The Demon’s Bride

"Do you mean by flying?" asked Elise who looked surprised at Ian who didn't reiterate his words. "I don't think I could stay for too long in the air."

"Why not? Everything have to start with small steps you can't be sure of something without trying it out. I would like to show you how the sky if beautiful and the feeling to fly there," on Elise's expression which was still hesitant he then added, "I promise to never let you go."

"I believe you, master Ian but I never fly before," Elise replied to then see Ian's hand which he outstretched for her to take, her eyes moved to the black wings that emerged from his back and his smile bait her like a cheese to trap the mouse.

Ian could tell by seeing his wings, it tempted Elise to take his hand but even without his wings his hand was enough to entice Elise, "Correction, sweetheart you did two times it was short and not enough for you to enjoy but I could make you enjoy your first long flight and what comes after. What would your answer be?"

Elise raised her hand placing it to his hand and Ian pulled his smile, the corner of his lips widening to showcase his gleaming white teeth where his sharp canines peeked out.

"Let's go to my room," and after his words, they walked toward the third floor. The maids by now know not to say anything if they saw Elise and the Lord walking together and fortunately there wasn't any maids near the place or the stair.

It was not a lie if Elise feel hesitant about flying. She was a human who walk with two legs, it was also the same case for Master Ian but he added a pair of black wings in his back which Elise didn't know how he had one. The thought of staying in the sky for long frightened her as if a human wasn't careful enough with the distance of their fall and nothing to break their fall, they could die.

Elise saw the door and with her obligation she turned the knob so Ian would enter, "I am glad that you are eager to enter my room," Ian whistled faintly, his amusement reaching more to his eyes, making it bright.

"As a maid I have to open the door," Elise replied. Last time Ian had opened the door of carriage for her, she saw how Maroon glared at her. She wondered why the butler was angry to her.

Since Elise had came to the house nine years ago, she remembered the look the man had while staring at her, it was an expression of dislike. If they were both slave in the past, Elise doubted the butler's look came from disgust of her status.

It isn't as if she had stolen the food he treasured.

"Not for long," Ian hummed and Elise's eyes stared at Ian where his gaze shifted from the door to meet her blue eyes his grin widened. "We should go before Dalton arrives first," said Ian who entered the room with his hand on Elise's back the touch was right on her spine that she shivered to and she didn't know if Ian had done it in purpose.

"Wouldn't it be great if Mr. Dalton arrives first?" asked Elise who saw Ian pulling his coat before snapping his hand for a red cloak to appear on his eyes.

In surprise, Elise took the coat from Ian's hands. She turned the cloak, seeing how it was folded neatly the way she had fold it inside the room to tell that this was the same cloak she had used for the past days. Was this Ian's magic again? How did his magic works?

"Why would it be great? I don't like to appear after someone," Ian walked toward the balcony, pushing open the glass door and Elise followed.

She took note of the sky the blue sky had turned darker and her skin came in contact with the weather which wasn't windy but mild. It was a perfect day to be out, thought Elise.

"Did you have a good sleep last night?" asked Ian curiously. Once he left the room and closed the door, he didn't immediately took off from the room and instead stayed to hear how Elise's heartbeat was all over the roof. "Did you have a good sleep or did you stay up late thinking of some things?"

Ian's words were hard not to bait Elise into remembering what happened. In the morning the thought of how Ian resting on the side of her bed was hard to forget. "I had a good night sleep, I didn't sleepwalked either. Master Ian, did I sleepwalk because of the voodoo magic?" she asked and there was doubt in her voice. What Elise knew the wounds on her legs and back could perhaps happen from the magic but she doubt voodoo magic could move her while she was asleep.

Ian smirked hearing her words. Elise was smart and he knew it well. She kept her knowledge to herself and her thoughts but she knew how to twist and question the details which gave her the satisfying result.

"It is not," replied Ian who went nearer to the edge of the balcony which was made to arc toward the doors, "The voodoo magic works only to curse people by wounding the doll to create wound to the person they cursed. They don't have the ability to move them. I do think you are not sleepwalking for a reason."

"There is a reason?" But what was it then? Since she recalled how there was a time she was avoided in the town she lived in with the Scotts' she felt there was something deep inside her that had started to shift. Elise didn't know if the shift was for a good one or a bad one and she feared the latter.

"Who knows. I do not know now for sure. If you fear to sleepwalk again, I can open my bedroom doors for you every night," Ian dropped his tone and his eyes sauntered on her neck before gliding down to then stare back at her eyes with a deeper look which had Elise to gulped, "But to enter you will have to do a few things for me and I can't promise you that there will not be anything happening between us in the night."

In Elise's chest, her heartbeat quickened, she stared back at him and a brave look settle on her eyes, "What if... I say I would like to stay with you, Master Ian?"

Ian's brows raised his lips widening further to stretched one end of his lips while another one stayed still.

"Stay as in what? Stay beside me forever by swearing your eternal loyalty to me or..." only one step was what it took for Ian to close the distance between them and when Elise took her step back in the sudden distance, she felt her back pressed to the glass door which felt cold to her skin. "Stay with me to be mine?"

Somewhere in Ian's red gaze the shadows covered his eyes. Elise's breaths that left her lips quivered, she found the borderline dangerous nature hidden beneath his gaze which he had been kept tame but let loose now.

"What is it going to be?" Ian asked and his face leaned forward to press one hand on the glass door beside her face.