The first thing Zaliyah felt was the silence a heavy, suffocating quiet .
He jolted upright, his heart hammering against his ribs, a desperate hope flaring in his chest that the stoning, the dirt, and the hateful roar of the crowd had all been a fever dream.
He scrambled off the bed, his feet hitting a floor that felt like polished stone.
A large, ornate mirror stood before him, and he rushed to it, his breath hitching. He searched his skin for the bruises, the raw redness of his father's slap, the scrapes from the cobblestones.
Nothing.
His skin was flawless, luminous, and pale as moonlight. Every mark had magically healed, leaving no trace of the violence. The realization hit him like a physical blow I might be a demon after all.
He looked around the room, panic rising. These weren't the flowery, sun-drenched walls of his quarters in Ruo Han.
This place was vast, cold, and dripping with a wealth that felt predatory.
He rushed to the door and flung it open, desperate for an exit.
Guards and maids stood at every corner, their silhouettes sharp against the dim, flickering torchlight.
It felt like the Ruo Han residence, yet it was the dark reflection of it.
As Zaliyah dashed past, the maids didn't sneer they blushed deep red, ducking their heads and covering their eyes with their sleeves.
Zaliyah stopped, suddenly realizing he was dressed in nothing but his silken undergarments.
"Where am I?" he demanded, grabbing a maid by her shoulder.
The woman remained stone-still, her lips pressed into a white line.
Malachi's orders had been absolute: Not a word to the boy.
Zaliyah rolled his eyes, a flicker of his usual fire returning through the fear.
"Has he been kidnapped? Did some old pervert hear I was a 'homo' and decide to snatch me up for his collection?"
He took a stroll through the residence, his bare feet silent on the stone. It was the total opposite of home.
It was bigger, grander, but there were no flowers, no scent of blooming jasmine. The atmosphere was gloomy and heavy, though one thing was certain the owner was obscenely rich.
"Do you have a thing for walking around half-naked?"
The voice was like velvet over gravel.
Malachi appeared out of the shadows as if he had stepped through the wall itself. Before Zaliyah could react, Malachi's fingers were curling into his icy white hair, a possessive, casual gesture.
Zaliyah jerked away, stumbling back.
"I thought I was kidnapped by an old pervert, but this is much worse."
Malachi let out a low, melodic giggle.
The sound sent the nearby maids into a cold sweat they knew that when the Demon King laughed, someone was usually about to be obliterated.
Zaliyah retreated to the room, sinking onto the bed and curling into a corner.
His hair was disheveled, but at least the filth of the human world had been washed away.
"I would be leaving now," Zaliyah stated, his voice trembling despite his resolve.
Malachi leaned against the doorframe, his brown eyes glowing, Malachi would usually shed his demon traits whenever in the human realm.
"Anyone with at least half a brain cell wouldn't do that."
Zaliyah snapped his eyes up, defiant. "Oh okay, I'm still leaving."
"To where?" Malachi's voice dropped an octave, cold and mocking. "You're nothing but a 'dirty demonic homosexual' in the eyes of everyone out there. Where can you possibly go?"
Zaliyah's heart twisted. "And in your eyes?"
"A weakling," Malachi responded simply.
"Karas would never think of me like that!" Zaliyah shouted, the name a shield he held up against the darkness.
A slow, cruel smirk spread across Malachi's face. "Oh, really? And where was he when you were almost stoned to death?"
Zaliyah stayed silent.
"To think they called you a demon," Malachi mused, stepping closer. "That's an insult to demons."
Zaliyah let out a ragged, sarcastic laugh, his grief finally turning into a frenzy of rage. "And what do you know?!"
He lunged off the bed, grabbing a porcelain vase and shattering it against the wall.
He began to tear through the room, knocking over gold-leafed ornaments and wooden hangings.
"What do you know exactly? Do you think you know me because we debated before? Do you think life has been easy for me?"
His voice broke into a sob. "My... my... Karas... I don't even know... my Karas..." He threw himself at Malachi, his small fists thudding against the demon's immovable, chiseled chest.
"Why did you save me? Who told you to save me? You just made things worse for me!"
He broke down completely, sliding to the floor and burying his face in his hands. "I don't even know how Karas is doing... my Karas..."
Meanwhile At the RuoHan residence , the "Priced Jade" was waking up.
Karas let out a rough cough. Within seconds, the maids scrambled to inform Aunt Mei and Lord Caius.
