Garden Of Poison-Chapter 246: Completing the night

Apologies for the no update yesterday. I came back to apply for visa again. Have a running fever which is why I couldn’t get to writing sooner, but here is a Chapter <3

Music Recommendation: Nothing is Real - Azure

—

Emily felt the delicateness with which Raylen had tucked the strand of her hair behind her ear, and for a moment, it put her in a trance. She hadn’t realised that, like a magnet, her face had gravitated towards him when he retracted his hand away from her, allowing her to draw nearer to look at his fascinating blue eyes.

His eyes were beautiful, Emily thought. She wondered whether he had inherited them from his mother, considering that the Devil’s eyes were black. She contemplated how painful it must have been to fathom that the family he had grown up with, the ones he had believed he could always count upon, had abandoned him.

"Although you may appear that way," Emily began, her words flowing like the notes Raylen played on the piano, "I don’t think you are unfortunate, for you understand how someone feels."

"No?" Raylen asked as he drank in her appearance. Her doe-like eyes gazed back at him, their softness meant solely for him alone this time. He saw her shake her head in response.

"No. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have tried to distract me by bringing me here and dancing without any actual music," Emily stated. His actions hadn’t changed the fact that her maid was dead, but they had improved her mood instead of allowing her mind to succumb to darkness.

"Tell me more," Raylen remarked, noticing how close she was, and his eyes briefly darted to her rosy lips that waited to be bitten.

"More?" Emily inquired, and she heard him hum.

"Yes. I am wounded by my past, and I would like more of your consoling words." And though Raylen spoke those words, Emily knew the archdemon was over the past, as if he had gathered himself before he could crumble, opting to break others who crossed his path instead.

Raylen observed her lips parting and closing before parting once more as she spoke. "That you should look forward to a brighter future. With them gone, no one will harm you again, and the people right now, they like you a lot. Earlier today, the women at the gathering couldn’t stop gushing about you... We—we should head back to the castle," she said, clearing her throat when she became aware of their proximity.

Emily took a step backwards, and, as if to adjust her dress, she turned the other way, though she was actually concealing her faintly flushed cheeks from him.

"And what about you?" she heard him inquire from behind her. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"I don’t think it would be wise to spend the night here when there’s a room for me in the castle." Emily’s voice sounded rushed and tinged with a hint of nervousness.

"You know what I am talking about, Red," Raylen said, observing her frame from behind. He watched as she turned, with the light from the burning candles casting a gentle glow upon her, revealing her dainty self to him. She avoided meeting his eyes, as if becoming conscious of him all over again. "Do you like me?" He didn’t care about what others thought of him.

Emily couldn’t use ’hate’ like she often did, not when his gestures towards her had been nothing but kind. "Like everyone else," she replied, adding, "I like you as a person."

"Do you have someone you like as an animal?" Raylen teased her, his lips curling as he noticed her becoming flustered by the subtle movement of her head.

"Of course not," Emily whispered, scrunching her face at the reply she gave him. She couldn’t help but wonder if it was her own answers that prompted such questions from him. "And what is with this ’Red’?" she asked.

Raylen walked over to where she stood, coming to stand beside her, and remarked, "That’s how you’ve been looking. Red whenever you see me."

Emily refrained from raising her hands to touch her face and murmured, "I told you, it’s just the weather."

"The weather is indeed changing," Raylen hummed with a satisfied smile, and he observed her attempting to escape by walking towards the doors.

However, when Emily pushed open one of the wooden doors, her gaze fell upon the snowflakes falling from the sky. She said, "You sent the carriage away... How are we going to return to the castle?" She turned to look at Raylen, who walked towards her with his hands tucked into his trousers’ pockets.

Emily looked outside the abandoned church, where the snowflakes continued their gentle descent from the sky. The glow of the burning lamps scattered around the area illuminated both the path and the falling snow, and there was just something about the scene that drew her outside.

"We should have brought an umbrella," Emily remarked. If she wasn’t wrong, the castle was quite a distance from their current location, and she was sure she would freeze by the time they got there.

"I have something better than an umbrella," Raylen responded, and he stepped out of the building, leaving Emily standing at the door with intrigue in her eyes.

Emily watched Raylen as he walked ahead before turning around to face her. She saw him tilt his chin upward, gazing at the sky from which the snowflakes gracefully descended, and his silhouette against the snowy backdrop appeared nothing less than charming. He deftly caught a snowflake that drifted near him, playing with it, and asked her,

"Not going to catch a snowflake, Princess?"

"If I touch it, it will melt," Emily replied while remaining in the sheltered doorway.

"That’s what’s supposed to happen, isn’t it? You are a warm person. You can melt anything you want," Raylen said, locking eyes with her, and she returned his gaze.

She watched him enjoy playing with one snowflake and then another two, making them twirl at his will. She finally asked him something she had been wanting to know for a while now. "The snow and rain... do you control it?"

Raylen tilted his head slightly and replied, "To a certain extent. They are natural phenomena, and I can influence them to a limit or use them to my advantage, but not get rid of them. If I could, I would have the kingdom bathed in rain all the time."

The notion of continuous rain made Emily feel a little queasy. "If I had the power, I would have kept the sun shining in the sky."

