Chapter 354: The Demon King's Surprise

Elyn’s POV

Zorathys gave me a lazy look, his ruby eyes half-lidded and patient despite the fact that I had just laughed at him for admitting he was jealous of children.

And let it be known that I was quite glad he admitted it.

“I hope you wouldn’t,” he said.

I laughed again.

“I’m about to,” I said.

He tilted his head slightly, his earrings swaying with the movement as they caught the soft light from the Lunacite Stones above.

“What can I do to change your mind?” he asked.

I paused at that, genuinely considering his question.

He was serious.

The Demon King. The most powerful being in the realm. Sitting across from me, asking what he could do to change my mind.

I had to admit it was refreshing. It was like I was the main character in some novel. The one the king wqs hopelessly in love with and would destroy the world for…okay maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but even at that, it felt like I was someone special to Zorathys given the way he spoke to me.

If I had it in me, then maybe I would have swooped or perhaps collapsed like Velira. Maybe I should take lessons from her, who knew if it would be helpful.

But though it was refreshing to see my potential husband this way, it was also slightly terrifying because I had never seen him like this before. Zorathys was always so calm, so lazy, so utterly unbothered by everything. Well except in some certain situations and now that I was thinking about it, those situations involved me.

Hmm…maybe I really was the main character in some novel after all or maybe I had the blessing to be one.

I let the silence stretch just a little longer than necessary, just to see what he would do with it.

He waited.

He didn’t fill it with words or change the subject or yawn. He just waited, those ruby eyes on me, patient in a way that was entirely different from his usual patience, which was just thinly disguised indifference.

This was different.

I smiled, leaning back slightly on my cushion.

“I quite like you this way, to be honest,” I said.

He raised a brow. “My face?” he asked. “Is it my face you like?”

I laughed. “I like your face,” I admitted. “And I’m sure you know you’re devilishly handsome.”

He smirked at that, clearly pleased.

“But that’s not it,” I continued, leaning forward slightly. “I rather like you begging me this way.”

His smirk faded slightly, replaced by something almost offended.

“I’m not begging,” he said.

“Oh?” I asked innocently. “Then perhaps you’re not interested. Perhaps you really don’t want to spend time with me. If you’re not willing to ask nicely—”

“I asked,” he said.

“You implied.”

“That is the same thing.”

“It really isn’t.”

He stared at me.

“Who was the demon,” I asked, “that just told me he was jealous of everyone around me? Who admitted he wanted me all to himself?”

“I didn’t use the word jealous,” he said.

“You implied it.”

He blinked.

“You just said implying and saying are not the same thing,” he said.

I opened my mouth.

Then closed it.

He looked at me with the expression of someone who had just won something and intended to let me know.

“You can be very annoying,” he said.

I beamed at him. “Thank you for the compliment.”

His lips twitched, fighting a smile.

“You’re quite full of yourself,” he told me.

I only smiled in reply, refusing to take the bait.

Then I asked him, “Do you really want to spend time with me?”

Zorathys sighed.

It was a long sigh, the kind that carried the weight of someone who had already answered this question multiple times and was growing tired of repeating himself.

“You already know,” he said.

“I want to hear you say it,” I told him.

“Fine,” he said. “Yes. I want to spend time with you. Alone. Without the pests.”

I considered this for a moment, tapping my chin thoughtfully.

There was also the fact that somewhere in the past few hours — between Dracolthar listing my qualities and Zorathys standing up abruptly and the whole business of the children being bundled away with varying degrees of protest — something had shifted.

And if I was being honest with myself, which I was trying to do more often these days and i just decided that I was trying to be honest these days, I had wanted this too.

“Alright,” I said finally. “I’ll do it. But only if you do something for me.”

He tilted his head, ruby eyes narrowing slightly.

“What?” he asked.

“Surprise me,” I said.

He looked at me for a while, his expression unreadable.

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Knowing Zorathys, he was probably thinking about sleeping, or contemplating whether surprising me was truly worth the effort, or calculating exactly how little he could do while still technically fulfilling the request.

I waited.

He continued staring.

“What?” I finally asked.

“You asked me to surprise you.”

“Yes.”

“And you expect me to tell you how?”

“No. That would defeat the entire purpose.”

“Hm.”

I narrowed my eyes.

That hum.

I knew that hum.

It was the same hum he made whenever he was considering something that would probably either delight me or annoy me and he hadn’t yet decided which outcome he preferred.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re about to do something.”

“I am about to do something.”

I sat up slightly. “What?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, the table was suddenly gone.

I blinked.

One moment the low table was between us and the next it had simply vanished. The cushions were still there, the Lunacite Stones still glowing, and Zorathys was leaning toward me.

My heart rate picked up like always when he was so close.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice coming out slightly higher than I intended.

He didn’t stop leaning.

“I’m surprising you, firefly,” he said.

Then he placed his lips on mine.