Lyan
" The truth is that they're dating"
Ruan looked at me with astonishment, as if he couldn't believe what I had just said. At first I may have doubted my theory myself, but after seeing their reactions to my song I was now sure they had something going on between them.
" Are you sure? Did you see them yourself?" Ruan grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me, asking questions none stop.
" Yes. I saw them look at each other with love in their eyes" I admited, feeling awful for Ruan. I didn't know why he cared, but it was certain he did.
" That's all you saw?" Ruan asked in a clearly sarcastic tone.
" Yeah. That's all I saw, but it's more than enough" I crossed my arms over my chest, pissed at the fact that he had dared to question my intel when he had literally nothing before listening to me.
Ruan ruffled his hair and his expression grew softer as he looked at me.
" Could you do me a favor?" He asked in a soft voice, all his previous anger gone from his voice but still visible on his furrowed brows.
" Depends on what it is" I wasn't stupid enough to get into a demon pact. Whatever he wanted from me he'd have to be upfront about it.
" I want you to spy on your dad and Els and tell me if they do anything couple like. Everything counts. Kissing, holding hands, disappearing into their room and coming out hours later all sweaty and breathless while the whole room smells of sex...." His voice got darker and softer the more he spoke, until there was a point where I couldn't understand nor hear what he was saying anymore.
" So you want me to spy on my dad and report back to you?" I summarized.
" You could say that" Ruan said, a taunt pull on his lips that made him seem even angrier than he was.
I could do that. I could spy on my father's love life, I was already planning to do that, and then report to Ruan. It seemed like a harmless enough favor, and best of all, Ruan would owe me one.
" Okay, I'll do it"
Ruan's face lit up with mischieve and his brow went back to normal little by little.
" But first tell me why you want to know it"
Ruan opened his eyes so much that I could see all the white in them. He blushed while he looked away, not looking me in the eyes.
" That's personal" He muttered.
" So is spying on my dad, and yet I'm doing it for you. The least you could do is tell my why I should spy on him"
Ruan stammered for a while but he finally seemed to make his mind and looked me in the eyes, his filled with confidence.
" What I'm about to tell you is a secret"
The moment I heard the word secret my blood started boiling and my whole body got excited. For once I'd be the one with the secrets. " so you have to keep it a secret and can't tell anyone, understood?"
I nodded as fast as I could, not wanting Ruan to have second thoughts.
" I actually like your dad" Ruan's words lost power along his sentence, his voice getting softer and softer, but I managed to hear it just right.
Ruan liked my dad! Now that I thought back it made sense. There had been so many clues: the way he looked for dad whenever he walked into a room, the way he eyed him as if he was the most precious thing in the world, the way he sighed whenever dad was distracted, and the way he always wanted dad's attention, no matter of it was good or bad.
" You do?" I asked in my most suggestive tone.
Ruan flushed even more red, but this time he looked me in the eyes when he answered.
" So what if I do?" There was a small tremble on his voice, as if he really thought him liking my dad was bad and that someone had finally caught on.
I didn't know why he thought that, but it was kind of sad seeing the guy that usually laughed and joked be so down because he thought he wasn't enough.
I looked around the room, searching for anything that could make him feel better, but my room didn't have anything of the sort. The only thing that could serve to make someone happier were the flowers I had picked on the forest and that dad had placed on a vase in the middle of my desk.
I went there and picked up one.
" For you" I said, offering the flower to Ruan. It hurt to let it go when I had worked so hard to get it, but seeing Ruan smile again was worth it. That and I could always ask dad to get more for me.
" Thanks" Ruan smiled as he twirled the flower between his fingers.
" What do you want in exchange?"
What did he mean exchange? Was he willing to give me something for doing him this favor? I thought I would just cash it in whenever I wanted. I didn't have an specific thing I wanted him to do right now.
" Hmmm" I stared at Ruan. What could he do for me? " What would you be willing to do in exchange?"
" Anything" Ruan's lips formed a devious smile as his eyes gleamed with something I couldn't exactly pinpoint, but that looked a lot like craziness.
" Anything at all?" I asked. I was sure he had some limits that he wouldn't be willing to cross.
" Anything as long as it doesn't involve harming Ashmoder" That was a weird limit, but I guessed it made sense if he really was in love with my dad.
" Okay, but what I'm about to tell you is a secret"
" I'll sew my lips shut" Ruan said, mimicking the action of sewing his lips while he smiled at me.
" You'll help me get out of here and back to Earth"
As soon as I said my request Ruan paled and his face contorted with fear. What was he so afraid of?
" Okay" He said after a while of staring at the ceiling " but if your dad asks I never knew, deal?"
" Deal"
I shook his hand with all my strength and then turned around, ready to go to sleep after having gained a new ally and a friend that would help me escape and go back to Earth.
" Where do you think you're going?" Ruan asked, surprise patent in his voice.
" What do you mean?"
" We have to make the pact "
" What pact?" I began to panic. Did all deals with demons really have a special ritual. Would it require blood? Would it hurt? I really hoped he was just talking about signing a contract. That I could do.
" This" Ruan smiled deviously again as he grabbed my hand with his left one while his right one held a dagger.
I tried to back away and run, sure that the ritual would require a lot of blood and not wanting to bleed, but by when I managed to get my hand back with a lash motion I was already cut.
