Draziel's POV
The underworld was my kingdom, my empire. And I could tell when an intruder stepped into my kingdom from another realm. It was an inbuilt mechanism in me—an ominous feeling that fills my guts and stirs me in the direction of the intruder.
I dropped the scrolls in my hands onto the smooth surface of the oak desk, disturbing the numerous others—tightly bound—which began rolling noisily down the desk, hitting the floor with sharp smacks. My eyes darted fast to Varin, my trusted advisor.
Varin was a huge, round man, one of the numerous immortals that had to grow well into their sixties before becoming an immortal. He carried a full white beard that extended from ear to ear—he twitches it when nervous or excited.
He twitched it now. His shrewd, calculative eyes—an unusual monolid, tightened into his skin—jerked, confirming it: he'd felt the presence of the intruder too.
Instantly, I teleported fast, guided by my instinct. I landed in a rather secluded corner of the castle fields. Then I stopped, my boots scratched the floor, and I braked to a standstill before her.
I had been expecting to see another powerful demon, one of the rebellious ones that rejected my rulership. Instead, it was a human—I could tell, no horns—female—an unusually beautiful one at that.
Her face was framed small and graceful. Her hair was a silky golden blond that flowed in waves over her small shoulder. And beneath the robe she wore—I paused again, my eyes doing a double take on it—it was mine. One of those, I'd just brought back after a trip to the real world. My eyes caught the sword too—I stared at it, caught it flash a fickle glow—also mine, not an imitation.
Rage surged through my veins, my muscles quivered—expression tightening. How had a human gotten her hands on my things?
I drew closer to her, spurred forward by impulse. A force in me pushed me for a closer look at her, as if warning me I hadn't seen enough of her beauty already.
Her eyes were the prettiest I'd ever seen. A warm, light amber, riddled with tiny golden flecks. They brightened, locking on me as she blinked them open right after the small wind caused by my sudden presence around her.
Concentrate, Draziel. I shook my head gently, dragging my eyes reluctantly from her eyes. Don't be fooled. She could be a spy.
"Who are you, human, and why do you have my sword?" I asked. When she didn't answer, I snatched my sword from her, holding it behind me.
Her eyes followed the sword, and though she was silent for nearly another minute, she finally spoke.
"Please give me back the sword. I need to leave," she said, her tone low. I could almost feel her desperation.
I drew closer again to her. That same impulse was pulling me again to her, and I couldn't stop it.
Now so much closer, I breathed in her scents—a mix of rose and jasmine that strangely soothed my lungs.
I had seen humans, many of them, when I traveled to the real world to bring lost human souls here or retrieve criminal demons who breached the portal to the real world. But I had never experienced the scent of a human female.
It was so soothing I inhaled longer again, feeling and relishing the calm flush that washed down my lungs again.
"Please give back the sword, Draziel. I need to save you. You are going to die." She said, her voice quivering with urgency, while she reached for the sword.
I jerked back, pushing the sword from her reach. I scoffed as I looked into her face once again. Her eyes were tight and solemn, almost as if she was telling the truth. But it could never be the truth. "You can't save me, and I can't die, human. I am immortal. There is no creature alive who can kill me. Tell me how you got my sword and traveled down—" I stopped. I narrowed my eyes on her, pinning her down with a questioning stare, as realization slowly kicked in.
Then I walked forward, intimidating her with my bigger build. She slowly retreated from me, her eyes enlarging with dread. "How did you know my name, human?"
Her throat bulged. She swallowed—eyes in constant motion in her head. "Because you are my lover, Draziel. I am the human you fall in love with." She whispered cautiously.
I scoffed again, following up with a long chuckle. Fall in love with a human. She was crazy. I would never do that. That is one love affair doomed even before it began. I would never sign up for a life of eternal torment by being so foolish as to fall in love with a human.
"Okay," I said, pretending to believe her. "Explain to me how you got here then,"
Her bare feet scratched the grass with a sharp noise as she kept retreating back. I stopped moving forward—she could bleed if I kept on—the grasses could be sharp at times.
"I time-traveled using your sword. Just give me back the sword and a lock of your hair, and I will leave, returning to the time I came from."
I glanced back at the sword. Then her. That seemed like the only thing near truth that she had said so far. Father had the ability to time-travel, but unfortunately, he didn't get to teach me before I and Zarek killed him.
That was why I had been rummaging through his library every day, just as I was doing earlier, searching for the scroll he hid the technique in, and I'll teach myself.
"Are you really sure you can travel in time with the sword and a lock of my hair?" I asked. I shouldn't be asking that. She was probably just making the whole thing up. But I just couldn't put that curious side of me to check.
She nodded. "I can. Just give me a lock of your hair and the sword, and I can return to the future. I have already exhausted the one I came with."
I leaned back into myself to ponder, my eyes trained on her, watching her closely.
I didn't trust her words. Still, there was no explanation as to how she could be here, wearing my coat and having a copy of my sword. If she were a demon, I would have thought she was sent by the rebels—but she was a human. Even the rebels wouldn't use such a weak creature to get to me.
I raised the sword high, pulled my ponytail, and sliced out a lock for her. "Take," I said, handing her both the sword and the hair. "Do your stuff, human."
She stared at me, her eyes shifting gently and cautiously on me for a moment, plagued by indecision.
"Take, human," I yelled, thrusting both to her again when she didn't take it. "Time travel, let me see you do it."
She eventually sighed, lengthily, and in a swift motion that was rather amusing to watch, she snatched the sword and hair from my hands.
I folded my hands over my chest, the image of her snatching the sword replaying in my mind. I smiled as I watched her.
She folded the lock of hair and slid it down a tiny column in the sword. But nothing happened. No reaction on the sword, no void opening around to another time. Nothing.
She paused, muttering to herself as her eyes whipped fast to me, widened with shock, as if wondering and asking me why nothing happened.
But I just grinned down on her, chuckling at my own foolishness at believing she could have possibly time-traveled to here.
My grin seemed to fuel her with more energy as she hurried through the process again and again. Doing it so hard, she almost injured herself.
I tried to just watch and do nothing. But at that point, I couldn't. I snatched her hand with the hair before she could have sliced off her finger with the sword.
"I think that's enough, human." I said, raising her hand up and staring at the blood already pooling around her nails. Even if she was right. The fact that I hadn't learned the time-traveling technique now meant my hair was useless for whatever she was doing. Until I learned the technique, her theory—if true—was practically useless.
"I have to get back. I have to save the future, Draziel," she snapped, almost baring her teeth at me, her eyes stained with tears.
Then she snatched her hand away from me. Resuming to rub the hair against the column of the sword frantically. Hissing, muttering, and crying at each failed attempt.
I watched tears roll down her cheeks, and a pang seized my heart. I felt my heart practically tearing apart inside of me. Why?
"Brother! What's happening?" I spun around as I heard Zarek call behind me—his hands in the pockets of his robe, he strolled carefully to me.
I forced a smile at him, keeping back the gloom that had previously stained my features.
"Who is the human?" he asked, looking past me to the human lady.
The lady raised her head sharply at his voice, her eyes and cheeks still stained with tears. Then, as if something suddenly snapped in her, she shot forward quickly, covering me with her small body and raising the sword for Zarek's neck.
Her body quivered, tensed under the robe. She really meant to attack him. For some reason, she seemed to believe she had to kill the only person that mattered most to me in the universe right now, just to protect me.
I wasn't wrong. She was, indeed, crazy.