Chapter 366: The Awakening I Was Supposed to Have

Elyn’s POV

Just then, the tears stopped.

Dracolthar turned to me, his four eyes wide as they stared at me in shock.

“Your Majesty!” he called, his voice echoing in my head.

I ignored him, glancing instead at the jug on the bedside table.

This wasn’t water.

It wasn’t even a tonic or herb or whatever demons drank when they were trying to recover from something which I had no idea what it was but felt like this wasn’t it.

I frowned.

Was this wine?

I was in Zorathys’s bedroom, and I knew just how much he loved wine, but surely wine didn’t taste like…

I had no idea what this even tasted like.

It was a strange mixture of dust and dirt with something syrupy mixed into it.

And what was that smell?

I brought the cup closer to my nose. Only now realising that it smelled.

Burnt.

It smelled burnt.

But the liquid itself was so clear. It looked exactly like water.

Oh, Elyn.

How you have been deceived.

This was clearly not water.

“Your Majesty?” Dracolthar called again.

I finally decided to answer him before he turned into a sobbing mess again.

Who knew an ancient demon pet such as him could even cry like this?

And dare I say, behave this childishly?

Perhaps it was the form he took that influenced him.

Or maybe he was simply terrified that Zorathys would kill him.

Honestly, the latter was far more believable.

“Yes?” I asked him.

He disappeared from his position in a poof of black smoke and appeared directly before me.

Then he raised those ten fingers again.

Before he could even ask his question, I answered him.

“Dracolthar, you are raising ten fingers,” I said dryly.

He frowned.

Then he looked down at his hands and counted his fingers as though he hadn’t realised he was holding up ten in the first place.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

He continued until he reached ten.

Seemingly satisfied with his discovery, he then pointed at himself.

“What is my name?”

I stared at him.

“I just said your name not too long ago.”

“You did?” he asked with a frown.

“Yes.”

He looked genuinely confused.

I rubbed my forehead.

“Dracolthar, I am this close to hitting you if you do not stop with these incessant questions.”

For some reason, that made him smile.

“You really are okay, Your Majesty?”

“Yes.”

“You can see?”

“Yes.”

“You can hear?”

“Yes.”

“You can speak?”

“Obviously.”

His four eyes widened with relief.

Then he immediately leaned closer.

“Do you feel pain anywhere? Your head? Your chest? Your stomach? Your limbs? Your—”

“Dracolthar.”

He stopped, leaning back slowly.

I sighed and shook my head.

“I don’t feel any pain.”

And I didn’t.

That was what surprised me most.

Unlike the past few days, my body felt…normal.

No burning.

No aching.

No sensation of something tearing through me from the inside.

No feeling like my head was about to split apart.

I could breathe easily.

My limbs didn’t feel like they belonged to someone else.

I felt perfectly fine.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “But please, what is this?”

I gestured toward the cup in my hand.

Dracolthar glanced at it.

Then his expression changed.

“Oh.”

That single word immediately made me suspicious.

“What?”

He stared at the cup.

Then at me.

Then at the cup again.

“I believe I do not know what that is.”

Would it be possible for a weak human like me to kill an ancient demon like him? Because I was so close to finding out if I could.

“Do you recall asking me if I was okay? If I felt any pain or discomfort?” I asked him.

He nodded.

“Well I feel something and it’s a mix of everything but mainly it’s the urge to kill you. You are stressing me Dracolthar. ” I told him.

And like every demon that have been threatened to die by my hands his eyes were hopeful.

“Aww…”

“Where even is Zor—”

I didn’t even get to finish asking when suddenly shadows pooled across the floor.

A moment later, Zorathys appeared.

He was dressed simply, entirely in black, but even dressed so plainly, there was something about him that made it impossible to mistake him for anyone else.

He was still beautiful.

Annoyingly so.

But there was something different about him.

His ruby eyes looked tired.

There were faint bags beneath them.

I stared at him.

For a moment, there was silence, Zorathys stared at the floor and immediately Dracolthar stood upright and swirled his finger in the air and suddenly everything was back to normal.

The black tears were gone.

Zorathys gave him a look and the demon froze though his tails moved excitedly as if in anticipation of whatever punishment Zorathys would give him.

I almost felt sorry for him but decided to pack up that feeling and put it in a trash can.

Zorathys’s gaze shifted toward me.

And in the blink of an eye, he was beside me just as Dracolthar was sent flying directly into a portal.

How Zorathys managed to do that without even appearing to move, I would never understand.

Then again, he was the Demon King.

He had a ridiculous amount of magic at his disposal.

Yeah.

That explained it.

Zorathys took the cup from my hand and placed it on the bedside table.

Then he turned back to me.

His hand came beneath my chin, gently tilting my face upward as he studied me.

His ruby eyes moved across my face as though he was searching for something.

“How do you feel, Firefly?” he asked softly.

There was worry in his voice.

And his gaze showed just how much he had been worried about me.

“I’m okay,” I told him.

“Are you certain?”

I nodded.

“Do you feel any pain at all? Any discomfort?”

I shook my head.

“I’m okay, Zorathys. I’m perfectly fine just weak.”

For several seconds, he simply stared at me.

Then he released a long breath.

A sigh of relief.

And before I could react, he leaned forward, his lips touched my forehead and I froze.

Then he wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Firefly,” he said softly.