The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 114: The Saints’ Realm III

Chapter 114: The Saints’ Realm III

"So that’s why the Fae King forbids his people from marrying humans? Why did he cast out the descendants of his first wife?" Coran murmured, finally seeing the full shape of the truth. The King’s rigidity, and his merciless rules—even toward Agara—suddenly made sense.

And yet... Agara was still different. He kept this son very close to him, not holding him dear but secured.

Why?

Kai nodded, his gaze drifting to Agara, who stood silent and stern, arms crossed like a sentinel.

"Anything you want to add?"

Agara tilted his head. "Hmm. They don’t know shifters are descendants of Lillieth. You killed her too early."

Kai chuckled under his breath. "Is that part really necessary?"

"Yes," Agara snapped, pouting with a hint of mockery. Then he turned to Ren, his expression sharpening. "We’ve never tested shifter blood on those vampires. Not once. So far, we know he could choose his Lords from every species, except shifters."

Ren’s thoughts stilled, then spiraled. Her eyes widened. He was right. Luther didn’t have a single shifter, Lord, or anything. Not one. Why?

Could he not turn them? Not even the serpent clan, who were practically kin to him?

The Fallens had tried every vile method to spawn new creatures. Twisted, unnatural things. But each attempt ended in disaster. They’d paid the price. Eventually, they forbade others from repeating those failures. It made sense now, ugly, brutal sense.

"Is there any significant reason for that?" Ren asked.

Agara nodded, his voice calm but laced with something deeper. "Yes. The Lord of the Underworld never forgave Lillieth for luring him. He abandoned her and never returned. My father married her after that. She bore her first child, that’s Azrael, and the second was my father’s. Shifters descend from that second child."

An ancient wound disguised as lineage. A family crisis spanning millennia. How wonderful!

Kai growled, a bit low and sharp. He clearly had no desire to drag the story further. But Agara had found something in it– something that mattered.

"Yes," Kai muttered, biting off the words. "And a thousand years later, my father took in one of those shifters. Lilliana. That union gave birth to Lutherieth."

Ren stayed quiet, absorbing every piece like shattered glass reflecting the truth. There was more to this story. She could feel it, layers buried beneath layers. But perhaps the answers lay elsewhere... in the historian tower. If the three men before her hadn’t sealed their mouths and buried the past, she didn’t need to go there.

"Could shifter blood somehow weaken him?" Arkilla suggested, her tone speculative but serious. "If so, his Lords, and all those twisted creatures, would carry the same flaw."

Luther couldn’t detect garlic. His vampires inherited that weakness. Maybe this was no different.

"Yes. Good point," Ren replied, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"That is correct," Rail said darkly. "The Fae Lord couldn’t turn Kamin into one of his beasts to force him against his own kind, not because he didn’t want to... but because he couldn’t. That’s why Luther kept a shifter as a pet. Not a Lord. A pet." The word was bitter on Rail’s tongue.

"Should we test this?" Gloria’s voice trembled, but her question hung in the air like frost.

"Yes," Kai muttered. "Last time, the vampire targeted my wife and ignored the rest of us. That wasn’t instinct, it was intent. And now it makes sense. They don’t like shifters’ blood."

Agara nodded in agreement, his eyes shadowed. "Even the jar of shifter blood didn’t draw its attention. That’s not normal."

"We killed all the vampires," Siamon said, his voice bitter, but the unspoken warning lingered: not all truths die with the dead. There were thousands of them out there.

"How about testing it on a Fae Lord?" Azrael said casually as if suggesting a game of hide and seek.

"I’ll be the bait," Rail offered quickly, eyes burning with a hunger for vengeance. He was ready to make them pay for Kamin’s death.

"No!" Gloria snapped. "I’ll do it. Human blood draws them faster."

The two began to argue, voices rising, until one voice cut through it all.

"I’m the one they want," Ren declared, calm and resolute. "So I’ll be the bait for the bigger fish. Let’s kill two birds with one stone. Lutherieth will come for me."

Her voice was clear, steady, and surely unyielding.

None of them understood why she kept tying everything back to herself. Why does she carry the burden like a brand on her soul?

Kai’s heart jolted. This woman, his wife, why did she always put herself in the path of every blade? "There’s no way I’m letting you do that!" he nearly roared, his voice cracking with fury.

"Brother," Azrael interjected, oddly impressed. "That’s a brilliant idea."

He was infuriatingly calm, nonchalant, but disturbingly reasonable.

"I refuse!" Agara snapped, voice like thunder. "I won’t put her life at risk!" This girl was his niece, his dear niece.

Azrael exhaled slowly, almost bored. "I’ll be there. If anyone lays a finger on her, I’ll return to my old job just for a day."

Kai gnashed his teeth. "I didn’t bring you here to offer her up!"

"That was her idea, not mine," Azrael shot back. "And it’s a good one. An army without its leader crumbles fast."

He was tired of watching his brother flinch from every shadow. Sick of the weakness.

Ren slipped her hand around Kai’s arm, looking up at him with soft, unshaken eyes. "I’ll be fine. Let him come for me at the meeting in Alvonia. Strike him when he thinks he’s already won."

Kai closed his eyes, fury and fear battling behind his lids. One wrong move, one breath miscalculated, and everything could fall apart.

"Fine," he said, at last, his voice hardening like steel. He turned to Azrael, eyes blazing. "You support this plan, then hear me... if anything happens to her, I’ll come for you first."

Azrael smiled, unfazed. "Alright. Do it."

He didn’t fear threats, especially not hollow ones. With a flick of his finger, he could erase this entire room. And his brother knew it.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l