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Achdemon Empress Luna

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Apollyon glanced down, baring his teeth to scowl at the grass, which didn't do anything to him. "One noble told me that I might belong to the Summer Courts, but the kind of Fae that I am couldn't be trusted."

"The eccentricities of character do not necessarily lead to unreliability," Luna told Apollyon, defending him. "One must look beyond appearances to see the essence of feelings and intentions."

"They don't know you as I do." Luna looked him in the eye, and Apollyon noticed.

They stared at each other for a silent moment.

The warm breeze would make their messy hair a beautiful nest for the robbins chirping from the branches.

Apollyon stepped closer to her, and his big body blocked the slivers of sunlight shooting from the canopy of leaves and branches above their heads, shading her from the sunlight.

"I knew you were capable of loyalty, somehow, even those times where the Consortium wasn't abolished yet. " Luna smiled. "I was waiting for you to show your cards to me and play them right, or else I would vanish from your life despite being your blood mate."

Prussian blue eyes narrowed. "Do you trust me?"

She found it a peculiar question.

"Yes." Luna didn't dare look away from him because as she told the truth. " I trust you."

Apollyon raised an eyebrow at her confident response."You have to tell me your secret after we discuss this brewing war with the Spring Courts, then."

"I will," Luna repeated and nodded her head at him. "I will tell you." Clearing her throat, she rubbed the nape of her neck awkwardly. " I think today is the right time to reveal my secrets."

"But, later." Luna sighed. "Possible war strategies against the Spring Courts are more important to discuss."

She swore that she wasn't running from this anymore, hiding her memories from him as guilt ate her heart from the inside out like termites.

Having these concealed secrets inside was like allowing a parasite to live in her body.

How ironic that it wasn't far from her reality because the Archdemon was still inside her somewhere.

Apollyon needed to know that so they could do something about it.

She shouldn't wait for the Archdemon of Envy to wake up before they take precautions to get rid of her.

Luna also thought that this constant refusal to expose her secrets and lies made her think she had gone mad.

Her husband deserved to know, and Luna was prepared for all kinds of reaction—even the wild rage, she predicted.

"It's a mess that I don't have to deal with, but I have to," Apollyon said as he casually dropped to the ground and laid down to the thick grass.

Folding his arms, Apollyon put his hands at the back of his head to rest. "I can easily go to war with the Spring Courts if I chose to, but I couldn't sacrifice your safety for the sake of something stupid as pride. This war isn't about the death of their kind."

"It's all about the pride of the Spring Courts for allowing the Massacre in their own territory in the First Day of Spring—where their powered is the strongest and at its peak--while the rest of the Courts are watching." He continued.

"The Spring Faeries…" Apollyon clicked his tongue in frustration. "They might be fun-loving, but they are too impulsive. I want to get this over with."

"I don't want to go to war, Apollyon, without a cause." She whispered as her gaze shifted to the gorgeous green canopy, the sunlight playing peek-a-boo behind the cluster of leaves as it sparkled like diamonds.

Being with Apollyon under the shade of a tree was food for her Archdemon Soul.

Clutching the grass and the dirt, Luna straightened her spine only to leave the tree bark and crawl on all fours to settle beside Apollyon.

"Didn't the Spring Faeries learn anything from the Ostara Massacre?" Luna demanded as she rested her head in Apollyon's outstretched arm. "Did they want to witness the deaths of more Faerie Sentinels? Don't they have a conscience?"

"What about the family of those soldiers, especially the children they would leave if they go to the battlefield and die?" Luna asked indignantly. "Families might lose their brothers, their fathers, and their sons to Thanatos."

"You sound so sure that they would die." As his lips curved upward in amusement, Apollyon stretched his free arm to cover his face, his fingers spreading toward the sun.

The leaves began to dance in the wind.

"That's because they would die, Apollyon," Luna said in a tone that was as sharp as a blade that can cut diamonds. "I would make sure all of them will face death if they make an enemy out of the Vampire Realm. But I would probably kill the Spring Monarchs first before I allow that to happen."

"You are bloodthirsty, wife." Apollyon brought his palms down to cover Luna's eyes, and then he whispered, "I like that. I thought you lost the trait the day I sacrificed the souls of the demonic faeries to Lilith."

"Well, to be fair, they have started it, after all."

She argued with her husband earlier, and it went on pretty well now that she apologized after her husband made her realize things that were essential to their relationship.

It came as a shocker.

Luna had no idea that her husband was capable of being the mature one, and she appreciated that Apollyon made efforts to lead her well as the husband.

So far, Luna had no complaints about her husband's shift yet, but she was looking out for the next time he hurt her pride.

Luna finally accepted that in life and love, sometimes, one had to get off her high horse and lower down pride to admit when one was in the wrong to make a relationship work in harmony.

"You finally understand that sometimes being cruel means being kind." Apollyon let out an evil chuckle as he faced her, pulling her closer. "I got rid of the demonic faeries of this Realm--"

"Only for them to come back to be eaten by the Archdemon soul they brought back to her own physical form." Luna interrupted, shaking her head. "How fast the wheels have turned on them and us!"