Chapter 243: Zorathys, A Picnic, and Deeply Suspicious Behavior
Chapter 243: Zorathys, A Picnic, and Deeply Suspicious Behavior
Elyn’s POV
One would think that after spending an entire day managing four demon children, a forged letter, two identical ravens having an identity crisis, a three-headed dragon, and a shot of love directly to my face, I would be entitled to at least one peaceful morning the next day.
One would think.
I was in my office.
The maps Morthen had brought me were spread across the desk — the demon realm on one side, the palace on the other. I had been going over them carefully, marking the teleportation points. Entry and exit points, essentially.
I was memorizing them.
I was still on the fence about leaving. I wanted to, but a part of me also didn’t want to.
But at least if I had the information with me, then I could leave anytime I wanted... that’s what I told myself.
If I needed it to leave.
"My lady," Rin said from beside me, not looking up from where she was examining her nails, "I can tell you everything you want to know about the demon realm. You don’t need the maps."
"The maps are fine," I said.
"I’m more informative than maps."
"The maps don’t argue with me."
She opened her mouth.
"Or talk back," I added.
She closed it.
Across the room, Vaelory was leaning her chin on her hand with the expression of someone whose thoughts were somewhere very far away.
"I haven’t seen my love in a while," she said quietly.
I looked up at her. "Your love?"
"She means Naviel, my lady, and honestly, her love is one-sided," Rin said.
I cleared my throat at that, refusing to laugh.
"He just hasn’t seen me at my best, that’s why you feel it’s one-sided," Vaelory told her.
Rin gave her a look. "We’ll see."
I decided to look back at the maps. I’m not going to involve myself in that.
I had just located the third teleportation point on the palace map — one near the east corridor, one near the lower gardens, one behind the kitchens — when the shadows moved.
It happened fast.
The shadows pooled at the center of the office floor all at once, dark and sudden, and then he was simply there.
I didn’t have time to move the maps.
I didn’t have time to do anything.
Zorathys stood in the middle of my office in the time it took me to blink, and the maps were still fully visible on my desk behind me.
I kept my expression neutral.
If he asked, I was getting myself familiar with the realm and the palace. That was a perfectly reasonable thing for a future queen to do. There was nothing suspicious about it. I was being responsible.
He didn’t ask.
His ruby eyes moved across the office in that unhurried way of his, taking everything in without appearing to look at anything directly. His black hair fell past his shoulders, loose, the way it usually was when he hadn’t been anywhere formal. His shirt was slightly open at the throat. He looked, as he always did, like someone who had just woken up and found the world mildly beneath his standards.
Except his eyes weren’t heavy with sleep the way they usually were. They weren’t fully open either — they never were — but there was something behind them that was more present than usual.
Rin, Vaelory, and Morthen bowed immediately.
I looked at him.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Can I not visit my wife?" he said.
"We’re not married."
"We’re engaged."
"I never received a proposal."
He looked at me with faint amusement. "Have you forgotten that you were the one who proposed to me?"
My eye twitched.
"You know," I said, smiling at him — it was a fake smile — "that I only said all of that to escape the engagements my father was trying to trap me into."
"And yet," he said, "here you are. Engaged to me." He tilted his head slightly. "Are you not glad you ended up with me instead?"
I looked at him.
He looked back.
I said nothing, only scrunched my face in disgust.
He sighed. "You are very harsh, Firefly."
Then his gaze shifted past me to the desk, and his expression changed.
I thought he was looking at the maps, but no. This demon was looking at the parchments piled high on the table, the ones filled with work I hadn’t gotten the chance to complete yet.
He visibly shuddered just from looking at them. The disgust was written plainly on his face.
I almost laughed.
"What are you doing here, Zorathys?" I asked again.
He looked back at me, composure restored. "I came to invite you for a picnic," he said. "Or perhaps a game."
I made a face.
"Since when," I said slowly, "are you interested in games?"
"I have always been interested in games."
I stared at him.
"What games?" I asked. "Games like who can sleep the longest? Who can be the laziest? Who can avoid work better than anyone else in the demon realm?"
He tilted his head, actually considering my words.
It was like I was giving him a reason to be more lazy. And why did I feel like Zorathys could actually turn what I said into games?
"I wouldn’t be opposed to any of those," he said thoughtfully.
I shook my head. "I’m not playing any game with you. I need some rest after the ball."
"I told you to skip the ball," he said. "And you refused because you wanted to be an upright queen who stood to receive all the nobles."
"It wouldn’t have made sense to abandon them when they all gathered for me."
He looked at me, disbelief — and perhaps disgust — on his face regarding my reasoning.
"Why," he said, "do you always try to make sense of things?"
I opened my mouth.
He didn’t wait for the answer.
"Come with me," he said simply. "I want to show you around the demon realm."