Discover Top Posts Tagged with #paisely

Sep 3, 2023

The Price of a Soul Ch. 2

Word count: 5.4k+

A/N: I may have gotten a little carried away. Just a tiny bit.

The entity that stole Solaris’ soul has the poor half-demon running ragged around the darkness.

“Let’s play tag!” It had said with such enthusiasm and excitement that Solaris had trouble saying no, something the 16-year-old greatly regrets.

“This is getting old fast.” He grumbles to himself after tripping over something unseen for the nth time. “How do you expect me to properly play a game like this when I can’t even see where I’m going?”

“But I can’t turn the lights on.” There’s a childish whine to the entity’s voice. “Will you really not play with me because you keep falling?”

“Well, I would prefer not to break my face while we’re at this.” Is all the teenager sighs as he takes a seat. He runs a hand through his orange-streaked hair as he mumbles to himself. “It was a mistake to run my mouth without thinking...I want to go home...I miss my dad...”

“What’s a ‘Dad’?” The avian-like being is now couched down in front of him.

“A Dad is someone who does things like look after you when you’re ill, someone who keeps you safe. They tuck you into bed at night when you’re little, read you stories until you fall asleep, comfort you after a nightmare, teach you how to do all sorts of amazing things... Mine is really amazing.” Solaris smiles sadly to himself. “Did you ever have someone like that before?”

“No. I’ve been all alone ever since I can remember, but it sounds nice. Unfortunately, I can’t undo what I did. “

“I don’t think I would want you to... sure I traded my soul away without thinking of it, but you gave my mother her life back. Even if I really am dead, my parents can always have another kid. I can be replaced There was never really anything all that special about me anyway...”

“You’re special to me...” It says, “You’re my first friend! There’s nothing more special than that.”

・・・〆・・・

Lucifer and Barbatos stand at the entry point if Aubrie’s grave on the day of the earthquake just minutes before it all unfolded.

“Are you absolutely sure you want to know what went on?” The green-haired demon asks, “Would it not be easier on your heart to just speculate what went on instead?”

“If I can find a way to help my son, it doesn’t matter what I learn.” Lucifer says, an unreadable emotion on written on his face.

It’s quiet between them as they press forward. When they enter the anti-chamber, the pair find the half-demon absolutely bawling his eyes out- a heartbreaking scene. It's hard to make out what he’s saying through his sobs and coughing fits. It doesn’t take them long to notice there’s something else in the room with them too.

It’s stalking Solaris, seemingly feeding off the boy’s despair as it inches closer and closer.

“Barbatos, what is that?” Lucifer has never seen anything like it before and he’ll never admit it, but it terrifies him. Its form shimmers almost, like it was trying to remain unseen while it hunted its helpless prey. And the worst part? He can’t even interfere to protect his child.

“I… I don’t actually know.” The butler is also on edge. The energy this thing produced, it felt ancient- even older than himself, almost and not completely demonic. Whatever the thing was, it clearly didn’t originate in the Devildom.

With their attention on the entity, the pair fail to notice the beginnings of the earthquake and when the ground jolts back and forth violently, they begin to lose their footing. A chasm begins to open up beside them and at the last possible moment, Barbatos snaps his fingers, and the pair go flying out of one of the many doors in his room.

They both groan, having tumbled down one of the many flights of stone steps in the time-demon’s room.

“I believe we have our answer as to what happened to your son.”

・・・〆・・・

Aubrie meets with Arella and the rest of their friends for lunch but finds herself too unfocused on the conversations.

“And this was Henry at his latest e-sports tournament.” Isabella holds her phone so the other human can see all the pictures she’d taken of the thirteen-year-old. “He’s even taken up coding and makes his own video games.”

“That’s amazing,” the orange-haired-human smiles, “he surely does take after his father, huh?”

“A little too much, unfortunately. But I love him all the same.”