"How do you feel?" Mei asked, her voice trembling with feigned concern as she helped him sit up.
Karas didn't look at her. His eyes wandered the room, searching the shadows, searching for the one person who should have been there.
"How do you feel?" she repeated, the silence growing awkward.
Karas merely nodded, a distant, hollow look in his blue eyes. Lord Caius called for the physician immediately.
The old man examined Karas, and as he worked, his mouth fell open. His face twisted in a look of such sheer disbelief that it struck fear into Caius and Mei.
"What's wrong?" Mei cried. "Is the disease getting worse?"
"Is there a problem?" Caius demanded. "Speak!"
The physician stammered, his hands shaking. "It's... it's a miracle."
"What do you mean? Speak clearly!"
For years, Karas had carried a secret, an incurable disease that was rotting his bones from the inside out.
He had traveled to foreign lands, spent fortunes, and accepted that his lifespan would be short.
He had hidden it all from Zaliyah, wanting to spare him the pain of watching him die.
"Everything... everything has been healed," the doctor whispered. "The decay is gone."
"How is that possible?" Mei gasped.
"Check again," Caius commanded.
"Yesterday, death was at his door"
The physician checked, a stunned smile spreading across his face. "I guess miracles happen."
"Zaliyah..." Karas muttered, his voice a low vibration.
Caius and Mei froze. A cold sweat broke across their brows as the memory of the previous day flashed back , the glowing marks on Zaliyah's head, the kiss. A terrifying thought flickered in their minds, Could Zaliyah be innocent?
"Where is Zaliyah?...., He is not here?" Karas asked.
"Why don't you rest more?" Caius diverted, his voice tight.
Karas grunted. A lingering, feeling was stuck in his gut. Usually, Zaliyah would be the first thing he saw. Is he angry because he woke up to an empty bed? Karas thought, a small, fond chuckle escaping him. Is he sulking? I'll have to explain everything to him.
The maids came in, blushing deep red as they stripped Karas of his damp robes, washed him, and dressed him.
Karas was a man possessed by a new energy, his heart racing with the need to share the news of his recovery with the man he loved.
He reached Zaliyah's quarters, but the air felt wrong. The strong, sweet scent of flowers that always defined Zaliyah's room was faded, almost gone. His heart stung. He threw open the door with a wide smile.
The room was empty.
He summoned Rica, the chief maid.
"Where is Zaliyah?"
She didn't answer, her eyes darting to the floor.
"Did you let him go out by himself?"
Karas's voice grew dangerously sharp. He shoved her aside and sprinted from the room.
He went to the market, but the atmosphere was toxic. People backed away from him, their eyes laced with a sickening pity. He ignored them, his focus singular. He reached the library pavilion.
"Did my brother come here?" he asked the librarian.
The woman looked at him with naked disgust and shook her head.
Karas sat at a table, his body trembling with exhaustion and a growing, dark dread. Then, the whispers of two men nearby drifted to his ears.
"Have you heard?" one man asked.
"Heard what?"
"The talk of the town! An impeccable scene at the Ruo Han residence yesterday!"
Karas ear's perked like a rabbit's. His heart hammered against his ribs. He listened in mounting horror as the man narrated the events of the previous day, the "assault," the demon marks, the public shaming. Karas face twisted, his jaw clenching so hard it felt like it might shatter.
The other man laughed. "Do you really think he's a homo?"
"I'd bet money on it!" the narrator laughed. "I would want a piece of that ass, too!"
Karas stood up, his chair screeching against the floor. "Repeat what you just said."
The man didn't even look up. "I said, who wouldn't want a piece of....."
POW!
Karas fist collided with the man's face, the sound of breaking bone echoing through the library.
"You said you'd want a piece of Zaliyah? Of my Zaliyah?"
Karas didn't stop. He became a blur of motion, punching the man until he was a bloody, unrecognizable mess on the floor.
"No fighting in the library!" the librarian screamed, but Karas was in a trance of pure, murderous rage.
Everyone watched in paralyzed horror this was not the "Priced Jade." This was a monster.
When the man stopped breathing, looking an inch away from death, Karas stood up. He calmly wiped his bloody knuckles on his robes and walked out.
When Karas burst into the Ruo Han residence, the servants shivered.
"Is that blood?" a maid whispered. "Look at his fists..."
Karas kicked open the door to his father's study. Aunt Mei looked up, horrified. "Oh heavens, is that blood?"
