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Everyday when I wake up there's one constant thought in my head ;

Can I kill someone and not get jailed?

This very morning I had the same thought. Just that today the person I wanted to kill was myself.

Now don't take it the wrong way. Not the suicide type of kill. Nah, my life is too precious. It's more of the 'bang my head for the stupidity I did' type of kill.

I shouldn't have told Zander about my having to choose between Layla and his mother. Infact, I shouldn't have told him anything.

Because now when we we're back to searching through the archives the very next morning after breakfast, he won't for the life of everything holy, stop pegging me with his horrendous amount of questions.

'You had a sister? I didn't know that.'

'Did Charlotte capture her and ask you to choose between my mother and her? I'd understand blood comes first.'

'What was her name? I still don't get why I haven't ever heard about her.'

As if you ever even came out of the Underworld before your mother's capturing to know what's going in the other kingdoms. Besides, Layla is a complicated topic. . .

Although I wanted to tell him to stop referring to my 'sister' in the past tense. But I didn't.

For most measure of time, I'd resorted to thoroughly ignoring him and focusing on reading through the boring book I'd picked up from the shelf.

The book was about shadows. Not shadow creatures exactly. Just the regular one. I had no idea why I was even reading it.

Or maybe I do.

I wanted to avoid Zander. Because now suddenly after what I told him yesterday, he thinks I might not particularly be the 'wrong' case here. He thinks that there's a possibility what I did was justifiable. Everything in his actions since today morning stated this.

He was highly wrong though. What I did, it wasn't right. I know that very well. But Zander didn't know the full truth.

Call me selfish—wait, I am selfish—but I actually prefer his annoying pegging than hatred filled gaze. And I'll try to brisk in this personality of devil incarnate while it lasts.

But right now, he's being overly annoying. Valerian would say serves me right since I'd annoyed him the same way his entire life. But Valerian can go live in a corn field for all I care.

"Fish." Zander calls out from where he's seated across me on the other side of the wooden table between us.

I focus my gaze on the first line of the book splayed open in front of me.

'Shadow is a dark area or shape produced by a body coming between rays of light and a surface.'

I stop my urge to roll my eyes. Bro, I know that. Please elaborate, will you?

"Fish." Devil incarnate calls out again, this time swishing a hand in front of my face.

I push away his hand and focus on the next line,

'Every living creature has a shadow, humans and supernaturals alike.'

Okay. I'm done with this bo-

"Marilla." Zander whispers.

I jerk back in my seat in fright at the sudden voice and breath fanning my ears. The seat in front of me where Zander had been sitting is empty now.

"What the-"

Before I can contemplate from the shock, I'm thrown into a much bigger terror as my chair stumbles backward due to my jerking, taking me along with it.

Oh, shit.

Just when I'm sure, the back of my head is going to bang against the flooring, a hand grabs hold of my arm in an attempt to pull me up. Which goes terribly wrong, by the way.

Because instead of pulling me upwards, the idiot of a man named Zander losses his own balance and quite literally starts falling on top of me.

I groan expecting the fall to be nothing short of brutal. But the next moment I know, a palm cups the back of my head. Darkness envelops and instead of my head hitting the hard ground, it lands on a soft mattress.

Zander still falls over me but before he could crumble me with his body, he flattens his hands on both sides of my head holding himself above me on the. . .bed?

I blink against the sudden dim lighting and once my vision clears from the blurriness, I glance around to realize that we're in Zander's room instead of the archives.

I'm laying with my back flattened against the bed and Zander's form is hovering over my body caging me between his arms.

He definitely did his teleportation abra dabra stuff again.

"Woah, that was chaotic." I hear devil incarnate mumble under his breath making me snap my eyes to him.

I intend to glower at him and give him a peice of sweet advice on how he caused this but the words catch in my throat as I look up at him. Actually look at him.

His midnight hair is messily falling over his forehead hooding his eyes. Today instead of the regular turtle neck tops he prefers to wear, he's wearing a black shirt with the top two or three buttons undone which lets you a perfect peek of the hard ridges of his chest.

When I avert my eyes upto to his face, I see him pull his lower lip between his teeth before letting it go. I feel a strange shiver runs down my spine at the action. He does that very often but why am finding it disturbing right now?

Why does all this feel so precarious? Me in his room. Him hovering over my body. The position we're in isn't helping at all.

Ugh, woman, get your facts together! He still hates you! You still hate him!