“And what about you, Paisley? Did you and Belphegor ever end up having children? I know before my passing, the two of you were still undecided on the matter.”

“Hm?” The brown-haired human looks up from her meal. “Oh, yeah, we did. Just one for now despite how Belphie might be trying to convince me we should have another. Anyway, his name is Oliver. I have pictures if you’d like to see them.” They pull out the phone and pull up their gallery. “He just turned 7 not that long ago.”

“Aww, he’s so adorable,” Aubrie smiles, “who’s that next to him?”

“That’s Hakan, Allie and Beelzebub’s boy. He actually just got back from spending the summer in the human world with Allie. He’ll be turning eight in a few months. He and Oliver are constantly together, they’re like a two-in-one package at this point.”

“I see. And Arella, how’re the twins doing? What’re they up to nowadays? Were you guys ever able to find Cyrus too?”

“They’re fine,” Arella nods. “You could say they’re very busy. Aurelius took up modeling for Majolish like his father and is doing very well for himself in the industry and Azalea actually volunteers her free time at a dagashi shop Mammon and I used to take them to when they were younger. The both of them are at the top of their class, on the honor roll, and Azalea is even in advanced courses. Unfortunately, they live in the House of Lamentation now during the school week, so I don’t get to see them much until the weekend when they come home unless one of them is on punishment. Cyrus found his way back to us as well three years ago and he also attends RAD but chose to just commute from home. His return brought some friction to our family structure so he felt like moving into the HOL would be unnecessarily encroaching in the twins’ life.” Arella scrolls through her phone, showing Aubrie all the recent pictures of her family.

“Mammon and I have also had another child as well. This is him right here. His name’s Mahlon and he’s turning 6 in a couple days. Funnily enough he shares his birthday with Mammon.”

“Another child?” The ginger looked at her old friend in surprise. “I thought you’d had your tubes tied. Did it fail?”

“Yeah... I didn’t realize even with a tubal, there was still a super small chance of conceiving again. If I’d have known that I would have opted for a complete removal of everything instead. The youngest’s arrival caused a little bit of drama with the twins- more so Azalea than Aurelius. Things are fine now though.”

“I’d say it caused more than just a little bit of drama.” Isabella teases lightly. “Wouldn’t you, Paisley?”

The other human nods with a smile on their face and Aubrie’s confused.

“It’s nothing anymore, though, so I guess we should all be thankful for that much,” The Isabella hums as she notices Aubrie’s confused look. Her phone beeps- a message from her son over something he deemed an emergency but was- in all actuality- nonsensical at best. “I have to go. We should do this again sometime. Adios, ladies.” she leaves her portion of the check and takes off.

“Bye Isa!” They all chime in.

“I should get going too.” Paisley digs around in their wallet for some cash. “Knowing Belphie, he’s probably sleeping the day away and we’re supposed to run some errands together before we get Oliver and Hakan from school. I’ll see you around.” And then Paisely’s gone as well, leaving Arella and Aubrie alone. It’s quiet between them for a few moments before:

“You’re still dating Thirteen, right?” the freckled human nods at her friend’s question. “Can you ask her if she knows anything about entities that steal souls?”

“I can,” She hums in response, “but what leads you to suspect that his soul was stolen?”

“I just have a feeling- mother's intuition if you will. I remember when I first came to, and I saw my son laying there in a pool of his own blood, I had the overwhelming feeling that we weren’t alone. Something else was in there with us, Arella.”

“I’ll see Thirteen tonight, so I’ll ask her then.”

“Thank you. Let me know as soon as you find out.” The grey-eyed human’s phone goes off and she looks to see who it is.

・・・〆・・・

Lucifer sits in his office at home, still bruised from the tumble he’d taken back in Barbatos’ room, staring at the official notice he’d received via Diavolo from the House of Lords. After catching wind that Solaris had been at the literal epicenter of the earthquake that shook the Devildom to its foundations, a judgement had been rendered. He must’ve read it a million times already but just the sight of the words put the Avatar of Pride into a cold sweat.

