Reborn As The Daemon’s Wife - Chapter 118

Dairon stared at her for what felt like forever and frowned. “For the last time Lolanthe, I did not betray Catalyah.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Lolanthe rolled her eyes. “Males are such conniving traitors.” She muttered under her breath.

He heard her but he ignored her words. Things weren’t always as they appeared. He had said that innumerable times but not a single soul believed him. Was he supposed to continue wasting his time?

“If you have nothing else to say, you may go.” He dismissed her.

“No!” She stubbornly grabbed his sleeve. “Does King Rian know that you have been making trips to the underworld?”

Her threat made him throw his head back and laugh. “No, he doesn’t. But then again, he doesn’t know that you tried to alter fate either.”

“How dare you threaten me?” Her hands flew to her hips in annoyance.

“You started it, mother-in-law.” He leaned down to her height as he teased her. When she looked up at him in confusion, a grin was plastered on his face. “That’s a term that humans use to refer to the mother of their spouse. Or mate, obviously.”

Her eyes lit up before they dimmed when she realized what he truly meant. He wasn’t referring to her as mother-in-law because she was Catalyah’s mother but because of Jasmine.

When he saw the changes in her expression, his grin deepened. “I mean, you love Jasmine as much as you love Catalyah. They are both your daughters, right?”

Lolanthe furrowed her brows. What was he getting at? “It’s different for me. A mother can have a hundred daughters if she wants to. A male cannot have two mates.”

He was done trying to convince anyone that it was possible to have two mates. “You can put it that way if you want to. My point is already clear. I’m not going to hurt Jasmine for anyone’s sake.”

….

“What should I do?” Jasmine muttered as she thought of a way to stop the storm from coming. She was certain that she couldn’t swim back to shore if she got off the boat. She could have done it to save everyone else from having to face the repercussions of her presence but it wouldn’t be of any help. It might be much worse if she was in the water.

If only there was another way to get out of the sea.

Actually, there was. She thought of Phoenix and wanted to slap herself. How could she forget about the pegasus? But she didn’t know how to summon him.

Just as she thought about it, she noticed a white pair of wings in the sky. It was too large to belong to a bird and all it took was a glance to know that it was Phoenix. She let out a breath of relief and worked out a way to make sure no one saw it.

“You should get back. I’ll deal with everything else.” She said to the young man who was standing beside her and wondering how come there were suddenly signs of an oncoming storm.

“You are right. I should get back.” He nodded and obediently left the swimming platform, and so did everyone else who was nearby.

She hopped on as soon as Phoenix was close enough and he flapped his wings to fly away. She smiled and rubbed the side of his neck. “That’s a good boy. You came right when I needed you.”

It neighed happily and when she turned to peek back, they were too high up for her to see anyone on the cruise ship. At this distance, everyone probably thought they were seeing a large bird in the sky, if they noticed them. They flew for what felt like hours and she didn’t feel any closer to completing her mission. She was certain that Phoenix would be hungry soon if he wasn’t already. She was starving! The rush of the wind made her feel so cold her hands were almost freezing.

“How am I supposed to feel the presence of the scepter from up so high?” She asked. As if on cue, she noticed a bright, red light in the sea below. That was her scepter! She couldn’t feel it yet but she knew that it had to be it.

“Phoenix, let’s land over there.” She pointed at the part where she had seen her scepter.

Phoenix flew for a while more and did a sharp land in a few seconds and she felt dizzy from the rush of air. It was so fast! She made a floating rock on the water at the last moment and jumped off Phoenix’s back to stand on it as soon as they landed.

He neighed and looked at her cheerfully, asking for praise.

She laughed. Was that why he had made her feel like she was about to die from how fast her heart was beating, because of the thrill? Nonetheless, she stuck out a hand and patted his neck. “Good boy. I’ll call you when I need to go back.”

Phoenix turned to leave and her heart soon dimmed. He was Catalyah’s pegasus. Just like everyone else, he must have accepted her just because she looked exactly like his master.

The thought was enough to dampen her mood. Did she have to think about that goddess in every situation? She should try to live out of Catalyah’s shadow instead.

But when she thought about the fact that King Rian wanted her to call him her grandfather and be her apprentice, she had a bad taste in her mouth. Perhaps it was time to accept that she would forever be a substitute.

She took a deep breath sadly and turned towards the source of the light she had seen from all the way in the sky. It was a little bit clearer since she was here but she knew that it was not nearby.

Instinct told her that Sinos must have had a good reason to give her a week to complete the mission. It probably had nothing to do with the fact that she needed to get here on a cruise; he knew that she couldn’t stay on the sea for that long. He must have known that she would use Phoenix’s help since she couldn’t fly herself.

This meant that getting the scepter was the difficult part of the mission. It was probably going to take an arm and a leg. She took a deep breath and studied the glowing light, then made a ripple in the water to test out whether she could actually control it. She did not feel anything strange so she tried to make a bigger one.

“Not now.” She bit her lip and tried to part a small section of the water. Nothing happened and she slapped her forehead. This must be part of the difficulty. Where were Dairon’s powers when she needed them?

She tried to summon the scepter believing that it was nearby but that resulted in nothing.

“Urgh.” She groaned and braced herself to dive. Having a plan while in the middle of the sea was useless. That, and the fact that a storm would come soon if she didn’t hurry and leave as soon as possible.

She frowned. Why didn’t such things ever happen when Dairon was with her on the sea? Just what kind of grudge was there between her and the sea?

She tied her hair up in a ponytail so it wouldn’t be in her face when she dove and took a deep breath, then she jumped in. If her eyes were not open, she would have thought that she had jumped into space. The water felt as light as air and she was sinking at a speed she had never thought possible. Her vision under the water was clearer than ever, so much it almost felt creepy. She was certain that it wouldn’t feel this way even if she were to wear magnifying underwater glasses.

A shark approached her out of the blue and she almost screamed in horror. When it simply nudged her and appeared to be happy to see her, she finally comprehended it. She was no longer here as Jasmine. The water creatures were mistaking her for Dairon because she was using his powers. No wonder everything was clear.

By the time she got to the bottom of the sea, she felt dizzier than she did from the flight with Phoenix a while ago. It must be because she had been holding her breath for too long. Contrary to her expectations, there wasn’t any water around her. It was as if she was in a bubble under water but devoid of it. She had learnt from Sinos that water deities could breathe in water. Since she was temporarily one of them, she thought about it for a while and let out the breath she was holding.

“That was torture.” She laughed to herself when she could finally move steadily. She looked around for the source of the red light but couldn’t find it. Not that it shocked her. It was just the first step.

She noticed a cave of ice and felt grateful that it existed. She needed to rest for a few minutes before starting her adventure. But when she walked in, she had to rub her eyes a few times to prove that she was not dreaming. What realm or era had she walked into?