by Dahlia Lu
Amara sighed in admiration.
“Was that the end of it?”
Amara turned to the side and discovered that Noctis was standing next to her. He had his arms folded in front of his chest so casually that she made her wondered how long he’d been here.
“Don’t do anything,” she warned him.
“I said I would not go after Trent, but I did not say anything about that woman standing over there,” he hinted at her mother. “She’s the real Kali, isn’t she?”
“Don’t you dare!”
He looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. “Are you daring me, mortal?”
“I mean… please don’t,” she pleaded. When she looked back again, everyone was frozen in time. “Please don’t do this!”
He hauled her over to Kali and grabbed her mother by her shoulder. Amara fought wildly against him.
“Be still, mortal!” He warned. “I don’t have much time before–”
“No!” She protested.
“Let them go,” Trent said. The time spell’s effect had worn off on him. “Now.”
“Making demands when you are in no position to?” Noctis asked sardonically. “Congratulations, by the way. And good luck. You’re going to need it.” He glanced over to Raya, flashed a smile back at Trent, and shifted away.
* * *
Chapter Nineteen
“No!” Amara screamed, fists flailing at him. “Let her go! Let her go!”
Noctis released both of them from his strong grip and pushed Kali forward. She regained her balance before lunging for the ground. Piercing blue eyes stared down at Amara. The corner of his lips twitched in annoyance.
“Be quiet,” he hushed her.
Amara delivered a deliberate slap across his face. “Let. Her. Go!”
He viciously growled at her. Amara didn’t back down. She returned the gesture with a challenging stare. Noctis froze Kali in a time trap before he teleported Amara to their upstairs bedroom and shoved her toward the bed.
“I’ve been too lenient on you up until now!” he snarled angrily. “You will stay here until it’s your turn to be dealt with.”
“The hell I will!” She argued. She bolted from the bed and wrapped her arms around his waist to hold him back.
“Let go, mortal. I have to deal with that woman.”
“Exactly what I don’t want you to do!”
“Don’t try me, mortal!” he shouted at her. He freed himself from her and pinned her against the soft linen. “You will stay here quietly until I get what I need from her.”
Seeing no other option, Amara attempted to seduce him with a kiss. He reacted instantaneously. He crushed her lips with his, kissing her back hungrily. Then he pulled himself back.
“Stop,” he rasped. “I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and persistently assaulted his lips. “Please,” she pleaded with him.
“Not now,” he grated. “Don’t distract me now.” He shifted away from her. The next time she saw him, he was standing by the door breathing heavily.
Fear jolted every little cell in her body. She needed him to stay. She needed to divert his anger elsewhere. What could be a better decoy than herself?
“If you hurt my mother…” she drawled out as he was closing the door. “I will hurt something of yours in return. Fair, no?”
He halted. His blue eyes were deciphering her words. They darted suspiciously to her. “What exactly are you talking about?” he said through gritted teeth. She could tell he had an idea, but he was trying not to jump into conclusions.
She’d make the picture perfectly clear to him. “If you hurt my mother then you forfeit the life of your child! Choose!”
His eyes lit up in pure, trembling rage. “Take it back,” he warned, forcing his voice to sound neutral. He failed miserably, because all she heard was rage.
Amara inhaled a deep breath and searched deep inside herself for the courage she needed to say the next word. “No,” she shouted back at him.
He shifted in front of her. His powerful frame loomed over her small body. She felt like a lamb to the slaughter. “I will give you one more chance,” he growled on. “Take back what you said.”
Her lashes quivered in fear. “No,” she breathed. “That is my ultimatum.”
Enraged, he grabbed her by her arms and forced her to meet him eyes to eyes. “How could you threaten me with the life of your own child?! I don’t believe you’re that heartless a woman!”
“Oh no? Why did I deceive you about my identity in the first place? If I was willing to throw away my own life back then, what makes you think I wouldn’t do the same to the child I don’t even want in the first place?”
He sneered at her. “How dare you…!”
“I don’t want it! I never wanted it! I’ll roll down the stairs if I have to! I don’t want anything that is part of you!”
Amara screwed her eyes shut when he raised his hand in the air. She waited for the blow that could take her life. A moment passed and nothing came. She slowly opened her eyes. His shaking hand was still lingering in the air above her. He was hesitating. The whites of his eyes had gone bloodshot.
She was puzzled when he lowered his hand to cup her face. “Don’t,” he said. His voice was stern, but his eyes had softened significantly. “I will not hurt her,” he promised. “So don’t do anything that would cause harm to yourself.”
His words nearly melted her. He doesn’t care about you, her inner self reminded her. He only cares about his child. Amara felt a sharp pain in her chest. “She won’t tell you anything, you know.”
“If need be, I will only extract her memories.”
“But you said that an immortal’s memories are–”
“I know.” He nodded. “If I lose grip on my sanity, I want you to get as far from me as you possible can.”
Why does this moment seem so tender? Amara asked herself. “Why won’t you just let go, Noctis?” She asked softly. “You have nothing to gain from it, and everything to lose.”
He briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he stammered, “I-I cannot…”
“Let go…” she begged him.
He shook his head in refusal. “I cannot…” he repeated himself.
“You said that Lucifer was your friend. Forgive your friend, Noctis.”
“It’s because he was my friend! He betrayed me!” His eyes were wandering. She could see his thoughts breaking down again. “Why…why did he betray me? What have I done… wrong? Why did he forsake me?”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t care otherwise?”
“He betrayed me, Amara. He betrayed my trust. He’d forsaken me. I cannot and I will not forgive his treachery.”
“So this is what it has all been about?” she held up his face with her hands. “You want to confront him to ask him those questions?”
He didn’t reply.
“And all of these times… I thought you were incapable of caring for another being. All of these times… you were being tormented by those questions. You never stopped seeing him as your friend, Noctis. Perhaps that is why you are so deeply wounded by his betrayal. Is that why you couldn’t let go?”
“Don’t.” He turned away from her.
She guided his gaze back to her. Abruptly, he drew back and stood. Amara frowned at the empty hands where his face had been. The warmth still lingered as she watched him leaving the room.
Noctis locked the door to the bedroom and strode down the hallway. He couldn’t stand the sympathetic look in her grey eyes. Sympathy, he scoffed. He didn’t need any, especially from her! To him, sympathy was the same as pity.
He wanted neither. He’d accept neither.
Noctis impatiently shifted to the room where he’d left Lucifer’s little bride. Kali. She was still frozen in place. He snapped his finger to release her from his spell. She calmly looked back at him without the slightest bit of alarm.
He circled her predatoril
y. Their eyes followed each other.
She was a beauty, for sure. Soft, innocent features and a pair of violet eyes that could only have originated from dreams. Noctis wondered why he didn’t believe this woman in the first place. Things could have been very different if he did.
Noctis shook his head. Unimaginable.
“Tell me what I want to know, demoness,” he said edgily.
“What do you want to know?” She asked. He couldn’t tell if she was purposely patronizing him.
“The location of Lucifer’s burial ground!” he snarled out.
“Oh…” she whispered. “I would tell you if I knew.”
“You mean he never told you?”
“No.”
“He couldn’t possibly have loved you as much as others claimed,” Noctis remarked contemptuously.
“Maybe not,” Kali agreed.
He sharply turned to her. “He truly never told you?”
“I woke up one day and he was gone. The only thing he’d left me was the memory of a passionate kiss the night before. I have no reason to lie to you.”
“I could think of a few.”
“Such as?”
“You want to protect him.”
She smiled. “He wouldn’t have that.”
“What?”
“He doesn’t need me to protect him. He’d take offence at that. You know how prideful he can be.”
Noctis knew. “Are you are saying that you are willing to betray him?”
“What Lucifer considers betrayal would puzzle us all. I am simply saying that Lucifer doesn’t need anyone to protect him.”
“You’re overestimating him or grossly underestimating me.”
“Neither. The strong protect the weak. Not the other way around.”
“Then how do you explain Amara? She risked her life again and again to protect you.”
“That foolish child,” Kali muttered worriedly. “I am perfectly capable of fending for myself.”
“Are you really?”
“I wouldn’t have lived as long as I did without learning a few lessons about survival. He made sure I learned before he left me.”
“You will not tell me?” he asked once again.
She shook her head.
“Then I have no choice but to extract it from your memories.”
She frowned. “I wouldn’t go there if I were you…”
How complicated can it be?
He raised a hand and reached out for her temple. Lucifer’s bride stood still for him, but her eyes were warning him not to go through with it.
He must. It was the only way. Get what I need and get out.
With that thought, he clasped onto her skull and began searching her mind.
“No!” the mortal shouted in protest from the door. “Don’t do it!”
How did she get out?
One thousand years, two thousand years, three thousand years, four thousand years, five thousand years…
Six thousand years of memories of an immortal was downloaded into his head all at once. Millions of scenes overlapped one another, squeezed into seconds. Countless dialogs were whispering in his ears all at the same time. An extremely high note, one he had never heard the like of, was sending sharp, piercing pain through his brain.
He swayed back, screamed out, and shoved his palms at his skull.
The mortal rushed to him, but he raised an arm to keep her at a distance. “Stay back!” he commanded.
The sharp, piercing pain went on and on. He dropped to his knees in agony, growling, trying to repress it.
“Noctis?”
That’s not my name.
“Are you alright?” Amara asked. He looked up at her concerned, grey eyes.
“Stay!” He growled at her.
Reel back, Summit. Reel back. She’s so close. You’d hurt her.
The images kept coming, overlapping, integrating… and at last, becoming a part of his own memories.
“Give him time to let it sink in,” Kali advised Amara with a gentle touch on the shoulder.
“But…” the mortal worriedly looked on.
Worried? She’s worried…for me?
A shard of memory cut through all of the others. You may not know it yet, but deep down, she also cares about you.
