Chapter 11

Niris awoke to the sun's rays. Slightly ajar, the curtains let the warm rays of the sunshine into the angel's room. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat up, leaning on his elbows. He looked around the room with his tired eyes, his mind still foggy. The sheets fell over his bare chest and the cold air on his skin made him shiver.

He then turned his head to the side of his bed to find it empty. A little more alert after recalling the events of the night before, he glanced at his bedside table and found a handwritten note. He grabbed it and recognized the demon's handwriting:

"I must escape early this morning to attend to my daily duties and not arouse suspicion. Meet me in my office tonight after ten o'clock, we must work out the details of our plan of action. Eviris will pick you up at your flat and bring you through the underground".

And it was signed A demon who longs for you every second. The angel smiled, "Who still leaves handwritten notes when we all have dematerialized chips to communicate remotely?" he thought, shaking his head. But he couldn't help but find the demon's antiquated habit of touching. A written note was far more romantic than a message sent by IMI.

He put the paper back on the table and stretched. Getting up, he grabbed a shirt that was lying on the floor and quickly put it on to hide his naked body. He went into the bathroom to wash and stopped in front of the mirror. With his hands on the sink, he looked at himself for a moment. His dishevelled hair and half-open eyes made him look like an angel fallen from heaven.

He ran his hand over his face. Somehow the image he saw of himself was different. He couldn't say what, but he felt he was seeing a different man in the mirror this morning. Something had changed. Something in him that he didn't even understand himself.

Slowly, he moved his hand down his cheek, letting his fingers run over his half-open mouth, rolling over his full lips, before moving down his neck, then over his shoulders. With very slow movements, he ran his hand over her upper body as if discovering it for the first time. As he did so, he awakened the sensation that the demon's hands had left in him when touching his body. He shivered.

The memory of last night made his hand tighten on his skin. He leaned his head forward, his cheeks flushed with the memory of the emotions that had invaded him. Finally recovering, he raised his head and inspected himself again. His face seemed less childish, his shoulders broader than he was used to seeing them. He who hated his thin and delicate physiognomy which gave him a fragile air appreciated the vision he had before him. An adult angel, with a well-trained build despite his small size and fine features. His face, which he found too young for his taste, had the features of an adult in his eyes.

The angel before him seemed different because he saw himself differently. He was still the same physically, and yet the vision he had of himself was different, giving him this strange feeling of being out of step with reality as if he were looking at the reflection of an inhabitant of another world while examining himself in front of a mirror. Running his hand over his body, he had reconnected with this body that felt alien to him, but which was indeed his own.

Finally straightening up, he undid his shirt and stepped into the shower. The trickle of warm water over his skin soothed him immediately and he savoured the moment as he closed his eyes.

After basking in the shower for a good fifteen minutes, he emerged from the bathroom more relaxed than ever. Then he saw a pile of clean clothes folded neatly on the bench next to the entrance to the shower room. Looking up, he noticed Inja facing the window of his room with her back to him.

"Hello Inja, I didn't even hear you come in," he said, undoing the towel he had tied around his waist to put on his underwear.

"Good morning your highness," the guard replied coolly. "You are quite relaxed for a spy in enemy territory," she remarked.

The prince smiled. He knew exactly what to expect from the guard. He pulled on his trousers and tied his belt before answering.

"After all that happened yesterday, I deserve a little break, don't I? I almost died after all..."

He was tying a gold-faced watch around his wrist when the guard approached him with a threatening look.

"You're the only one who's laughing about it!" she suddenly snapped. "You told me to trust you, I left you with her without doing anything, but look where that got us! You almost lost your life! And all you can think about is playing lover with a demon!"

Niris had only seen the guard lose his temper twice in his short life. Today was the third time. He could read in her tone and look all the anxiety, almost fear, that she had felt during the episode with the Amadean princess. Seeing these emotions flare in the eyes of his guard, Niris felt his throat tighten.

"Inja... I told you to trust me because I knew I could resort to forced lethargy! I knew I was safe in the worst-case scenario, there is no way Yousmaïl Namar would know about this procedure!"

"Even so! It was madness to leave you alone with her! I should never have..."

