Reborn As The Daemon’s Wife - Chapter 174

“What?” Her eyes widened. Before she could take a good look at the arrow, he grabbed her hand and they were outside faster than she could process it.

She peeked into the banquet hall where Terra and Madlen were expressing their love to each other using songs. Seeing how calm everyone else was, she laughed at Dairon’s overreaction. “There’s no need to panic. It’s a wedding prank. I didn’t know they were a thing in the realm of immortals too.” She let out a sigh of relief. His reaction had almost shocked her to death. Nonetheless, she had to admit that Terra had gone a little too far with the choice of pranks. It was never funny to prank anyone by making them think their life was in danger.

“It’s not meant to be funny.” He showed her the arrow in his left hand. It was tiny and looked like it had been made out of a precious, dull black stone.

“Only demons can make and possess these. I don’t think your friend is acquainted enough with demons to invite them over to prank her with arrows that could end a deity in the blink of an eye?”

“What?” Jasmine was baffled when she processed his words. “Someone is trying to attack Terra? A demon?”

“No. You.” He pulled her further away from the hall. “These are banned in all the realms. Only Ulke possessed them now.”

She reached out to touch and inspect it out of curiosity but he withdrew his hand out of her reach.

“I can safely touch it because my demon blood protects me. If you do the same, you will die.”

She was even more shocked. Technically, the demons could have killed her without letting her know what was happening. They could simply put the arrow in a strategic spot where she would have to touch it. She wouldn’t even know why she died.

“That’s horrifying.” She shivered. But why would Ulke be here?

“You have to go back to the island. It’s for your safety.” He urged.

“But…”

“No buts. Go first. We can talk about everything else later.” He didn’t let her say anything else before he used his power to send her off to the island. She would probably be mad at him for not letting her face whatever trouble was coming up along with him. However, the arrows were not trivial. He had not told her but because of him, she was more vulnerable to the arrows than any other immortal. It was about time he made things right.

“Dairon?” A hand touched his shoulder, scaring half the life out of him.

“Mother! Don’t creep up on me like that.” He watched Alaya’s eyes go wide with shock.

“Dairon, what did you just call me?”

He only realized after she pointed it out that he had called her mother.

“It was just a reflex.” He made an excuse, but that only made Alaya’s heart melt into a puddle. So Dairon didn’t hate her as much as she thought.

“What were you going to tell me?” He asked.

“Right. Uhm, I heard from a water deity that the King of the underworld had been paying frequent visits to the water territories, especially The Enchanted Circle. You need to stay away from there.”

“I see.” He searched her eyes. Did she really not know that the “human” she once loved was the very king she was talking about?

She would be sad at the very least if she knew, so her clear eyes convinced him that she didn’t know. It would break her heart when she found out. It was not just a possibility. Secrets could stay hidden for millennia but it couldn’t be kept away forever. One day, she would find out. He could only hope that if that day did come, she would be strong enough to handle the truth.

The unsuspecting Alaya continued gazing up at him lovingly. “Tell Jasmine about it too. I realized that she is a curious demigoddess. You should remind her to stay away from the water kingdoms.”

“No one has to worry about that.” He smiled. If there was anything Jasmine hated that he was glad about, it was the fact that the sea strongly rejected Jasmine, so much that a literal storm could rage because of her presence. He knew that she was curious about the sea, but he was also glad that it repelled her so strongly. Sometimes he wondered whether it was natural or a result of something. No matter what it was, he was thankful that it protected her from getting herself into trouble out of curiosity.

“I don’t know how come you are here but you have to go back.”

“What are you talking about?” She frowned. “Okay. I know Jasmine didn’t invite me here. Something felt odd, but you need to tell me what’s going on.”

“All I know is that Cannon Island is the only safe place for you.” He couldn’t risk sending her off like he did with Jasmine, because she was a powerful goddess and might just sense his demon powers. He could only talk her into leaving even though that used up a lot of time and effort as she wanted to help her son out.

When the females that mattered in his life were both safe, he scouted the island for traces of demons. When he finally found one, he was baffled. Narilia?

“What are you doing here?” He demanded.

The queen of the underworld looked at him in all her demoness glory. “I’m here for the counterfeit. Tell me where she is.”

“It will never be your turn to order me around.” His gaze darkened. “Did Ulke put you up to this?”

Narilia wanted to speak but stopped when a god approached her from behind. Bardumond. It had to be him. She could feel it even though she had not turned to see him. Her eyes stung and she wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms. Alas, she couldn’t. She was a demon’s mate now, and having such a relationship with a god would bring dishonor to Ulke. But she had missed him so much…

“May I know what’s going on here?” Bardumond finally spoke, but his sword was pointed at Narilia. “Turn around, demon.”

She obeyed his order and looked up at him as she turned. When their eyes met, she could swear that she saw a gazillion emotions flash through his eyes. They were gone before she could grasp any of them.

“Just when I start to trust you, you become all mushy with a demoness.” Bardumond’s words were aimed at Dairon, who was just about to leave and let the couple have some alone time.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dairon flew away. It was obvious after meeting Narilia that she was the one who had come to the wedding with Ulke’s arrows. How she got into the Proconian Isles was not shocking. It was where she was born, after all. The protection spells could not work against her. However, that didn’t mean they were safe. Not until the king of the underworld and his counterpart from the realm of immortals were eliminated.

“Don’t you think you might get discovered, flying around like that?” Jasmine asked him when he got back to the island. He was whipping his wings mid-air in front of the balcony where she was sitting and writing a letter.

“I can only fly around when I’m sure no one will see me apart from those who know that I have wings.” He rose higher in the air and landed beside her, reaching out to touch her face.

“Are you mad at me?”

“I think you are mad.” Her lips twitched. “You threw me back here without asking for my opinion, and now you are asking if I’m mad at you?”

He retracted his wings smiling at her even though she was not smiling back. “You are pretty when you are angry. Do you know that?”

“I should have long realized that demons were sadists but no, I ignored all the signs.” She went back to writing, ignoring his chuckle. She had left Terra’s wedding banquet before it ended and so had Dairon. The latter would definitely be disappointed so she had decided to write a letter to apologize and send her another gift. She didn’t know how to explain her departure. That she was being chased by an unknown demon and couldn’t stay any longer?

After thinking for a while, she wrote down that she had felt unwell and Dairon helped her back to the Island.

“I have a feeling that what happened at the banquet was not all that was meant to happen.” He spoke up when she was done sealing her letter.

“What do you mean?”

“The arrow was probably meant to be a trigger for something. No one saw it apart from us, so they didn’t know that anything was wrong. But think about it. The venue and time of the banquet, the guests who were invited and the tense couple. It’s all suspicious. It seems like a set up that luckily didn’t bear fruit.”

She bit her lip in contemplation.

“I have something to ask of you, Jasmine.”

“What?” She turned to him attentively. He sounded extremely serious in a way that gave her a bad feeling.

He held both of her hands as though he knew that it was going to be difficult. “No matter what happens, you can’t use your powers during this period. Until I tell you that you can.”

His instruction was bizarre and she shook her head. “Even if it’s an emergency?”

He emphasized solemnly, word for word. “Even if it’s an emergency.”

_____

AN

I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. It took me a lot of time to write this chapter for many reasons, including losing motivation halfway but mainly because this is the start of the most important part of the story. I was somewhat scared I couldn’t pull it off.. Luckily I managed to! So prepare for major twists in the upcoming volume that will start in about 10-20 chapters.