Chapter 47: Chapter 47

ater that night, when the demon queen left for the ceremony, Henry laid in his bed, staring at the canopy while thinking about everything, especially that fateful rainy night when he first met the ice queen.

It was about a week after his mother’s disappearance, after searching for her in each and every possible place, Henry came to the conclusion that his mother have went to his father, at first he was furious, hurt even, thinking that their mother abandoned them for the man who did nothing but break her heart over and over again, but after some time, he just couldn’t stand still with the thought of her being endangered.

Gathering some of his best man, Henry lead them inside the king’s forest, but after wasting the entire day fruitlessly searching, he and his men found themselves near the dark forest, surrounded with demons.

The sight was one of the most terrifying things the human king had ever saw, for the demons he saw looked nothing like the one he had captured, instead, they looked like massive wolves standing on two feet, or paws, instead of four, with eyes as red as blood!

The battle wasn’t a long one, and before he knew it, all his men were dead, and he was standing alone facing the remaining two demons!

Henry was a great fighter since he was  young, but he knew his skills in swordsmanship would be of any use against the demons, his life flashed in front of his eyes and he wondered if this was the way he was going to die, nevertheless, he raised his sword, for he planned to die honorably, and not before taking at least one of the demons with him!

The demons were amused to see the human take such a brave stand, deciding to play with him a little, they circled around him, trying to corner him, but then the authoritative voice roared from behind them!

“Leave him alone!”

All three heads turned toward the voice, and the demons almost scoffed once seeing whom it belonged to, the woman in the white robe looked like a delicate lily in the middle of the night, even with those red eyes of hers.

“What if we didn’t!” the wolf spoke, Henry was dumbfounded for a second, unable to believe that the wolf talked, in a clear yet somehow animalistic voice!

The woman didn’t answer, and instead waved her hand, Henry didn’t understand what was going on and why the two demons jumped away, but once he looked at where they were standing, he noticed the hundreds of small ice shards shining between the bushes.

“You Bitch!” one of the demons spat and charged at her on full speed, the woman looked the least fazed as she evaded his attacks with unmatchable agility, her moves were so smooth and fast as if she was preforming a dance, Henry noticed though, that she didn’t want to kill them, he didn’t understand it but he, with his keen eye, analyzed the demon’s moves and found out their plan!

With his full speed, Henry charged at the demon who planned to attack the woman from behind, burying his sword in his back, seeing that, the woman didn’t waste any time before slitting the throat of other demon with a sword that magically appeared in her hand!

“Are you dumb?” She blurted out while looking at him, he who had his jaw dropped, was readying himself to ask if she was okay, but here she was insulting him!

“I beg your pardon?”

“Deaf too?”

“I…” offended by the weird woman’s words and the way she was looking at him, Henry was ready to retort back, it was childish and he knew it, and on any other occasion, he would be throwing the talker a disgusted look then walk away, however, facing the frail looking woman who, whether he liked it or not, saved his life, he wanted to prove her wrong, he wanted that look on her face to be gone!

“You what?! Out of your own mind?! Coming to the borders of the dark forest this late with barely any men?! It is either you are stupid, crazy, or suicidal, no other reasons!” Rima taunted the man in front of her, not knowing why she bothered in the first place, she hated the greedy demons who would kill just for killing, but to go through all these trouble and kill the shadow demons, deranged ones that is, knowing it would probably create some conflicts between her and the shadows’ lord wasn’t in her best interest, especially such critical times, nevertheless, she still did.

Just like Henry, Rima was a good judge of character, and the man in front of her had something about him, a nobility and haughtiness which caught her eye, for he, despite being the main prey, chose to stay and help her in the fight instead of running away for his dear life.

“And instead of running away you are still standing here, talking to another demoness! Has the fact of you being my food escaped your mind?!”

“So that is why you helped me? To feed on me? And to answer your question, No! I am neither dumb, deaf, nor have a death wish! And I didn’t forget what you are, nor what I am to you! But I am not the kind of man who would leave someone behind, especially a woman who helped him!”

