Chapter 318: The Urge To Kill Zorathys With Anything She Could Find
Chapter 318: The Urge To Kill Zorathys With Anything She Could Find
Elyn’s POV
The thing about knowing exactly who your one-sided crush was, was that even though your heart rate quickened when they were present, and their voice sent signals through your body, and their presence sent a warmth through you that you couldn’t quite explain, you’d still want them dead.
Especially if they were someone like Zorathys.
Which was the reason why I ignored every way my body reacted to him the moment he spoke. I ignored the way my heart stuttered in my chest at the sound of his voice. I ignored the way warmth spread through me at his presence. I ignored Aquaria’s gasp and wide eyes as she stared at the demon king who had just appeared in her office unannounced and out of thin air.
And I picked up the nearest thing I could find and threw it at him.
It was an inkpot.
Zorathys moved quickly, his body shifting to the side with that lazy grace he always possessed, and the inkpot sailed past him and shattered against the wall behind him. Black ink splattered across the pale stone, dripping down.
I didn’t stop though.
I grabbed a quill and threw that too. He obviously dodged it. I grabbed a stack of parchments and hurled them in his direction. He disappeared from one spot and reappeared in another, his shadows curling around him like they were enjoying the show.
"Firefly," he said, his voice carrying that familiar lazy drawl, "calm down."
"I am not fucking calming down!" I shouted.
He paused, tilting his head, his earrings swaying with the movement.
"What does ’fucking’ mean?" he asked.
I groaned in frustration and grabbed another inkpot, hurling it at him with all the force I could muster. He dodged again, the ink splattering across the wall behind him.
"You promised!" I shouted, my voice rising with each word as I threw anything I could get my hands on, which included documents too. "You promised you would be on your best behaviour. You promised you wouldn’t disappear. And then you left me. For hours. While I was searching for the children. While I was getting arrested. While I was being handcuffed and interrogated and—"
I picked up a heavy book from Aquaria’s desk and hurled it at him.
He dodged again, and the book slammed into the wall with a satisfying thud.
"I can explain," he said, his hands raised in surrender.
"I don’t want to hear it!" I shouted. "I know you were just sleeping! You always disappear to sleep! That’s what you do! You get tired, you find a corner, and you sleep while everyone else deals with the chaos!"
I grabbed another object — a small statue from Aquaria’s desk — and threw it at him. He disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room, his shadows swirling around him.
"Firefly—"
"Don’t ’Firefly’ me!"
I was reaching for another object when Aquaria’s hands closed around my arms, holding me in place.
Her grip was surprisingly strong, and I found myself unable to move. Water dripped from her fingers onto my sleeves, cold and damp.
"I’m sorry," she said, her voice carrying a note of genuine apology. "But I’ll have to increase your sentence for assaulting the King."
I paused.
The words took a moment to register.
Then I remembered.
The disguise.
I still looked like a succubus. I still looked like Elena. Aquaria didn’t know that I was Zorathys’s fucking fiancée.
Zorathys’s expression shifted then.
His ruby eyes narrowed, and his shadows stilled around him. His voice, when he spoke, was low and cold, stripped of all its usual laziness.
"Let her go," he said.
Aquaria’s eyes widened.
"Your Majesty—"
"I’m not repeating myself," Zorathys said. "Let the Queen go."
Aquaria frowned, her grip tightening slightly on my arms.
"Your Majesty," she said carefully, "I’ve seen images of the Queen. I know what she looks like. This woman is not her."
I growled in frustration.
"Zorathys," I said through gritted teeth, "your disguise is still in effect."
Zorathys blinked.
"Oh," he said. "Right."
He flicked his fingers and, contrary to what I thought he had done, which was getting rid of the disguise, he sent Aquaria flying backward, slamming into the wall with a soft thud. She slid down, her eyes wide, her mouth open in shock. The water that had been dripping from her hands splashed across the floor.
The handcuffs around my wrists fell away with a clatter, and then Zorathys spoke up.
"It’s done."
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I reached down, pulled off my shoe, and threw it at Zorathys’s head.
For once, I wanted it to meet its target, but it lodged itself in the wall next to him.
Right next to his ear.
He didn’t flinch.
He just looked at the shoe, then at me, and a wide smile spread across his face. His eyes lit up with something that looked suspiciously like admiration.
"You have good aim," he said.
I made a frustrated sound that was somewhere between a growl and a scream.
"I will kill you," I said.
"I think you’ve made that clear," he said.
Aquaria was still on the floor, staring up at us with wide eyes. Water pooled around her, and her voice came out small and uncertain.
"I didn’t know," she whispered. "I didn’t know..."
I ignored her, and so did Zorathys, who had his own reasons. Meanwhile, for me, the only reason I ignored her was because I was on a mission, a quest to kill this lazy demon.
Zorathys, as if reading my thoughts, held his hands up in surrender and looked at me, his expression shifting from amusement to something that was almost serious.
"Contrary to what you think, Firefly," he said, "I really was occupied. I didn’t sneak out to sleep."
I paused, choosing to observe him then.
His clothes were still immaculate. His hair was still perfectly in place. His eyes looked as drowsy as normal, though they were lit up now in a way that suggested he was genuinely enjoying this.
There was no evidence that he had been sleeping.
But then again, how would I have known he had been sleeping when I wasn’t the one who woke him? Neither was I directly there with him.
"Then you better have a good explanation for what happened," I said, my voice flat.
Zorathys nodded.
"I had to leave for an emergency," he said. "A very serious emergency."