*Chapter 3*

~Mateas~

》Never disturb a lady's beauty sleep.《

I bit my lip as I showed the torchlight to her eyes. I couldn't wait anymore. I wanted answers. She yelled as the light fell in her eyes, and swung her arms around. I gave a loud yelp, and fell over the edge of the bed.

"Hey! You're up!" She scowled at me as I said it, and then pulled the covers back over her head. I laughed at her.

She fell asleep in the cab yesterday, and I couldn't just leave her alone like that. There was no option but to bring her to the apartment. But I did notice something about her.

On her back, which was clearly shown due to the odd designing of her clothing, was a huge tattoo of wings. They were beautiful, and dark. Just who was this woman?

"Wake up! Wake up, wake up!" The sheets were yanked off of her again, and my eyes came in front of hers. She snarled, and curled my fingers in a fist. I barely had time to react as she struck it in my face.

"Ow! What was that for?" I landed on the ground with a thud again, and she pulled the covers up again. I groaned, rubbing at my poor nose.

"I was asleep!" She pushed the covers down while yelling, her hair falling all over my face. She pushed it to the side, and took a good look at me.

What she would see would be a marvelous sight. My eyes were a deep aqua, like she was staring into a deep freshwater pool. Black spiky hair stood up all over the place, even falling on my face. I had a nice face, with a soft tan color. I was beautiful and I knew it.

"I couldn't be patient anymore. Who are you?" I looked into her eyes, and I felt unnerved. There was something off about her. But what?

"Didn't I tell you that already? My name is Lyna." I stood up, and sat on the bed next to her. She moved away, and pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, I realized that. You aren't from... here. This kingdom, are you? Your clothing is different. Your accent is different. You have an odd vibe to you." I looked at her eyes as I said that. She nodded, and sighed.

"I'm not from here. Where is here anyway?" She looked around, realizing that she was in an apartment. My amazing apartment. My secret.

"This is the kingdom of Krocus." I said, my tone going slightly cold. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"And you're the prince. Let me guess. You're running away from being crowned king. Or maybe one of your 100 brothers is trying to kill you for the throne." I chuckled at that, and looked at her. She looked heavily disheveled. What was wrong?

"The first option was correct. I'm the only child. And I don't want to be king... not just yet." I looked down and smiled, and she nodded. Maybe she knew how it felt when you were given a sudden burden. Maybe she knew how it was when the world just couldn't understand you.

"What about you? How did you even get here?" My arm moved so that I could lean on it, and my face moved closer to hers. She narrowed her eyes at me, and moved back.

"I fell from the sky." She replied in a flat tone. I blinked at her, and wondered if I was supposed to laugh or actually believe it.

"That was a nice joke." I stated, trying to smile but ended up looking quite confused. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"It wasn't a joke. I fell from a portal in the sky. The last of my wings faded as I landed..." She looked back, maybe at her tattoos.

She had white hair. She had wings. She wasn't human. There was only one option.

"Wings? Are you... an angel?" I came even closer, and me eyes practically glowed. Maybe. She blinked at me, and then scowled.

"The opposite. I'm a devil. The Devil of Death." She looked angry, and I put my hands up. I must've insulted pretty badly by calling her an angel then. But how could someone so... soft be a devil?

"Whoa... your hair was white... so I just assumed-" She froze. I stopped talking, and stared at her. Why was she so shocked?

"My hair is black." She stated. I shook my head. How did she not know? Her hair was a light off white color, till the tips of her ears, where they began turning deep purple.

"No, it's white. It's short, and white, with deep purple tips." I found it odd that I had to describe what she looked like to herself. Her eyes narrowed, and she stood up. Her clothes did seem like one of a devil's, black and ripped. And very very short.

She walked right out of the room, and slammed a door open. I sighed, there went my poor precious doors. This was ridiculous.

A devil. Falling out of the sky. With wing tattoos. And white hair. And purple eyes. Who in the world was this? And why was she here?

Her scream interrupted my thinking. I stood up and bolted for where she was standing. She was staring at the mirror in horror, her eyes now a deep blackish purple. The tips of her hair was also the same color.

"Since when was my hair like this?" She whispered, and touched her hair. I bit my lip, unsure of how to react. Apparently her appearance changed when she didn't realize it. Only her eyebrows were an indication that she had black hair.

