Page 39 of Demonic Cage
He strides up to me before I have time to step back. He pulls me towards him, holding my face in his hands.
“How could I choose differently,” he begins, placing his forehead against mine, “when you are the perfect answer to everything?”
His claws tickle my skin, and the air crumbles between us. I forget everything I threw at him earlier. Darya holds onto me as if he never wants to let go, and sweet warmth arises between my legs. I need to close my thighs as I inhale his scent, reminiscent of the damp crystals and earth of a cave.
“Be mine!” He squeezes me, and my heart beats faster. He opens his eyes and looks deeply into mine, as if enchanting me. His breath caresses my lips. He wants to devour me.
“Dar—” I begin, but his thumb closes my lips.
“Shhh,” he hushes, and his sharp fangs emerge, approaching my neck. They brush my skin, and I stand on tiptoe. A cold yet warm current captures me, as if my body cannot decide how to feel. I don’t understand why I can’t fight, why I don’t want to fight. He presses against me, wrapping my waist with his sharp claws. I’m afraid I’ll break, but I still don’t move. His kiss on my neck is so soft I dare not even swallow. I close my eyes andslowly tilt my head back, giving free passage to his lips. I want to escape. But I still yield.
His lips are about to touch mine when a loud bang is followed by a giant blue figure arriving next to us.
Darya’s eyes widen, the madness in his gray eyes extinguishes, but his gaze seems so full of satisfaction that I’d like to slap him.
The Kraldem straightens up, his arms falling from my body, leaving behind a cold breeze. The blue creature next to us seems visibly embarrassed.
“Yes, Kripot?” Darya asks.
“You summoned me… Kraldem, to…” The big guy speaks as if this were his first, pain-filled sentence in life.
“Ah, yes, of course,” Darya says with a wave, then turns to me with his arrogant smile. “We’re done here, anyway.”
His words hit me like he had thrown one of the daggers.
“Lotte, from now on, you practice with Kripot every day, until I decide you’re ready for something more.” He tilts his head thoughtfully. “We only lose when we believe the lie.”
His voice is indifferent. Nothing shows that he could have devoured me a moment ago.
“You know what to do,” he says to Kripot, and with a puff of black smoke, his magnificent wings appear.
“Wait!” I reach out to him because, now that I’ve come to my senses, I want to ask him what seeing two doors in the mirror meant to him. However, the Demon King flies away without another word.
He’s so fast that a moment later he is only a tiny speck under the sunny, blue sky.
I look down at Kripot. He stares back at me. His face is expressionless. Suddenly, fear seizes me that I’m once again left alone with an unknown creature. He can’t harm me, I reassure myself. He can’t harm me.
But I know that’s not entirely true.
I collapse to the ground, trembling, after hours of enduring Kripot’s torture. I’m gasping for air as though there’s none around me, and muscle soreness has long settled into my thighs.
“There’s… no point doing this,” I wheeze.
“Your performance is… pitiful,” Kripot grunts, struggling to speak. I dismissively wave the criticism off; he has spent the entire day listing my faults. I wipe the sweat and blood from my bruised hand, injured on an obstacle course where sharp rocks littered the ground.
“We’re done for today,” Kripot declares. “Lizander will—”
“My love!” Nárs plummets down beside us like a bomb. With shining eyes, he stares at Kripot, hands clasped in a pleading gesture. “Aren’t you waiting for me?”
Longingly, he steps closer to the blue giant, who recoils. I rise from the earth, eyebrows raised, observing them.
“I thought… Lizander…” Kripot mumbles.
“Do you see this, Flower?” The orange-haired man turns to me, indignant. “Why does he do this to me? Everyone would rather be with that clumsy Lizander instead of admiring me!”
He points under his eyes to where two striped tattoos begin, then traces them down to the base of his ear.
“Do you see this?” he explains with a whine. “My dark circles disappear!”
