The Tumultuous World of A Demi-Demon

Chapter Twelve

He bit down on his bottom lip, thinking hard. "Oh, it's that serious, huh?"

I nodded. "It's going to take a miracle for me to go back home."

"Maybe I can help if I return to the castle..." He went quiet.

"Oh yeah, you are the prince, I keep forgetting." I sighed again then looked his way thoughtfully before following his gaze to the ripples of the pool. In the waters, I watch a young Devlin sitting on a throne being instructed on the rules of etiquette. "It looks rough," I admitted before using my foot to wipe out the rather depressing image. Our childhoods were complete opposites.

Silence unfolded between the two of us as we swirled our feet in the cool waters. That was when another image took form. This time it was a young me with a handsome, dark-haired, and brown-skinned man watching a dying sunset in the savannah.

My face lit up. "Dadd—"

"Raj!" Devlin cried with excitement as he spat out my father's name.

I was stunned. "You know my father?"

"Yes, he is my father's trusted overseer of demon soldiers in Iram. I didn't know he was your father." He was just as shocked as I was.

"That explains why he disappears for years at a time, I guess." I bit down my lip, doing my best to refrain from crying. I hated getting emotional around people; Devlin was no exception.

"You miss him, don't you?" he asked, looking my way with pained eyes.

I nodded. "It's hard, you know. Mum being a human and having to deal with my power mishaps on her own. Grandpa blames him for me not being able to control my powers yet. He thinks he is a slacker, but no, my father is just busy. I don't know anymore, it's just unfair."

"It is the father's job to train their child in Iram. That has always been the tradition so I can see how that's a problem," explained Devil Boy. I didn't see his hand was on top of mine until he gave it a slight squeeze. "Don't blame yourself."

Wiping some escaped tears from my cheeks, I started thinking. "I have a question, but feel free to ignore it if it comes off as stupid."

"Nothing you say is ever going to be stupid to me, Jules," he clarified. "What is it?"

"Since you're a prince can't you alert other royals that you're here? Can't they help you?"

A grunt escaped from between his lips, "Listen, it's complicated."

"What? You have bad blood?"

"Something like that," he answered, looking into the pool, and releasing my hand. Hurt is written all over his features. "It's just complicated."

I pushed some stray locks of my white hair behind my ear. "Fair enough. My second question is: What's Iram exactly?"

"What do you mean?"

I elucidated, "What is it the kingdom of?"

"Oh, I see now." He averted his gaze to the pool in front of us. "You are probably aware of the seven great kingdoms?"

I responded with a quick, "Yes, sir."

"Iram is the kingdom of anger and grudges," he elaborated, "So, forgive me if I struggle to let things go or if I'm a little short-tempered at times."

That was when I remember the package details. "So, what's this Desidia place?"

Devlin ran his fingers through his tousled, jet-black hair, before giving me the answer. "Desidia – where we are now – is the Kingdom of the dangerously lazy and super laidback. I say 'dangerously' because they do anything here to make a quick buck, and that ranges from high-paid assassinations to killing someone for organ collection to sell in other kingdoms; Ashlin City is notorious for that."

My brows furrowed. "And where's the government in all of this?"

"They should stop it, but because that's too much work, especially since the industry has gotten so large, they just turn a blind eye and mind their own damn business. Like I said Desidia is the kingdom of lazy scumbags."

He said the last word with such sharp bitterness it almost cut his tongue. He didn't have to say a thing. It was evident Desidia and Iram had some serious, unsettled business.

As we sat, enjoying each other's company, a group of devilish-looking creatures took their seat behind us. We didn't pay much attention to them at first. However, it was the following sentence that made us anxious to our stomachs.

"Hey, did you hear there's a demi-demon around here?" one of them with ram-like horns announced to the world.

I tensed. This can't be happening.

"No way!" Another one with more humanoid features stated, "I haven't heard of that shit since two thousand years ago."

A third – and biggest of them all chimed in, "No seriously! Apparently, Lady Hepler and Madame Sharq have a massive bounty on her head. It's spreading like a wildfire. However, before you idiots sharpen your knives, ostensibly, she took out four demons at once or something. So, if you're even thinking of having a taste of that cash, you need your big guns."

Devlin held my hand until I calmed down a little, then whispered to me, "Don't panic, they're just demons. They can't smell you. Let's get out of here."

We both got on our feet, grabbed our shoes, and coolly made our way past the fields of memory pools. When we were far out of sight of the party of demons, Devlin grabbed my hand and started running.

"Wait! Where are we going?" I screamed at him, struggling to keep up. "And could you slow the fuck down please?"

He slowed down to an attainable pace then looked back at me and yelled back, "We're going to the trains! We need to catch the last one tonight before we're really fucked!"

With that said, we took off at the speed of light into the night. He was right; we had to leave. Things were about to get hot down in Ashlin City, with me in its center, and I didn't do too well with heat.