Reborn As The Daemon’s Wife - Chapter 170

“I could say we were fated, Jasmine.” Scarlet drawled her name out with a hint of sarcasm, almost as if the latter was an impostor.

Jasmine ignored her tone with a shrug. “Well, I was going to look for you.”

“I would say I don’t need to discuss anything with you but unfortunately, we do.” Scarlet recoiled when Jasmine closed in. “What do you want?”

“You already know the truth, don’t you?” Jasmine observed. The last thing Scarlet had ever wanted was to get unnecessarily close to Jasmine, and that made the latter question why she was willingly standing here on the bridge with her.

Scarlet didn’t deny the speculation. She pursed her lips with her arms crossed in a stubborn gesture.

“You can deny it all you want, Scarlet. But we both know that you realized what’s good for you.” She walked past the goddess, only for the latter to become restless when she was about to reach the end of the bridge.

“Catalyah, wait.”

Jasmine stopped dead in her tricks. Catalyah?

“I know who you are.” Scarlet caught up to the confused Jasmine. “I know everything.”

Jasmine nodded with her lips parted in shock, realizing that Scarlet only sought her because she believed her to be Catalyah. “Okay. I didn’t think anyone would find out that I was reborn as a human.” She smiled awkwardly, trying to pry Scarlet’s thoughts out of her.

The latter rolled her eyes. “Drop the act already, will you? Lies don’t look good on you.” She was almost annoyed.

Jasmine raised her eyebrows probingly, making the other describe the ‘truth’ she was talking about.

“I know that you came back to life. That Dairon hid you away in the human realm for eight hundred years.”

Why would anyone think that? Jasmine wondered inwardly, and it wasn’t long before she got Scarlet’s answer. “I know about the Caves of Cannon where you lived in hiding.”

The Caves of Cannon! Jasmine exclaimed inwardly. She had never thought that Catalyah’s hideaway would be misunderstood to be the place where she hid while everyone thought she was dead. But if Scarlet thought Catalyah had been alive for all this time, what about her first life as Demigoddess Gessamine?

“How did you find out?” She asked, feigning shock, to make the goddess talk more of it.

It worked. Scarlet shook her head with a scoff.

“Did you think no one would find out, just because you were disguised as a newborn demigoddess thirty-five years ago? You should have realized that too many disguises make it easier to expose who you truly are.” She glanced around as if she was afraid someone would eavesdrop. “Enough chit chat. Will you come with me or not?”

“When was it your turn to order me around, Scarlet?” Jasmine crossed her arms, saying what she believed Catalyah would have said after her disguise was rendered useless.

“I’m sorry.” Scarlet bowed slightly but she had forced herself to do so, all because she needed help from the demigoddess she thought was Catalyah. Jasmine wondered how she would react if she ever found out the truth. It was best not to let it get to that, thought Jasmine as she walked away from the bridge with Scarlet tailing after her.

They went to the academy’s library where Scarlet sat on a chair and Jasmine remained standing with her arms crossed.

“Don’t you want to take a seat?” Scarlet pulled a chair for her on her left and when the latter didn’t sit, she tried pulling one on the other side of the table. What she didn’t realize was that Jasmine couldn’t hear a word she was saying.

_

On the island, Dairon had summoned Bardumond for a meeting. The god had expressed his displeasure as soon as he arrived.

“What are you hiding?” He asked in suspicion.

“Maybe you will find out with less effort if you don’t draw conclusions so fast.” Dairon looked at the god before him and knew that if he told him the truth, the latter would try to attack him. So, he knew it would be safe if the god couldn’t use his power. Alas, he failed when he tried to compel him since Jasmine tried to summon the clock halfway through.

What was she doing? He wondered. She had not told him anything that involved tampering with time earlier and he couldn’t immediately figure out what she was up to. However, he guessed that she might need to reverse or stop time and let her use the power.

_

At the library, Jasmine finally sat down when she was certain that she had frozen time everywhere except in the library. There was no such thing as too much caution where Scarlet was involved, and for all she knew, the goddess might try to trap her later. The least she could do was make sure whatever conversation they had didn’t make it to the clock of history.

