A Deal With The Devil

Kaelia

“Hahahaha.”

A raw, grating laugh tore its way out of my throat. It was a broken sound, echoing across the silent courtyard and bouncing off the high stone walls. The heavy tension in the air shattered. The armed guards froze in their tracks. Caius stiffened, his green eyes widening in pure shock. Even Giselle stopped her pathetic weeping, her gaze locking onto me as if she were staring at a ghost.

I supposed I already was one.

Before anyone could blink, I lunged. I moved with the erratic, terrifying speed of a wounded beast cornered with nothing left to lose. The gravel crunched under my boots. I snatched Giselle by the neck, my fingers clamping down hard against her delicate windpipe. I yanked her treacherous body back against my own bleeding form. The sharp, cold edge of my blade met her pale, unblemished skin.

“Ah! What are you doing?! Let go of me!” Giselle shrieked, her voice pitching into a hysterical squeal. She clawed at my wrist, her manicured nails digging into my skin.

I did not answer. Instead, I tightened my grip, pressing the steel harder against her neck until a thin, bright red line of blood beaded across her pristine throat.

“Kaelia!” Caius barked, his voice booming across the courtyard. The air vibrated with the sheer force of his Alpha command. “Let her go this instant!”

The magical compulsion of his tone washed over me, heavy and demanding. In the past, that voice would have brought me to my knees. It would have forced my wolf into submission. But Nyla was dying. Our bond was shattered. The compulsion slid right off my shoulders, powerless against a woman whose soul was already half-severed.

I laughed again, the sound dark and hollow.

“Keep your mouth shut!” I screamed back at him.

Shock flashed across Caius’s handsome face. He had expected me to fold. He had expected me to cower and obey his command like a good, loyal soldier. Defying him so openly, so brazenly in front of his men, was something he never saw coming.

Giselle trembled in my hold. Her back was pressed tight against my chest, and I could feel the erratic thumping of her heart. “W-what is wrong with you, Kaelia?” she stammered, tears spilling down her cheeks. “You’re scaring me. Stop this.”

Her trembling, her pathetic tears, her sheer hypocrisy—it all fueled the raging inferno in my veins. My manic laughter bubbled up again. I tilted her head back, exposing her throat further to the blade.

“I’m scaring you?” My voice cracked, raw with agony and fury. “I’m scaring you?! Do you have any idea how I have spent my entire life? I have been terrified! Terrified of dying. Terrified of failing this pack. I have faced death on the battlefield more times than you can count. And when I finally drag myself back home, having escaped fate itself, what do I find?”

I pressed my lips near her ear, my breathing ragged. “I find my sister. I find my mate. The two people I trusted most in this world, conspiring to murder me.”

I leaned my weight into her, hissing my next words so both she and Caius could hear. “So tell me, Giselle. Tell me right now. Between the two of us, which one is more frightening? The two-faced bitch who smiles like an angel while she cowardly stabs her own twin in the back? Or the crazy bitch holding the knife who has absolutely nothing left to lose?”

I slid the blade just a fraction of an inch deeper. The red line widened. Blood trickled down her pale neck, staining the collar of her extravagant dress.

“Ah!” Giselle screamed, thrashing wildly against my grip. “Caius! Help me! She’s really going to kill me! Do something!”

Panic finally broke through Caius’s cold, calculated facade. He took a hesitant step forward, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

“Relax, stop moving, or you’ll only make the cut worse,” Caius urged her, though his eyes never left mine. “She won’t hurt you, Giselle. I know her.”

“O-okay…” Giselle whimpered, though his words failed to soothe her. She could feel the erratic pounding of my chest. She could feel the lethal intent radiating from my bones.

Caius turned his desperate gaze back to me, attempting to reason with a dead woman. “That’s enough, Kaelia. I know you are angry. But you are rational. You are not the type of person to do something this foolish. I never said I would kill you. You can still be forgiven. Just drop the weapon. Let her go.”

He gestured to the perimeter of the courtyard. “All my men have their arrows trained on you. I could order them to shoot without a single arrow grazing Giselle. So end this yourself. Put the blade down.”

I stared at him. My chest heaved. My hand held steady against Giselle’s throat.

I scoffed, a bitter, twisted sound. “You think I am scared of death? No, Caius. You are wrong. Death and I are intimate, old friends. Your men can shoot if they want. I just survived a deadly ambush of arrows out there in the woods. None of your threats scare me. I am not afraid of dying.”

My grip tightened on the hilt of the dagger. “But I swear to you on my life, I will drag someone down to hell with me.”

