Hell's Consort

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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Luna enjoyed her time with Apollyon as they talked about anything that came to her mind in the gazebo, and she could also see that her husband enjoyed her company.

Apollyon never lost his smile or took his eyes off her as he cradled his head with a hand while his elbow leaned on the table.

Whenever she got conscious of Apollyon's undivided attention, she felt this sweet adrenaline rush bubbling deep in her heart similar to how one got intoxicated by overwhelming ecstasy under this summer sunshine, the warm breeze caressing against their skin and the pleasant scent of flowers surrounding the gazebo.

If they weren't expecting a visitor right now, Apollyon might have hauled her lazy buttocks to the second level and make love to her there.

This hedge maze was a lover's paradise.

Apollyon and Luna surveyed the entire gazebo and never missed the second floor.

As they climbed upstairs, they realized that the gazebo's upper level would serve as a royal observatory for simple astronomy—timekeeping, determining star and planet positions.

Apollyon told her that those weren't the only purpose of the observatory.

Judging from the dark red mattress, silk coverlets, and cushions strategically placed near the telescopes, he knew the location wasn't only for romantic stargazing or weather forecast.

It was a place for a private romantic endeavour between lovers.

She noticed herself giggling from Apollyon's ridiculous antics, feeling alive again every time they kissed and every time he got a chance to steal one from her.

They roamed around the second floor for half an hour, breathing in the fresh air as they listened to birds chirping.

The sun's rays turned brighter and hotter than she could feel them scorching the expanse of her skin.

Over a period of time, the summer day became unbearable as they observed the entirety of the hedge maze.

Squinting, Luna saw someone approaching the gazebo.

She expected four other Summer Monarchs to meet them since they were seven chairs pulled back from the circular table. Still, there was only one person, gathering the voluminous skirts of her blue gown and walking towards flights of stairs—rich with an elegance that only a Monarch can pull off.

She oversaw her steps with her head bowed down, and not once did she glanced upwards to see them hang around the second floor.

The lady's bright auburn hair covered her face, so she couldn't tell who it was.

When she turned her head towards her husband, Apollyon's reaction was enough.

Luna somehow knew that it was his mother.

Apollyon tugged at her wrist so that they would descend downstairs together because his mother, Empress Ourania, had arrived.

And she hadn't brought anyone aside from herself, which was strange.

What was going on?

Frown lines marred her forehead.

Where was Apollyon's grandfather, who his sister claimed about wanting to meet him, then?

Was that a jest?

The silence was filled with tension at the round table as their lips were pinched in a tight line while Empress Ourania sat across them, rooted to her spot.

There was no love lost between mother and son.

It was cold in the gazebo in the midst of a hot summer.

Detached.

These two people might as well be strangers.

As minutes passed by, it seemed like no one planned to initiate a conversation first.

Nobody dared to open their mouth and make even a tiny sound, but their limbs moved despite this.

Luna tapped her fingers rapidly on the wooden surface while her husband's foot tapped up and down on the smooth marble with impatience.

Arms crossed, Empress Ourania stared at them with wide blue eyes without really seeing them.

Her beautiful mature face was as white and pallid as the small silver tiara with the shape of the crescent moon she wore.

"My child." Finally, Empress Ourania spoke up, yet her voice was soft and trembling from heartbreak, "First and foremost, I would like to talk about the past and I want to hear some of your adventures."

Despite her unwarranted fears of the so many ways this conversation going downhill, Luna could see the interest and longing in his mother's countenance to hear what Apollyon had been up to and what he had become.

"I could tell you a lot of our adventures ever since you left me out in the cold, Empress Ourania, but there was no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then." Apollyon said with icy bluntness. "You don't have to treat me as your son. I have a brand new identity now after your abandonment." He tilted his head and smirked, "One you don't need to know better."

There was a flash of agony and hurt in her Prussian Blue eyes before her expression shuttered.

Empress Ourania desired for him to share so she could be entertained and, perhaps, get to know them a little better.

Luna would have loved to share her story to his mother too—how she came from the Sacred Valley as an Amazon and turned into a High Priestess to save the Vampire King who became the Empress of the Vampire Realm, later on.

Anything as long as she could revive this dead conversation.

Relieving the past was no good, and that wouldn't help Apollyon's mother from knowing her son.

Even Luna figured out her husband had changed too much that he was unrecognizable.

It was time to move forward.

