章節 7: A siren song

There was commotion in the castle as Marcos hurried to Emberle's room, where he found gossiping maids blocking the entrance.

""Move!"

He forced his way through and slammed the door shut behind him. Emberle was levitating near the ceiling engulfed in black flames, her black hair waving over her glowing golden eyes.

Merlin was in there with her, casting a spell with a staff in his hand to keep her immobile. "Emberle, fight her!" he encouraged the princess, but that was no longer who was in front of him.

"Emberle...no longer...controls...this body" she grinned.

"Merlin! what the hell's going on!?" Marcos inquired.

"She starved her. Your daughter starved Eve and now she can't control her." Merlin explained, "And I warned her! I told her this would happen!"

"So just give her some blood!" Marcos said, "There's more than enough servants outside."

"It's not working, she bled one of the maids half to death and it still wasn't enough!" Merlin said, referring to Historia who he had rescued from the room and was carried to a healer in the castle. "Either she no longer needs blood to survive or she developed a taste for a special kind and is going through withdrawal. Like a drug." he added.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I want to smash your skull, hang it up a stake so high. Watch you bleed your life to hell." Eve sang in a sinister ghostly tone.

"Dammit, Emberle, why don't you ever listen?" Marcos complained as he shook his head for ideas, "How long can you hold her?"

"Not long, she grows stronger by the minute!" Merlin said as her neck slowly began to twitch. She would soon break free.

"Hold out a little longer." Marcos ordered as he finally got an idea and peaked out the door to ask one of the glaives outside, "Who was the last person she drank from before the maid?"

"...that boy ,Grey ,sire." the glaive obediently replied.

"Find. Him" Marcos ordered.

"Hehehe, don't bother, you're all going to die" Eve laughed as she slowly started moving her arms.

"HURRY!!" Marcos shouted.

The glaives flew over the castle on pegasus back in the middle of a rainy night to Grey's house. They knocked on the door a few times with no response until they finally broke it down.

They ran up the stairs to his room and burst open the door, but the second one of the glaives set foot in the room, he was met by a plank to the face as the thunder clapped.

"Wrong house, asshole! And definitely wrong room!"

Grey had ripped out one of the floor boards when they kicked down the door. He had heard them storming up the stairs and thought they were thieves.

"grrr!"

The second one stepped over the first immediately after but the door suddenly slammed shut in his face, hitting him and causing him to trip over the first one.

They both got back up and broke the door down but again ,Grey met the first one to enter with a heavy fist to the face.

The second one caught him off guard and kicked him in the gut , throwing him to slam against the window and pass out. "fucking ,brat. Always making things difficult" one of the glaives complained.

"But goddamn can he throw a punch." the other glaive said as he fixed his nose.

when they finally made it back ,Eve was already free and was clashing with Merlin. Their fight was contained in that one room but the commotion could be heard throughout the entire castle. By this time, the crowd of servants had already fled.

Queen Maria and prince Cid were instructed to stay in their rooms. Marcos and the other glaives held the door shut from outside to keep them in while Merlin tried to make sure she didn't escape through the window.

"Don't let her out! Hold it shut!" Marcos boasted.

Emberle's room was in tartars, they had broken and tore almost everything in there while leaving traces of fire as well. The other glaives arrived at the room with an unconscious Grey in hand.

"Your highness ,we found him!" they reported.

Just then, the door burst open, slamming everyone close to it against the wall or throwing them at a distance. This caused Grey to wake up as he fell with the glaives and hit his head.

Eve walked slowly out of the dark room and went straight to Marcos, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground.

"Hellooo, uncle...did you miss me? I promised you I'd be back." Eve said with an evil grin.

As Marcos desperately kicked and choked, his glaives got up and went to defend him. But all four of them were taken out almost instantly. It was like time stopped.

Eve moved so fast that everyone else seemed to be standing still. She grabbed the blade out of one glaive's hand, cut his head off from the back and stuck it in another's neck. She then kicked the third one towards the bedroom wall, and as for the last one, she broke both his legs with a kick then went back to choke Marcos before his feet even touched the ground.

