“Nesryn,” Deimos’ voice cut through my peaceful sleep. “Nesryn, it’s time to wake up.”
He repeated this a few more times while gently shaking me until I cracked my eyes open looking at him. My eyes glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. Five AM.
“Would you like to tell me why I’m awake this early?” I said.
“Awakening time my rose,” Deimos said with a smile. “Put on whatever athletic gear you have.”
He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before stepping away from the bed. It took me another few minutes to get my brain functioning enough to drag myself out of bed. I stumbled my way into the closet and changed into leggings and a tank top while stuffing my feet into a pair of shoes. I sent a silent thank you out to Tinley. Without her, I wouldn’t own anything good for working out in, but she forced me to go running with her a few times so I had a few things on hand.
“Are you ready?” Deimos asked peaking his head into the closet.
I stepped out as I was putting my hair into a ponytail, “Ready.”
“We’ll be training in my personal training room in the basement so we won’t be disturbed at all.” He said as we walked.
“How long will we be training?”
“Until you’re awakened. No breaks.”
That made me a bit concerned. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but this made it seem like we were going to be down there all day. I didn’t ask any more questions though, I simply followed him down to the basement. When we walked down the stairs and entered the basement, I started studying our surroundings.
It was essentially a long hallway lined with doors. Each door had brand new number pads next to them and each door appeared to be made out of steel. They all seemed new and unused.
“Are these rooms new?” I asked.
“No, they’ve been here since the palace was built. They look new because we replace the number pads and doors frequently. The second they show any wear and tear, they’re replaced.” Deimos answered.
“Are they cells?”
“They are,” He nodded. “Anyone we need to personally interrogate or hold comes here instead of the prison.”
“Is there anyone here now?”
“No.”
I felt a bit more relieved. That was until we reached his training room. He punched in the code and led me inside.
“Do you think you’ll be able to awaken me today?” I asked.
“Majority awaken within the first hour of trying, I think you’ll be part of that group.”
“Then why are we up so early?”
“Precaution. Best case scenario, you get this done in ten minutes and you get to nap until breakfast.”
“And worst case we’ll be here all day.”
I hadn’t noticed, but as we were talking Deimos was rolling mats out onto the floor. There were training dummies against one wall, weapons along another, and then an entire wall of mirrors. A basic training room to my understanding.
“So...what exactly is the plan here?” I asked. We’d talked about it before, but I wanted specifics.
“The best method is to invoke fear. I can’t give you specifics because then you’d know what to expect.” Deimos stated. “Just stand in the center of the room.”
I did as he said. I felt unbalanced standing on the mats but I knew they meant that I wouldn’t be seriously injured. As I stood there, I watched him make his way over to the wall where the weapons were. That was enough to get my heart racing.
He plucked one of the throwing knives off the wall and without looking he threw it at me. It barely missed me and stuck itself in the wall behind me. My entire body froze terrified to move in case it put me in his path. He threw a few more knives, none of which hit me. My body started to relax a little thinking that he wasn’t going to hurt me.
As I settled into that mentality, he threw another knife. This one nicked my ear. I felt my eyes widen but before I could react, he threw another that nicked my arm. He kept going nicking areas of my body that weren’t covered by clothing. I felt myself backing up trying to put some distance between us, but it didn’t help. For every step I took back Deimos took one forward. I glanced behind me seeing that I was nearing the wall meaning I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.
Out of nowhere, he started yelling at me. I was too focused on the knives he was throwing and holding to pay attention to what he was saying. I took one more step back and felt my back lay flat against the wall. That was enough to get my mind buzzing with fear and adrenaline as my fight or flight response activated. I expected Deimos to notice and maybe give me a moment or stop so we could regroup. He didn’t.
Deimos pulled a dagger out and dug the tip into the center of my neck. His eyes were darker than usual and he had a dark look on his face that made me feel like he would actually harm me. Slowly, he dug the dagger into my skin. It didn’t take much pressure for a new wound to open up, but that didn’t stop him. He kept pushing it into my skin. That’s when something inside of me snapped and my brain took overall control over my body.
I brought my hand up to his chest and a dark pulse of energy shot out forcing Deimos across the room. It was enough to force him back to the center of the room and that’s all I wanted. My body didn’t want to stop there, however. I took large strides over to him prepared to attack him, but before I could he rushed me. I tried to react but he was too quick. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and forced me to the ground. He straddled my waist and pinned my arms above my head. I knew he had control over me, but I didn’t care. I struggled against him trying my best to get him off me.
“Nesryn, breathe.” He said gently. “Deep breaths.”
I was able to clear the fog in my mind enough to process what he was telling me. I took a few deep breaths and whatever snapped inside me retreated. Just under the surface, however, I felt something new there that I couldn’t quite describe. It was almost like someone else was inside my body.
“What...what’s happening?” I asked, still feeling a bit frightened.
“You feel her, don’t you? Your demon?”
“Is that was this is?” I asked. “It feels like there’s someone else sharing my body.”
“You’ve awakened. That’s the dark energy that comes along with being a demon. You’re still worked up so you feel it more than you would if you were calm.” Deimos answered. “You’re powerful.”
“So it’s the energy and not another person inside me?”
Deimos laughed a little, “You and your demon are one, my love. The same person. You’re just more powerful now.”
He got off me knowing that I wasn’t going to attack him again. Instead, he sat next to me and pulled me into his arms. It was then that I realized how drained I felt.
“Are we done?” I asked stifling a yawn.
“Yes my rose, we’re done for the day.”
“Is sleeping still an option?” I asked looking up at him.
Deimos nodded, a small smile dancing on his lips, “You’ve earned it.”
He scooped me off the ground as he stood up. I snuggled myself closed to his chest doing my best to stay awake at least until we got up to our bedroom.
“I’ll tend to your wounds while you sleep. They aren’t anything serious, but they should be cleaned properly.” Deimos said.
“Mmm.” Was all I could manage to get out.
He pressed a kiss to my forehead and it was after this that I felt myself drifting off to sleep. We hadn’t even made it out of the basement, but suddenly I didn’t care. I welcomed the dreamland with open arms and let it drag me down into its depths.
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