A mischievous grin spread across the archdemon’s face, and Emily’s eyes widened slightly when the snowflakes he had been playing with floated over to her. She heard him say, "The sunshine princess. And what about snow? Want to chase it away too?"

Seeing the snowflake pause its twirling to allow her a clear view, Emily said, "It is better than rain." She let out a soft gasp when one of the snowflakes lightly touched her neck.

"That’s cold!" she complained.

"If you intend to return to the castle, Princess, you should step outside," Raylen remarked with mirth in his eyes and a smile playing on his lips. His keen blue eyes noticed how the snowflake that had touched her neck melted, sending a shiver down her body.

"I thought you were going to magically conjure an umbrella," Emily quipped, and she finally stepped away from the old building. And despite the chill in the air, the falling snowflakes made it bearable and bewitched her as she lifted her gaze to the sky.

In the midst of the deserted streets, there was no one but the two of them, with Emily and Raylen enveloped in their own world. Raylen watched her from where he stood, relishing these fleeting moments. It appeared that her heart wasn’t hurting anymore. A snowflake, drifting towards her, descended and landed on her upper cheek, making her tremble at its icy touch.

Emily had closed her eyes, as if she were basking in the moment, attempting to become one with the snowflake. It was also when another lone snowflake drifted towards her. Raylen’s eyes zeroed in on it as it tried its luck to touch her, and when it came close to her soft lips, his hand moved, and a gust of wind blew through the space where the princess stood, scattering all the nearby snowflakes away from her.

"You can play with the snowflakes on our way back," Raylen suggested, his lips forming a subtle smirk as he observed her shiver and watched her eyes snap open.

Emily yearned to submerge herself in warm water, finding the thought of a bath highly appealing. She saw Raylen absentmindedly run his fingers through his red hair while he gazed down one of the empty streets.

As Emily contemplated whether they would start walking, she was left stunned when she caught sight of a pair of black wings emerging from Raylen’s back.

"You have wings," Emily observed, her gaze fixed on the expansive black wings.

"A gift for the demons who assume the position of archdemons," Raylen explained. "Though there are other demons with wings, they aren’t as impressive as what we possess."

Emily nodded, unable to help but think about how convenient they must be. She inquired, "You are going to fly...?"

That had been Raylen’s initial plan, but now he hesitated, doubting he could resist if he held her now. But the more he restrained himself, the more he wanted her. He said, "There’s a carriage nearby. We can use it to travel before the blizzard gets worse. "

As they started walking, Emily noticed one of Raylen’s wings hovering above her, as if to shield her from the falling snow, though he didn’t speak and simply continued to walk as the snowfall intensified. As they reached the location where the carriage was parked, he instructed her,

"Take a seat inside. You have already been out in the cold for far too long today."

Emily saw his wings vanish as fast as they had appeared, and before she knew it, they were on their way back to the castle. She pondered whether she had said something that made him become serious, although she couldn’t recall retorting to him in a way that might have triggered the change in his demeanour. Did he remember something from his past? She wondered what it was, and her curiosity grew as she sat inside the carriage, staring at him through the small window before her.

During their journey Emily noticed that the snowfall had indeed intensified, bringing with it a gusty wind that she could hear even with the windows closed.

When they finally reached the castle, the carriage came to a halt, and Emily disembarked just in time to see Raylen get down from the driver’s seat. The snowflakes that had settled on him evaporated into steam, letting her know the snow during their journey had not affected him in the least.

"Thank you for today," Emily expressed, clasping her hands as they reached the castle’s entrance—for finding her chain this morning, for arranging her maid’s burial, and for his efforts to help improve her mood.

"Always a pleasure," Raylen responded, watching her closely as she would soon disappear into her room, not to be seen until the morning. "Aside from a few things, I had a good time with you."

Emily pursed her lips before replying, "Me too... Goodnight, Raylen."

"Goodnight, Princess," Raylen wished her back.

Raylen watched Emily walk away as Westley removed his coat from behind. He heard the faint sound of her soft footsteps gradually fading away as he continued to gaze ahead of him. Just as the servant demon was about to ask something, Raylen muttered, "Why did you say that?"

"Master?"

On the other side of the castle, Emily removed the gloves from her hands as she made her way towards her room. She tried not to think about her maid, hoping that she was at peace rather than in pain. It was strange, though, she thought to herself. Despite everything that had occurred, unlike in the past, she hadn’t shed as many tears.

Was it because her heart was corrupting? Was that the reason why she wasn’t able to feel the pain as deeply as she used to?

Before Emily could proceed down the next corridor, she heard Raylen’s voice calling her from behind, "Princess."

But before she could process what was happening, Raylen grabbed her hand and turned her around, preventing her from stepping into the adjacent corridor. Startled, she asked, "Did you forget something?"

"Yes," Raylen replied, his eyes intensely gazing into hers. The next moment, he leaned in and pressed his lips against her cheek.

Taken aback by his bold action, Emily’s mind went blank. She felt the soft, warm touch of his lips brush against her skin, leaving behind the sensation of unspoken whispers of things unsaid and undone. Her chest tickled, and her stomach fluttered. He pulled away and remarked, "You know, for good dreams. Goodnight, my Princess."

[Music Recommendation: Until I found you (With Em Beihold) - Stephen Sanchez]