The Demon’s Bride

Maroon wasn't someone who was easily swayed by others' words. He was the type of person who would still be able to stay as passive as a wall despite what was in front of him. But all was changed easily when his beloved late wife was mentioned. His eyes that had turned red burned brighter.

"You know my wife?" Maroon questioned the woman who was suspicious in front of him, not knowing the woman herself was his wife, Lilith.

Lilith could hear the still gentle tone in his voice when calling her his wife. It was difficult for her not to feel affected by his sweet call. He was the love of her life. Seeing him pained or heartbroken was never something she looked forward to but whenever she opened her mouth with the thought of ending everything by coming clean to Maroon and tell him the truth about herself, the mark on her wrist tightened. 

A burning sensation coursed to her blood, as if lava was flowing in her veins, burning everything, and boiling her blood. It was an agonizing pain that she had to suffer just from thinking about telling Maroon the truth. She could only guess this was Caleb's method of giving her a silent warning.

Caleb had plenty of choices to kill her if he wanted and the threat she felt every second was similar to a noose placed over her neck. Lilith knew she couldn't do anything but to follow Caleb's order unless she wanted to lose her life.

She walked closer toward Maroon and when the black ball plunge toward head, in ease, a Lilith bent her neck to the side, "I know her well, very well. I know that she lived in a village not far from Ferus town with you until that incidents happen."

Maroon furrowed his brows, unable to remember the woman who claimed to know his wife or him. "I don't think I have ever seen you or talked to you yet. What do you know about my wife?" His tone fell passive on his last question but fierce and filled with animosity.

"Fight me then, we will see who win and I will think about telling her secret to you. I am sure you are dying to know," Lilith spread her hands with a smile while looking back at Maroon whose gaze grew more intense by seconds.

"You don't have to tell me that," Maroon dropped the word at the same time he dashed toward the woman, his hand reached to the woman's neck. Though he knew there was an easier way to kill her, he can't and because the woman seem to be holding a secret about his wife.

The beginning, Maroon didn't trust what she said but she had brought the name Lilith Salyn.

In the fight it wasn't about attack and receiving. Both Maroon and Lilith's hand went over each other. When one dodge, the other attack. Their movements were so quick that it was difficult to follow by eyes. Lilith jumped into the wall. With one hand as the support of her herself, she raised her hand toward Maroon.

Maroon heard the swishing sound from behind him and quickly dodge the noise. He rolled on the ground in attempt to dodge the weapon and looked up to see what almost attacked him was a spear from a dead sorcerer who came here.

"Your true reason for coming here is to attack the people here?" Maroon questioned in the moment of a brief ceasefire.

Lilith didn't answer but look at the bodies that were near them. No, she answered his question in her mind. "I came here for a different reason," she answered. "But I won't tell you until you caught me. Instead, tell me about your wife, Maroon. Tell me how much you love her."

"I love her enough to sacrifice all I have. You said you know her," Maroon's red eyes gazed back at Lilith sharply, "Were you one of those people who tortured her before her death?"

At the question Lilith shuddered. She remembered the time before her death and it wasn't pleasing. She looked at herself on the reflection of the mirror near the opposite wall in which she climbed on. She saw her face and came the question in her mind. Was there really a way out for this?

Caleb had made sure that she would die if she ever reveal to anyone she is Lilith. She couldn't tell her husband, her face had changed. Was living in this body worth it? 

At the current condition, Lilith could only see nothing but dead end on the end of her path. 

If she reveal to Maroon she is Lilith and die in front of him, wouldn't that only worsen the pain Maroon had been carrying for years? 

When Caleb had told her to come here, she thought she might be in luck; thinking that by living here she could get closer to Maroon again. It only dawned to her now that it was the opposite. Caleb had sent her here with two option: kill Maroon or reveal herself which mean killing herself.

The first option had been crossed out even before she thought about it. Lilith knew she couldn't tie Maroon with her again for another hundred of years. Now, she should leave quietly, acting like somebody else to lessen the pain his heart had been carrying.

"I didn't but I did know how she died and her last words. Catch me and I will tell you what it is," Lilith pulled out her hand for a purple orb to dance on her palm in one instance, she disappeared again.

Maroon furrowed his brows, looking around himself, searching for the woman who had disappeared, "That won't do, I think you need more eyes to find me," whispered Lilith beside his ears. 

Maroon's eyes darted to his left shoulder where her voice had came only to see she wasn't there. A single tap was delivered to his right shoulder this time.

Maroon jumped two steps forward and looked at the place he stood earlier, finding Lilith had disappeared again. Lilith smiled as she came forward when Maroon had all of a sudden took hold of her neck. Her eyes widened in surprise that her body which had camouflaged with her surroundings, making her invisible appeared again.

Maroon's eyes met her and his frowned was deeper this time, "I don't have time to play with you. What did Lilith said before her death?"