The House of Lords hereby decrees the actions of the half-demon, Solaris Morningstar, taken on 31, August, to be classified as an act of terrorism. Until such time that these actions can be clarified as unintentional, the accused is hereby sentenced to execution. The preliminary hearing to appeal this decision is scheduled for 25, December, with a sentence date of 30, December.

Death? Terrorism? Not his boy. Solaris would never dream of intentionally harming anyone. This was all just a horrible accident and really, if anyone should be to blame it should be Lucifer himself. He knew the seal on Solaris’ powers was beginning to wane- Lucifer had even asked Arella to cast the spell she’d used on a new pendant that he intended to give his son on his birthday to avoid a scenario like this ever happening. This had to be due to-

“Love?” Aubrie’s voice distracts the demon from his thoughts. “I got your message. What’s wrong?”

“The House of Lords rendered its judgement in regard to the events from the 31st.” He sets the paper on his desk haphazardly, rubbing a hand over his face. “They believe our son caused the disaster. They want his life for it.”

The human’s storm-grey eyes widen.

“They want to execute our son over an earthquake that didn’t even kill anyone?” She can’t believe what she’s hearing. “That’s more than a little extreme.”

“I think it has more to do with something else and not the quake- that was just the opening they chose to take.”

“Something else? Such as what?”

“The House of Lords consists of some of the oldest demons in the Devildom as you know. They’ve always opposed the idea of demons intermingling with humans on a deeper level that just tempting them toward chaos and sin. They’ve been quietly targeting our family for years now- ever since we brought Cyrus home from the human world after Satan, Beel, and I killed his birth mother and aunts- trying to extinguish the existence of half-demons in our family and every time Diavolo and I have managed appease them in some form or another.”

“So, it’s prejudice? I can’t believe they want to take our baby’s life over something so stupid. Where is their court? I swear when I give those lousy demons a piece of my mind, they’ll-”

“You would have better luck convincing Belphie to stay awake all day than you would reasoning with them.” there’s a soft chuckle to his voice. “Appealing their decision is better left to me, my love. Ideally, I’d like for them to drop the charges altogether, but if they don’t back down completely, I’ll seek for a period of exile until I’m ready to abdicate my position as Avatar of Pride. At the very least, Solaris will get to keep his life.”

Aubrie nods at that. As unfortunate as it would be for their son to be ripped away from everything he’d grown up around, at least he wouldn’t be targeted for even the smallest slip up.

“I asked Arella to get in contact with Thirteen for me.”

“Really?” The demon asks, “You still think something’s affecting his soul?” He doesn’t want to say how he also believes in that theory after what he witnessed with Barbatos.

“At this point that’s the only explanation I can think of,” Aubrie admits. “It’s silly to jump to the most drastic conclusion, I know, but what if I’m right? What if he really did trade his soul away for mine? I’m sorry, Dear, I love you and I’m absolutely thrilled to be here with you again, but having a second chance to live means nothing if we don’t have our son with us as well.”

“I can’t say I don’t agree. I’m going to visit our son in the morning tomorrow and I’ll be taking Belphie with me. Brain scans still continue to indicate that he’s stuck in a constant state of REM sleep. He’s dreaming of something. I’m hoping Belphegor can figure out what that something is.”

Silently, she nods. She just wants her son back.

“Is there anything else you needed?” The human asks, to which Lucifer only shakes his head.

“Nothing really, although I won’t turn down your company.”

・・・〆・・・

The next morning, Lucifer- along with a very disgruntled Avatar of Sloth- make their way up to Solaris’ hospital room.

“You couldn’t have picked a later time to do this,” the seventh-born complains.

“No.” Is the eldest’s response, “When I spoke with the doctors last, Solaris’ brain was most active during the early morning hours. It should be far easier for you to use your dream-watching ability at this point in the day especially if you’re as tired as you keep complaining you are.”