He had scoffed at those words. The mortal despised him. She said so herself. Repeatedly.
“Noctis!” she called out.
“My name is Summit!” he roared at her. He stood to his full height and took a step toward her. A red haze blurred his vision.
The mortal slowly backed up against the wall. With no room left to retreat, she gaped up at him. He halted when he saw his image reflected from the glaze in her grey eyes. There was a menacing look on his face that he’d never seen before.
She was frightened by it. The terrified look on her face shocked him sober.
He collected himself and closed his eyes briefly to readjust the coloring. “Mortal,” he rasped. “I told you to stay in our room.”
The tension on her face visibly melted. “You expect to keep me in there with that lock?”
He grimaced.
“Are you… alright?”
I nearly…
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he said with a hint of arrogance.
She hooded her eyes. “You were trying to frighten me on purpose?”
No, not on purpose.
“Perhaps.”
“Well? Do you know where to find Lucifer now?”
His blue eyes suddenly flashed. He turned sharply to Lucifer’s bride. “You lied to me!”
“I warned you not to go through with it,” Kali calmly deflected.
“You knew where it was all along! You tricked me into absorbing your memories!” He’d have lunged at her if Amara weren’t holding him back. “You were messing with my head! I ought to–”
The mortal rushed to shield Lucifer’s bride with her body. Arms spread out wide to prevent him from getting to her.
“Stay out of my way,” he hissed.
“You promised me!”
“That treacherous woman tricked me! She was trying to push me over the edge!”
“If you want to get to her, you’d have to go through me!”
He gave her a wry smile. At that moment, he didn’t know if he should praise her for her bravery or rebuff her for her insolence. He was somewhere in between. Couldn’t decide which one he was leaning more toward. The mortal always managed to put him in a state of indecisiveness. It incensed him because he was a prince born, bred to handle any situation at hand, whether it be internal crises or armies pounding at the gates.
He shifted behind the both of them and seized Lucifer’s bride by her raven locks and roughly yanked them in his clenched fist. “Deceitful wench!”
Pained, Lucifer’s bride released a deafening sharp cry. A deathly still moment followed. Noctis sensed time itself has stopped. There was a subtle shaking inside the earth. Noctis listened closely to its changing rhythms.
“You promised me!” his own bride screamed at him when time resumed again. “Let her go at once, or…” she frantically scanned around, “or…”
“Shut up!” He shouted at her as he attempted to concentrate on his surroundings. Something was happening.
She glared at him with tears brimming on her lower lashes. “I promise that you will regret it! Unlike you, I don’t take my promises lightly. Release her!”
She was breaking his concentration. “I said shut up!”
“I’m asking you again,” she said with pleading eyes. “Release my mother.”
He slowly loosened his grip, but didn’t quite let go. “He’s awakened…” Noctis breathed.
“You forced me to do this!” His bride snapped at him. Without another warning, she sprinted for the open window leading to a two story drop.
“Amara…!” Lucifer’s bride shrieked.
Chapter Twenty
“You’ve brainwashed her!” Noctis shot the accusation at the demoness who was tendin
g to his bride. She’d fainted after foolishly leaping out of the window.
If he didn’t shift outside fast enough to catch her, she would have broken her neck! He paced back and forth, watching, growing angrier.
“I didn’t brainwash her,” Lucifer’s bride denied.
“What other explanation is there?!” he exploded. “The girl worshipped the very ground you walk on! She repeatedly defied me because of you! She repeatedly threw herself in harm’s way because of you! You’re always hiding in the back of her head!” He rounded the bed and loomed over the demoness. “I despise you, woman!”
His bride moaned in her sleep.
“You see?” he frustratingly thrust his hand in the air above his bride to make his point.
“You are not the first and you won’t be the last. Besides, it’s in her nature to care about the people around her.”
“You’ve brainwashed her!” Noctis repeated his accusation.
“I did no such thing! When Amara was brought to me, the child was half a mess. It took me three years to gain her trust and another year for her to open up to me! The bond we have is built on love and trust!”
“Bullshit! You’re not even her real mother!”
“Amara never met her birth mother, so don’t tell me what’s real and what’s not, because I’m the closest thing to a mother that she has.”
Never met…
His angry expression softened when his eyes fell on his bride.
The demoness’s face melted in awe at the realization. “You care about Amara.” It was a statement.
“Of course I care about her! She’s my–” He stopped himself in time, “responsibility.”
“I see…” the demoness said thoughtfully. Then she offered words of advice, “Amara is not a difficult person to understand. She’d go to any lengths for the people she cares about. It doesn’t take much for her to care, either.”
Noctis sighed when he remembered the moment his bride leaped out of the window. He was overcome with fear that he may not catch her in time. It could have been a disaster. She could have perished.
Did she know that when she’d decided to jump?
She knew, he thought grimly. She knew exactly what she was doing.
She was trying to prove to him that she meant every word she spoke. He believed her now. He believed her entirely. There simply wasn’t any room left for doubt.