"I am on an undercover mission! I can't act without taking risks, it's impossible! And I intend to complete my mission no matter what!" he cut her off.

"I'm not taking the risk of losing you, Niris! I couldn't face your father if that happened, let alone your mother!" The guard started again, unable to hold back the emotion that was choking her any longer. "We've already lost her to the demons, I won't let them kill her son too!"

"She wasn't killed by demons, it was an accident! If I hadn't been disobedient back then and do what I did she would have been able to defend herself and you know that!" Niris corrected, feeling the emotion rising inside him as well. "Don't make this event more tragic than it already is! And don't create unnecessary hatred for the demons! I refuse to let you make that kind of speech about my mother's death!"

Anger had overtaken confusion. The angel was fighting not to lose control, but he was close to letting go. Of all the things he couldn't stand, the political use of his mother's death was one of the things he could least accept. He knew that Inja had been very close to her before he was born because she had been assigned to protect her, and the pain that her death had caused had stayed with her. But if the angels had accepted this unfortunate event as an accident and had not added this fact to the edifice of reproaches they had against the demons, certain members of the government and dignitaries of the palace had kept this fact against them and made it a political banner that justified the refusal to establish peaceful relationships with Ornikarn.

Niris rejected this narrative forcefully. He had seen his mother die before his eyes, and although the event had been traumatic, he knew that all these fabricated stories were just a way of highlighting the pain that these people had felt at the loss of their beloved empress.

And if this discourse, fortunately, had no hold on the angelic people and only gathered a handful of nostalgics of the deceased, Niris had not thought for a moment that he would have to confront his guard on this subject. The fact that she had volunteered for this mission was proof to him that she was ready to draw a line under this past that she found difficult to accept. When he realised that he had been wrong on this point, Niris realised that the angel could just as well be an obstacle to his objective. Her conflation of demons with the murderous slavers, most of whom he had always fought against, would prevent the guard from accepting his decision.

"Inja, listen to me," he said, controlling his anger as best he could. "I understand that as a guard you don't trust the demons here and that you place my safety above all else. But I will not let you interfere with my personal choices! If I want to give my life to someone or for a cause, that is my choice! Your role is only to protect me from enemies who try to take my life. But if I am the one who agrees to give my life for one reason or another, then there is nothing you can do about it. And I want you to accept that fact, no matter what!"

The guard pressed his lips together in frustration. Her eyes bellowed at the air around her with a violence she could hardly contain.

"If your mother knew that you had fallen in love with a demon, she would be turning in her grave!"

"My mother was open-minded! She would never have stopped me from loving anyone!" Niris retorted, shaking with anger. "Do not speak for her, you have no right to do so!"

For a moment, the two angels silently confronted each other. Trying to hold back words that might hurt the other forever, they fought an invisible battle both internally and with each other. Finally breaking the tension that had reached its peak, Inja looked away and gave in.

"I won't stand in the way of your choices, as you say they are yours even if I don't agree with them. On the other hand, if I see that the situation you find yourself in is not within the scope of your mission and that you are exposing yourself to excessive and unnecessary danger, I will send you back to Egea immediately!"

Niris was about to reply when she cut him off with a raised voice.

"Don't forget that the angels have elected you to the position of Crown Prince! Even though the empire is no longer hereditary and that gives you no political power as such and it is only a title, you owe them. I can't just take your lifeless body back to them without any explanation! You can do what you like once you get to Egea, love who you like, and date who you like, but as long as you are on your mission on Ornikarn, you are my responsibility. Me alive, I will not let you lose your life under my protection!"

She punctuated her sentence with a look straight into the prince's eyes. Her grey gaze seemed ablaze with a glittering will. The angel bit his cheek, unable to respond to her statement. He knew she was right. And he hated the thought.

"Now get ready, your father wants to talk to you via hologram. The call will start in ten minutes. I'll be outside your door if you need me."

With that, she turned on her heels and walked out, leaving a lonely Niris to face himself. He was comforted by the idea of seeing his father via hologram, but he felt devastated by his confrontation with Niris. Tired of all the morning commotion, he fell backward onto his bed. An uncontrollable feel of despair came over him, and he ran his hands over his face in an attempt to regain composure. He had to no worry his father for useless things.