“I appreciate you making it easier on me then I guess…” Belphegor mumbles as they reach the room. “You sure you don’t want to come with me? In my own opinion, I think he ended up astral projecting and he’s just stuck in that plane. It’ll be easier to coax him back if his father is there to encourage him.”

“No… I know he’s more than capable enough without me there- he just needs a guide back to the waking world. If it’s as you say, then he may even retreat further into the astral plane out of embarrassment, and we’ll have an even harder time guiding him back.”

“Suit yourself, then,” is all the sloth demon shrugs before he takes a seat in the chair near the bed and takes a hold of his nephew’s hand as he closes his eyes.

・・・〆・・・

The darkness leaves Solaris in deep despair. He misses his family. He wants to go home. Instead, the half-demon is stuck in this never-ending darkness with no way out, playing game after game with an archaic being that has the mentality of a child and the cruelty of a sadist.

It’s in this incredible despair that the boy openly weeps. He’d lost their latest game and had been practically rag-dolled around like a toy. Claw-like marks still sit on his shoulder from the exchange. His entire body hurts now.

“This isn’t how you’re supposed to treat friends.” the words are hushed, gritted through his teeth.

“We can play another game!” its voice echoes in the darkness. “I promise I won’t be so rough if you lose again.”

“No! I’m tired of this!” He screams. “I need a break!”

“Who’re you talking to?”

The half-demon’s grey-and-red eyes widen at the sound of Belphegor’s voice.

“Uncle Belphie?” Solaris turns toward the sound, and he can see his uncle off in the distance. He sounded so close- why is he so far off? “Is that really you? How did you get here?”

“Through your dreams,” suddenly the Avatar of Sloth is sitting right beside him. “You’re stuck here in the astral plane. I can guide you back if you’ll take my hand.”

“I can’t.” More tears well up in the boy’s eyes. “I did something stupid- made a deal without thinking. I’m such an idiot.”

“Well, even if you are an idiot, you’re your father’s idiot. Deal or no deal, if you take my hand, you will be able to go back home.”

And Solaris contemplates it as he reaches for his uncle’s hand. At the last possible moment, something seizes him and pulls him away.

“NO!” The entity screeches as it holds on tight to the half-demon. “YOU CAN’T TAKE MY FRIEND! I WON HIM FAIR AND SQUARE! I OWN HIM- WE MADE A DEAL.”

“You can’t own a person,” Belphegor stands, demon form manifesting. “Let Solaris go. He doesn’t belong here. Can’t you see he’s unhappy? If he was really your friend, you’d want him to be happy, right?”

“I won’t be alone again!” It’s claws begin to tighten into the flesh of Solaris’ arm. “If I have to kill you to make sure my friend stays by my side forever then I will.”

“No, don’t, please!” Solaris can’t be responsible for another family member’s death. “I-I’ll stay. Just don’t kill him, please.”

“It’s too late for that,” It growls. “If he ever comes back here, you’ll leave for sure. I can’t allow that.”

The entity raises its arm, and the ground starts to crack and rise. It throws the raised chunks of ground at Belphegor which he easily dodges. The Avatar of Sloth knows he’s at a disadvantage. He's unable to see his surroundings in the suffocating darkness. Anything could be coming at him, and he wouldn’t know it until it was too late. A tactical retreat would be the best option right now. He can always come back with Lucifer and another of their brothers after more planning and finding out what the hell this thing even was.

“I’ll be back, Solaris. I promise.” And with that, the blue-and-white-haired demon forces himself to wake up.

・・・〆・・・

When Thirteen finally walks into Mammon and Arella’s house, she immediately collapsed onto the couch in the living room. Another long night of reaping souls really takes it out of you. All the reaper wants is just 15 minutes of peace.

“There you are,” Arella appears not two minutes later, “I’ve been waiting to talk to you about something.”

