Page 34 of Once Upon a Demon’s Heart

“A godling found me. Hair as silver as yours. Beautiful, I had thought, but I didn’t know how foolish the children of the gods could be.

” His eyes hold mine fiercely, making it hard to draw breath.

“I thought she was helping me when she guided me back to her kingdom. I thought that because I was accompanied by her… I don’t know what I thought.

That the demigods would help a lost demon child? Was that so unfathomable?”

“Kalel… you are the boy I set my jacket on?”

His face is empty of emotion. “How could you forget? I even placed my jacket on your shoulders, and yet you still didn’t remember.”

My heart clenches painfully, and I shake my head. “I saw you die. I thought the boy I met that night had perished. How are you alive?” Tears stream down my cheeks.

His eyes harden, and he glances down, gritting his teeth on words I know he wants to say but won’t.

Kalel. If we met all those years ago… why tell me now? A frown tugs at my lips, and my heart sinks like a stone.

I sit up and draw my knees to my chest uncomfortably. This is the part that I never truly received the whole truth on. But with the vision Mercury gave me, it’s not hard to guess what happened. Chills spread over my arms, and tears stream down my cheeks.

Kalel’s expression remains impassive. He has no tears left to shed. Not for this world nor me. Not when I took everything from him.

He reaches his hand to my face and slowly wipes away my tears as he says coldly, “But we both know the demigods didn’t help me that night, isn’t that right, Alira?” My jaw trembles and more tears spill over my cheeks. “They marched me back into that forest and used me as bait to lure my uncles in.”

“ What ?” I gasp, my voice a mere whisper.

As he says the words, I relive the screams I heard that night.

I couldn’t see much from the bushes where I was hiding, but I knew something awful was happening.

Something that was my fault. By the time I was able to sneak further into the forest, it was already too late.

The boy was dead—I wept for him. I remember the dull eyes that watched me.

I prayed to the gods who abandoned us. I prayed that they would have mercy on him.

“They cut both of my palms, and the scent of my blood drew them in. I tried to scream for them to leave me, but they were enraged by the betrayal of the demigods. They attacked first, freeing me and telling me to run. To run and not look back . ”

He pauses. The moment of silence is like a drop of water on a glassy lake. Sadness ripples through me and has no limit to the depths it reaches. Kalel brings his thumb back to his mouth and licks my tears from the pad of it.

I don’t want to hear the rest. I war with my guilt.

I was only a child, but I should’ve helped him somehow. I should’ve done something .

A broken, heartrending smile breaks across his face.

“I ran. I was so filled with terror that I couldn’t think of anything except my own fear.

I didn’t try to help them. I didn’t even think about it.

I just… ran—” he swallows thickly “—I heard Dakre scream first. Then, moments later, it was Collik. The forest was dark, but I heard them coming for me. They wouldn’t even let a child escape.

” He starts laughing because what else can he do, telling such a horrific tale?

“Kalel,” I whisper, moving my hand to set it on top of his at the stone’s edge. He flinches away from me, turning those sad, broken eyes back to me.

“I didn’t know what I was to the rest of the world before the moment they cut me down, but I knew after they drew my blood.

I knew as the god of the underworld appeared like shadows spun from the stars.

” Pluto saved him? The god of the underworld hasn’t been spotted in centuries. Why did he show up at that moment?

Kalel’s scar has a deeper hue to it in the dim light of the bathroom. The very air has a melancholic weight to it that burdens my shoulders.

He grins, but it’s far from happy. “Turns out not all the gods have abandoned this world. Not completely anyway. Pluto killed the four demigods with a mere sweep of his hand, taking their souls like pebbles to the ocean.”

We sit in silence for several heavy seconds. “But Kalel, I saw you. I grieved over your body. There was no god. No demigods that were found near your body. Their bodies were located at the edge of Florum Forest.”

He watches me distrustfully. “Your mouth is full of lies. I never saw you that night after they took me away.”

Maybe Pluto came to Kalel in his between journey to the underworld, and that’s why he doesn’t remember me finding him… I mean, he was dead. A chill runs up my arms. It was my first brush with death.

So, Pluto is the one who killed the Alzhorian knights that were found in the forest. A harrowing pain spreads through my bones. Those knights were the last spark of the war. The demigods blamed the demons for a foul attack and were furious that they were even in our territory.

“I was disappointed you didn’t remember me in Florum. I knew it was you. I had waited for such a long time to see you again.” Kalel’s voice slips into my veins and freezes my blood.

I was the reason that Kalel’s mom was slain.

I was the reason the last match was struck, igniting the war.