Bound by Prince of Darkness

Knowing More

"Maya, I’m so sorry, my sweet girl," Elena said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I never wanted any of this to happen. I made a choice out of desperation, and I’ve regretted it every single day since."

Maya held up a hand, stopping her mother mid-sentence. "What’s done is done, Mother," she said, her voice calm but laced with exhaustion. "I understand why you did what you did. You were trying to protect us, to survive. But what I can’t understand is why you didn’t tell me. Why keep it a secret for so long? This is eating me."

King Kai, her father, sighed deeply, rubbing his temples as if the weight of his thoughts was too much to bear. "We decided to spare you the details, Maya," he said, his voice steady but weary. "You were so young, and we thought we could handle it on our own. Later, as you grew older, we didn’t want you to be burdened by something that we weren’t even sure could be changed."

Maya’s eyes narrowed slightly, her gaze intense as she stared at her father. "But I’m not a child anymore. I deserve to know the truth, especially if it concerns my future… my very soul."

Kai nodded slowly, acknowledging her point. "We spoke with your sister, Kaia, and her mate, Maxime, who is the Vampire King and he has vast knowledge. We sought their counsel, hoping that perhaps they could find a way to break the contract. Unfortunately, even they couldn’t help. Maxime and your father interrogated demons, consulted ancient texts, spoke to witches, but everything pointed to the same conclusion: a blood pact can’t be broken. Not even by the Devil himself."

"The only one with the power to change the terms of the deal is the demon who made it," Queen Elena added quietly, her voice filled with sorrow. "All these years, we’ve tried to find out more about him, to try to approach him with a new offer, but information has been scarce."

Maya leaned forward, her senses on high alert. "What did you find out?" she asked, her tone insistent. There was a flicker of apprehension in her father’s eyes, and he exchanged a worried look with her mother. Before either of them could respond, Maya spoke up from where she had been quietly listening.

"No more hiding," Maia said firmly. "No more shielding information. I deserve to know everything you’ve uncovered."

Kai nodded, his expression resolute. "You’re right," he agreed, turning back to Maya. "What we’ve discovered is that his name is Tay. He’s the youngest child of the Underworld Lord, which makes him part of the ruling royal family in the Underworld. But he wasn’t always… respected. In fact, he was often overlooked by his father and his older sibling."

Maya listened intently, every word her father spoke only deepening the mystery of the demon who claimed her. "Why?" she asked, her curiosity piqued. "Why was he overlooked?"

"Because his mother was human," Kai explained. "In the Underworld, lineage and power are everything, and being half-human made him an outcast, a weak link in the eyes of his father and brothers. They mocked him, saw him as weak. But that all changed a few years ago."

"What happened a few years ago?" Maya asked, leaning in closer, needing to know more.

Kai cleared his throat, his eyes darkening as he continued. "We can’t know for certain, no one knows," he admitted, "but from what we’ve gathered, his power increased overnight. While his brothers are physically strong, Tay surpasses them with his cunning nature and intelligence. Moreover, he wields an unmatched magical power, something that hasn’t been seen in aeons. His abilities are rumored to be so extraordinary that even his father was amazed."

"But what caused the sudden change?" Maya pressed, her mind racing to connect the dots. "How did he go from being the outcast to… this?"

Kai hesitated, his expression troubled. "That’s the part that everyone is unclear about," he admitted. "There are rumors, whispers of an ancient source of power that he may have discovered, something that could have given him the edge he needed, but it is just speculations. But he’s a wild card, Maya. His time away from the demon court, away from his family, has made him unpredictable. We don’t know what he truly wants or what he’s capable of. No one knows, a fact which makes him even more dangerous and volatile to deal with. We could have lured a normal demon with some predictable exchanges, but in his case… he refused to meet with us and totally ignored our attempts to communicate with him."

Maya’s thoughts swirled, the pieces of the puzzle slowly starting to come together. Tay wasn’t just any demon; he was powerful, cunning, and dangerous. And now, for reasons she still couldn’t fully comprehend, he had marked her as his own.

She felt a chill run down her spine, but she pushed it aside. "So what do we do now?" she asked, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside her.

"We keep looking," Kai said firmly. "We keep searching for answers, for any way to break the contract or at least find a way to protect you from him. We’re not giving up, Maya. We will find a way."

The tension in the room was palpable as Maya spoke, her voice hesitant at first but growing more certain as she explained, "I don’t believe it will work, Father."