"Since I first saw you?" She turned back to me, her expression still stuck in a mask of horror. The flames in her eyes were clearly seen now, dim and dying. I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Oh..." She looked down, at her hands. Her skin wasn't tan. I had seen it wrong in the dim lights of the streets yesterday. She was a very light color, and far too skinny. Hadn't she been eating? Or taking care of herself?

"Hey. Let's get you something to eat." I put my hand on hers, and pulled her to the kitchen. She was weak. She didn't put up much a fight yesterday either. I could get answers later, I couldn't have her dying on my watch.

Could devils even die? Even if they couldn't, they deserved to be healthy. Not completely malnourished and half gone.

"I thought you said that we would part after leaving the city." She spoke up, and I realized that her tone had changed. I looked back at her, back at the bright amethyst flames.

"Did I say that? No, not anymore. Till death do us part." She stood still at that, and I looked at her confused.

"What if I am Death?" Her eyes began dimming again, and I took both of her hands in mine. I put my signature smirk on my face, and replied with all the charm possible.

"Till the end of forever then. Come on. Eat up." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and sat down the wooden chair.

Served for breakfast was biscuits and tea. Maybe not the best thing to get someone back in health, but those two were the only things which I knew wouldn't perish soon. And, I didn't know how to cook.

She looked at me, and then began sipping at her drink. I sat beside her, taking a biscuit in my hand, and opened the newspaper. She leaned closer to me, looking at the top of the paper, and went back to eating.

The news wasn't anything interesting, just market prices, the Winter Solstice sales, and oh look, my coronation. I guess by now everyone in the palace knew I was going, and the search had begun. Luckily, I was in a city a good 3 hours away from the capital, and in the suburbs. There were no chances of me being found.

"Are you eating enough?" I asked her, seeing that she had eaten only one biscuit. She nodded, and her hair fell on her right eye.

"Yeah. I don't need to eat anyway, it's just for the sake of satisfaction that I do."

"But you don't look healthy. What's wrong?"

"Look... um. How do I explain this? There's something in the air, called Ether. It's a pretty cool substance, and it can change its properties, depending on the user.

They can use the Ether to create any minor, like resin, electricity, light or darkness, and metal. They can both, create is and manipulate it. There are also the major elements, fire, earth, air and water.

We of the afterlife, both angels and devils, are made up of Ether. Our souls too. We use the Ether in the air, or the land, for our uses. And the Ether in each world is slightly different, which takes time to get used to.

I... I was in a void, for 4 years. A place of nothingness. In other terms, most of the Ether in me was gone, other than the energy to keep me existing. I probably look unhealthy because I don't have enough energy.

The tattoos you see on my back? Those are my wings. They become tattoos when I don't have enough Ether to use them. Is any of this making sense?" She sounded quite confused herself, and she scratched at her head. It was quite... adorable. Like a small child who couldn't explain their imagination.

"From what I understood, is that you've been in a place which completely drained you of the energy you need for your powers and wings. And that's why you look unhealthy." I said them like statements, and she nodded. I pursed my lips and nodded too.

"Wow. That seems amazing." She smiled a bit, and shrugged.

"You're an Ether user as well. Right?" I blinked at her blankly, wondering what she meant by that. I couldn't create fire or anything like that.

"No? I mean, no I can't create things." She narrowed her eyes slightly at me, and then tapped at my knuckles.

"You can summon blades. That requires Ether." Her touch was cold, and sent shivers down my spine. She needed to warm up. I looked at her in confusion.

"Really? Huh, then I guess I am an Ether user. But I can summon only one blade at a time." She raised an eyebrow at me, and took my hand in hers. It took everything I had to stay still and not blow on my hand. What was she? Ice? Why in the world was her touch so cold?

"But you have more energy than it takes to summon one small blade. You have some other powers as well." She stated, and let go of me. I simply stared at her. She could tell that just by holding my hand? I've held so many hands, and not even one knew that I had do something to with magic.

"How did you know?" I questioned, and she smiled at me. Her smile didn't reach her eyes, but it was still a nice one.

"Honey, I'm the devil of Death. I think that it'd be pretty easy to know that you have powers." I smirked at her, and she narrowed her eyes at me. Her company wasn't a planned one, but now it was something that I liked.

"How did you end up in the void in the first place?" I wondered. Her smile fell, and I regretted it instantly. Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, we can talk-"

"No. I think talking about it might lessen the pain. Hopefully. And there's also something else that's been bothering me..." I listened carefully as she started.

A devil's company wasn't so bad after all.

But little did I know then...

Little did I know.