“Can I just get five minutes of peace, please?” The pink-and-blue-haired woman whines, “I only just got home.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Dear.” The human kneels beside the couch. “But this is important. It’s regarding Solaris.”

Thirteen gives her human partner a disgruntled look as she rolls onto her side, facing Arella. “Fine, if it's that important, I’ll hear what you have to say.”

“Thank you, you’re the best. Anyway, Aubrie wanted to know if you knew of any entities that could steal souls away.”

“Entities that steal souls, huh? Currently, we reapers are the only beings capable of doing that. Collecting souls is kind of our main thing. I’ll have to look more into it with the elders, but our children are told stories of a being capable of stealing even our souls. They’re more cautionary tales against letting your emotions run wild if anything- Candi always had a way of making them even more terrifying than they actually were.”

“Interesting,” The human hums. “Can you tell me everything you do know?”

Thirteen is quiet. “No. If we speak of it without properly protecting ourselves first, the rumor is that you’ll catch its attention. I’m sorry, babe, but I don’t want my soul poached by that thing.”

“That’s understandable. I’ll pass the message along to Aubrie.”

・・・〆・・・

Lucifer and Belphegor sit in silence in the hospital room. The Avatar of Sloth’s heart is still racing from his encounter in the astral plane.

“This thing isn’t going to let him go peacefully, Lucifer. If we’re going to bring him back, it’ll have to be by force. And we need a plan too.”

Lucifer says nothing but turns his gaze to his resting son. Was there really nothing he could do for his boy at present? “How long do souls have after being stuck in the astral plane before they’re trapped there permanently?”

“It varies... from what I’ve seen with humans in the past, it only takes a few weeks. Demons, however, are unable to be trapped there. Since Solaris is a mix between the two, I’d hypothesize that he’d have months to a year at the minimum but that’s not a theory I’m so sure we should be testing.”

“Thirteen is back in town, we’ll drop by and pay her visit.”

・・・〆・・・

As lunch time rolls around, Thirteen and Arella are in the kitchen making lunch for themselves and Azalea who happened to be home from school due to the Devildom cold.

“Who would have thought Azalea of all people would be so needy when she’s sick...” The reaper remarks. “She’s nearly as bad as her father.”

“Oh, I’ve known for quite some time.” The human chuckles, “Azalea doesn’t get sick often but when she does, she tends to be especially greedy for my and Mammon’s attention. She’ll sleep for a majority of the day though, so I don’t think we have too much to be worried about.”

“And what about when she wakes up?”

“Oh, I won’t be able to get anything done until she goes back to sleep. It’ll all be fine, Love. Can you go wake her? The soup is done.”

Thirteen does as she’s asked, retrieving the ailing half-demon from her cozy cavern of blankets. Arella slides a bowl in front of her child, taking the opportunity to check the temperature of Azalea’s forehead.

“Your fever’s starting to drop, thankfully. With any luck you’ll be able to return to classes tomorrow.”

The freckled girl only grunts as she presses her face against her mother’s side. “Mama... hold me.” Her voice is muffled by Arella’s shirt.

“Eat, before your food gets cold, Dear. We can cuddle later.” Arella kisses the top of her daughter’s head as she brushes some of her hair away from her sweaty face before pulling away from the girl to make her own bowl.

Thirteen just watches the pair, shaking her head.

Lunch is interrupted by Lucifer and Belphegor. They’d come to finally corner Thirteen to see if she knew anything at all about this entity that was keeping Solaris captive in the Astral plane.

“I just can’t catch a break about this thing, can I?” The reaper sighs after hearing Belphie’s description of the entity.

“We just want to know if it has any weaknesses that we can capitalize on,” Lucifer replies as he sits across from her.

Thirteen takes a few moments to say a protective ward for herself in an ancient tongue unknown to any demon.

