The Demon King (Otherworld Series #4)

Chapter 21

Dinhae was gloomy. A goth's dream. We stepped through the portal and onto greyish coloured mud that seeped into my shoes. A wind blew the smell of carcasses into my face. We stepped into a clearing in the forest. It was lonely with wicked looking trees surrounding us. The tree had faces. They looked at me with sneers. They had dried purplish leaves.

Horrible right?

Sadly, Dinhae looked like that in my dreams.

We stepped through the portal and into a winter wonderland. Snow in August. Was it even August? Dinhae had blue skies and snow tipped mountains as far as the eye could see. Even those mountains had grey temples high up with loads of stairs. I could see some people standing on the stairs and watching the procession. People also were all around us. They wore medieval outfits, demon women in bell shaped sleeved gowns and scarfs wrapped around their heads and little demons hid behind their mothers. There were no demon men present. Dinhae's residents parted as Nikolai and I walked arm in arm couple style towards the center of the clearing. There was a fire pit in the middle.

The two oracles stood front of the fire. Chanting.

Not this again.

Darkness waved at me. Brightness rolled her eyes and beckoned us forward.

You don't need to be nervous, Miorisi. It's going to be cool. Give yourself that pep talk and face the music. Darkness' voice said in my head and he put his hands behind his head and did a dance with rolling his hips.

You shall proceed to walk through the village and to the castle. Nikolai shall go ahead on his steed. Brightness said, and when thoughts of unfairness filtered through my brain she quickly continued, You are the newly welcomed one. You are the outsider being brought to us as our majesty. If it was Nikolai who was the outsider then he would have to make the walk. This journey is how the people show their devotion to you. To show their acceptance. You have to make this journey, Vel Miorisi. 

"You can start showing your devotion by not calling me a misfit." I ground out before I could control myself. Nikolai squeezed my arm and sent me a sharp look.

Ooh, girls got some spank in her. But you see? Demon Queen , we're not demons. You can't order us neither can Nikolai. We do whatever we want. Your lucky to have us. You have our partnership not the upper hand over us. So yeah, You're Vel Miorisi to us. It's a cool name. I'd like a name like that. Instead I got what? Darkness. It's racism. I'm black,  so what?

You are pitch black. You radiate darkness and speak of dark times. What did you expect? Something like Mr. Morris? Now let the Miorisi and the King take their journeys, Nikolai Shizkov has important things to attend to. Brightness said and dragged Darkness into the fire. 

Like into it literally. 

They disappeared with a pop and the fire went out too.

The warmth went away with the fire. And I shivered. Nikolai put his arm around me and pulled me close. I appreciated his body heat but I was still a little annoyed that he had found my secret. Now he would hold it against me. As a leverage. It was the only this I had close to possession.  I let Nikolai know.

I'm so stupid.

Nikolai stopped my inner rant by the sight of his horrible steed. It was a huge black horse with bulging muscles and flowing hair. It also had horns and four eyes.

Four eyes. Like a spider.

Icks.

Nikolai kissed my hand. I held my chin high and looked at him with sly eyes. He was looking at me with amusement and a little something I recognised as adoration but chose to ignore.

"This is where we part ways, Lulu. I wish you best of luck for your journey. " He signed and looked like he wanted to say something more. My spirits perked up a bit. Maybe he wanted to swear a blood oath that he would never tell anyone my secret. Now you must be thinking that it's not that big to tell everyone but it's the one private thing I have left. I don't want to share it. With anyone. Not even Nikolai.

But no such luck. (Always.)

Nikolai cupped my face and wiped under my eye. Even though there were no tears. And then nodded at me and climbed his spider horse hybrid.

All the males who had stepped through the portal followed Nikolai in similar monster horses and I was left with my posse.

And all the female population of Dinhae.

----

Nikolai reached the castle in the afternoon. He figured he had at least four hours more until Lunia got there.

Lunia. He wanted to tell her that her secret was safe with him. He wanted to tell her that he would take it to the grave with him but he had to keep his mouth shut.  He couldn't risk that kind of personal stuff out in the open. He couldn't let any vulnerable part of Lunia be open for his people to exploit.

The gods know that they wanted to exploit. "Sebastian following the Queen, isn't he?" Nikolai asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, my lord. The Queen's party is being followed. A missive says that she has passed Twin Hills." A soldier answered.

Good. She's still miles away.

The double doors of the gothic castle opened. The first regal castle with white walls and flowing flags was re decorated by Nikolai's mother in 1880. She wanted it to look more demonic. And it turned out to be the perfect fit for the demon royals. The castle had black walls, grey conical roofs for its towers and red glowing fire in the torches that had been lit around some furies lit the torches every night.

And this part of the relm had eternal night. 

Nikolai examined the soldiers face. He was a general in the demon army. Another war demon. He remembered his name, Anton Abranov.

"General Abranov, has the leader of the Centaurs arrived?"

"Yes, Lord, Lady Yula arrived three days ago. She came with a band of six. She has been the royal guest awaiting your return. "

Nikolai entered the foyer and started up the stairs towards his chambers. He had to climb and climb the stairs in the olden days but now there were elevators.

Thank god for that.

The Royal chambers were in the tallest tower of the castle. But it was vacated until Nikolai was official king. Which he now was but he wanted to open the room when Lunia came so he was going to go to his room to freshen up for now.

Anjelika, his concubine was waiting for him in his room to help his freshen up. He wanted a long hot nice bath but that would have to wait for later.

Nikolai washed his face in the basin, Anjelika provided and wiped his face with a towel (Also provided by Anjelika). He thanked her and then was on his way towards the court room.

Do not have bad thoughts about the concubine. She was as old as his mother. He never had any sexual relationship with her. She had taken care of him when he was a child.

Sleeping with her would be like sleeping with his mother.

Gross.

Nikolai walked to the Court room with his brothers in silence and thought about how his people were currently treating his Queen.

Nikolai hoped everything was all right.