I braced myself, ready to slice open the throat of the sister who had ruined me. But my body betrayed me. The poison surging through my veins flared, causing my muscles to spasm. A split second of physical hesitation gripped my arm.

Giselle felt the slip. Seizing the opening, she threw her weight backward and rammed her sharp elbow directly into my open, untreated battlefield wound.

Blinding, excruciating agony exploded through my ribs. The world flashed white. My breath was punched from my lungs, and my knees buckled instantly.

I groaned, dropping to the blood-stained stone.

Giselle tore herself free from my weakened grip. She stumbled forward, crying hysterically, and threw herself safely into Caius’s protective arms.

“Are you okay, Giselle?” Caius demanded, his voice thick with frantic concern. His large hands roamed over her face and shoulders, checking her for injuries as if she were made of fragile glass.

She panted dramatically, clutching the fabric of his shirt. “I—I’m fine. That was close… she was really going to kill me, Caius.”

Caius wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against his chest. He turned his head and glared down at me. Pure, unadulterated disgust burned fiercely in his green eyes.

“You are insane, Kaelia,” he spat, the venom in his voice a stark contrast to the gentle way he held my sister. “I will have you punished for this. If Giselle had lost her child because of your actions today, I would have made sure you regretted drawing breath.”

I froze. The agony in my side faded into a dull, distant hum.

Her child?

My gaze drifted downward, locking onto the spot where Giselle’s hands rested protectively over her flat stomach. Slowly, the horrific realization clicked into place. My eyes lifted, meeting both of theirs. They stood there, united. They did not flinch. They did not look away. They just stared back at me, waiting for me to break.

Giselle was carrying Caius’s child.

My mate and my twin sister had created life, all while plotting my death. This was the final, crushing blow to whatever shredded remnants of sanity I had left.

A hollow, broken laugh bubbled in the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me weep. Ignoring the agonizing fire tearing through my failing physical form, I planted my hands on the stones and forced my broken body to stand upright. My fresh blood dripped steadily onto the ground beneath my boots, pooling in the cracks of the courtyard.

I stood tall. I squared my shoulders. I looked at the monsters who had stolen my life.

“You know what?” My voice came out hauntingly calm. The silence in the courtyard amplified every syllable. “I don’t even blame you anymore. I blame myself. I blame myself for being so blind, so stupid. For foolishly wasting my precious love and my profound loyalty on monsters.”

They exchanged a confused glance, clearly unnerved by my sudden shift in demeanor. They had expected rage. They had expected begging.

I offered them a calm, broken smile.

“If I were ever given another chance, Caius. Giselle. I would make sure to become your worst nightmare,” I promised, my voice echoing with an eerie finality. “I would take everything from you. I would make your lives as miserable as you have made mine. I would strip you bare until you had nothing left. And most of all, I would make sure you never have the one thing you truly crave.”

I lifted my chin, staring right into Caius’s soul.

“I, Kaelia Ashwood, promise you this: if I must make a deal with the devil himself, I will haunt you for the rest of your lives.”

As if the universe itself validated my curse, the sky above us rumbled. Thunder cracked violently across the heavens, an unnatural, deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the castle. The guards flinched, gripping their weapons tighter. Caius’s face twitched as thick, black clouds blotted out the sun.

The Moon Goddess had heard my vow. And so had the devil.

“And to answer your rejection, Caius…” I whispered. My eyes locked onto his, holding his gaze captive. “I hope this answer is to your satisfaction.”

Before Caius could process my words, before any guard could notch an arrow or step forward to stop me, I flipped the dagger in my hand and gripped the hilt with both hands.

Caius’s eyes went wide. The realization of what I was about to do finally hit him. “Kaelia—!”

He lunged forward, reaching out to stop me. But he was too late. I was faster.

With all the fading strength left in my arms, I forcefully drove my own blade deep into my chest. The metal pierced through flesh, sliding between my ribs and sinking straight toward my heart. I would not let the poison take me. I would not let them watch me wither away in a dungeon. I denied them the satisfaction of my slow death.

I gasped as the blade hit home.

Instantly, the chaotic world around me faded into absolute silence. My knees hit the stone. My head dropped forward. Warm, dark blood poured from my chest, splashing onto the ground in a heavy, rhythmic beat. My vision blurred, the edges of the courtyard turning gray and fuzzy. I saw Caius and Giselle frozen in place, their faces pale masks of shock. Their lips were moving, shouting words I could no longer hear. The sound was swallowed by the roaring rush of blood in my ears.

