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Archdemon Empress Luna

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Sloth tilted his head, watching her warily, "Why, oh, why did you smell like you were bathed in Luxen's cum when you were with Ravin all this time?"

'Bathing in the Archdemon of Lust's fluid?'

She gasped.

Luna couldn't rule out the possibility that it wasn't Apollyon who had fucked her when her intuition had practically sent warning bells into her head early on.

A sudden coldness hit her in the core.

"No. No. No. No. No. It can't be, Sloth." Luna pressed her palms on her ears, her voice shaking in firm denial. "It was the Vampire King who had slept with me that night!"

Swallowing hard, Luna remembered Apollyon rubbing his seed all over her stomach before vanishing, and Ravin burst out in the room.

Luna placed a fist over her mouth when she recalled that specific memory, making her double over.

She recalled how Apollyon's dark pupils morphed into narrowing slits of silver for a split second, mistaking them for desire.

Silver eyes.

Luna should have known it was weird for Apollyon's Prussian blue eyes to turn silver.

It wasn't the Vampire King, ut the Archdemon of Lust.

"You are lying to punish me! I don't believe you. " Nostrils flaring, Luna screamed as her words echoed in the quiet afternoon, the high-pitched tone bouncing back to her ears. "YOU ARE LYING TO ME, SLOTH!"

Luna breathed noisily, and her face flushed red from the exertion of her screams.

"What's in it for me if I lie to you, Lune?" It angered her more that Sloth was unbothered by her anger. "At least I am brave enough to tell you the truth no matter what reaction I had elicited from you."

Giving her a half-shrug, he added. "You can kill me if you prove me wrong."

There was an eerie silence on her part.

Luna couldn't prove Sloth wrong.

He clicked his tongue when she didn't respond. "Even a part of you knew it was the Archdemon of Lust, Lune. Your mind can tell you it wasn't your Vampire King, and sadly, you fell for his appearance."

Sloth touched his fingertips together, appearing like the evil mastermind he was. "Just admit he tricked you, and you will feel much better."

"Luxen knew how to manipulate a creature if he/she was in a haze of lust, most especially if the person couldn't distinguish fantasy and reality anymore." Sloth's lips curved slightly, and it wasn't amusement. "It's either you fucked Luxen, or you fucked Luxen, simple as that."

The world seemed to spin in slow motion.

Luna gripped the edge of the canoe and vomited.

Nothing came out but liquid she wouldn't dare look at.

Her stomach was tied into knots, and there was pain at the back of her throat.

Shoulders hunching over, Sloth had inched behind her back.

Sloth gathered her silver hair away from her face while she gagged into the dark waters with his fist.

Luna would like to think that Sloth helped her so that no dark souls would pull her hair while she was bent over, dragging her to the bottom to feast on her flesh.

She couldn't believe that the Archdemon had the nerve to still act like a gentleman after the shit he put her through.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Luna absently stared at the water.

No, she had no right to be furious against Sloth.

He wasn't the one who posed as her husband the night she was weak from the need to be closer to Apollyon.

Luna missed Apollyon so much.

Her vision became blurry from crying, and there was a tightness in her chests and limbs.

After dry heaving, she wiped the drool off her mouth and coughed, breathing hard.

She reclined to the cushions at the stern and closed her lids shut, lifting her elbow over her forehead to block everything out—including the crazy Archdemon in front of her.

Hands clenching into fists, Luna carried out more deep breaths, grounding herself to her current reality.

Luna thought that it was the Archdemon of Sloth who had gone off the deep end, but if some other people she would speak to were going to imply for the 'nth' time that she had sexual congress with Luxen then, she would jump off the canoe and die a slow death.

She would have prepared to be eaten alive by these dirty souls.

If Apollyon found out about this, she had no courage to face her husband again.

She wasn't stupid as the Archdemons think.

Wincing, putting two and two together.

Cold sweat trickled down her back, sending chills running down her spine.

She might have inadvertently fornicated with that bastard, Luxen, if she would admit to her sin, but that didn't change the fact that the real Apollyon still waited for her at the Vampire Realm.

The Archdemon of Lust had pretended he was Apollyon that night, and she was too stupid to let him have his way with her because she missed him so much, believing deep in her heart that it was her husband that had come to save her!

She had believed in her wish so hard that she refused to see the truth for what it was!

A rush of blood roared in her ears, and her jaw hurt from grinding them too much.

Luna couldn't even detect the glamour Luxen had used to pretend he was Apollyon.

He didn't even have to act that much, and she had bitten the bait: hook, line, and sinker.

Luna should have looked at him carefully and asked him many questions before she let him touch her.

Had she provoked the Archdemon of Lust to this deception because she had destroyed a wing?

As the world seemed to dissipate around her, Luna wallowed in her regret, rubbing at the pinpricks of invisible needles stabbing her in the chest.

Luna had refused to see it, to admit it.

Shaking her head as if that would get rid of this nightmare she was currently living, Luna had reacted in rage, acting out in ways that were unnatural for her--like breaking things and snapping at high-powered Archdemons.