Malachi did not move.
His head remained turned to the side, the sharp sting of the slap echoing in the sudden, tomb-like silence of the room. The guards stood like statues, holding their breath, terrified to even blink. Slowly, Malachi tongued the inside of his cheek, tasting his blood.
He turned back to Zaliyah, but there was no fury in his eyes. Instead, a predatory smirk pulled at his lips. He found the fire in Zaliyah's eyes exhilarating. He was bored of the mindless worship of his subjects; he wanted someone with the teeth to bite back.
"Is that all the strength you brought back from the surface?" Malachi's voice was a low, dangerous purr. "I expected more from a runaway."
Zaliyah didn't flinch. He leaned forward and spat directly onto Malachi's polished Royal boots. "You disgust me."
Uphior stepped forward, his face pale with shock. "This is no way to address a King!"
Zaliyah whirled on him, his eyes flashing with a cold, piercing light.
"What king is weak enough to torture his own people to prove a point? Is his throne so fragile that he must bleed his servants to feel powerful?"
Uphior and Malachi exchanged a look of genuine confusion. The King's brow furrowed as the realization dawned on him. "Kizari...," he muttered.
"That bitch," Zaliyah hissed, his fists tightening until his knuckles turned white. Without another word, he stomped out of the room. Malachi watched him go, then gave Uphior a sharp nod.
"Follow him," Malachi commanded.
"Make sure he doesn't do anything irrational. And Uphior... keep him away from the Kizari. She plays with her food before she eats it."
The maids at Kizari's quarters didn't dare stop Zaliyah; they were used to his sudden storms. He burst into the room to find Kizari reclining in sheer, promiscuous robes, a long pipe in her hand. She was getting a head massage, looking every bit the indolent predator, while Ryuna stood behind her like a loyal wolf.
"You're back? So soon?" Kizari stood, her eyes raking over Zaliyah like she was inspecting a new piece of jewelry.
Thwack!
The slap was even harder than the one Malachi received. Kizari's pipe clattered to the floor, spilling embers.
Ryuna lunged forward, hissing like a wild animal, she unsheathed her sword.
"Step aside, Ryuna," Kizari ordered, wiping a smudge of blood from her lip. She stepped closer to Zaliyah, her eyes dancing with dark amusement.
"Is this the thanks I get for keeping your home warm?"
She raised her hand to strike him back, but in a blur of motion, Uphior was there. He caught her wrist in mid-air. "Pardon me, My queen. Strict commands from the King. No one is to touch the boy."
Kizari laughed, a sharp, melodic sound. "Aren't you a lucky little lotus? Even Protected by the King's shadow."
"You have no affiliation with my chamberlains!" Zaliyah stepped into her space, his voice trembling with rage. "What right do you have to order their torture?"
"Stop the bullshit, little lotus," Kizari countered, her voice dropping an octave. "You threw them to the wolves so you could run back to the man you love. Now you want to play the savior? It's a bit late for a hero's entrance."
"I am back, and I am going nowhere," Zaliyah hissed, leaning in until their noses almost touched. "Stay out of my affairs. Permanently."
Kizari giggled, reaching out to curl a lock of Zaliyah's hair around her finger. "I overrule this empire with Malachi. Your affairs are my affairs."
"Do not interfere with Harun and Iruna," Zaliyah warned, pulling away.
"If Iruna could hear you now, she'd be so happy," Kizari mocked. "You bring out the worst in them, Zaliyah. You make them weak. You make them soft."
"I make them feel human," Zaliyah countered.
"They aren't human! They are demons!" Kizari's eyes flashed emerald. "Look around you! Everyone here is a monster, yet you are a weak liability. One I happen to like regardless. I didn't torture them for fun; I was perfecting them. How do you think Iruna became poison resistant? How did Harun join the Ghost Knights? I love all my children equally."
"No," Zaliyah said, turning toward the door. "They are Harun and Iruna. My chamberlains. And you will never touch them again."
Zaliyah marched to the dungeons, Uphior trailing behind him like a silent ghost. "Arrange new quarters," Zaliyah barked. "Large ones. I want two additional beds in my room."
"I am the King's advisor, not a domestic servant-" Uphior started.
"I didn't ask for your job description. I gave an order," Zaliyah snapped.
In the dungeon, Zaliyah watched in silent horror as the guards unchained the twins. Their bodies were a map of agony.
The guard explained the "Lore of a Thousand Cuts"-a punishment where the blade is enchanted to keep the victim conscious through every slice so the pain never numbs. Zaliyah looked at their bloodied, unconscious forms, his heart breaking.
