Wish Upon A Demon

30.

CHAPTER - THIRTY

Zylen’s moody again.

I look at him through half-open eyes. Ever since Verona dropped the huge bomb on him, he’s an emotional wreck. Even I wasn’t like that when I was on my period. I keep looking at him, watching as he sighs, sighs and sighs again. I wonder why he won’t shed a tear or two to show that he’s obviously sad about the whole thing. But he isn’t sad, he’s determined. I see it in his eyes and when he finally speaks after many minutes – hours of complete silence, I feel like I liked moody Zylen a lot more.

“Let’s get married.” He says, voice cutting through the thick silence like a sword.

“I hope you’re joking,” I say, not even batting an eyelash. “I’m not,” Zylen says, almost immediately. I thought I made it clear last time, and here he was again, with the same proposal. If anything was different this time, it was the sternness and demand in his voice, which made it seem like he wasn’t offering. He was commanding. And he hoped I would heed to his command.

As if I would.

“Zylen-” I’m cut off, as he hops off the bed where he went to sulk about his father’s decision, and reaches me. I’m sitting on the couch where I almost always am, and Zylen bends down to reach my eye level. I wondered why he didn’t just sit on the couch, but then again, I didn’t really care much about that over his words. “Trust me, Faye.” He says the look on his face says that he’s more than determined to get me to agree. That thought scares me. Trust him? I wasn’t sure about that either. “Okay, go on,” I say, unable to deny those dauntless hazel eyes. “If you marry me, Faye, I can promise that I will make all your dreams come true.” His promise surprises me.

“What – what do you mean by that?” I ask. “I mean that, once we are married and the kingdoms unite, you’re free.” I still don’t understand and it must have shown on my face because he continues, “You can – you can go to college, live your life, do whatever you want, no one will intrude and you can remain free for how many years you want and come back to the kingdom the day you wish to rule by my side as the Queen.” He says. I pause for a minute. ”But no matter what I do, how I live my life, won’t I always know that I’m married to you? And that one reason can stop me from doing a lot of things Zylen.” I say, shaking my head. “But it doesn’t have to matter, Faye.” He says. I stand up.

“Zylen, I don’t know what marriage means to you. But to me, it’s something scared that binds to people who love each other together. And as far as I know, we don’t love each other. So no, I’m not agreeing to your stupid plan.” I say. I didn’t lie though. It was true I was falling – had already fallen for Zylen King but I didn’t love him to the point where I wanted to marry him. However, more time spent in this room with him could probably change that fact so I needed to hurry home and be in the safety of my own room where I can think with a clear head. “Now, that we’ve established that, please take me home,” I say. “Think about it, Faye.” Zylen murmurs. His sulky mood is back again after my refusal but I wasn’t changing my decision. However, looking at his disappointed face, I add in something just to ease him.

“I’ll think about it.”

I missed my room.

I liked being back to my world. It was like returning after a few days of vacation. Like last time, my father hadn’t noticed I was gone. I was grateful to Verona for whatever she had done that caused this. I didn’t need my father freaking about his daughter who’d disappeared in the middle of the night. “Zylen?” I ask. This time I’m the one on my bed, and since I had no couch in my room, Zylen was occupying the chair beside the computer table. He turns to me after observing the various sticky notes stuck to the walls about my class schedule, impending homework and stuff like that.

“Just out of curiosity, how does Friella look like?” I ask, avoiding his eyes. “If you had asked me this when we were back in the Kingdom, I would have taken you there.” He says. I shoot up, “Really? Can we go now?” I ask. There was nothing much going on in school, just preparation and revision for the upcoming final exam. I could copy the notes from someone or something.

“Why do you want to go? You’ve already expressed your dislike for the kingdom.” He says, going back to reading the sticky notes. “I’m not that keen on going. I just wanted to see it for once maybe.” I say, flopping back on the bed.