Kai, her father, looked confused, his eyebrows knitting together in frustration. "Why not?" he asked, his voice low and demanding. Queen Elena turned to Maya as well, her expression filled with concern.

Maya took a deep breath, knowing that what she was about to reveal would only add to the weight of their already crumbling world. "Because" she began, looking directly at her father, "when I spoke to him… Tay… he made it very clear that he won’t change his mind. He said I belong to him."

There was a sudden silence, the room frozen in disbelief before both of her parents erupted at the same time.

"What?!" they shouted in unison.

Queen Elena took a step forward, her hands shaking. "When did you meet him?" she demanded, her voice high-pitched with agitation. "How? Where? Why didn’t you say anything?"

Maya swallowed hard, but she knew she couldn’t keep hiding the truth. Her voice was soft but firm as she answered, "I met him in my dreams. At first, I thought they were just nightmares, but they weren’t. Trust me, he was real. Every word, every touch… it wasn’t my imagination."

Kai, ever the rational man, tried to dismiss it. "Maya, it’s possible your mind is conjuring—"

"No!" Maya interrupted, shaking her head vehemently. "You have to believe me. He was there, and I could feel him. He watched me, waited… He’s been in my dreams for years."

Elena blinked in shock. "Years? But you’ve never said—"

"You remember when I told you, four years ago, that I was having strange dreams?" Maya asked, her voice tightening with emotion. Her mother nodded, confused.

"I remember," Elena said, "but you never mentioned—"

"That’s because I didn’t know what it was at the time," Maya explained, her voice growing more frustrated. "Back then, he was just a presence. Silent, but always there, watching. I felt it. I didn’t think much of it until last night."

Kai clenched his fists, his knuckles white as the realization hit him like a wave. He slammed his fist down onto his desk, making a loud thud that reverberated through the room. "That damned creature has been watching my daughter for years?!" His voice was filled with rage and helplessness.

Maya winced at her father’s outburst, but she wasn’t finished. "Last night, he finally spoke. He asserted his ownership over me, like I was some object he’d been waiting to claim."

Elena’s face turned pale, her lips trembling. "What did you say to him?" she asked, her voice tight with fear and anticipation.

Maya took a breath, her shoulders slumping as she remembered the conversation with Tay, but she decided to leave some things our, like how he licked her back and put her whole body on fire in the process. The arrogance in his voice, the finality of his words. "I told him to leave me alone," she admitted, her voice small, as if reliving the moment. "I asked him what it would take for me to get my soul, my ownership of myself, back."

"And what did he say?" her parents asked, their voices tense, as if hanging onto the faintest hope that maybe, just maybe, there was a way out.

Maya looked down, her throat constricting with a sense of defeat. "He told me that I’m not for sale," she whispered, her voice deflated. "That I belong to him, and there’s nothing I can do about it."

The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Elena covered her mouth, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over. Kai’s fists were clenched so tightly that his nails were digging into his palms, his anger barely contained.

"That bastard," Kai growled under his breath, the fury in his voice barely contained. "He thinks he can just… take my daughter like this?"

Maya felt a surge of emotion, the betrayal, the helplessness, the anger all boiling inside her. But there was something else too, something she couldn’t fully comprehend. Tay’s presence had been terrifying, yes, but there was also a strange pull she couldn’t deny. His confidence, his power, his magnetic gaze… it had been overwhelming. She felt trapped, like her very soul was no longer her own, and yet…

She shook her head, trying to dispel those thoughts. It didn’t matter what he was or how he made her feel. What mattered was that she was determined to fight, to reclaim her life. She looked at her parents, their faces drawn with worry and helplessness, and realized that they couldn’t help her. Not entirely.

"I don’t know what to do," Maya admitted, her voice cracking. "I don’t know how to fight him. But I won’t let him control my life. I’ll find a way to break this, no matter what it takes."

Elena reached out, her hand trembling as she placed it on Maya’s. "We’ll find a way, Maya," she said softly, her voice filled with determination despite the fear in her eyes. "We’re not giving up on you."

Kai nodded, his jaw clenched. "We’ll keep looking. There has to be something, some loophole, some way out of this."

But Maya wasn’t so sure. Tay’s words echoed in her mind: I always take care of what’s mine. And she knew, deep down, that this wasn’t going to be an easy battle.