He ordered them moved to a stasis chamber. As the maids cleaned them, Zaliyah felt the poison in his own veins-the Night Stalker-creeping up his chest.
He knew using his healing magic would drain his life force and activate the toxin, but he didn't care.
He stretched his hands over the twins. A soft, golden-white light began to glow from his palms-a light that felt alien to the dark dampness of the Underworld.
As the magic flowed, Zaliyah's body began to rebel. Black liquid oozed from the corners of his mouth, and sweat soaked his robes. His vision blurred, but he watched with desperate intensity as the thousand jagged cuts began to knit together, the skin smoothing over as if the torture had been a bad dream.
With the last of his strength, he leaned over and kissed Iruna's forehead. "I've got you," he whispered, before his knees gave out and he collapsed into a dead faint beside them.
Zaliyah!" Karas's voice tore through the quiet of the estate, raw and loud. He didn't just walk; he crashed through the halls, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He reached Zaliyah's door and threw it open so hard it rebounded off the stone wall.
But the room was a tomb. The air was still, smelling faintly of the incense Zaliyah loved, but the warmth was gone.
"He's gone" Riosuka said from the doorway. Her voice wasn't just sad; it was hollow, as if the wind had scooped the life out of her.
"What do you mean gone?" Karas's voice cracked, dropping to a terrified whisper. He spun around, looking at the bed, the desk, the closet. "He... he was just here. I was going to find a way to fix this. I just needed a moment to think!"
"Official Yan came," RiRu whispered, her small face streaked with salt and soot. "There was a warrant. And then a wind... a terrible, dark wind... and Brother Zi just disappeared. Maybe he's in the library hiding?"
"He's gone! And it's your fault!"
Riosuka's grief finally curdled into a scream. She lunged forward, hitting Karas's chest with her fists, but he didn't even flinch. He just stood there, staring at the spot on the floor where Zaliyah used to sit.
Karas's knees finally gave out. He collapsed into the center of the room, his fingers clawing at the rug.
How could he just leave? Karas's internal voice was an, agonizing loop. I didn't tell him... I never told him how much I loved him. I let the last thing he heard from me be a scream. I let the last thing he saw in my hand be a weapon.
He looked at his own palms, the ones that had dried Zaliyah's hair just an hour ago, and then tried to cut him. "I didn't mean it," he choked out, the first sob breaking through his throat. "Zaliyah, I didn't mean it! I was just scared! I was so scared of losing you that I... I drove you away."
How do I fix this now? he thought, his head dropping until his forehead touched the cold floor. How do I reach into the Abyss and pull him back when I'm the one who pushed him in? I'm a scholar... a historian... and I have no words left. I have nothing.
Beside him, Riosuka sank to her knees, her elegant robes pooling around her as she wailed-a high, keening sound of a mother who had lost her heart. She gripped her stomach as if she were physically wounded.
Riru crawled toward Karas, her tiny hands trembling as she grabbed his sleeve. "He'll come back, right? brother Zi would come back right?" Her voice hitched into a hiccup.
"Brother Zi always comes back when I cry. He hates it when I'm sad. Tell him to come back, brother! Tell him!".
Karas couldn't even look at her. He just wept bitterly, the sound of a man who had realized too late that his anger had cost him his one true love .
The "hero" of the family was now just a broken boy in a room full of ghosts.
Malachi sat on the edge of his bed as a servant helped him undress for the night.
"He's always trying to save everyone," Malachi mused, looking at the bruise forming on his cheek where Zaliyah had struck him.
"Is it a human trait, your Majesty?" Uphior asked.
"He isn't human," Malachi said firmly.
"Then what is he? I've never sensed a signature like his."
"I sense noble demonic blood,"
Malachi said, his eyes narrowing. "But the other half... it's blinding. Perhaps he is half Celestial?".
Uphior recoiled in genuine disgust.
To the demons of this age , Celestials were the ultimate enemy-arrogant beings of light who looked down on the Abyss even though they had no contacts with Celestials, they proudly inherited centuries old feud.
"The subjects would not take kindly to a half-breed on the throne, my King."
Malachi stood, his shadow looming large against the wall. "The subjects obey me. And if I choose a star to sit in the darkness, they will learn to love the light."
In the distance, in a large, quiet room, Zaliyah lay unconscious on a massive bed. On either side of him, Harun and Iruna slept deeply, their wounds healed, while Zaliyah's face remained twisted in a pained, feverish sweat