“I’ll probably take you there-” I raise my head again at his words, “-Someday.” I roll my eyes. Yesterday, when I had returned back home, I went through my mail to realize that Nolan Shaw had indeed sent in his part. Today morning, I had submitted the soft copy of the project and hence saved myself from failing. However, Michael Kingston’s hostile behavior towards me in school didn’t go by unnoticed. He even had the audacity of cornering me as I was off to lunch and telling me that my absence of presence might have gone unnoticed by everyone, but no amount of power of the demons could cloud a hunter’s eyes.

I responded by pushing past him and entering the cafeteria.

“The hunters bothering you?” Demon boy asks, concentrating on me. “More like them and the Fallen,” I say. He doesn’t say anything further. “I never thought you’d be right, but you are. I do dislike them – not hate, but dislike.” I continue, and my demon boy smirks. “Told you.” I hear him mutter a second later. I look at the time and swing my legs off the bed. The doorbell rings that moment. “Looks like Alexandria’s here,” I say which shooing demon boy away. He rolls his eyes. I walk downstairs and open the door. Alexa stands with her hands by her sides, a grin on her face and her blue eyes shining. “Come in,” I say. She enters and we go up to my room. My father’s working late again, he’s barely at home now, but when he is, we eat dinner and spend some time with each other so it doesn’t feel like there’s no contact between us at all.

“Hey, Alexa.”

Alexandria whips around to find Zylen still in the same spot when I had left, playing with a piece of paper. I glare at him as he smirks at me. Alexa just stares on, mouth hung open. She looks like she’s frozen. “Ignore him, honey,” I say. The word honey slips from my mouth. It reminds me of Verona King. It also reminds me that it’s better to not spend a lot of time with her unless I want to become her. “You sound like my mother.” Zylen comments. “I know,” I say, dragging Alexa who stays silent. We sit on the bed, with demon boy raising from his seat and joining us. “Go. You’re not invited.” I say making the same ′shoo′ sign I did before. He just grins and wraps a hand around my shoulder.

“Hello. Faye’s boyfriend, Zylen King.” He extends a hand. I slap him on her shoulder. Alexa raises her trembling hand and shakes it with his. “She’s a demon too, remember?” I tell him. Realization strikes against his face and he drops the hands on my shoulder, “No need to put up the act then.” He says in my ear. I missed the hand that was around my shoulder almost instantly, missing his body heat as well as he sits a bit further away from me.

“You only have to ask, Faye.” Demon boy says suddenly. The jerk was probably going through my head again. When I don’t ask, and there’s a heavy silence in the room, Zylen gives up the hopes of me asking him to get closer and turns his attention to Alexa.

“So, Alexa, which kingdom do you belong to?” He asks. Alexa snaps out of her trance and answers, “Uh, Pendalia – The fifth Kingdom.” She says. Zylen only nods and then speaks after a second, “So why are you in the human world?” He asks her. “I was born while my mother was still human.” She says and continues, “My father moved here rather than taking her to his world.” She stops, not wanting to talk about her parents much.

“You’re a new-born.” Zylen states. “Yes, I turned a few years ago.” She clarifies. Alexa speaks in a formal manner, not addressing Zylen as a prince but making it known that she’s aware of his position. “How?” Zylen asks. I want to tell him to stop, that it’s a sensitive topic for her, but can’t because Alexa chooses to speak. “My family was murdered, and someone inserted demon blood into my system.” She says out. Zylen doesn’t speak a word. “Who were they?” He asks and like she had told with me, she speaks their name with the same chilling expression, “Werewolves.”

“Faye!” I hear the door close and my dad calling out. “Go,” I say to Zylen.

Demon boy leaves this time when I tell him, and Alexandria and I are left alone sitting on the bed. My father enters the room, and he and Alexandria share a few pleasantries before he calls us for dinner, inviting Alexa to join us. She agrees but once he’s gone, she turns to me, eyebrows scrunched. ’That’s weird, your father smells of a demon. Why?” She asks. I laugh lightly, the thought of the demon princess – Alana Michaels entering into my mind.

“Believe me, you don’t want to know.”