Chapter 275: Pinky Promises, Buried Demon Kings, and the Most Jealous Demon in the Realm
Chapter 275: Pinky Promises, Buried Demon Kings, and the Most Jealous Demon in the Realm
Elyn’s POV
Zorathys tilted his head in thought, his shadows following the movement.
"Perhaps," he said. "But honestly, I’m not quite certain. I... I cannot explain what I felt, but I am sorry for avoiding you. It was unintentional."
I was quiet for a while.
Then I sighed.
There was still something wrong here.
Something he wasn’t seeing.
Something I couldn’t explain.
And somehow, that was more frustrating than if he had just been deliberately difficult.
"Do you remember that tour of the demon realm you promised me?" I asked him.
His eyes lit up slightly.
"Yes?"
"Let’s do it tomorrow," I said.
He straightened just a little.
Then I added, "But with the children, Zorathys. Call them back."
The change in his expression was immediate. His eyes were filled with disgust.
How was it that he could look that disguted and still be handsome?
"I should call the pests back?" he drawled lazily.
I smiled.
"Yes."
"Firefly." He drawled.
"What?"
"Why do we have to invite the pests? We can go alone." He argued.
"We can," I said, "but I haven’t forgiven you for everything you did. So it’s either you accept the fact that we are going with the children or you can forget about showing me around the demon realm."
"Firefly, you know I hate working. And walking. Anything that has to do with me extending effort."
"So?"
"If we go with those pests, I will be working. Tirelessly. I wouldn’t get to enjoy showing you around."
I tilted my head.
"So you were going to enjoy it?" I asked. "But you hate working. Showing me around would have been you working."
"But you would be there," he said, "and you would be the one doing more of the work."
I blinked.
"How?" I asked. "Where did that logic even come from?"
"It’s quite simple," he said. "You like working. I’ll show you around the realm and you’ll do all the work."
I stared at him.
"Wait," I said. "Hold on. Did I just hear you correctly?"
"Hmm," he said.
"Zorathys!"
"What, Firefly?" he asked. "It’s true. You like working. If I show you around, you’ll find something that requires expending energy. Work follows you everywhere. Your breathing is even work."
I looked at him for a long moment.
Work follows me everywhere?
My breathing is work?
I took a breath and then released it.
"Let it be known," I said, "that you are digging a hole for yourself right now. One that I might bury you in. One I’ll make sure you won’t be able to get out of."
He smiled at that.
"It wouldn’t be so bad to be buried by you," he said. "And I’d like to see what you use to create the hole."
I stared at him.
There was something wrong with this demon. Something fundamentally incorrect about a being who could destroy entire territories, wipe out entire populations, bend reality like it was something flexible and yet stand here looking genuinely pleased at the idea of being buried alive because I said I would be the one doing it.
There was something wrong with that.
And yet, somehow, it made perfect sense.
Because this was the demon realm.
I had known this before and I was also reminded of it constantly.
Like when Zorathys had almost killed every demon in the realm and the demons had been scared, yes but also in awe. Actual, genuine awe. Of the king who had nearly made them disappear.
And now he was smiling because I told him I would bury him in a hole he couldn’t get out of.
Excited, even.
I exhaled slowly.
"Zorathys," I said, opening my eyes again, "get the children back to the palace, and then we can go on the tour around the realm and who knows, maybe I’ll have a picnic with you."
His shadows shifted, a slow, deliberate movement, like something had caught their attention.
Zorathys himself went still.
Then his gaze settled on me fully.
"Is that a promise?" he asked.
There was something in his tone.
Something just slightly more focused than usual.
"A pinky promise?"
I paused.
"A pinky promise?" I repeated.
Where did he even get that from? He didn’t strike me as the type to...
"You told Ignivar’s spawn one time that you guys should make a pinky promise," he said, answering the question before I could ask it, "and that you wouldn’t break it if you did."
I blinked.
Oh.
That.
My eyes widened slightly as I looked at him.
And wait a minute, he was... pouting?
There was a faint downturn at the edge of his lips, his brows drawn together just enough to suggest mild dissatisfaction, and his shadows reflected it, curling slightly inward like they were offended on his behalf.
"You were spying on me?" I asked choosing to ignore the fact that he was pouting.
"I know everything that happens in the palace, Firefly," he said. "I know very well that you made a pinky promise with the spawn. I was not spying on you."
He said it like he was offended I would even suggest such a thing.
Like the concept of spying was beneath him.
Despite the fact that he had just admitted, very clearly, that he knew everything that happened in the palace.
Which, by definition meant he was spying.
But that wasn’t the main issue now, the main issue was that he had remembered that.
Specifically that.
Out of everything that happened in the palace.
Everything.
That was what he chose to focus on.
I looked at him.
He looked back at me, that pouting on his face.
I felt it then.
That little shift in my chest.
The one that came before something I could not stop.
I tried.
I really did.
But it didn’t work.
"You sound jealous," I said.
"I am not jealous," he replied immediately.
"You made a pinky promise with some spawn," he continued, his voice dropping slightly, "and not with me."
That did it.
I laughed.
I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t.
But it came out anyway, loud and uncontrolled.