"What happened?" Caius demanded.
Mei rushed to inspect him, but Karas shoved her so hard she stumbled. "What did you do?" he asked, his voice low and vibrating with a frequency that made the windows rattle.
"What do you mean?" Caius asked, trying to maintain his dignity.
"Where is Zaliyah?"
"Why are you asking your dad?" Mei chimed in, her voice shrill. "Isn't he always wasting away in books?"
Karas turned on her, his eyes glowing with a blue fire that looked like ice. "Stay out of this."
"Don't talk to your aunt like that!" Caius barked.
Karas slammed his hands onto the desk, the wood cracking under the force. "I SAID, WHERE IS ZALIYAH!".
The maids eavesdropping outside jumped.
"You know he's a demon, right?, your dad and I are just trying to protect you Karas " Mei said, her voice trembling.
Karas pointed a finger inches from her face, the veins in his forehead popping. "I told you to stop talking."
Mei collapsed into a chair, her face pale. She had never seen this Karas. This felt like looking into the eyes of a stranger.
Karas lunged across the desk, grabbing Caius by his silk collar and hoisting him up.
"Who permitted you to raise a hand on Zaliyah?" he roared.
"Oh heavens! Karas has been bewitched by that demon!" Mei wailed, beginning to cry.
"Are you willing to raise a hand on your father for that demon?" Caius gasped.
"I am willing to do worse for him!"
Caius's eyes widened. He saw the truth in Karas's face. "You... you... you're in love with that demon?"
Mei fainted on the spot. The maids outside gasped so loudly it could be heard through the door.
"He's not a demon! He's the man I love!"
Karas roared. He let go of the collar and began to systematically destroy the room.
He ripped his father's portraits to shreds. He smashed the ancient vases. "He's a demon? No shit!"
He kicked over the book cupboards, the heavy tomes spilling like fallen soldiers. "You humiliated him! You humiliated him in front of the world!"
He grabbed Caius and flung him across the room. The older man hit the wall with a sickening thud, the sound of old bones snapping echoing in the silence.
Karas walked towards him, grabbing him by the neck. "He's a 'dirty homosexual'? Then what does that say about your son who's in love with him?"
Caius grasped for air, his face turning purple.
Aunt Mei groaned, waking up just in time to see Karas choking the life out of her brother.
She rushed forward, clawing at Karas arm.
Karas didn't even look at her.
He backhanded her away. "Do not touch me, you parasitic whore!"
Mei hit the wall, a cry of pain escaping her.
Karas let out a sarcastic, chilling laugh. "You poured dirt on him? With what hands? This unholy, dirty hands?"
He stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed a kettle of boiling water, and returned.
"Whhatt...What are you... doing?" Mei stammered, crawling backward.
"These dirty hands which poured dirt on Zaliyah should be chopped off," Karas smiled, a look of pure insanity in his eyes. "But since you're family, I'll take it easy on you."
He poured the scalding water over Mei's hands. Her screams were so loud they could be heard from the city gates. Karas watched with a serene smile as the flesh began to blister. Then he turned back to his father.
"You slapped him?"
THWACK. Karas hand hit Caius's face.
"They were going to stone him to death?" THWACK.
"Do you know the weight of your actions?" THWACK.
"Do you know what I went through to protect him?" THWACK.
"He's a demon? I've been his protector for more than a decade ,you think I never noticed something was off?" THWACK.
"He kissed me? Do you know how many times I've kissed him?" THWACK.
Caius's face was a bloody, swollen mess.
Karas raised his hand for another blow, but suddenly, his head exploded with pain. It felt as if a massive bell had been rung inside his skull. He screamed, clutching his head, and stumbled away from his father.
He staggered through the corridors, his hands trailing blood on the white walls, until he reached Zaliyah's room. He collapsed onto the bed, burying his face in the sheets.
He grabbed Zaliyah's discarded robes, pulling them to his face, breathing in the fading scent of flowers. It was the only thing that could soothe the monster inside him.
He drifted into a dark, heavy sleep, clutching the silk like a lifeline.
In the shadows, Ailla and Shakdam watched the carnage.
"The duality of man," Ailla mused, her eyes cold.
"He's more of a demon than the actual demon," Shakdam noted.
"Humans are more violent than Celestials,"
Ailla replied. "Who would have known?"
Their voices faded into the night as the servants finally dared to enter the room, scrambling to see who could be saved first from the wreckage of the Ruo Han name.