The Beast and Beauty

Chapter 3: Prince of hell

Arabella

I helped my stepmother perform the spell as she demanded. She had laid out all the ingredients and in a bowl she had mixed dragon’s blood, eye of newt, holy water as they were once angels and some other herbs I wasn’t sure of.

When she was done, she drew a pentagram and placed the bowl in the middle of it on the floor. This room was her spell room and the floor was concrete, which made it easy for her to use chalk to draw her symbols on it with, it made for easy cleaning afterward.

We had many rooms in this castle, did I forget to mention we lived in a castle? Not hers either, it had been my father’s and I should have known she had only married him to become royal, luckily my father must have had his own doubts as he had made sure even in his death she would not be made queen, so she only got to keep the lower title of Lady, but she still got to keep the castle with me not being old enough at the time to rule.

I was old enough now at the age of twenty-eight but of course she had found a way to stop that, not that I would have tried anything anyway, my fear of her was much too great. The book in her hands was enchanted with terribly dark magic, it was leather and black and white in color.

Once my stepmother was finished with the incantations she motioned for me to stop too, the book in her hands became almost alive, and I looked on in horror as the page inside formed a face and tried to crawl out, it screamed a terrible scream and looked like it was in pain, it pushed the shape of a hand out, sharp nails tearing the pages when Lady Zatana quickly slammed the book shut and chained it back up.

“What was that thing?” I asked.

“Never you mind, but heed my warning and do not try to touch this book.” She slid it back on the shelf with her other books and we waited.

At first, all was quiet, but then in the middle of the pentagram a swirl of fire burst up almost like a tornado, I covered my eyes and when the flames died down, there was a man on his hands and knees before us.

For a moment I didn’t think, I saw only that he looked to be in pain, and I reached out and touched his shoulder. He smacked my hand away aggressively and snarled, “don’t f.ucking touch me.”

My stepmother looked proud and ecstatic as she looked at him. “It worked, it finally worked.” I frowned at her words, I hadn’t realized she had tried this before.

Faster than I could blink, she threw a silver chain necklace over his neck, ironically it had a small pentagram pendant on it. “What the f.uck is this?” He asked, trying to grab it and rip it off, but it wouldn’t break or come off, no matter how hard he tried.

“I enchanted it, while you wear that necklace you belong to me, I own you and can make you do whatever I wish, and you cannot refuse me.” My stepmother smiled triumphantly while I looked at her in horror, what on earth had I helped her do?

He looked at her with hate and growled, “nothing can control me, and certainly not some desperate witch.”

She narrowed her eyes at the demon and spat, “let’s test it out, shall we?”

She thought for a moment, and I wasn’t surprised when her eyes fell on me, of course she would want to use me as the Guinea pig.

She looked thoughtful and muttered to herself, “hmm, what would a demon be least likely to want to do?” She clicked her fingers in an ‘Ah ha!’ Moment, and said to him, “go and bow down before my stepdaughter and kiss her hand.”

He fought as hard as he could, he tried not to move and even spat at her feet in defiance, but eventually, he moved and got up onto his feet, he walked over towards me and though he strained with the effort of fighting it with every fibre of his being, he knelt down before me and took my hand laying a soft kiss on the back of it.

As an afterthought, my stepmother added, “oh, and for being so rude and spitting like an animal, tell her what a good demon you are and that you love her.” She laughed mockingly, enjoying degrading him and having complete control.

His jaw clenched, but he looked up at me and said, “I am a good demon and I love you.”

He practically threw himself away from me after and growled in anger and frustration. She ignored him and asked, “who are you anyway?”

“F.uck you!”

“I command you to tell me your name, demon.”

“I am Dagon, the king’s second in command.”

I saw a flash of fear cross my stepmothers face at the mention of the king, but as quickly as she’d shown it, it was gone. “Ah, perfect, more powerful than I anticipated.”

He had a question of his own and asked her, “did you simply summon me to use me as a doll or was there an actual reason for all of this? You of all people should know trapping a demon or forcing a summoning and binding us only p.isses us off, we are much more friendly and polite when spoken to with respect.”

She waved her hand in the air and answered, “I tried that, many times actually, and every time I was ignored.”

“You weren’t ignored, you were denied, big difference.”

“Well, it’s all the same to me, no results.”

He looked over at me and I blushed. Demons didn’t look at all how the books had shown me, apparently they were deceptively beautiful, or perhaps they simply kept their original angelic form? This Dagon was tall at around six foot, but from what I’d read, that would be considered quite short for a demon.

He was built like a God, so there was no mistaking him for what he was, all muscle and power in those arms and chest and abs, and, I had to pull my gaze away from his bare torso, not that looking at his face helped.

He had dark brown hair that fell into eyes that were a strange mix of ice green and violet. He had full lips and strong cheekbones, and I blushed when a hint of a smirk on his lips let me know he knew what I was doing.

“Who is this, you have a coven now?” He asked my stepmother while never taking his eyes off me.

She laughed a deep throated laugh at that, making him frown and me blush harder. “Of course not, I work alone and if I did ever have a coven I would never use such a pathetically weak person such as my embarrassment of a stepdaughter.”

“Ah, so she’s another of your pets then.” He said it as a statement.

“Yes, and for now, I’m done with both my pets, so go and take her to her room which you’ll also be sharing and tend to her needs.” We both looked at one another in horror and when he went to grab my wheelchair I wheeled away from him before he could, damned if I was going to be a damsel in distress, especially when she’d never cared before.