When she stopped, the first glaive's head was sent flying while the second one choked to death with a blade in his throat. The third one broke through the wall to the bedroom and the last one's bones cracked as he fell to the ground, crying in agony.

"Now...where were we?"

Merlin was also heavily injured and beaten within an inch of his life. Eve held her hand out and bent it with straight fingers, aiming to pierce his chest like with it like a spear.

"I don't suppose you have any last words?" she asked, but Marcos couldn't speak, he just grabbed her arm tightly and hopelessly struggled to free himself.

She was about to strike him when the scent of blood hit her nose. She turned around and saw Grey trying to crawl away,

"Dammit!"

He exclaimed upon noticing he had been discovered.

He had cut himself with one of the glass pieces from the broken decorative vases they had placed in the hallway while trying to cut the rope that tied his arms behind his back. "Useless piece of-"

All of Eve's reasoning went out the window as she started to drool.

Noticing the way she was looking at him, Grey panicked.

"No, no, just finish what you're doing, promise I won't interfere. I'll be gone in a minute. kill the king or whatever, I shouldn't even be here in the first place and I'm sure no one even likes him so you would be doing a lot of people a favor." he started babbling.

He said this trying to slide himself away on his butt, using his feet to push him back as he couldn't stand. Eve left Marcos's neck and flew straight at him with a growl.

"shit!"

She slammed into him so fast that they were pushed back and hit the wall behind them, Eve already sinking her fangs in his neck and sucking out the red. "u-ugh!",

Her hair went back to dark blonde as she clung even tighter to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulder and arm while engulfing him in her blazing dark aura.

Grey slowly lost consciousness, unable to defend himself as everything around him grew dimmer.

***

As the morning sun rose, the due drops of last night's rain reflect it's majestic rays while the flowers raised their heads to bask in it's warmth.

Birds started chirping and the echoes of children laughing were swayed peacefully throught the city in the wind. A beautiful new day had come and the city started buzzling again.

At it's edge near the woods ,far from the gates ,three children played in the puddles made by the rain. They laughed and hopped into one after another, chasing each other with sticks ,when they suddenly caught ear of a beautiful melody coming from the woods.

The sound was soft and calming, it sounded like a beautiful flute played just for them. They stopped playing when they heared it and tried to listen for where it was coming from. For some reason, it felt like it just called to them.

"what is it?" one of the children asked.

"I don't know but it sounds beautiful. Do you wanna go see?" another suggested.

"Let's go!" the third dashed ahead.

They excitedly ran into the trees and strayed farther away from the city.

***

In Emberle's messy room, Grey finally opened his eyes. There was a blurry figure on top of him. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he saw Emberle staring at him while sitting on his abdomen with her legs spread out.

He paused a few minutes and just stared at her as he couldn't help but admire her figure. Her curves were even, and chest wasn't that big, but not small either. Her dim red eyes felt enchanting. Her baggy and loose nightwear only added to the allure. If he squinted, he could almost see through it. She smelled nice too, and her skin looked so smooth and fair that Grey felt a strange urge to touch her, run his hands down her weiste and raise his head to kiss her.

It had been so long since they were so close, it was bringing back unwanted memories, memories she didn't have. But he soon got ahold of himself and instead remarked, "Hey ,princess, I'm really glad you didn't suck me dry or put me in a cell this time but...Do you have any idea how creepy this is?"

"Yes?" Emberle replied rather loosely.

"Then...why are you doing it?" he asked.

"...It was the only way I could cast the spell"

Grey raised his upper body from the bed immediately, "I'm sorry, spell? what spell? why are you casting a spell on me?"

She slid her leg across him and jumped down the side of the bed. "Well ,since it's already been decided that you're going to become my glaive, I thought I'd take the chance while you're sleeping to cast a [Link] between us."

She put on her shoes and went to pick up the pieces of the crystal that was on her nightstand, which Eve had broken in her duel with Merlin. "Guess I won't be needing this anymore"

"Wait, [Link]? You mean you've joined our minds, like , everything I think of you can hear? Wasn't that spell forbidden?"

"Not in my book." Emberle replied, "Get up. You have to go meet my father"

"I have to what now?" Grey asked, puzzled, "Wait a second. Do I have to marry you too? Just so you know, I am so not ready to be a father. Also, I feel like you are leaving out a lot of details, like who decided I was staying?" Grey added as he checked under the blankets to see if he still had pants on. He did.

