Karas was the first to wake. His mind felt like it was wrapped in wet wool, it was heavy and dull. The last thing he remembered was the metallic taste of blood in the park, the crushing weight of a guard's boot, and a searing pain in his chest that had felt like it was the end of the world.
He blinked, his vision clearing to find the familiar, flowery patterned wall of Zaliyah's room.
The morning sun was trying to bleed through the heavy curtains, casting a pale, dusty light over the furniture. He groaned, shifting his weight on the bed, and felt a hand gripping his robes . He looked down to see Zaliyah, pale as a winter moon, curled beside him in a deep, unnatural slumber.
Before Karas could even process how he had moved from a blood-stained park to Zaliyah's own bed, the door creaked open.
Riru stepped in, followed by two maids, Cisca and Zora, carrying buckets of fresh water. Riru's face was hollow, her eyes sunken from days of not eating, but the moment her gaze fell upon the bed, the bucket slipped from the maids' hands, splashing cold water across the floor.
"Brother?" Riru's voice began as a whisper, then a rough, loud, piercing scream that tore through the silence of the house. "MOM! DAD! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE BACK!"
The house erupted. Footsteps thundered down the hallway as Riosuka and Caius burst into the room.
Riosuka froze at the doorway, her hands flying to her mouth. But it was Caius whose reaction set the tone for their return. He didn't rush to the bed. He didn't check their pulses. He looked at the window, then at the street beyond the gates where he could already hear the neighbors' shutters clicking open at the sound of Riru's screams.
"Cisca! Zora!" Caius barked, Get the hammer and the long nails. Now! Nail the shutters shut. I want every window in this wing sealed. If a single soul in this town sees them through the window crack, we are finished!"
"Caius, they're alive" Riosuka sobbed, rushing toward the bed.
"They are a scandal on legs!" Caius hissed, stepping back as if the bed itself were diseased. Ever since Karas had beaten him to a pulp on that fateful night, the father looked at his eldest son not with love, but with a simmering, defensive hatred. "The town says they are murderers. Elopers. Let them stay hidden in the dark where they belong."
Riru threw herself onto the bed, her small arms wrapping around Karas's neck. "Brother! Am I dreaming? Mom, do you see it? Brother, what took you so long? Where did you go?" She cried into his chest, her small body shaking with relief.
Karas didn't answer. He couldn't. His memory was a void, he could not remember anything and the guilt of leaving his sister behind felt like a physical weight on his tongue.
Riosuka reached the bedside, her face was a mask of grief and fury. She looked at Karas, her golden son, her pridevand suddenly, her hand flew out.
CRACK.
The slap echoed in the small room. Karas's head snapped to the side. He didn't flinch. He didn't even blink.
"How could you?" Riosuka wailed, her voice breaking into a thousand pieces. "How could you take him and run? Do you know what they say about you? They say you killed Eros! They say you dragged your brother into a life of sin! You left us to face the stones and the spit while you played at being a fugitive! Look at me, Karas! Look at your mother!"
Karas kept his eyes fixed on the floor. He remembered the park. He remembered the blood. But the "elopement," the "murder," the days spent in the Demon Realm, it was all a blur of shadows he could not remember even if he wanted to. He felt like a stranger in his own skin.
Riru, sensing the tension, diverted her attention to the silent figure beside Karas. "Brother Zi? Why are you still sleeping? Wake up! I want to scold you too. You can't just sleep through your homecoming!" She pouted, reaching out to shake Zaliyah's shoulder.
Riosuka's anger faltered as she looked at her younger son. "Silly boy," she murmured, her voice softening with maternal habit. "There's no need to pretend to be asleep. The lecture is for both of you."
She placed her hand on Zaliyah's forehead to brush back his white hair, but the moment her skin touched his, she let out a sharp gasp, pulling her hand back as if burned.
"Mom? What's wrong?" Riru asked, her voice small and trembling.
"He's burning," Riosuka whispered, her face grew deadly pale she ws visibly panicking. "He's like a furnace. Caius! Call the physician! Something is wrong Zaliyah"
Inside the fortress of his own mind, Zaliyah was not in the Ruo Han residence.
He was trapped in a recursive loop of agony. He felt the sting of Malachi's palm across his face over and over. He felt the cold, sharp nails of Empress Kizari dragging him across the floors. He saw Karas lying dead in the park, his eyes vacant, while the "Red Thread" pulsed in Zaliyah's own palm like a parasite.
He saw his wedding to a monster—the five-layer silks feeling like a shroud, the gold jewelry feeling like chains. Every time he tried to run, the shadows of the Demon Palace stretched out, yanking him back into the dark. He was a Consort. He was a pet. He was a traitor.
Back in the physical world, the room was a portrait of quiet desperation. Karas sat on the left, his hand gripping Zaliyah's, his knuckles white as he tried to anchor his brother to the world of the living.
Riru sat on the right, holding Zaliyah's other hand close to her tear-filled eyes, whispering for him to wake up.
In the corner, Riosuka spoke in low, panicked tones with the family physician. The old man shook his head, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"I don't understand it, My Lady," the physician whispered. "His pulse is erratic, and his fever is high, but I can detect no infection. No illness. It's as if... as if his very blood is fighting itself. There are small dark smudges beneath his fingernails that I cannot explain. I have never seen anything like this."
He didn't see what the twins in the Demon Realm had seen. He didn't know that the Night-Stalker venom was still dancing through Zaliyah's veins, a ticking clock that the human world had no way to stop.
The windows were nailed shut. The house was silent. And as Zaliyah moaned in his sleep, his fingers twitching in Karas's grip, the golden lotus pin in his hair caught the dim light—a shimmering reminder that while his body was home, his heart still belonged to karas.