The celebration of the Serpent's fall descended into a primal, chaotic frenzy. As the formal rituals ended, the thin veil of royal decorum shredded.
Demons, fueled by potent black wine and the adrenaline of victory, gave in to their beastly natures.
In the torchlight of the plaza, figures tangled in the shadows, their intimacy was as violent and public as their warfare, a crucial display of a race that flourished in excess and lacked the human concept of shame.
Malachi walked away from the revelry, his footsteps echoing through the halls. He ignored the drunken bows of his subjects, his mind fixated on the quiet, sassy , silver-haired boy waiting in the dark. But when he threw open the doors to Zaliyah's quarters, the silence that greeted him was the silence of a graveyard.
The bed was empty.
The stasis ice was melting into a pool of mundane water. Only Harun and Iruna stood there, their heads bowed and their bodies rigid.
"Where is he?" Malachi's voice was low vibrating hum of impending slaughter.
The twins remained tight-lipped, their silence was a wall of defiance towards the king. Malachi didn't ask a second time. He moved like a blur of shadow, his fist connecting with Harun's jaw, then back-ending Iruna across the room.
They hit the stone walls with sickening thuds but they made no move to strike back, the royal blood and order forbade them from acting against the King.
"Speak," Malachi yelled, hauling Harun up by his collar and slamming him back into the masonry. "Did the Council take him? Did Ailla touch him?Where is he ?"
Harun's lip bled, but he stared straight ahead, his eyes vacant. Iruna struggled to her feet, her face bruised, but her lips remained silent
Suddenly, the sound of nails screeching against the stone walls filled the room it was a sharp, ear-piercing drag. Kizari walked in, her silks rustling in the wind a dark smirk playing on her lips. "My, my, my... what a messy homecoming. What happened here, Malachi?"
"What did you do, Kizari?" Malachi turned on her, his feathers flapping aggressively.
At that moment, a guard rushed in, trembling. "Your majesty! We have searched the spires, the dungeons, the gates... the Consort is gone. There is no trace of him."
Malachi turned back to the twins, who were now on their knees. His brown eyes bled into a terrifying, glowing red. His shadow stretched across the floor, and black, necrotic lines began to crawl up the twins' faces. Their eyes started to lose light as Malachi reached out with his mind to slowly shatter their souls from the inside out.
Just as the first snap of spiritual bone echoed, the Empress stepped in front of them, her presence acted like a shield. "These are mine," she declared, her voice ringing with authority. "Not to be touched."
Malachi's horns, claws and fangs shot out, his primal form threatening to rip through his skin. He looked ready to strike her down, but Kizari didn't flinch.
Her own dark feathers flapped dangerously, and she released an oppressive aura so powerful the guards in the hall began to gag, falling to their knees in a fit of drowsiness and nausea.
Ryuna rushed in, standing before Kizari with her teeth hissed at the King. Seconds later, Ailla and Shakdam appeared. Ailla's horns pointed out sharply as she looked at Kizari on the opposite end.
"Cherry, cherry... what is going on here?" she asked, looking at the Empress with pure venom.
The air was a physical weight. The guards feared for their lives, a fight between three high-profile demons of this caliber would level the entire wing.
Malachi's red eyes slowly faded back to brown as he pulled his aura in. Kizari smoothed her robes.
"He is just one consort among your hundreds of concubines," she said airily. "Why do you care so deeply if he is gone?"
Ailla and Shakdam shared a secret, triumphant smile, convinced Zaliyah was dead in a ditch somewhere.
"You dare not betray me, Kizari," Malachi roared.
"I didn't betray you, Malachi. I liberated the boy," Kizari countered.
"You got bored of your whorish gluttony and decided to play the liberator overnight?"Malachi spoke, a grin spreading across his face.
Kizari moved toward him, her fingers tracing a seductive, agonizingly slow path over his wounded chest.
She leaned into his ear, her voice sounding like sweetened poison. "The boy was distracted by that human brother. We cannot break him fully while he has something to look forward to. Let him have the illusion of freedom. Let him lose himself in human indulgences... and then, we will snatch everything away right before his eyes. The human realm he clings to? Malachi , I will bring it to your feet, burned and broken."
Before she could finish, Malachi's hand tangled in her hair. He pulled her face to his, and they collided in a violent, desperate kiss. It was a clash of tongues, a reminder that they were predators first and royalty second.
The guards watched in a daze as the King and Empress stumbled out into the corridor, wrapped in a passionate, bruising embrace. They crashed into the Queen's chambers, the slamming of the door was lso loud it shook the masonry.
Shakdam smiled awkwardly at Ailla. "Come now, my Lady. Let's leave them to it."
As they walked away, the silent quarters were filled with the distant sound of wet skin slapping against skin and guttural moans noises so loud they traveled from the Queen's wing back to the very room Zaliyah had escaped from.
Inside the room, the tension shifted. Ryuna stood over the bruised twins, her teeth bared. "What did you two do ?"
"Matters which do not concern you," Iruna spat, wiping blood from her mouth.
"The Empress almost got in an alteration with the king because of your stupidity, that concerns me !" Ryuna shrieked. Her obsession with Kizari was a parasocial wound that never healed.
Iruna laughed, "Oh, Ryuna. You poor, silly girl. You still haven't realized you're nothing more than an entertaining killing machine to her."
Ryuna's face contorted. "And are you any better, Iruna? You were nothing more than a punching bag for a mother who hated your existence. What did she say again? 'I wish I wasn't cursed with being your mother'?"
In a flash, Iruna pinned Ryuna against the wall, her long nails digging into Ryuna's throat until blood dripped onto her grey tunic. "Take that back, I saitd take that back you bitch " Iruna hissed.
Ryuna slammed her back in return, and the two fell into a bloody, familiar combat. Harun simply leaned against the wall and watched. He had grown up with both of them so he was already used to their petty, violent cycles.
The fresh air in the human world hit Zaliyah like a physical blow, after being in the underworld, he now found the fresair strangely sweet. He landed hard on the grass of the park, his knees buckling under Karas's weight. He had tried to aim for his bedroom, but his lack of training had dropped him exactly where his nightmare began.
He looked around at the shadows of the trees. The park was a graveyard of memories—the blood, the portal, the moment he sold his soul. A wave of nausea and exhaustion washed over him.
"Uhhh Not here," he whispered. "Not this place."
He hoisted Karas onto his back, his muscles screaming in protest. He began the long, agonizing trek toward the Ruo Han residence. He envisioned Karas waking up tomorrow, the sun hitting his face, the two of them eating together like the old days.
He clung to that image as he snuck through the back servant-gate.
As he entered his own quarters, nostalgia hit him like a physical blow. The flowery patterns on the walls, his dusty bookshelf, the faint scent of the gardens this traveled through the window, it was all so small so fragile , it contrasted to the scary rocky halls of the Demon Realm.
He staggered to his bed and pushed Karas onto the soft mattress. He didn't have the strength to change his clothes or even pull the covers. Zaliyah collapsed right beside him, his hand still gripping Karas's tunic, and fell into a sleep so deep it felt like disappearing.