The world had narrowed down to the warmth of Karas's mouth and the scent of sandalwood.
In that kiss, Zaliyah was no longer a demon, a brother, or a fugitive, he was simply loved.
He was so lost in the nectar of Karas devotion that the sound of snapping twigs and muffled footsteps didn't reach him. The park had become a sacred temple, and he was the deity Karas worshipped.
The kiss didn't break with a shout or a warning. It broke with a metallic, salty heat.
Zaliyah pulled back slightly, confused by the strange, iron taste suddenly coating his tongue. He looked up, and his heart stopped.
A thick, dark stream of blood was leaking from Karas's lips, dripping onto Zaliyah's own mouth, staining them both in a macabre communion.
Behind Karas, the shadow of Eros loomed, his face twisted in a mask of vengeful glee, his blade buried deep in Karas's back piercing straight through the heart that had just finished confessing its love.
Everything happened in a horrific flash. Eros twisted the blade and withdrew it with a sickening squelch.
"No... No, no, no..." Zaliyah's voice was a frantic, thin thread.
He watched in slow motion as Karas the "Priced Jade," the invincible protector, plopped to the ground like a fallen soldier.
Cold sweat broke out over Zaliyah's skin as he lunged forward, catching Karas's upper body before it hit the dirt.
The grass was no longer green , it was becoming a swamp of dark, steaming red. Zaliyah's white robes drank the blood greedily, turning the color of a dying sunset.
He pulled Karas into his lap, his hands trembling so violently he could barely hold him. He rubbed Karas's head, his tears falling like rain onto Karas's rapidly paling face.
Karas looked up, his blue eyes already beginning to glaze, yet they remained fixed on Zaliyah with a terrifying, singular focus.
He struggled to lift a hand, his fingers leaving red smears across Zaliyah's porcelain cheek as he wiped away the tears.
"Don't cry," Karas whispered, his voice a wet, rattling shadow. "Don't... don't stain your beautiful face with tears for me."
Karas words only made Zaliyah cry harder.
Karas, please...Don't do this..... Stay with me!" Zaliyah screamed, the sound echoing off the silent lake. He choked on his sobs, his chest heaving. "You promised..... You said you'd find me ....You can't leave me now" .He spoke as his tears kept falling on Karas's face.
Eros and his men stood in a circle, their shadows long and looming. They watched the scene with a chilling, bored disgust, a low chuckle rippling through them at the "pathetic" display of affection between brothers.
"Just know..." Karas coughed, a fresh surge of blood staining his teeth. "My heart... it belongs to you. Remember... how it always beats for you. Even now... it beats... for you."
"I know! I know, shh, stop talking!" Zaliyah wailed, desperately using his palms to wipe the blood from Karas's chin, but it wouldn't stop. It was a fountain of life ending. "Save your strength Please..., Karas, please I don't know, I don't think I can live without you ".
Karas gave a small, heartbreaking smile, his vision narrowing. "I'm staring at... your shrinking face. Don't... don't cry, my Goddess."
Zaliyah's mind snapped. He began to tear his fine silk robes into strips, trying to press them into the gaping wound in Karas's chest, but the silk only turned heavy and sodden. Karas was turning cold beneath his touch his lips, once so warm against Zaliyah's, were now stiffening into a blueish marble.
Karas bloody hand moved one last time, tangling in Zaliyah's white hair, painting the moonlight strands into a gory red. "I was... blessed by a Goddess," he muttered, his mind drifting back to the first day he saw the boy in the garden.
"One last time," Zaliyah begged, pulling Karas so close their foreheads touched.
"Say that you want me too. Tell me again... give me life one last time."
Karas eyes found Zaliyah's for one final, flickering second. A soft, peaceful smile touched his lips. "My darling... can't you see? I love you."
The hand in Zaliyah's hair went limp. It slid down, thudding softly onto the blood-soaked grass. The light in Karas blue eyes went out like a snuffed candle.
The silence that followed was louder than any scream. Zaliyah sat there, a broken doll holding a corpse. He began to slap Karas's cheeks, gently at first, then with a frantic, violence. "Wake up, Karas, wake up! This isn't funny! Stop it!"
