Chapter • 14

•⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅•

The third territory was synonymous with different. Although the sky was still the same and the people still walked the streets with the black sun making the day darker - everything was different.

There weren't as many smiles on their faces and even for a world that had been ravaged by demons, that place was too dark.

"What happened here?" I muttered "I heard that..."

Asmodeus held my shoulder.

"That it was beautiful here?"

I nodded.

Even when Elaine went to the third territory, it was different. The place was alive with all Lucifer's affection.

The third territory was the refuge of many mortals who still cherished what was once an ordinary life. It was a beautiful place.

Undeniably beautiful.

"How?" I questioned and the blond demon next to me shrugged.

"Maybe it's because Lucifer doesn't wake up yet" he said and his words took me by surprise.

"How? Lucifer hasn't... woken up?" my lips didn't even seem to want to move. Asmodeus was lying, right? He had to be lying.

He shrugged again.

"She just didn't wake up" he said without trying to soften the facts "they say the king called her and after she returned to her room, she just fell to the floor and didn't come back to her senses."

Asmodeus' eyes were on me now. He knew, didn't he? Of course he knew.

It was Asmodeus after all.

"What happened this time, little devil?" He asked with such calmness in his voice that I almost forgot what he wanted to know about.

"I..." my mouth closed as soon as I tried to speak. Could I really speak so openly to him about Elaine? About Callisto? About what had happened?

Asmodeus was Asra's best friend, he adored her as far as all readers knew and now that I had him in front of me - this didn't seem to be a lie or a matter of point of view. So what would Asmodeus do if he knew that Elaine had almost caused my death?

What would he think of doing to Callisto if he started talking to Elaine and falling in love with her like in the novel?

"Can't you talk?" he asked as he sighed leaning back against the carriage we had come down from "you know you can trust me, even if I can't be trusted..."

I smiled.

I knew that phrase.

"Even if I am unreliable, to you I am."

"I know..." I spoke extending my hand to him "I can always trust you."

The crimson-eyed demon stared at me, on his face there was something akin to surprise.

"Asra..." he called to me and I stared at him waiting for what he had to tell me.

"Do you... are you sure you love Calisto?" That question took me by surprise.

"What? Why are you asking me something like that?" I forced a smile as I let go of his hand, but Asmodeus held my fingertips.

"Do you really love him? Does he...is he worth all this? Your pain? Your..." he stopped.

There was something there, wasn't there?

As a reader, I knew the theory that Asmodeus was actually in love with Asra - and because his love was unrequited, he just acted like a friend. His best friend.

But now... looking at him and the way he seemed to care for Asra - for me - it didn't look like that.

Asmodeus was worried.

It was as if he had already been through the same thing, as if he had already loved, but it was Asmodeus! This was the prince of lust we were talking about!

I swallowed hard.

"Asmodeus" I muttered "I..."

He nodded, as if he didn't want to hear me.

"I know" he said and smiled, a weak smile that didn't even come close to reaching his crimson eyes "you saved him, he saved you... there's no way he doesn't feel something."

I affirmed.

Even I knew there was something in Asra and Callisto's past, but I never imagined it was something like this.

"But..." he stopped and calmly faced me again "Asra, sometimes it doesn't make sense to hurt yourself so gratuitously for someone."

Did he know?

I bit my lip hard.

"It wasn't for him" I spoke looking away "I didn't do it for him."

The blond raised one of his eyebrows.

"It wasn't? Are you sure?"

I nodded, even if it was partially a lie, it wasn't a complete lie.

"Everyone was suffering," I spoke bluntly, "and I got tired of it."

He looked at me in surprise.

"You got tired?"

"Yes," I murmured, "I got tired of being the porcelain doll, the emperor's futile concubine."

My words were barely out of my mouth and I could see Asmodeus' gaze cool. It was as if he was holding back on the anger stored in his chest.

"He really is a jerk..." he grumbled.

"I know" I muttered "but in that case, wouldn't I be worse than him?"

Asmodeus drew his eyebrows together and I couldn't help but laugh.

"He told me he would never love me, that he would never make me his Empress and yet I stood by his side like an idiot, I begged for his love and attention and continued to become exactly what I needed to be so that he would continue to stand by me. It was a matter of time, I admitted, a matter of time before he got tired of me and found someone else. So... I'm not much more of an imbecile? Let's face it" I smiled "he knows I was desperate for his attention and I don't doubt that he at least feels a little empathy for me, but empathy isn't enough to make you want to be with someone for that long."

The demon looked at me practically dumbfounded, but at that moment, I couldn't hold it in.

"I always knew he would leave at some point, I was afraid, but I knew" I mumbled the thoughts Asra had had throughout the novel "I hid in that fear and became something pitiful, but... I'm tired of being so pitiful, Asmodeus " my head hung down and slowly I leaned back against the blond's shoulder "I just... want to be who I was before Callisto. The woman, the demon that I really am. That I was born to be. Why...I know I will never be the empress, the queen, or the person Calisto really loves."