Lucifer had never felt this anxious and restless in his life. It was finally here: the day Sheba would awaken. Right now, he only had twelve hours to spend with Khalan, because once it was midnight and she went to sleep, Sheba would be the one opening those eyes in the morning.
He had a lot of things he must take care of before then; he could not afford to make any mistakes or let anything go wrong. One mistake could lead to him not claiming her before she woke up, or to Elisha and Moist successfully taking her away from him. While Elisha sought to make her hers before he did, Moist sought to kill her before she awoke.
She had just woken up from her coma, and of all the recent happenings that needed her attention—the quick immigration of the humans to northern Cullen, Aliadam's reclaiming of the Spirit Kingdom, the brutal death of the duke of Argan and other nobles under his command, and most of all Aliadam's aim to end her existence—the only thing she saw worthy of her attention was Sheba.
She had launched several attacks against him since he left the Spirit Kingdom and returned to the demon realm with Khalan. He had left the very day Elisha paid Aliadam a visit, and even before Aliadam could have a conversation with him or talk to him about it, he had already paid a visit himself and told him his decision. Reasonable enough, he decided to leave the Spirit Kingdom in the early hours today, and the moment he left with Khalan, Moist's and Elisha's informants already let them know. Since then until now, he had not breathed steady. It was all worth it, he knew. He had the prize, and they all wanted it too. Over his dead body!
All this while he was fighting for her safety, Khalan rather saw this as a leisure travel. He kept her in his Hollow Eden, the most secure place in all of the demon realm, and since their arrival she had been very excited.
She was served the most exquisite breakfast in the demon realm that morning, and she was tempted to say it tasted better than any other breakfast she had ever had. She felt really happy and satisfied and believed that for the day to have started so well, tomorrow was going to be the best birthday of her life as well.
She blabbed to him all week about how she wanted lots of things for her birthday: an exotic pet—a monkey preferably—a spice chest, a carriage and a chaperone; she wanted to explore her freedom better, a gold brooch with gemstones, and so much more. She never asked for a leisure travel and as he gave it to her; she believed it was a sign that he was going to fulfill all her wishes and so much more, and honestly, she could not wait for tomorrow.
She was not wrong. He would love to do all that and more, but was not sure if Sheba would appreciate it all. They were the same person, but once Sheba woke up, Khalan would be history. She would still have her memories, but it would surely be something she would do everything to wipe from her mind. Sheba would rather overcome her love for power than learn to accept him and love him as her mate. She knew his memories with Khalan would be very disgusting to her, but those were actually the most lovable memories of his life.
He could not lie—he was going to miss Khalan so much: her pure, innocent smile, her most wholesome laughter, the way she looked at him, the way she loved him, all the times she voluntarily professed her love to him. He was going to miss all that. He wished he could help it, but there was really nothing he could do. As much as he wanted her to love him and accept him the way she did now as Khalan, Sheba's awakening was inevitable. Besides, she was the one he fell in love with in the first place, not Khalan. And if he could get Khalan to love him on her own, winning Sheba's love should not be that difficult, he thought.
He would give it more reasoning later. For now he had to first bring everything under his control and make sure Moist and Elisha did not have their way in the next twelve hours.
Nevertheless, he tried as much as he could to spend most of his time that day with her. They had lunch together, he gave her a tour around his Hollow Eden—he simply called it one of the Spirit King's magnificent manors—and he totally gave them permission to stay in the place for her birthday under the care of his servants.
Khalan easily bought the lie. She already knew how kind the Spirit King was to Nathan, and since she could not feel the very strong demonic energy oozing from the place, she easily believed it was owned by the Spirit King. Moreover, there was no way she could believe Nathan was powerful enough to control all of Hollow Eden as she was yet to make peace with the fact that he owned the mansion. Even now, she was tempted to believe it was a gift from the Spirit King too. Believing he owned such magnificent structures when she lived with him in a hut for most of her life was truly difficult.
In no time it was nightfall, and the several attacks against the demon realm had been successfully defended by the demon army. The whole realm was being attacked greatly just because of their presence. This was a very perfect time to appreciate the fact that demons were very capable beings. He necessarily did not have to do much; under Hal's command, they did a very good job protecting the borders and securing the realm.
They had no blazing fire to fence around the realm, but their strength and powerful resolve made the realm impenetrable. They did not need to understand what was fully going on; war among races was no rare occurrence, so they needed no particular reason to protect their realm from the attacks of the Human Goddess and the Siren Queen. Besides, Hal, the one commanding the army, took it all too personally. He had enough of them already and the stress they were putting his lord through. In addition, they made him miss bonding time with his beloved mate. If this war were not happening now, he and Saskia would be in her little wooden cottage in the woods, where she would either be teaching him how to bake bread or telling him all the imaginary stories she had in her head. He loved spending time with her, but now they were making him suffer losing that time. Of course he personally wanted to make them pay.
Lucifer did not have to worry about the attacks breaching the realm with him in charge; he only readied himself for when Elisha and Moist would appear themselves. For now they had only sent their armies forth, and they were the ones launching the attacks so far. Till now, Moist and Elisha were yet to descend in their full glory, and the suspense they invoked made him really anxious. He wanted to know what they were planning and be ten steps ahead, but there was no way he could do that. He tried to ease his frustration on the promise Aliadam made to him. That assured him he would not have to worry about Moist, as Aliadam gave his word to handle her, and even though he had no idea what he planned on doing, he decided to trust him. Focusing most of his interest on dealing with Elisha. She too was no joke; she was very powerful and her influence stretched farther than Moist's in most situations, judging from what he knew.
He would not be this worried if he had not made a few changes in his Hollow Eden. To make the place more conducive for Khalan, he had made an actual bathhouse for her. She loved bathing in a bathhouse back at the mansion and now she was here; he did not want to change that for her. Also, he made spring water available for her consumption. These things were nonexistent here because of his nature and were all risks he should really be careful about when facing an opponent like Elisha. Her will over water was unpredictable, but for Khalan to feel happy and comfortable, he was willing to risk everything. He knew what he was doing however and believed he had everything under control.
He was just about to look for Khalan and remain with her before he nearly ran into a maid who immediately appeared before him.
"My lord," she bowed, "Lady Khalan wishes to see you."
"Is she facing any difficulty?" he asked instinctively.
"No, she only wants to have her bath."
"Her bath?" he swallowed hard. "You may leave now."
"As you wish, my lord," the maid bowed and vanished.
He looked up unto the night sky and dazzling stars then breathed at a thought.
'Few minutes till midnight.' …