The Devil's Temptation!

“When I do something out of line, you complain, when I try to do something the world considers appropriate, you’re the only different being to complain, what else should I do then? Kill myself?”

He clicked his tongue at her emotional comeback but said nothing, he was an angry man at the moment and she was.... You know what, he doesn’t even want to have this discussion anymore.

“Sigh... let’s just go.”

“No.” She spoke without a hint of hesitation in her tone, stunning the demon who was already walking away, only to stop in his tracks and look at her. She was obviously holding back her tears and it made her eyes red.

Anna had to admit to herself that she was tired, she was really tired of crying but most times she couldn’t help it. She hated to see herself break down in front of people like this, most especially him but what can she do when emotions are so difficult to control?

“Why?” He asked, still not understanding her point.

“Cause you’re never nice to me, must you always remind me of how cold and heartless you can really be? I get it if we don’t like each other and if you’re saving me for your own gain but....”

“My own gain?” Roshan couldn’t help but intervene at that particular statement, finding it quite offensive, “I abandoned my main reason for attending that boring celebration to come here and save you, all this happened cause you refused to listen and just stayed back like a dutiful maid, but you wanted to prove your stubbornness which you successfully did and look at where it landed us both!” He fired back.

.....

A deep prolonged silence followed his words and Anna couldn’t believe he was putting the blame on her. The thought of it was like a thorn in her heart.

“Well if you had just told me maybe I wouldn’t have shown up, for goodness sake you never told me!”

“Why should I? Huh? When did you become so loyal that you willingly wanted to go anywhere with me? Clearly you had your own selfish reason for coming there and now that you reminded me of it, why did you come?”

Anna’s eyes suddenly felt dizzy with the way he kept coming at her, firing questions and accusations that triggered her emotions, thus, triggering her mark as well, but she held herself and glared at him.

“I came cause I wanted to know the truth about my mother’s corpse, sir Steve had something to say about my mother’s dead body and I came to get answers for myself, but it’s not like you’d understand me even if I tell you in details, you’ll never understand me cause you have no emotions or whatsoever to understand me!”

“Yes I have no emotions, and I’m glad I don’t cause I wouldn’t have to deal with all of this emotional trauma of yours.”

“Well fine then! You might as well go your way while I go mine.”

‘Fine then!’ Roshan was more than tempted to say that response to her, he was tempted to say yes, they should go their separate ways and never cross paths again, but unfortunately he could only say that in his head cause he had a hard time letting the annoying woman go.

“You and I know that is not possible.” He said instead, and it was the truth. He needed to know what she was doing to him, why he felt the familiarity pull and he wouldn’t let her go till he figures everything out. He wanted to know why saving her was more important than the mission he abandoned.

Anna hissed and took a deep breath, gently rubbing her forehead with her index finger to calm her brain before meeting Roshan’s stare. “You make me feel anger towards you when I’m meant to be grateful you saved my life, even if it wasn’t from the heart you saved me, regardless, I should be thankful for it.”

“Playing genuine?”

“I’m not like you.”

“Why are all the women so fond of being emotionally dramatic?” he heaved a deep breath and looked at Anna who was looking away from him, her arms were folded and her cute face puffed with anger, because clearly she was annoyed.

“Anna.”

She ignored him.

“Anna.”

“I don’t want to talk to you, go away from here!”

“Nice try, but you’re coming with me cause you have no choice.”

“Why?”

“Well..... let’s see if we can understand each other then.”

Anna blinked at him, “what?”

“Just come with me.”

He unceremoniously held her uninjured hand and took her out of the chamber. Anna tried to shake off the dizziness as her head spun in circles but she wouldn’t let herself drop like this, she can’t pass out now.

Roshan’s guards hurried towards them once they were out and immediately bowed politely in his presence.

“Your highness, the fortress is empty.” The main guard incharge of the rest firmly declared and Roshan nodded, keeping Anna beside him before the stubborn woman wandered off.

“Good job, but I won’t be able to transport back at the moment so let’s do this, once you return to the palace, send a carriage over to Emsdar lake.”

“We will, your highness, be safe.” The Demon guard responded before vanishing, leaving Anna and Roshan standing alone in the fortress.

He looked at the woman whose face turned bashful all of a sudden and Anna inadvertently met his gaze.

“What’s the problem? Are you alright?” Questioned Roshan.

“I never complained about feeling unwell.” She retorted stubbornly and huffed as she looked away, avoiding eye contact. Anna couldn’t find herself admitting that him holding her hand was the cause of it.

The warmth of his palm against hers was strangely comforting and the way he held it kind of spoke of her safety towards him.

It’s not possible he secretly cared about her, could it?

Looking at his face, his crimson red eyes held a hint of disdain as his nose wrinkled in disgust.

“This place sickens me, let’s leave.”

Anna couldn’t argue with that and nodded her head. Together, they left the fortress.

The first thing Anna saw after stepping out from that hell was trees surrounding everywhere, the sky was as dark as slate in the early mornings when people would still be asleep. The breeze whistled against the leaves of the trees and everything looked normal.

“Are we still in Viscarrian?” She asked with obvious curiosity in her voice and he nodded.

“Yeah, but we’re not close to the palace.”

“It looks.... Normal.” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her tone, she didn’t expect everything in Viscarrian to look natural at all.

“Don’t be deceived by the outside appearance, there’s a lot more to witness on the inside.”

“You actually sound smart.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing.” She averted her gaze with a guilty smile and stared ahead, but then her brows creased in worry as something popped in her head.

“You said you couldn’t transport back earlier, why?”

“I can’t use my powers, the poison builds a resistance between me and power, why do you think I got shot in the first place?”

“I’ve heard.” She immediately accepted before he dragged it into another argument.

“So we wait?”

“We head to Emsdar lake, my guards will be waiting there.”

“So we have to walk??” She sounded even more shocked, she doesn’t think she has that much strength in her to walk all night, she’ll pass out on the way for sure.

“Is it that far? Because I can’t walk all the way there, I’m weak as it is.” She admitted and he knew she wasn’t lying, it showed in her face.

“That leaves us with one option.”

“Which is?”

“I’ll carry you.”

Anna instantly raised a finger, already opening her mouth to protest against it but surprisingly, no words came out, as though she was having second thoughts about it.

Few minutes later, the two beings wandered into the forest, Roshan carried Anna behind his back while she gently had her arms wrapped around his neck. They remained quiet as they ventured farther into it and Roshan was the first to break the silence.

“Are you going to tell me a little about you?” He asked, but Anna shook her head in response.

“No, you’ll only make fun of me and besides, you would have probably dug up enough information about my life already.”

“I heard it’s better to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

“Fine but only on one condition, you have to tell me yours in return.”

“You go first and let’s start by telling me....what happened to your mother?”