C29 ♱ Chapter • 29 ♱

♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱

At some point I just fell asleep and when I woke up hours later, he was not in my room and much less next to me. There was no sign of Callisto’s existence.

I got up, did not have much to do in my bed and honestly was not so tired after sleeping for so many hours. So I arranged my hair in braids and wore the lightest dress in Asra’s wardrobe.

A dark green, pulled to the emerald.

It was as if I had come out of a fairy tale, had such delicate embroidery that seemed almost surreal.

I didn’t know where Callisto was, but I knew that now that it was night, Loren would probably be in the library, so I headed there.

But to my complete surprise, there was the sound of low laughter coming from the office.

"No! Dad! You promised!" Someone said between laughs and when I realized, was leaning the door practically entering the place.

"Asra!" The voice of Loren and Callisto mingled as they called me in unison, made me smile and then I simply pushed the doors into place "did you come to see me?" Loren asked while arranging her own posture, but my eyes were no longer fixed on her little face when I realized what was happening, but on her arm.

There were machines that I knew well and hung on metal rods, there were blood bags. 3 large bags of golden blood.

Blood of the heavenly.

I tried to keep the smile on my face, after all for it should be even scarier than stopping me, but my eyes soon fell on Callisto, who acted on Loren’s side - as if it was just another normal day. And it was probably because for him, it was a normal day.

I bit my lip hard.

"Yes, dear... I came to see you" I said as I approached and tried to ignore the needles stuck in Loren’s arm, the disgusting blood coming out of his right arm and the bright, golden blood coming in from his left side.

"Are you... okay?" I asked and Loren smiled, such a sweet smile. The smile of an innocent child.

"Yes... this is... so that I get better" he said as he looked at Calisto "and Dad always comes to keep me company... so I’m fine."

I looked again at Calisto, I remembered a similar scene in the novel, but again - it was different.

Elaine had never seen Loren in that state and had never seen Callisto near Loren while he was taking angel blood.

According to Elaine’s words, Loren ingested the blood as a kind of vampire brood. He drank it in a bowl.

Thanks to Elaine, they discovered that the blood of the saint was much more effective than the blood of ordinary angels and Loren, who had a fragile health and lived constantly sick, finally can go out into the garden and play with Elaine and Callisto.

That was one of the big factors that made Elaine and Callisto practically a couple.

I bit my lip hard and sat next to Loren.

"You’re really a brave little boy," I said caressing his face.

"Yes, I am" he said looking even more proud of himself. A pride he truly should have.

"So... what do you want as a prize?" I asked still caressing her hair and Loren’s lips bowed up with a huge smile.

"Prize? Can I get a prize?" he asked me and in his voice it was possible to see how surprised he was by that.

He was so sincere, so sincere that he sometimes made me question whether that child was too good to exist, because I knew he was too good for his own good.

"Can he?" Callisto also questioned, an eyebrow raised as if he did not understand.

Then smile for me.

"Yes, he can," I said kissing Loren’s rosy cheek.

It was cold. It was almost like kissing a little corpse.

"You’re a brave boy," I said as I tried to ignore that sticky, greenish mass coming out of Loren’s veins. The blood cursed by God. "You deserve an award for being so brave and so obedient. Boys who behave well always deserve awards." I spoke winking at him and Loren turned her bicolor eyes quickly towards Callisto.

"Daddy... can I really?"

It was cute how he always acted like this, as he always expected his father’s words to tell him exactly what to do. It was as if, even unconsciously, Loren knew that Callisto was the only one who would love him so unconditionally. As if he knew it was all that was left of the king, his entire family and all the remaining memory of his one true love.

I smiled and stared at Callisto with Loren, waiting with him for an answer from the demon king.

Callisto sighed.

"Yes, dear... you deserve a prize, so... what do you want? Um?" Her fingers slipped behind the child and Loren looked at me with a face full of happiness and expectations.

"Can I order anything? Anyone at all?"

I opened my mouth to say yes, but soon I closed it.

Loren was a child who lost his mother, a child who felt pain constantly and who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He couldn’t ask for anything - unfortunately. Because asking for anything meant asking for something we couldn’t give him. So I bit my lip and disguised it.

"Well, you can ask me anything I can do," I said in a near whisper, as if it were our secret "I can give you an award and your father can give you another, what do you think?"

Loren looked at Callisto.

"Can you?"

The king smiled at me.

"Yes... what do you want?"

Loren looked at me and then looked at Callisto and then came back to me.

"I want to..." he stopped and felt his icy little fingers on my "I want to be with you forever, I want to... play in the garden and I really, really want to be able to fly through the skies as in the stories Dad tells me before I sleep."

It took me by surprise, but most of all, it made my heart ache.

I wasn’t sure yet, but maybe... I couldn’t give it to him. Maybe I couldn’t stay with that little child forever.

⋅• ♱ •⋅