To Bewitch a Devil

110 Who dared to court death?

The night fell with an eerie quietness. There was still no sign of Neera, the whole castle spoke in hushed tones as they wondered what had happened to her. They all avoided the king’s chambers, the air even seemed too afraid to move around Zavian. The crickets, as if sensing something was amiss, refused to croak or chirp too loudly.

Zavian sat at his table, his eyes trained on nothing in particular. He had asked to be alone, not like anyone dared to come around him anyway.

There was a pain tugging in the all too familiar place of his heart from five hundred years ago, like a wound being cut open.

He wished he didn’t care so much about her, he wished he had listened to Freya and sent her away when he had felt nothing for her; he wished she had not appeared before him at all because at that moment, the thought that he had lost her in almost the same manner he lost Lilah tore him in two.

Zavian sat on his table; his eyes closed, as he tried to think; who must have tried to hurt her...

The only person he could think about was Freya; but she had said she did not hurt her. Then was it one of the princesses? Or the dukes?

Zavian was confused, he could not accuse anyone yet; he knew a lot of the demons did not like her, but he wasn’t sure who must have hated her so much to want to hurt her.

Time pulled away at a slow pace, taunting him with every second. When the sun woke the moon to take over its duties, Zavian still remained there, unmoving.

It was in the wee hours of the morning that a soft knock sounded on his door. He didn’t call the person to come in, but it opened nonetheless. It was a guard, and he bore a tray holding a letter.

.....

He said nothing as he bowed and placed it right in front of Zavian. His eyes landed on the plain body of the letter. He turned it over and saw it was simply addressed to ‘The King’. It bore no royal emblem, nor did it say where it came from.

Zavian quickly tore the letter open, as his eyes skimmed through the contents. An icy glare passed through his eyes as he read the contents of the letter slowly.

‘We have the girl. We need a hundred thousand gold coins by tomorrow else she dies. Follow our instructions and you will have her by the end of tomorrow.’

The lines of letter blurred as everything in his line of vision turned red. His fingers gripped the sides of the letter as his claws dug into it.

Who dared to court death?

Zavian thought sinisterly. Who dared to hurt what belonged to him?

He was going to find them. Oh, even if it meant upturning the entire kingdom, he would and when he did; he would shred them into pieces and feed them to the birds of the air.

...

Neera felt something skitter past her legs. Her body coiled and a shiver ran up her spine. Something brown leaked from the ceiling and splattered on her body as it dropped to the floor. She twisted her hands tied behind her back and hissed when the rope dug into her skin. It was wet, with her blood, she knew, and the pain throbbed along her entire arms. Tiredness deep into her bones made her limp, but she could not dare sleep in front of her kidnappers for fear of what they’ll do to her.

The two of them were always coming downstairs to see her; one had a voice that sounded rough as if his throat had been parched for several days. The other made her hair on her body stand.

“She does really look like the queen.” One of them said with a domineering laughter; as he pushed her hair to her side and pushed her jaws forward to see her face.

Neera winced from the pain as she shut her eyes, biting her lower lip.

“So beautiful and yet so frail...” he spoke, rubbing his dirty thumb over her face. Neera tried to move away but he held her face firmly.

The other one laughed as he sat on a stool in front of her.

“If the king fails to bring the money, we would have our way with her before we kill her. We cannot let this beauty go to waste.”

Neera’s stomach churned at his words, and tears gathered in her eyes. What had she done to disserve this?

Neera imagined these men touching her body and she nauseated at the thought of it. She would bite her own tongue to death than allow them touch her.

They made jokes and taunted her for a while before they left. As she listened to their footsteps withdraw, her eyes looked over at the meal sitting at the corner, half eaten by the skittering creatures running around. They were kind enough to bring her food, obviously to keep her alive enough to get their ransom.

Although she had not had anything to eat since morning, she did not feel hungry, and even if she wanted to eat, they didn’t untie her hands, so she was to bend over the food and eat with her mouth like a dog.

Neera jumped a little when she heard the door open again. She squinted her eyes away from the light that poured in from behind the door, as her heart galloped in fear. When the door closed, she saw that it was just one of them;

“Your King has a few hours till he delivers our gold.”

He spoke, as he walked to where she was coiled on the ground. Neera tried to scamper away, pulling her body as close to her as she could. That did nothing to deter him from coming even closer. A whimper escaped her lips when she felt his bad breath on her face;

“You must be very precious to the king for ‘her’ to want you dead.”

Neera’s breathing froze at his words. Her? Who was her?