Abiding to my own advice, I flick my eyes up to devil incarnate only to find him already staring down at me.

A slow smirk pulls on those wet lips, "Like what you see, fish?"

Yes, very.

Shut up, Marilla!

"I've seen better." I snort, "Now get off."

My palms flatten over his chest to push him away but it turns out to be a huge mistake. Because not only does he not budge an inch but also since I feel just how amazingly hard those muscles are. I can feel the soft rhythm of his heart drumming under my palm as well.

Ignoring the strange giddiness, I pass him a glower, "Get off me."

Zander's grey eyes remains hooded by those thick dark locks falling over his forehead but through them, he accesses my face in a slow sweep, "No. Not until you answer my question, fish."

"Are you kidding me, devil incarnate?!" I snap trying to ward away the wall of a man.

One arm that was resting at the left side of my head lifts and grabs hold of my hand pushing at his chest, successfully stopping my hitting-his-chest-parade. Tingles shoot through my skin at the touch but I focus my attention on my annoyance over him.

"How did your sister. . .die?" His voice is surprisingly tender, so is his gaze.

Something about it makes my urge to strangle him reduce a fraction of a bit. Just a fraction, alright.

Trying to shashay away the irritation of being held, my eyes meet his grey ones, "When did I say she's dead? She's very much alive." For the first time, my tone isn't filled with malice while talking to him. It more of matter-of-factly.

Zander's brows furrow in confusion, "She's alive? Then where's she now?"

The question has a frown growing on my face, "That's none of your concern. Get off me. I'm asking you nicely, otherwise-"

His confused eyes now turn hard but unlike the other times when it had been filled with venom, this time it's more of a mischievous challenging emotion in those orbs.

"Otherwise what, fish?" His lets go of my hands to rest both of his arms back on either of my head.

"Does it bother you when I'm close to you, Marilla?" He leans in just a bit that his face is inches away from mine, "Is that why you want me off so desperately? Because it makes you all hot and bothered?"

My traitor of a heart thuds the teeny veeniest bit at the sensuality coating his words. Those cursed bedroom eyes aren't of the least help and lets not mention his face which suddenly seems suddenly stupidly sexy. Also my perverted self who's always-

Sexy? Pervert? Damn, Marilla, where's your brain cells at?!

As Zander stares with a smug look on his face, my fury pulsates to another level.

In my childish angst, I wanted to scratch away the look from his face. But I knew I couldn't ward him off so easily unless. . .

A cunning smile pulls at my lips. Right, let's do what sirens are good at.

I slide my hands resting against his chest upwards feeling the muscles twitching underneath my palm.

Zander stares in complete confuzzlement as I twine both of my hands around his neck.

"What are you-"

"I want you to get off me, Zander." Raising my body a bit from the bed, I inch my face deathly close to his until we're almost sharing the same breath, "Love, won't you let me go to my happy hallow? Won't you let me be? Won't you back out?" The melancholic melody of the siren's song sings through me.

Zander's whole form freezes and he stares at me seeming in a haze. It's hard to enchant a royal with a siren's song but it's not impossible. Siren's song is almost like a compulsion. People are tempted to do what we ask of them. The only difference is, people don't remember anything after being compulsed. But with siren's song, they have the inkling of what's happening or what they're doing but they're too into the enchantment of the song to make sense of it.

And that just proves more and more right as I see Zander's resolute to keep me caged crumble little by little as I keep singing the same chords.

He still seems to be in a daze as he starts inching away and getting off me. My smirk grows when he's completely detached from my being.

Getting off from the bed to stand up myself, I stop singing and straighten my stupid dress.

Fixing the mess my hair had become, I glance towards Zander only to almost let out a laugh at how dumbfounded he looked. He almost looked cute. Emphasis on 'ALMOST' please.

"You did some crazy siren stuff, didn't you?" He mumbles under his breath, "I feel too dumb to process anything right now."

The smug look he'd portrayed minutes ago now tugs at my lips full blown, "Correction : You were already dumb, devil incarnate. Should've thought better than to cave me in."

And then before he could speak a word, I whisk towards the door and outside the room in a flash.

All the while my heart thudded like a cursed engine.

I did not just almost seduce Zander Hellion. I did not. Certainly not.

What in the moonkeyland was wrong with me?!

My college began and I've been busy with the classes lately so sorry for the tardy update. I'll try my best to be more frequent🤧

Where do you think Layla is? Any guesses?

How did you like the chapter?