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Archdemon Empress Luna

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Luna's lids fluttered before she opened them, gasping for breath in a desperate attempt not to drown.

For a moment, she flailed her arms around in panic as the hot water splashed outside the large flat basin she was in.

She had thought about the sirens below the frozen lake who were determined to place her in a similar ceramic life-sized bowl and make a soup out of her alongside the blood and rotting flesh of the corpses they acquired.

Thank the Goddess!

There weren't detached heads and chopped limbs floating in the water with her.

When she realized she wasn't in danger, Luna sighed with relief and relaxed into the water.

She had sluggish, heavy limbs and dry, parched throat paired with this lingering sensation of floating in the water like a piece of wood.

Did somebody drug her?

The flimsy linen cloth wrapped securely around her body as the pale pink liquid clung into her hair and skin.

She lifted her arm and saw that she was covered in red and black rose petals.

If she stretched her arms downward, Luna could touch the bottom of the large basin bath with her hands.

A sickly sweet—too sweet and tangy—scent drifted through her nostrils.

It was invasively pungent that she could practically taste it in her mouth.

Luna scrunched her nose and held her breath, but it didn't fail to make her gag.

She waved a hand on her face to drive the smell out.

As she raised her head to look around her, Luna realized she was inside an elegant flat-shaped bowl which contained hot sweet-scented water while she was covered in herbs, leaves and flowers.

There were thick layers of smoke from the heated water, emanating to the entire room encompassed by light, airy and almost transparent shell-pink curtains.

The colour schemes seemed like the perfect location to seduce someone to their deaths.

"Hmm. It sounded like someone like Apollyon would do." Luna muttered to herself, her heartbeat racing at the notion of meeting her husband in the Vampire Realm.

'Mayhap she was back, but Apollyon had placed her body in a different location.'

As she scraped a hand through her long silver hair, a thought crossed Luna's mind.

'This felt like she was back in that bathtub Apollyon had created for her before Lilith had brought her to Hell,'

She coughed out the steam she inhaled.

'This was clearly a different room than the bedchamber in the Castle.' Luna heard a cynical voice inside her head and her shoulders drooped in disappointment.

Her hope and determination wavered that it almost brought her to tears.

Bringing her knees closer as she wrapped her arms around her legs in a hug, Luna sat at the edge of a large hot basin and buried her face in her hands.

She clenched her fists.

Luna never felt more alone in this world.

It seemed like Luna had died and resurrected, but she couldn't remember what happened in the in-between.

She racked her brain, recalling the recent events.

It felt like she was missing something important as if there was a chunk of her memory removed.

Luna didn't feel like something had changed.

Every time she forced herself to remember, her head ached, sending her into a wave of nausea.

Luna had no memories between the period where she drowned in the lake waters at Luxen's the Ice Kingdom and the second she turned up here in this—

She couldn't turn her head fast enough, searching for the exit when she heard a heavy door opening and sealing shut.

"Oh, my goddess." A large frame which belonged to a male at his prime suddenly took shape behind the shell-pink curtains.

Her stomach almost shrivelled in hope and anxiety.

Luna swam to the edge of the bath to create distance and check out who he was.

'Please be my husband. Please be my husband.' Closing her eyes shut, Luna chanted the words like a prayer. 'Please, goddess. Let it be my husband.'

"Apolly—"

Luna gasped, covering her hand to her mouth in shock.

The pink curtains opened, and surprisingly, it was her husband, indeed.

Ravin.

Shifting his attention to her, The Archdemon of Gluttony parted the translucent pink curtains aside and held them.

Luna licked her lips without thinking as her eyes travelled to his overall strong physique, the broad, muscled shoulders, the defined chest and chiselled abs.

Chills run down her spine, brushing her nipples.

Ravin only wore a white loincloth similar to hers, but he was wrapped around the waist like a small towel.

The Archdemon's skin glowed from within, and her throat dried up at how magnificent his body had looked like in which she had no business admiring.

Luna was married to Apollyon, and she will only claim him, no one else--even if they were as handsome as her husband or for any Archdemon in that matter, standing in front of her.

Luna brought her gaze back to his Ravin's face.

She swallowed hard when she saw the naked heat in his smouldering bright amber eyes.

"Amare." Tilting his head, Ravin stepped forward, and she froze, covering herself, "You don't look happy to see me."

Narrowing his eyes at him, Luna didn't even feel the need to fake her expression.

"No, Ravin." Biting her lip, Luna nodded in agreement. "I am not happy to see you."

"Oh." Ravin's lips curved as he stared at her. "I see someone is feeling peevish because she was thirsty."

Luna stared back. "Shut up."

Ravin blinked, his lashes inappropriately long for such a man to exist.

"Listen. You just woke up from the destruction you have caused in Luxen's Kingdom, so I understand." Straightening his spine, Ravin rested a hand to his hips and offered his free wrist near Luna's mouth. "Here, drink some of my blood."

"Oh," Luna said. "OH!" Then, she exclaimed, finally understanding. "You mean that kind of thirsty."

Nodding slowly, she regarded him beneath her lashes. "I thought you meant other… "Luna trailed off in a whisper, "--things."