Chapter 32: THE MORNING OF A DEMON QUEEN (1)
Sunlight trickled into the room through a crack in the curtains. Arella lay on the bed, flat on her stomach, her wings covering her body slightly. She had kicked off the blanket that had been covering her body sometime after King Varziel had left. Her countenance was calm, and her breathing was even.
The position of the sun steadily moved, shedding a light onto the bed, moving up steadily and pouring into the room as the morning matured. The light brushed over Arella’s wings, casting soft shadows on the sheets beneath her. The feathers glimmered faintly, an iridescent sheen that seemed to shift with every breath she took.
Outside, the castle grounds stirred and hummed to life as demons awoke and went about their businesses. The muffled clang of swords in the training yard and the chatter of servants preparing for the day’s tasks filtered in through the stone walls. Despite this, the room remained peaceful for a long while.
Arella stirred after quite a while, her wings the first thing to wake and twitch, as if responding to the sunlight that crept up her back. Her eyes fluttered ever so slightly open. There were light red eyebags settled delicately beneath her eyes, giving her the look of a weak maiden. She blinked twice, her pupils adjusting to the brightness of the room. For a moment, she lay still, her gaze tracing the intricate patterns that were carved onto a small table that was next to the bed.
She realized that King Varziel had woken up already and left her alone some time ago. The faint imprint of his scent still lingered on the bed, smelling strongly of cedar and their actions the previous three nights. Her face flushed ever so slightly as she remembered their time together.
It had been a while since she had gotten so worn out from having sex. In fact, she could barely remember if she really had ever gotten so worn out before. Varziel had been rough, not painfully so, but in a way that made her realize that she had been missing out on what having sex could be like. Because she was an angel, when she had slept with a human once or twice, they had never been rough with her. Not to mention that the one or two angels she had slept with had been so painfully normal. No, she did not want to think about it.
She let out a soft sigh, her wings shifting slightly as she sat up slowly to rest on her haunches. The air in the room was cool but not uncomfortable. She brushed her fingers over some of the marks that littered the skin on her neck. "Is he a beast?" she muttered as she dragged herself off of the bed. She walked up to the mirror and looked at her naked form. Multiple bite marks were littered on her thighs, down her arms, and on the sides of her breasts. Not to mention the hickies.
Arella was almost sure that he had been using her as a canvas. "I was wrong; he has to be a dog." Her skin stung whenever her fingers touched the marks. Being an angel, she was sure that the marks would heal before long, so she was not worried about that in the least.
She ran a hand through her short and tousled locks, her fingertips catching a tangle on the soft curls. Although her face looked pale and there were eyebags forming underneath her eyes, she still looked pretty. She unfurled her wings slightly to stretch them out before folding them neatly against her back. Feathers floated slightly to the floor, glowing with an iridescent shimmer. She glanced down at them but made no move to pick them up.
Still nude, she crossed the room, approaching the small table she had been studying earlier. It held a pitcher of water and two glasses. Memories of being denied even water by King Varziel as he held the base of her wings tightly and rolled his hips against hers from behind filtered through her mind. She shook her head, poured the water, and tipped her head back. The cool liquid soothed the dryness in her throat and cooled the heat that had started to rise up.