Morning light bled through the Rooms high windows. Karas was already awake, his morning routine now consisting of simply memorizing the planes of Zaliyah's face.
When the sun finally hit Zaliyah's eyes, the boy grunted, shifting his weight.
"You said you'd go slow, Karas," Zaliyah muttered, in his sleep.
Karas let out a low chuckle, his fingers tracing a mark on Zaliyah's shoulder. "I lied."
Zaliyah sat up, but immediately winced, a sharp, antagonizing pain blooming at the base of his spine. Karas's expression softened instantly. "I'm sorry, Zi." He scooped Zaliyah up, carrying him to the wash basin as if he weighed nothing.
As Karas washed Zaliyah's back, the sight was a tragic masterpiece-pale skin covered in dark red hickeys and the fading smudges of the poison. His long, white hair dripped over his shoulders like scattered sunlight.
"My back is killing me," Zaliyah muttered, leaning his head against the cool stone of the basin.
"Should I give you a massage?" Karas asked.
Zaliyah rolled his eyes, a faint smirk returning. "That's the least you owe me."
"What do you want to do today?" Karas asked, his voice quiet.
"Stay indoors," Zaliyah sighed. "Everyone wants my head on a spike. I'll just waste away in literature like Aunt Mei said." He paused, looking at his hands. "Did you find anything? Besides the pregnancy... and the blood?"
Karas went quiet. "Not really."
Zaliyah let out a dry, bitter laugh. "Imagine me getting pregnant? Can you even picture it?"
Karas didn't laugh. Instead, a dangerous, possessive smirk spread across his face, one that made Zaliyah's heart skip a beat.
"Have you done it before?" Zaliyah asked, suddenly curious. "How do you know so much? I thought men just... kissed."
"I read books, Zi," Karas said, his eyes darkening. "And when I traveled with father for my bone disease, we saw cities where the King was wed to a man. They had manuals for everything."
"Traveling sounds interesting," Zaliyah smiled. "Maybe we should go. Take Harun and Iruna along."
Karas paused. "Who are Harun and Iru-"
His words died in his throat. As Zaliyah turned to reach for a towel, the steam from the water made the skin of his neck flush.
There, glowing faintly with a deep crimson light, was a mark Karas hadn't noticed in the heat of the night.
It was a complex, swirling sigil-a serpent swallowing a lotus.
Karas's mind raced back to the "grotesque" book from the old man's shop. He saw the page titled ROYAL BOND.
A mark that signifies the soul is no longer the property of the gods, but the property of the Monarch.
Karas's face twisted, his eyes flashing with a predatory, golden light. His hand shot out, gripping Zaliyah's shoulder with enough force to bruise. "What did you do?"
Zaliyah turned, "What do you mean?" He followed Karas's horrified gaze, his hand flying up to cover his neck, but it was too late. The Brand of the King was screaming in the light of the morning.
The air in the bathhouse was warm with steam, but Zaliyah felt a bone-chilling cold.
Karas stood over him, his shadow stretching long across the water. His voice was unnervingly soft-the kind of quiet that precedes a landslide.
"What did you do?"
Zaliyah looked up, his eyes glassy and pleading. A single tear escaped, tracing a path through the dampness on his cheek.
He looked small, fragile, and utterly guilty.
"Karas, I-"
"What did you do Zaliyah!" Karas's roar shattering the silence. He brought his fist down onto the edge of the wooden bathtub with the force of a falling star. The wood groaned and then exploded. Shards of timber flew like shrapnel as the basin split in two.
Thousands of gallons of water surged across the floor in a violent wave. Zaliyah was swept out, landing hard on the cold stone, shivering and exposed.
Karas didn't look at him; he pressed his palms against his temples, his chest heaving.
"I'm sorry," Karas choked out, his anger momentarily replaced by horror at his own violence. "I didn't mean... I didn't mean for that to happen."