"Empress Ourania." Snaking an arm against Apollyon, who sat beside her, Luna attempted to diffuse the situation. "The history is not a way to establish a connection with my husband. He was a different man now."

Apollyon couldn't heal from his mother's abandonment if they kept reopening the wound, taking a trip down the memory lane, instead of leaving it be until it healed into nothing but a scar.

Empress Ourania's gaze shifted from Apollyon to hers.

Tiny hairs lifted on her nape and arms when her lips curled in resentment.

At her.

But why was she angry at Luna?

What did she do?

Empress Ourania was the one who had issues with her son.

Not her!

Was it wrong for her to be the mediator as Apollyon's wife?

There was a tightness in Empress Ourania's expression when she lowered her voice. "I would have preferred if I talk  to my son privately, Lady."

"I am not your son, Empress Ourania." The muscles around his arm tensed as Apollyon bared his teeth, nostrils flaring. "You are just a mere princess from the Summer Courts who gave birth to me."

"Apollyon!" Luna whisper-shouted.

There was no need to be combative so early in the morning.

The Empress wasn't the enemy.

"—and my wife stays here with me. What you say wouldn't matter whether or not she was with me." Apollyon went on heatedly as if it was a grave insult for his mother even to suggest that. "No amount of conversations can change my view of  you, mother."

Gasping, Empress Ourania covered her mouth in shock. "I—"

Her eyes appeared damp and overly bright, as if she was about to cry.

As if on cue, tears rolled down her cheeks, and she wiped them away with grace.

That was the first time today that Apollyon called her 'mother,' but the word was spat and laced with venom.

"—and don't  you call my wife a lady. She has a name." Apollyon's gaze was hard, but the deep timbre of his voice was devoid of aggression. "I am the current Vampire King and this is my wife, Empress Luna."

"I apologize for my errors." Empress Ourania said. "Vampire King. Empress Luna."

Apollyon jutted his chin in smug arrogance, satisfied that he put his mother in her place.

Luna hated this dark side of Apollyon, who took pleasure in hurting other people so that he could feel better.

His malicious traits began to break free from the surface of his subconscious, and his mother was the trigger.

Luna raised both of her hands levelled to her chest in a gesture to calm them down, and began, "Erase your prejudices against each other, Empress Ourania. Apollyon. We should start anew without having arguments of where this relationship went wrong." Apollyon and his mother should focus on creating new memories and share recent experiences instead of throwing barbs at each other. The past will not leave a powerful impact on each other compared to the present. "Let's keep everything civil."

"I also want to create a blank slate for me and  you, Apollyon." Empress Ourania gave Apollyon a pained stare as wrinkles bunched around her gorgeous blue eyes. "—but it felt like you aren't interested in establishing a brand new connection with me as your mother."

"We should stop living in the past. Stop musing over what once was and forever speaking about it." Apollyon said grimly.

"It was you who is constantly referring to the past, my son." Empress Ourania told Apollyon sadly. "Not me. Your memories of me are overriding the present conversation and I couldn't do anything about it." She wrung her hands as her shoulders curled over her chest. "You abhorred me because in your eyes I was a bad mother. When all I did was protect you from your father's ire."

Empress Ourania'a arm was outstretched as she reached for Luna's hand. "You must help me make my son understand, Empress Luna."

"Don't believe her, wife. This was all an act." Apollyon's blue eyes were now tainted by a darkness she couldn't explain.  "Don't let that woman brainwash you."

It was the watchful eyes of a predator aimed at his own mother.

"Apollyon."

"You are the one who never left me. So she will try hard to steal you away from me, persuade you that the fallout wasn't her fault. Her goal was to make me suffer like my father, King Gwythyr, did to her from the start. She think I was an extension of him." Apollyon spat as he pulled Luna's hand away from her mother's reach. "That I would make her suffer as well. She didn't really love me. She desired to take a revenge on my father. Unfortunately, he was dead before she could even do that."

"Apollyon." Luna pointed out gently as she rested a hand on his thigh. "You must stop accusing your mother with things you can't prove."

Luna saw a sudden flash of light which almost blinded her.

She closed her eyes in hopes of getting rid of it but still, lightning-sparked behind her closed lids. When she opened her eyes wide, Luna flinched when she began to see colours and energy fields forming shapes around beings, especially Apollyon's mother.

She can glimpse them so clearly and crystal that she felt she was losing her mind.