“Oh, so you think because I am a woman, I can’t handle myself!” Rima rolled her eyes, tired of others underestimating her all the time for the mere fact of being a woman.

“It has nothing to do with your gender, it is all about my morals!” How can he look down at woman after being raised by a mother like his?

“You are really dumb!” Rima said with a smile, not believing the man in front of her, and not knowing that he couldn’t believe his eyes either, seeing that sweet smile on her face.

“Let us get you out of here before the other rogues smell the blood!”

“I can’t leave their bodies behind!”

“I am afraid you must now, for more demons would be here and it will be ugly, I do promise that the bodies would remain safe until the morning so you can come and collect them!” Rima said while moving her hand, and in an instant, all bodies were covered with ice cocoons.

“Why?!”

“Why what?!”

“Why helping me? First saving my life and now this?” Henry asked as he walked by her side, he hated the fact that he was leaving his men’s bodies behind, but he, for a reason, chose to trust the woman, not that he had any chance in escaping or defeating her.

“I hate the blood thirsty demons who would kill just for killing!”

“Isn’t that what you do?”, Rima scoffed at the rude accusation even though she knew that this human, just like the rest of his race, didn’t have much knowledge about the demons to understand their actions.

“No, it is not!” she said while stopping to look at him, they were already far enough from the borders, she knew it was the time for her to leave but she, for some reason, wanted to stay!

Henry stared at the woman in front of him, one would dare call her a flower if it wasn’t for those red eyes of hers, but it wasn’t her beauty that made him unable to look away, it was that aura she emitted, strong and confident, and that imposing presence of hers, he knew it far too well, for it was similar to his!

“You are even more annoying when you are silent!” Rima stated and Henry felt as if he had been slapped again, harder this time, not knowing where did that even came from!

“Go on, ask!” It was obvious that he had plenty of questions, he was just too polite to ask them, giving him the encouragement he needed, she heard him sigh while shaking his head, his brown wet hair looking black in the dark night!

“You may find me to be intrusive though!”

“I think we are past that!” she said with a pointed look!

“Well I still didn’t get a satisfying answer!”

“Who said I am helping you? Maybe I am just saving you for tomorrow’s supper!” Rima mused, glad the human got her joke and smiled back, a dazzling, illuminating smile that graced his handsome face.

“I choose to think positively of you, my lady!”

“No wonder you get yourself in trouble!” she shook her head before looking back at him, “Alright, I will give you a ‘satisfying answer’, but can you first tell me, why do you think we demons hunt you?!”

“According to what my teachings, and what my people believe, You do because you are evil! However…” Henry stopped to look at her, his blue eyes both calculative and soft! “I don’t feel any malignity coming from you, if anything, it is just nobility! therefore, I must apologize my lady, for I truly don’t know why, and I would appreciate it if you told me!”

“I understand it if you find this story to be unbelievable!” Rima tried to decipher Henry’s expressions and know what he was thinking, the man stared at her with calm eyes, the opposites of the ones she expected to see when she started telling him the real history of the world!

“On contrary, my lady, it is more believable than everything I have been taught since I was a child! Even though it is still a little hard to take in” Henry confessed, he was never the religious man, he always found the history of man kind to be extremely heroic to the point where it couldn’t be believed, let alone the Gods whom he lost the little faith he had in them once he learned that his father had a child with one.

“So, if you didn’t feed on human blood, you would die?” Henry was able to detect the sadness in her eyes when she nodded in agreement.

“It is a part of our curse!”

“Isn’t there a way to break the curse?!”

Henry smiled as he remembered the way she looked at him that night after he said that, her eyes told him that she genuinely thought he was crazy, but he saw, in that moment, a chance to make peace with the woman who turned out to be one of the three demon lords.

Henry’s smile slowly faded as he thought about the price that needed to be payed for that peace to come, for as he laid warmly in his bed, his half sister was probably dying! A part of him screamed at him to do something, but he quickly silenced it!

It was a necessary sacrifice, he told himself, one they had to make, the only other option they had was death!

The girl has to die.