The Devil's Bride

6. The Princess

Amelia bit onto her lips to muffle her sobs. She couldn’t let them hear her cry. She wouldn’t.

What did she ever do to deserve this? Was this some kind of punishment for some bad deed she had done in the past? Surely, nothing was bad enough that it would warrant her getting kidnapped from her own home –if getting compelled to sleep and then getting whisked out of there in the middle of the night didn’t count as kidnapping, she didn’t know what did– and getting imprisoned in a palace where she knew no one. Where she was told to become the demon king’s bride.

Could she handle doing as she was told? She didn’t know but she didn’t dare to even think of misbehaving. He scared her enough as it was. He –whatever his name was– and his frightening familiar did a number on her fright levels.

Nevertheless, she didn’t fail to notice how her heart skipped a beat when he had cupped her face and gently kissed her lips. She didn’t fail to notice how handsome he was either.

She truly was doomed.  

Was there any escape? Could she even entertain the very thought? It wasn’t like she knew where she was to begin with. Hell, even if she did manage to escape by some miracle, wouldn’t he be able to find her again?

She was sure that if he had to come for her, the consequences would be dire for her.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” A soft melodic voice rang through the room just as the door opened. “Why are you crying?”

“What… who are you?” Amelia asked in a rather hoarse voice, her eyes searching for the source of the voice until her gaze settled on a girl who could be no older than six.

“I’m princess Ilyne,” the girl announced proudly, puffing her chest a little bit, and Amelia had to bite back a smile.

With eyes black, as that of the demon king, and the same pale skin, Amelia could only surmise that the girl was a relative of some sort.  

“Nice to meet you, princess,” Amelia gave her a swift bow in acknowledgment and was satisfied to see the girl’s eyes sparkle with happiness.

“Please call me Ilyne,” she said as she jumped on the bed Amelia had woken up in.  

“I’m… Amelia,” she had paused before saying her own name, in hesitation almost… because she didn’t know what to think of her current situation. She was human, entirely and irrevocably human, and yet a man who pretended to be the demon king claimed she was his bride to be.  

“Oh, I know,” the girl drawled, a big goofy smile stretching her lips. “All of us know,” she then added in a conniving voice.  

The girl was endearing. She could already feel her growing on her. And she didn’t even like kids all that much… but this one she could stand, for some reason. And the girl seemed to like her as well. It looked like she just made her first friend at the palace that was her prison.

“Liam made the right choice,” Ilyne said happily before hugging Amelia.

“Who’s Liam?” Amelia wondered out loud while hugging the little ray of sunshine back.

“My brother, duh,” when it didn’t look like Amelia got who she was talking about, she added, “the demon king. The man who brought you here.”

“Liam, huh?” She repeated, mentally adding, quite the beautiful name for a beautiful creature.

“Brother will be all over clouds when he hears you called him a beautiful creature.”

"What? I did not!"

"You did! I heard you."

"I was only thinking it. We don’t have much control on our thoughts but I didn’t call him a beautiful creature. He’s arrogant, impassible and impossibly cold towards me."

Before Ilyne got the time to reply, and possibly defend her brother, she was startled by him saying, “You wound me, sweetheart.”

She grimaced, and her hand rose to her throat as her heart jumped in her chest. “Don’t do that!”

“Do what? Come into the room?” He was good at playing the innocent part, she’d give him that.  

“Scare me to death,” she hissed at him.

A smirk appeared on his face and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Do I amuse you by any chance?”

“You’re like an angry kitten,” he shrugged, openly dismissing her anger.

Calm down, Amelia, she thought. Deep breaths. He’s a demon king or so he says and there’s close to nothing you can do to him.

“Oh, I can think of many things you could do to me,” he told her in a blasé voice that was at odds with the hotness of his words.

“Ew!” Ilyne exclaimed. “I’m still in the room, brother. You can eat her later.”

He only chuckled before saying, “I just dropped by to tell dear Amelia here that dinner is to be served in half an hour, and that I do not appreciate tardiness.”

“He must like you a lot,” Ilyne said once he left. “He usually lets the servants deliver these kind of messages to his mistresses.”

“Mistresses?” For some reason, it pained her to know that he had someone to go back to if things went sour with her.

“Demons are rarely faithful.” There was a bit of je-ne-sais-quoi in the way she said that. It was almost disturbing. Before Amelia could question it, the little girl added with teary eyes. “I’m the living proof of that. I’m the illegitimate child of the late demon king, a bastard if you will… but Liam was kind enough to take me in and acknowledge me.”