“If I’m going to talk about this thing, I need to protect myself from unwanted attention first.” She clarifies after receiving odd looks from the first and seventh born. “Now as we were discussing, I don’t know much aside from the legends my sister would try to scare me with, but rumor has it that it’s even older than demons or angels. It was imprisoned by your father many, many eons ago when it kept running around stealing the souls of all those who felt strong emotions one way or another before eventually settling on hunting the souls of reapers for sport. Some younger reapers in my generation gave it the name Yatagarasu, after the three-legged crow god, while others- more elder reapers- refuse to call it by a name for fear they’d be next on its hunting list.”

“What else can you tell us?”

“Some stories tell that it loves to make deals with non-consenting parties and that the only way out of that deal is to defeat it in a game of chance yourself or have another person do so on your behalf but then we have just as many that say otherwise. Of course, these are only children’s tales.”

“A game of chance, huh?” Lucifer looks lost in thought. “Is it able to detect cheating?”

Thirteen shrugs. “I’m not sure- probably.”

“If ya need someone who’s good with games of chance, I’ll do it once I start feeling better.” A new voice enters the conversation.

All three of them turn to look at Azalea in surprise. They hadn’t realized she’d been listening.

“No.” Lucifer replies, “If you should lose-”

“I’ve trained my odds perception ability very well.” The 19-year-old grumbles. “Aside from my father, I’m the best option you have at assuring we get him back. Besides… none of this would be happenin’ if I hadn’t lost track of Solaris at Devil’s Coast that day.”

“Now’s not really the time for your weird sense of responsibility, kid.” Belphegor comments. “You understand what it might want if you lose right? You’ll both be trapped there and even if you can see the odds that you’ll win you have no-”

“I don’t really give a shit.” She shrugs, “Sorry ta be so blunt but I never lose games of chance so let me help.”

The three adults exchange looks of concern.

“If it makes you feel any better,” the half-demon adds, “I’ve already seen our odds of pullin’ this off. They’re in our favor. So, what’ll it be? Getting Solaris back or letting him stay comatose for the rest of forever?”

The room is quiet, there’s tension in the air as Lucifer weighs the option.

“Fine.”

・・・〆・・・

The three of them along with Aubrie stand in Solaris’ hospital room. It had been a full week since their last attempt at freeing the orange-and-black-haired boy from this hostage situation.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Belphegor still looks uncomfortable about taking his niece into the astral plane with him. “Your parents will kill me if I let you get stuck there.”

“Yeah,” Azalea nods, “like I said last week, this whole situation is my fault in the first place so it’s only natural that I make it right.” She holds her hand out. “So, let's get a move on. Unless you want the developin’ bed sores or something.”

“You two be careful, alright?” It’s an order from the Avatar of Pride. “You don’t know what tricks this thing has up its sleeve.”

They both nod as the Avatar of Sloth takes her outstretched hand. Suddenly, the pair find themselves within the astral plane once more.

“Yeesh- sure is dark in here…” Azalea mumbles, “I thought the astral plan was s’pposed to be filled with stars or something pretty like that?”

“Normally, it is.” The demon agrees, “but remember what Thirteen said? This place was meant to be a prison- prisons aren’t pretty.”

It doesn’t take long for the entity dubbed as Yatagarasu to find them.

“I thought I told you to never come back?!” it’s multilayered voice booms.

“Actually, you never said that.” Belphie can help but be a little snarky.

“He’s only here because of me,” Azalea shouts to it. “I wanna play a game and make deal with ya.”

“A game?” The massive version of Yatagarasu bends down, its face practically pressed up against hers, “What kind of game?”

“They call it War. It’s a card game. We both place a card down and whoever has the higher card wins. To spice it up, we only get one card each. It’s a mode I like to call sudden death style. It’s the ultimate game of chance. Simple enough, right?”

“And what do you want if you win?”

“If I win? Well, that’s easy. I want you to let my cousin go free. If I lose, however, you still let Solaris go but you keep me instead.”