Red blood flowed out of the deep slash in the middle of my hand and mixed with Ruan's black blood as he chanted, using words I had never heard of but that made my skin prickle non the less.
I could feel the power emanating from the words. I watched as our blood mixed in the air, the tones changing and making forms in the air as Ruan chanted.
The whole room rumbled as Ruan said the final words and the ritual was completed. The blood that had been dancing between us stopped and slowly unraveled, dividing into two and flowing to each of us.
As my blood entered me I felt a pull somewhere deep in my heart, a pull that forced me to go to where my dad was. The will to do that was so big that I wanted to go run to where he was just to make the itchy pull go away.
Still fighting against the will to run I watched as the last drops of my blood entered my system through the wound and the tissue fixed before my eyes. The pain that had been bothering me before disappeared as if it was never there, and instead a crest with a bleeding heart appeared on my hand, glimmering for a few seconds, and the disappeared, and my skin was unscathed again.
What the fuck had just happened?
I looked up and saw Ruan looking at his own hand, also as good as new.
" What does this mean?" I asked in a weak voice. If he had tricked me and this had any side effects he was going to taste my wrath, well more like my dad's, but it was all the same.
" It means that now you'll be forced to keep your side of the deal and me mine. It also means that if any of us tells the other person's secret searing pain will bloom all over your heart and a seal will appear over it, marking you as a deal breaker, and no one like deal breakers"
" So it basically means I can't tell your secret and you can't tell mine"
Ruan nodded. It wasn't such a bad deal. He would have to keep my secret, and help me escape. It wasn't bad at all.
" What are you doing!!?" Dad came out of nowhere and Ruan flinched as he looked at him with a murderous expression. Where had he come from? His powers were really special, but that wasn't the issue right now, calming him down was.
" I'm okay" I tried to calm him, but he was no longer listening to me.
He grabbed Ruan by the horns and fixed the flower that Ruan had accidentally stepped on during the ritual as he cast me one last glance.
" It seems you still need more training" I heard him whisper into Ruan's ear as they left.
I didn't know what that was about and definitely didn't want to know. It wasn't part of our deal, and honestly? I didn't, really didn't, want to know about anyone's kinks, much less my dad's.
I looked one last time at my hand, the whole demon pact experience still seemed surreal to me, and picked up the flower, leaving it in the base.
I smiled as I took off my clothes and changed into my nightgown. I had a new minion, and in my opinion the more the better. The more slaves I had under my control the easier life would be, and I had just gained and extremely powerful one.
Two days later.
I already had a routine. I would wake up at noon and eat. Then dad would take me to the training room and we'd spar, sometimes with Ruan and sometimes without him, it mostly depended on whether he had pissed off dad or not. After training dad and I, and sometimes Ruan too, would eat and then I'd have free time.
During that free time I had tried to run away but I had yet to find the main entrance, much less go back to the forest. I still really didn't know how I had teleported back in the pub, but I was guessing it had something to do with Ruan's magic.
After the disastrous dinner of two days ago dad hadn't invited me to them anymore, which I really, really appreciated. Instead I ate in my room, with no one staring at my back.
I was happily snooping around in the afternoon, looking for anything interesting at all, I had already given up on finding a way out and now just wanted a distraction, when a little demon with blond curls and a nervous expression came up to me and lightly touched my arm.
When I turned to face her she flinched almost invisibly and lowered her gaze.
" The demon King has called for you"
" Dad has?" I asked out of habit.
The little demon stared at me as if I had claimed the sky was red and the nodded.
" This way" She said as she gestured towards a corridor I had never seen before.
A few turns and twists later I stood in the middle of the throne room, the same room I had first seen my father in, but now I wasn't afraid of him nor of any of the other demons that filled the room.
I made my way to the throne while walking proudly with my head held high, I had learned that the best way to make people stop staring was to not give them anything to talk about, and in here that meant having confidence.
When I reached the throne there was another, smaller one that hadn't been there before, besides the bone throne where dad was seating.
I hesitated, but decided when I saw dad's gaze go repetitively to it, and sat on the blue velvet throne.
As soon as I got seated all the demons in the throne room bowed down so low that their heads touched the floor. It was amusing seeing all the people that had side eyed me until now bow down to me, but I still didn't know why dad had called me here.
I looked at him, but he didn't see me, he was too busy looking at the wall, now parted, and at the people that were coming through it.
Over a dozen demons were walking towards the throne, only stopping right in front of me where I could see them. I threw dad a side look, but he was still too busy to notice. Just want the fuck was he planning?
" Please welcome the candidates to be the princess's future servants" Dad said in his most authoritarian voice.
That was what all this was about!? I glared at dad openly, pursing my lips in a kind of a pout, but he was too busy inspecting all the possible candidates, his gaze focused on them alone. I didn't want servants! They'd just get in the way of my escape.
It was still glaring at dad, I had decided to give him a piece of my mind as soon as we were alone, when something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
I turned my head to the left side where the future servants were waiting on a row and saw.... my guys.
My heart stopped beating for a second from the shock. What the fuck were they doing here? My eyes bulged as I looked at them and they saw me. Their faces suddenly lit up when they looked at me and they smiled at me. My heart warmed up.
I was so happy that they had decided to come for me even in hell. I was so moved, but still, what the fuck? What were they doing here?
" Let the trials begin" Dad said. As soon as I heard his words my blood ran cold. He couldn't possibly mean for them to fight to be my servants, right?