
I clear my throat from embarrassment and lower my gaze. If all this is true, then I should understand their language. And their language…
Wait a minute.
Theirlanguage… Demons. What do demons look like, I wonder…?
My muscles tense up at the sound of a growl emerging from the dark corner of the cave. My eyes widen as I slowly turn to the side.
Shock immobilizes me as I gaze at several yellow pairs of eyes shining at the end of the dark tunnel.
They’re here. They’re here.
“Darya…” I whisper, gripping the black fabric of his sleeve, trembling. I dare not move. The creatures emerging from the ground are so familiar that fear melts me. I forget to breathe.
Those pitch-black skulls and sharp teeth surrounding me are the same ones that once loomed over me in my bedroom. The ones in my nightmares. At least I thought back then that they were creatures of my imagination.
They approach, and some emerge from the red wall as if they were ghosts, although they are very much real. Their claws dig into the rocky ground, and they sniff the air. Each creature is unmistakably looking at me. I can almost feel their mouths biting into me. And then they scream and I hear them exactly as I did in my dream. The snarling and the sound of sharp teeth clashing.
I press into Darya’s arm.
“We need to get out of here,” I say, shaking him. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go…”
I look at him, and I’m astonished. The white-haired demon in front of me is no longer Darya. His cloud-gray eyes have turned midnight black. Pale lips are streaked with dark purple veins, as if he were already dead. He blinks, and from the inner corner of his eye, two thin streams of black tears flow down. The two streaks solidify on his face like tattoos, appearing as if they have always been there.
“It was you,” I stare at him, wide-eyed. I know I should push myself away, but I grip his arm even tighter.
They were his monsters. I’ve seen his demons all my life. Because of him, I had to take medication. Because of him… Everything is because of him.
“They won’t harm you unless I give the signal,” he says, tilting his head to the side again. He’s like a scientist who has made an interesting discovery. Except he’s a demon, and I surprise myself at how quickly I’ve accepted this fact.
“With the angels… you sent the monsters after me!” I stammer, and the realization hits me. How could I be so stupid? How could I choose him?
“To save you from the herebias.”
“The monsters wanted to kill me too!”
He shrugs.
