Chapter 359: The Dream That Was Ruined by a Snake

Elyn’s POV

Something was off.

I knew the Demon Realm had numerous oddities, but still, I had never heard of a place in the Demon Realm that was filled with nothing but balloons and pink clouds.

I floated on one of them, wondering how I had gotten there, when suddenly I saw a very familiar, very handsome man on one of the floating clouds. He had a smile on his face too.

“Firefly!” he called softly.

Oh my days!

He was shirtless, and shirtless men always made me weak in the knees, especially when they had a body like the demon in front of me.

My knees buckled as the cloud I was on moved closer to him. He smelled so nice too.

“Missed me?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he leaned closer.

Oh!

Oh yes, I did.

I did so much, and I wanted him to kiss me again. I wanted his touch, his embrace. Honestly, at this point, I wanted everything from this demon.

“I did,” I replied.

He smiled at me, and I smiled back because why not? This was the handsome demon I was obsessed with now in my life.

He leaned closer, and his lips brushed mine.

Then suddenly…he slapped me.

Quite hard too.

What the actual fuck?

I turned to him, completely stunned, but he behaved as though he had not done anything. Instead, he hugged me and started licking my ear, and I do not mean it in the sexy way you read about in books.

No.

This was like I was some toy that served his purpose, except apparently the purpose was to be licked on a cloud and chewed by him too, might I add.

“Zorathys,” I called out.

“Hmm… bubble berry pie. Softbottom pudding,” he hummed in reply as he began chewing on my ear. “Very sweet.”

Um…

Was Zorathys talking about food?

The same Zorathys I knew?

And what even were these foods he mentioned? I had never heard of them in the…

Oh.

I opened my eyes, blinking as they adjusted to the light in the bedroom.

I should have known.

I should have fucking known from the beginning.

Whatever had appeared in my dream wasn’t Zorathys.

It was the Syrenthis demon that was still gobbling on my ear, his hand over my mouth and his leg across my stomach.

I had fallen asleep in Azerion’s room so as to make him feel better.

But who would have thought I was sacrificing my own sleep to make this child feel better?

I tried to move his hand and, as luck would have it, I was successful…

Yeah.

In moving it to my neck, where he immediately tightened his grip in his sleep and refused to budge no matter how many times I tried to move it again.

His leg didn’t move either, and his mouth?

Nope.

No success there either.

He just kept on gobbling me up, taking more of my ear into his mouth as he chewed it quite happily.

“Azerion,” I said, calling out to him.

He didn’t reply. He only moaned softly and shifted closer, as though trying to claim even more of the bed.

“Azerion!” I called again.

Still nothing.

I shook him, thinking it would help, but yeah, that didn’t help.

Instead, he made a disgruntled noise and buried his face against my shoulder.

I stared at the ceiling.

I swear I hadn’t offended anybody to be suffering from something like this.

I only wanted this child to feel better.

How the fuck was I supposed to get up if this child wouldn’t let me?

Wait.

Should I hit him?

I paused.

I couldn’t do that.

I had a soft spot for children that made it difficult for me to even raise my voice at them, let alone hit them.

Besides, what kind of person would I be if I smacked a sleeping child because he had decided my ear was apparently a delicious midnight snack?

A very frustrated one, perhaps.

But still.

No.

“Horrible,” I muttered.

Azerion mumbled something unintelligible and chewed my ear again.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Horrible little demon.”

He made another sleepy sound.

I sighed.

I should have slept in my room.

I should not have cared about this demon child.

The funny thing was that I wasn’t even angry that he was sleeping like this. I was angry because he had interfered with my dream.

A dream that had Zorathys in it.

Zorathys had been shirtless.

He had been smiling at me.

He had called me Firefly.

He had been about to kiss me again.

And then this child had somehow invaded my dream and replaced the Demon King with himself.

Not only had he replaced Zorathys, but dream-Azerion had slapped me before proceeding to chew my ear.

I had questions.

So many questions.

Most importantly, why was my subconscious apparently incapable of keeping children out of my romantic dreams?

I glanced down at Azerion who was completely peaceful.

His small face was relaxed, his breathing even, and there wasn’t a single sign that he had any idea he had ruined the greatest part of my night.

I stared at him.

“You owe me a kiss,” I whispered accusingly.

He obviously didn’t answer.

“Several, actually.”

Nothing.

“Preferably from Zorathys.”

I sighed.

This was hopeless.

I tried moving one more time, slowly lifting my shoulder so I could escape his grip.

Azerion immediately tightened his arms.

I froze.

He was surprisingly strong for someone who looked so small.

“Are you kidding me?”

His face remained buried against me.

I carefully tried to pry his fingers away one at a time.

The first finger moved.

Progress.

The second moved.

Even better.

Then Azerion suddenly grabbed my clothing and pulled me back.

I landed against the mattress with a soft thump.

His mouth returned to my ear.

I stared at the ceiling again.

“Fine.”

I was beginning to understand why Zorathys called these children pests.

Except I couldn’t even stay angry at them.

That was the problem.

Azerion had been crying yesterday because he thought I was going to leave him. He had been frightened enough to cling to me all night, and now that he was finally sleeping peacefully, I couldn’t bring myself to wake him just because I wanted my freedom.

I sighed again.

I had no idea how long I remained trapped there. It could have been five minutes or an entire hour. Time had stopped making sense, especially when every attempt to escape ended with Azerion somehow tightening his grip.

Eventually, I heard footsteps approaching from outside.

I nearly cried with relief.

Someone was coming.

Someone who could save me.

The footsteps stopped outside the door.

There was a brief silence.

Then I heard a familiar voice.

“My lady.”

My eyes widened.

I had never been so glad to hear Rin’s voice in my entire life.

“My lady,” she called out again.