The physical world slipped away, and I drifted into the quiet, dark space of my mind.

‘Nyla…’ I called out inwardly, searching the desolate mental landscape for my wolf. ‘Are you here?’

For a long, agonizing moment, there was only heavy silence. Then, a weak, flickering presence brushed against my soul.

‘Yes, Kaelia,’ Nyla answered, her voice a fragile whisper. ‘I’m here. I have always been here. Every time you die, I die with you. I am here with you on your final day.’

A shaky smile curved my real lips. Tears slid down my cheeks, mixing with the blood on my face.

‘I’m sorry,’ I told her, my heart aching with a profound, crushing guilt. ‘I’m sorry for being so stupid. For failing to protect us both. For not protecting you.’

Her presence felt warm, like a dying ember fading into the dark. ‘It is okay, Kaelia.’

My physical strength was rapidly draining away. The numbness claimed my limbs, inching up my spine. My breaths grew shallow and weak. But in the final moments before the void took me, I sent a desperate, pleading prayer up to the heavens.

Moon Goddess, I don’t know if you can hear me. But if you are listening, please. Give me one more chance. I don’t want to die unfairly. I don’t want to die betrayed again.

The darkness pressed in on all sides, suffocating and heavy.

Give me a chance to be reborn. Give me a chance for brutal revenge. But this time, let me remember my past early. Do not let me stumble in the dark again. Do not let me die without knowing who my enemies truly are. Please. I beg you. Give me a tenth life.

Thunder rolled through the sky one last time, rattling my bones before everything abruptly went dark.

****

I jolted awake, choking.

I couldn’t breathe. Something heavy and freezing was forcefully dragging me down, pulling me deeper and deeper into an endless, icy abyss. Water filled my nose and throat. My chest burned with the primal, panicked need for oxygen. I tried to open my eyes, but the stinging water forced them wide, blurring the chaotic world around me.

So this was it.

I was in hell.

My grandmother’s words echoed in my mind. “When people die, child, their sins follow them. Everyone has their own hell waiting for them.”

Was this suffocating abyss my punishment? Had the Moon Goddess ignored my desperate plea? I was not given a tenth life. The ninth really was my last.

A bitter laugh bubbled up in my throat, instantly swallowed by the freezing water. My limbs felt sluggish and heavy, so I stopped fighting the current. I had wanted to make those traitors pay, but fate had denied me.

But if this was hell, why did the freezing temperature feel so real? Why was my brain screaming at me to kick my legs and swim?

“Miss Kaelia!”

A muffled, panicked voice breached the surface tension.

“Miss Kaelia!”

What was going on?

I jerked my head back, my blurred vision catching a distorted shape above the surface. Someone was screaming my name. The realization hit me with shocking clarity. I wasn’t in some endless void of the afterlife. I was drowning in a river.

My memory instantly clicked into place. I knew this scene. It was exactly eight years ago.

I snapped my head to the side. Beside me in the freezing water, a much younger Giselle was dramatically thrashing about, her arms slapping the surface as she screamed for help.

Right on cue, following the exact script of my forgotten past, a heavy splash echoed above. My older brother, Vane, jumped into the river. He swam with powerful strokes, his eyes locked solely on Giselle. He brutally brushed right past me, his arm knocking into my shoulder, prioritizing lifting our precious sister to safety. He callously left me behind to sink and drown.

I watched him pull her up, my heart feeling nothing but cold indifference. It was exactly the same.

A moment later, a second splash hit the water.

My second brother, Torin, dove in. Through the murky water, I watched him swim downward. My mind coldly analyzed his actions. Torin was not coming to save a sister he loved. He was only coming for me because they still required a Moonborn to exploit. He needed me alive to serve as their shield.

A fierce, predatory smile curled my lips beneath the water.

The Goddess had answered my prayer. She had actually sent me back. And this time, I retained every single agonizing memory of my nine past lives.

Torin fiercely swam toward me, his brow furrowed as he reached out his arms to play the hero and drag me up.

But when his hands neared my waist, I shockingly shoved him away. I planted my palms hard against his chest and pushed.

Torin’s eyes widened in bewilderment underwater. I ignored his shock. Forcing an unnatural surge of strength into my sluggish, young limbs, I kicked my legs and powerfully swam to the surface entirely on my own.

As I broke through the freezing current, a profound, silent vow cemented itself in my soul. I would no longer be the helpless, pathetic girl begging for scraps of their fake affection. I was completely transformed.

This time around, I intended to make the entire world bow before me.