“Are you insane, Azalea? You can’t offer up your own soul over a card game!” The sloth demon hisses.

Yatagarasu thinks for a moment. “How do I know you won't cheat or go back on your word?”

“Oh? You scared?” She smirks, taunting the being. She needs it to choose this game or else she’ll lose for sure. “For your information, I don’t need to cheat. After all, throughout all three realms, when it comes to card games of any kind, I’m the best there’s ever been. If it’ll make ya feel better, we’ll shake on it. It’ll be a binding contract so you can’t go back on your word either.”

“The best? I hardly believe that.” Yatagarasu gives the half-demon a disbelieving look. “I’ll accept your deal- if only to wipe that annoying smirk off your face when I crush you.”

And so, the game begins as they shake on the deal. Solaris is summoned to their location, placed in a cage that dangles above the pair much to the boy’s embarrassment.

“Can’t you let me down?” He yells, his pride not letting him take this lightly. “This is embarrassing- I’m not a damsel in distress!”

He finds himself ignored.

Azalea never lets her smirk fall from her face throughout it even as the cards are placed down- the thrill of what will be an easy victory humming in her ears. This was all going to plan. She has an ace laid down while her opponent only has a ten. Victory is all but assured.

“Are ya ready? You’re gonna lose.”

“Have you heard that it’s impolite to be so damn cocky?”

“Who says it’s cockiness? I done told you once I’m the best there’s ever been. Reveal your card.”

“A ten,” it smiles, chest puffing up with pride, “You can’t beat that.”

“Now, who’s bein’ cocky?” Azalea reveals her own card, “I have an ace. According to the rules, I win.”

“I… lost?”

The cage Solaris is in dissolves away and he goes crashing to the ground with a screech. His uncle as able to catch him just in time.

“I can’t lose… this is my realm! I make the rules here!” The ground begins to quake beneath their feet as Azalea only laughs and turns away. “You had to have cheated somehow! We’re playing again!”

“Nah, I’m good.” Her voice is cold and disinterested. “We made a deal, and I won fair and square.”

“NO YOU DIDN’T!”

“Azalea, we can’t stay here anymore!” Belphie shouts, “We got what we came for, let’s go!” His hand is outstretched as he holds his footing among the thrashing of the ground.

The white-and-blacked-haired girl doesn’t need to be told twice. No matter how good it would feel to humiliate her opponent after winning in such high stakes, she’d rather not have the entire plane collapse on her either.

“NOOOOOOO,” it’s voice roars in her ears as she takes her uncle’s hand and before she knows it, they’re back in the real world. Adrenaline is rushing through her veins still.

And it would appear to be the same for Solaris as well as he sits up with a shout, body full on shivering while takes ragged breaths- like he was waking up from the most traumatic nightmare.

The commotion caused Lucifer and Aubrie to come rushing back in and the grey-and-red-eyed half-demon snaps his head in their direction. The sight of them is blurry, but he can tell from scent alone it was them.

In seconds, he’s wrapped up in their arms in the tightest hugged imaginable as tears well up in his eyes.

He’s back in his body, he has his mother back- it all feels far too overwhelming to bare. It’s not long before the tears overflow and he’s sobbing into his father’s coat.

“I-I’m-m s-s-sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m such an idiot! I can’t believe I did something so stupid!” Solais’ words hiccup and break with each breath.

“It’s okay,”

“You’re safe now. We’re here. We’ve got you.”

More comforting words are whispered into his hair as both parents do their best to calm him. Both Azalea and Belphegor slip away unseen. They could get their thanks later but for now, they’ll let those three have their moment.

・・・〆・・・

To be continued (in an epilogue)

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me! shall we date?#obey me lucifer #obey me barbatos #obey me oc #aubrie #arella #isabella #paisely #obey me thirteen #obey me belphegor #azalea

amor-immortalem