Emberle led him to the throne room after changing into a proper gown where Marcos, Queen Maria, Prince Cid, Johnathan and some of the city noblemen were assembled as witnesses. They were accompanied by a glaive standing close to Grey to make sure he wouldn't escape.

Grey stopped at the center of the room while Emberle went to stand by Marcos' right side near the throne, while Cid stood by queen Maria's left side. Marcos looked down at Grey and said ;

"Kneel ,boy! You're in the presence of royalty."

"Uhm...no thanks, I'm fine just st-"

The glaive kicked the back of his right knee and forced him down before he could even finish. "okay...maybe not."

"State your name before the people of Marcos!" Johnathan said, referring to the noblemen representatives who were lined up along the red carpet on both sides.

"Grey...Grey Herr- Heavens. Grey Heavens" He said, correcting himself.

"Are you a contractor, Heavens?" Marcos immediately inquired.

"No, I'm not." Grey replied.

"Then do you mind telling the people how you got the Black Rose of Dawn, Eve, so attached to you?" Marcos continued.

"*that's what you call her?*" Grey thought but proceeded to answer the question. "Uhm...a shit load of bad luck I guess?"

The glaive beside him threw a heavy punch at Grey that caused his lips to bleed to discipline him. That was actually the only reason he was there.

"Do not play around ,boy!" Marcos leaned on his chair, "We know you fought against a glaive barehanded and even stood your ground against a demon, so you either tell us what or who you are right now or so help me I will take your head where you stand, because frankly , I'm wondering if there's anything else you can do that we're not aware of!"

He thought for a moment then replied, "I make a mean apple pie?"

The glaive hit Grey even harder this time as Johnathan placed a blade at his neck.

"Do you have any idea how many people were buried because of that demon you led to the city? And you have the balls to sit here and jest! I should do away with your head right now. Dare me, Heavens. I swear I'll turn you inside out." Johnathan said, his glare more penetrating than the king's.

Grey stayed silent for a while before raising his head and glaring back at Johnathan.

"You blame me for the deaths of those people? Really? Your princess over there harbors one of hell's greatest treasures in her chest and you think a demon attacking the city for it is my fault. Tiyanak was after Lucifer's heart, the one dormant within Eve. I'm just the middleman." The revelation shocked the gathered noblemen and the royal family as this was said to be hidden information.

"How do you know about the heart?" One of the noblemen asked.

" You may have banned the apocrypha from the people of this city but not beyond. It's written in the books, clear as day. Everyone knows the tale of the devil princess, confined in her castle, forbidden to leave its walls lest she bleed the kingdom dry." Grey responded, his eyes fixated on Emberle as he spoke.

"mm- I see, did they also happen to tell you that your sister is the reason demons are escaping hell? Or that the power she holds is slowly corrupting her soul?" Marcos retaliated, hoping to see his reaction.

"No. But they did speak of a mage who could help. Man or myth? I came to find out. So many secrets behind these walls, if only they could speak." Grey said curiously. What was initially a hearing had turned into a bargain.

"Man. And he can indeed help." Marcos scoffed, this boy was teasing him, and he had to play along. "Merlin can figure out a way to separate your sister from the Soul Gate and save her. All you need to do is stay by my daughter's side."

Grey thought about it for a minute as he tried to find another way out, but he knew Marcos wouldn't let him.

"And if I refuse?" he asked regardless.

"We kill you right now and throw your sister down the deepest hole we can find so the gate is never opened again." Queen Maria chimed in, "You're strong ,that much I've seen, but I doubt even you can beat all of our glaives and black knights by yourself."

"Not to mention you already know too much." Added prince Cid.

'Well played ,puppet king.' Grey thought to himself. He had been caged. But as long as they didn't learn his last name, things would probably turn out alright, right?

It was clear that Marcos wanted to keep him next to Emberle so she wouldn't lose control to Eve again, but he didn't have a choice. Staying in the city a little while longer was a small price to pay for Ernid's safety

"...I accept."

So told the wind, this is where the story begins.