Moving like a man in a trance, Karas grabbed a heavy towel. He began to wipe Zaliyah's hair with trembling hands, his movements jerky. He pulled a set of light robes over Zaliyah's shivering frame, but his eyes caught the dark, swirling ink on Zaliyah's neck. He recoiled as if burned. Quickly, almost desperately, he took extra lengths of bandage-like cloth and wrapped them tightly around Zaliyah's throat, hiding the consort mark from view.
"I can't look at it," Karas whispered. "I just can't."
He carried Zaliyah to the bed and Zaliyah sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the robes to his chest. Karas stood by the window, staring out at a world that no longer made sense to him.
Then, the dam broke. The words spilled out of Zaliyah in a frantic, sobbing rush. The deal, the ritual, the price of a life.
Karas didn't turn around. He gripped the wooden windowsill until the grain screamed. With a sickening crack, the wood splintered under his fingers.
"No! No! No! this can't be happening" Karas turned, a whirlwind of agony. He grabbed a priceless porcelain vase and hurled it against the wall. Crash. A chair was overturned. A mirror was swept off the vanity, shattering into a thousand reflections of his failure.
"I'm sorry! Karas, I'm sorry!" Zaliyah stammered, his voice thin and broken by sobs.
The violence of the room drew the household like a magnet. The heavy oak doors rattled under the pounding of Riosuka and the servants.
"Karas! Zaliyah! Open the door!" Riosuka's voice was high with panic.
"This is the first time they've ever fought like this," Caius remarked, his voice tight. He turned to a nearby servant, and muttered in the servants ear "Go. Fetch Official Yan. Now."
Inside, Karas was a man possessed. He kicked aside a pile of books, his face twisted. "I should have died! I should have just died You should have let me rot in the earth, Zaliyah!" To Karas, the idea of Zaliyah being branded like cattle by a creature of the underworld was a fate worse than the grave.
"I couldn't watch you die!" Zaliyah stood, walking toward him with shaky steps. "I just couldn't! I would have traded my soul ten times over to hear you breathe again!"
"This is worse than death!" Karas spat, the words dripping with venom. "Dying, knowing the person I love is living a fulfilling life... exploring the world... that is a mercy! But living to see you sell your very essence to the Messenger of Death?"
Outside, a collective gasp rippled through the servants. Silence fell like a shroud.
"I was desperate," Zaliyah grabbed Karas's hands, pulling them toward his own chest, right over his racing heart. "I didn't know , I don't know what to do without you."
Karas jerked his hands away as if Zaliyah's skin was made of hot coals. "Don't touch me."
The words hit Zaliyah like a physical blow. His world, already fractured, finally crumbled. Karas reached down and snatched up a sharp, curved shard of the broken vase. He began to walk toward Zaliyah, his eyes glazed and distant.
"What... what are you doing?" Zaliyah backed away, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"I don't want to see his brand on you," Karas whispered in a terrifying daze. "I'll cut it off. I'll cut it out of your skin."
"Karas, no!" Riosuka screamed from behind the door, the banging becoming louder and harsher. "Don't act irrational! We can talk this out! We are a family!"
"Brother Zi, open the door!" RiRu's voice was small and terrified. "Don't let him hurt you!"
Zaliyah stopped backing away. He looked at the sharp piece of porcelain in his brother's hand, then up at the man he had sacrificed everything for.
"Would slicing away the mark make it better?" Zaliyah asked, his voice suddenly, eerily calm.
Karas didn't answer.
"Then do it," Zaliyah said, tilting his head back to expose his throat. "If it mends your heart, take the skin. Take it all."
Karas froze. The shard was inches from Zaliyah's neck. His hand shook violently. He looked at the boy he had grew up with, the person he loved more than his own life, and the rage turned into a hollow, loud scream.
"ARGHHHH!" He swung the shard wide, smashing it into a nearby cabinet instead. He couldn't do it. He was mad at Zaliyah, but he was more disgusted with his own weakness.