When the body remained cold, Zaliyah let out a sound that wasn't human a raw, guttural howl of pure, unadulterated despair that seemed to tear the very sky apart. He was a pathetic, broken thing, a white lotus drowned in a sea of red.
He grabbed karas's lifeless body closer in a tight embrace, "No , you can't do this..." He spoke between sobs. "No ,No,No " he cried loudly pressing his face unto Karas's.
The men laughed. The sound of their mockery was the final spark.
Zaliyah's grief curdled into a black, toxic rage. His skin began to glow with a sickly, violet light. The air around the park began to vibrate. Within seconds, a wave of demonic energy erupted from his chest.
Eros and his men didn't even have time to scream , they were simply erased, turned into pillars of grey ash that the wind scattered across the lake.
Desperate, Zaliyah tried to force his own life essence into Karas, his hands glowing white as he pressed them to the dead man's heart.
"Take it! Take it all!" he screamed. But the essence flowed through Karas like water through a sieve. The vessel was broken.
Zaliyah collapsed, weeping into Karas's neck.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Footsteps approached. Malachi emerged from the trees, leaning casually against an ancient oak. He ran a hand through his dark curls, looking down at the carnage with a bored, amused expression.
"Pfft. Pathetic," Malachi laughed.
Zaliyah didn't stand. He crawled. Like a broken animal, like Lilith crawled towards Mephisa , he dragged himself through the blood and grass until he grabbed Malachi's boots.
"Please..." Zaliyah sobbed, his face a mess of dirt, blood, and tears. "Please save him...just please....I'll do anything. Just save him."
Malachi looked down, his eyes scanning the piles of ash. "Did you do this? I'm impressed. How pretty... you look even more beautiful when you're falling apart."
"What are you talking about?!"
Zaliyah shrieked, his voice cracking. "Save him! He's dying , he's dead!"
"Oooo, so feisty," Malachi mocked.
Zaliyah's eyes went wide and vacant. He began to rock back and forth, slamming his forehead against the hard ground. Thud. Thud. "It's my fault. It's all my fault. Karas beat Eros because of me... I killed him. I killed Karas." He was spiraling into insanity, his forehead turning bright red, then splitting open as he continued to punish himself against the earth. "What do I tell Riru? What do I tell Mom?"
Malachi sighed, the sight of Zaliyah's ruined beauty finally annoying him. He reached down, grabbing Zaliyah by the hair to stop him from self-destructing. "Okay, okay. Stop. You're ruining your face."
Zaliyah struggled, his eyes glazed with madness. "Let me go! He's dead!"
"I know a way," Malachi said.
The words acted like a spell. Zaliyah froze. He lunged at Malachi, grabbing his robes. "Tell me! I'll do anything! please I would do anything.....What do I have to do?"
"Anything?" Malachi's smirk was predatory.
"Yes! Anything!"Zaliyah grabbed tighter,on Malachi's boots.
"Become my bride."
Zaliyah didn't even process the weight of the word. He didn't think of the soul-binding horror of it.
"Yes! Just save him".
"Great." Malachi's smile was sharp. He grabbed Zaliyah's hand, his claws flashing as he sliced a deep line across Zaliyah's palm. He did the same to his own, then pressed their bleeding hands together.
The world exploded in a serene, terrifying white light. The wind died down, and for a moment, the park felt like it was suspended in the stars.
A blood-pact was formed a bond that transcended death and life. The intensity was too much for Zaliyah's exhausted body, his eyes rolled back, and he slumped into Malachi's arms, unconscious.
"So weak. So pathetic," Malachi murmured, though he held Zaliyah with a strange, possessive care.
A shadow detached itself from the trees , Uphior .
He bowed low. "Long live Your Royal Highness."
Malachi jerked his chin toward the body of Karas. "Carry the human. Carefully. If he dies before the ritual is complete, the bride will be inconsolable."
Malachi swept Zaliyah up into his arms, and with a flick of his wrist, a swirling, violet portal tore open in the air.
Together, they stepped through the threshold, leaving the human world behind for the dark, eternal twilight of the Demon Realm.