The Devil's Temptation!

72 Behind The Bushes

Riding in her royal carriage down the quiet forest of Draekharm village, Calista remained lost in thoughts as she leaned against the window, staring out at nothing.

Based on what has been happening recently, her mind has remained occupied and unsettled. But fortunately, no Demon’s have been spotted for the past few days, nor has she heard of any deaths occurring recently, except for the unfortunate sad death of the count of Green Town.

With a sigh escaping her lips, she had left the castle early this morning to go pay a visit to one of the most wealthy officials living in Hollow Town, so they had to pass through Draekharms forest since it was an easy shortcut back to Euphrasia palace.

Her father had suggested she meet with her suitor despite her reluctance. She didn’t want to think about anything concerning marriage when her people were facing a lot of distress, but frustratingly, her father isn’t willing to reason logically with her.

Her own brother barely lends her his listening ear as his attention these days were more focused on using the Valerian sword.

Her mother was not even an option as she always agrees with the words of her father so she found no point in explaining her problems to her.

‘Calista my dear, you’re a princess and getting married to the son of a powerful kingdoms will help your father immensely, don’t you want to see him happy?’ were her mother’s words to her, but what about her happiness?

Didn’t they always say parents derive great Joy in seeing their own children happy? So why was her case so different?

She didn’t fully blame her mother cause the woman obviously has no say. Whoever said being a princess was every girl’s dream and true happiness doesn’t even know the meaning of happiness, because being a princess meant carrying the family’s burden, making sacrifices and getting married to strengthen the power of her Kingdom.

.....

Sighing to herself once again, she wished Anna was still around, only Anna was able to tolerate her long talks for hours without getting tired and now, there was no one to talk to.

Her thoughts were caught off-guard the moment she heard a guard yell at someone.

“Clear the path you peasant! How dare you stop the princess’s carriage, out of the way!”

Stunned by the seriousness in his tone, Calista immediately brought her head out of the window to see who exactly her guards were arguing with.

To her shock, the guard was actually arguing with a man who was dressed in a black hoodie, his face was entirely hidden in the darkness of the hoodie and he suddenly limped forward instead of walking away.

He had only one arm and blood dropped from them down to the ground.

‘Was that black blood?!’ The sight was both horrific and frightening to Calista and she wondered what a lone man could be doing in such an isolated forest.

Not everyone takes this particular forest except farmers and they’ve even stopped coming since the Demon situation, so who could this be? And why was he injured??

The strange man didn’t utter a word to any of them and suddenly stopped moving, making her call the attention to her guards.

“What’s happening over there?” Her voice rang out, gaining the attention of both the guards and the strange man who refused to move away from the front of the carriage.

“Don’t worry about this princess, we’ll handle it. Stay in the carriage.” The guards following her carriage alarmingly said to Calista as they brought out their swords and she quietly did as they told her.

“Are you deaf?? Move out of the way or be runned over!” A guard warned, but to their surprise, the one arm being just stood there, slowly tilting his head to look at the princess whose head was still outside the window of her carriage. She watched the scene unfold before her eyes and her body tensed, seeing the strange being was looking at her in particular.

She felt her nerves screaming to her to get down from the carriage and make a run for it but she stood her ground and met the stare of the stranger.

She would have said something to it, or questioned it but that idea died when its eyes glowed a bloody red behind the hoodie it was wearing and her heart stopped.

“D_demon!” She breathed out, that was the next thing that rang in her head after sensing the deadly aura it emitted, and the glowing eyes. She had the strange feeling that it was coming for her.

“Start the carriage, now!”

A smirk appeared on his face behind the hoodie. After sensing the princess was smart enough to have guessed him out so quickly, Luderick didn’t hesitate to go after her with a speed that the guards failed to notice themselves.

Calista’s pupils dilated in horror and she instinctively shifted away from the window, pushing herself back onto her seat but before he got a chance to reach her and carry out his plan, an unexpected wind shoved him out of the way.

A mystifying wind he didn’t sense coming ruined his plan and blew him away from the carriage. Before he could see who had dared to interrupt his plan, he was mercilessly slammed against the trees with a powerful impact, even the half frozen Calista couldn’t help but feel it. He was slammed to another tree with an invisible force and the tree broke with a loud crack, falling to the ground with a heavy thud and blinding the path ahead with dust.

“Let’s leave, get the princess to safety!”

The carriage immediately started as the Coachman pulled at the horses reign, they neighed loudly while standing on their lower leg before dashing off with a quick speed through the dusty fog.

But before Calista left, she spotted a pair of pretty blue eyes hiding behind the trees, they were locked on her, expressionless and bland to the point it gave her the shivers.

With the blink of an eye, the pair of blue eyes were no longer seen and she nearly told the Coachman to stop.

“Who was behind the bushes?”