Outside, Caius let out a sharp, mocking sigh. "Tsk. He was quick to pour boiling water over his aunt and beat his own father, but when it comes to the one he loves, he is a coward."
The door swung open. Karas marched out, his face was hardened devoid of all the emotions he had last night. He didn't look at his mother or his sister as he brushed past them, heading straight for his library to maniacally search through The Nature of Demons.
Riosuka and Riru rushed into the room. It was a wasteland. Riosuka pulled Zaliyah into her arms, stroking his hair. "It's okay, my boy. Mom is here."
"You look ugly when you cry," Riru muttered, wiping his tears with her sleeve, her own eyes red.
The tender moment was short lived as a heavy footstep approached. Official Yan stepped into the room, a smirk playing on his lips. "Well, well. Quite the family drama."
Riosuka stood, shielding Zaliyah. "What are you doing here?"
"That isn't very noble of you, Lady Riosuka," Yan sneered.
Caius stepped forward, looking at Zaliyah with pure, unadulterated disgust. "You should have stayed disappeared. You are a walking corpse in my hands now."
"How dare you!" Riosuka shouted, but Yan merely flipped open a written warrant.
"Your scholarly son can't stop me this time," Yan said, reaching for Zaliyah.
In that moment, Zaliyah felt a strange surge of power-and a profound sense of peace. He looked at Riru and Riosuka. "I love you both."
"You think I'd let you put those filthy cuffs on these delicate hands?" Zaliyah laughed, a sound like breaking glass.
Then, the world slowed down. To the humans, it looked as if the air itself began to bleed shadows. A rift tore open in the center of the room-a violet Portal into the Demon Realm. Zaliyah stepped into the portal.
A massive gust of wind erupted, knocking the servants off their feet. Dust and debris swirled in a violent cyclone.
By the time the wind died down, the space was empty.
"Where did he go?!" Yan screamed, clutching his hat. "What sorcery is this?"
"Wow," Riru whispered, her eyes wide. "Brother Zi is so cool."
"He is a demon!" Caius roared.
Thwack!
The slap echoed through the hall. Caius looked up, expecting Karas, but found the fiery gaze of Riosuka.
"He left... because of you."
Zaliyah collapsed onto the floor of his quarters in the Demon Realm. The portal had drained him. The black liquid of the Night Stalker was already beginning to leak from beneath his fingernails, marking the floor.
He looked around, confused. Why did his chambers here look exactly like the ruins of his room in the human realm? Two different men, two different rages, one shared result.
He staggered into the halls, seeking the chamberlains he had left. He asked the passing maids about Harun and Iruna, but they lowered their heads and hurried past.
Finally, a young girl named Nyxian took pity on him.
"The dungeon," she whispered.
The dungeon smelled of old blood and damp earth. The guards tried to block his path, but Zaliyah merely pulled back the bandage, revealing the glowing Consort Mark. They scrambled to step aside, stammering apologies.
When he saw the twins, his heart stopped.
They were suspended by chains, their bodies a map of fresh lashes and dried blood.
"Unchain them!" Zaliyah screamed.
"We can't," the guard stuttered. "The King's orders-"
Thwack!
Zaliyah's hand connected with the guard's face. "I said unchain them!".
Leaving the guards to struggle with the locks, Zaliyah marched toward Malachi's quarters. He pushed past the sentries, ignoring their protests. Inside, Malachi was reading, his face a look of bored indifference.
Uphior moved to intervene, but Malachi raised a hand. They both stood as Zaliyah entered, disheveled, bleeding shadow, and eyes burning with fury.
"Did you enjoy your little escape?" Malachi asked, his voice smooth and cold.
THWACK!
The sound of Zaliyah's palm hitting Malachi's cheek was the loudest thing in the room. Every guard in the hall immediately bowed their heads, refusing to witness the unthinkable.
The King of the Underworld had been struck. And Zaliyah wasn't finished