“You were right. I found out the truth.” Scarlet confessed, swallowing a lump at the end.

“I guess Rian wasn’t as careful as he thought, then.” Remarked Jasmine, knowing that Scarlet was referring to her powers.

“Rian was the most powerful god before you were born and in the eight hundred years that you were hiding in the human realm. But when you are in the realm of immortals, his power weakens.”

“You mean your power.” She corrected the goddess.

The latter gritted her teeth hatefully and nodded. “I can’t believe he did this to me. He would always lend me my own powers when I really needed them so I didn’t realize that they were actually in his control.”

“I can’t imagine that’s easy.”

“It’s not. And seeking you is not easy either.” She confessed. “So make this easy for me, will you? All I want is my powers.”

“Why would you think I can help you regarding that?” Deadpanned Jasmine.

Scarlet was not buying it. “You were born because you are meant to replace King Rian. Now, you are not going to do that when he is still the most powerful god in the realm of immortals, are you?” She crossed her arms. “If you give me back my powers, you can render King Rian powerless and make it easier for yourself.”

Dairon must have let her know the truth about her powers, thought Jasmine. The win-win situation that Scarlet had mentioned was the very one they had planned on going for, but she was not going to tell Scarlet that.

She crossed her arms lazily as if the deal wasn’t appealing enough to her. “I don’t know…what do I gain from doing that?”

Scarlet leaned over the table in disbelief. “You gain advantage over your enemy!” She wondered whether Jasmine was insane.

“You just said that my presence weakens King Rian. I could wait it out. I could do nothing and let him lose his powers—your power which he is controlling—and become weak enough for us to strike. I actually think it’s easier.” Laughed the demigoddess.

Scarlet shut her eyes and sat back down, resigning to her fate. “Fine. What do you want?”

“Not much, Scarlet.” She taunted. “You have tried to end my life enough times, don’t you think?”

“I will not try to do anything to harm you anymore.” She promised with trembling lips, but she didn’t think she needed to do that anymore.

To her surprise, Jasmine laughed. “You are joking, right?”

“What do you want?”

“Pledge your loyalty to me.” Demanded Jasmine.

Scarlet’s eyes widened. “That’s definitely a joke.”

“No it’s not.”

The seriousness on Jasmine’s face made her go silent for a while, wondering why Catalyah would want her loyalty.

Realizing that the latter would probably reject the deal if she had enough time to think about it, she stood up impatiently. “I’ll take that as a no. I have… caves to create and fish to roast so I better get going.”

“Wait.” Scarlet stopped her. “I’ll do it.”

_

Dairon was in the mansion when Jasmine got back. She looked displeased, and he took her hands. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you make Scarlet believe that I’m Catalyah?” She asked, having not found any other explanation as to why Scarlet would come up with such vivid speculations that were all wrong.

“I may have compelled her this morning to force her to our side.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I’m glad you took advantage of the situation.”

“I did alright.” She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. “I made a deal with her. I would help her get back her powers and she would pledge her loyalty to me.”

“Why is that a bad thing?” He wondered why she was still upset about it.

“It’s not. It’s just…” She took a deep breath almost in disbelief. “She was under the impression that I’m Catalyah in disguise. So, guess who she pledged her loyalty to? Catalyah of the Proconian Isles.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.” Jasmine took a deep breath. “We meant to make an ally out of her but all we did was create a ticking time bomb. She is going to find out that Catalyah is indeed dead and I was impersonating her. She is going to…”

“No.” He placed a finger on her lips to shut her. “That’s not going to happen.”

She nodded at his reassurance but her body froze when his words sunk in. “What do you mean?”

______

AUTHOR’S NOTE.

1] I have increased the chapter word count to suit the win-win requirements. This will make the new chapters longer and push their cost to 9 coins.

2] I am participating in win-win with all my ongoing books this month.. I hope you support me by purchasing privilege chapters.