"Get back here you whore!" I considered Gavin to be quite charming when I first met him. To be completely fair to myself, I'd still taken a bit of liking to him. More important, though, was what that girl, Sophia, did.

It was eerily reminiscent of the Demon's magic. Chant-less and uncontrollable, the fire burned half of Gavin's face off. And it wasn't a bad looking face. Blackened skin stretched just above his right eye, his eyebrow completely gone. He seemed to struggle with breathing and talking yet it didn't dampen his temper. If anything he was more energetic, sobered in a mere instant.

Sophia in the meantime just tried to shield herself from the crowd and ran away. Gavin tried to follow, getting back to his feet, albeit groggily.

The Demon noticed the commotion. He galloped over. And I meant galloped. His movements were more akin to a wild horse than anything else. He stood in front of Gavin, his massive frame threatening in contrast to Gavin, who was by no means little. Nevertheless, Gavin tried to muster up some strength and shove the Demon away from him.

"Get out of my way, you vile scum!" Talking, though, was all he could accomplish. His arms simply faltered on trying to push the body standing in front of him, after which he winced and covered the burn marks, visibly in pain. "What are you looking at, moron?! You want to fight now, too? Well come and get me."

The Demon simply shook his head, partly in disgust, partly in disappointment. Then he leant forward, one of his hands grasping Gavin's head. Gavin was, understandably, upset about the development. I stood in the foreground puzzled by what was happening, but also curious as to how the Demon will proceed.

"Get your hand off me!" Gavin winced in pain, his mind just now realising the damage done. The Demon, however, simply stood there, almost sneering into his face.

Suddenly, an eruption of dark magic came forth from the Demon. It smothered the air around us, the density almost making me choke. I had to remember how to filter it out to not get affected. I started preparing the first defensive spell that came to mind. It would probably be too late, but it was worth a shot. 'More importantly, why would he attack now?'

The Demon simply stood there unmoving, the dark magic seemingly invisible to people around me. Humans seem to be extremely bad at detecting it, but I wasn't. It was ominous. He opened his mouth. An eery voice replaced his usual calm demeanour. "Sleep."

Gavin simply fell over, his body sprawled across the grass. People came over, fascinated and afraid at the same time. The Demon turned to me, the darkness seeping out of his black eyes. I instinctively backed off, my defence prepared. I put my hands in front of me as if trying to bolster my defence and improve my resolve. It didn't help in the least.

"I assume you can heal him?" The entire world froze at that moment. The question was baffling. 'Why was that of any importance?'

I simply nodded. The world came to again, my lungs grasping at any air they could find. The Demon nodded in return.

"Then heal him," he said briefly and started walking away.

"Where are you going?!" I tried to feign some semblance of strength in my voice, although my legs were shaking by this point.

"To my wife of course. I have nothing to do with this. He's all yours." He pointed to Gavin's face briefly. "If you can't manage it correctly, I'll see it in the morning."

Then he left, the crowd converging on Gavin's fallen body. I rushed over.

I put my hands on his neck, trying to see if he was breathing. I sighed in relief when I felt his heartbeat.

The Demon invoked a sleeping spell in moments and some kind of a terrorising curse around him simultaneously. It was baffling.

I looked at Gavin's face and prepared the healing spells. My staff glowed brightly as I tried to channel as much light magic as I could. I was still afraid of remnants of darkness, so the more I gathered the better.

Strings of light connected to the charred flesh, slowly starting to mend it. The process would only repair the skin so far. The burnt hair and singed eyebrows would have to wait. His face would take a while to heal completely, and even then, I doubt I could get it back to what it looked like before.

Gavin winced in pain while sleeping, as I gently stroked his hair and felt the rough marred skin.

"There, there, it will all be fine." The words were meant for both him and me alike, as I glanced at the Demon leaving for the Palace.

I could only hope everything will be fine. The Demon was incredibly powerful.

'Maybe he could teach me?' My thoughts wavered as the healing spell spread around Gavin's face.

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'I'm horrible. Nobody likes me. Everyone will hate me now.'

Thoughts swirled around my head as I cried into the sheets of my bed. I had already ordered Tiana to leave me alone after almost ripping off the black dress and the damned gloves off me. Everything was uncomfortable now. I just wanted to lie here and weep myself to sleep. I would at least certainly try.

'Father couldn't be bothered to listen to me. Renald thought almost nothing of me. Magdalene tried her best to understand but still seemed distant. And Gavin...' I tried to recall what happened back there. I didn't mean to perform a Flame Burst. I did want him to stop saying those things to me but didn't want to hurt him.

'No, I wanted to hurt him. For a moment, I wished to hurt him.' The realisation set in slowly as more tears welled up in my eyes.

I had hurt someone. I caused someone pain. And that someone was my family no less. 'I am truly horrible.'

A knock on the door echoed throughout the room, interrupted by my soft weeps. I didn't bother trying to glance over. I didn't want to see anyone right now.

A few hoof stomps echoed on the floor, and then I felt someone sitting next to me on the bed. An arm tried to reach my shoulders, but I leant away from it.

My efforts were futile, as Cerolus' arm steadily rested on my shoulder, and soon after the rest of him was by my side. I still didn't look at him. I didn't want to see the look in his eyes. Whatever he thought of me now, it certainly couldn't be good. 'Who could like someone that hurts her own family?'

"Go away." But he didn't. Moments passed when I would only cry into the sheets, and he would hold me. The moonlight shone through the window, trying to invade into the room. The sounds of the wedding dinner could be discerned if I tried to focus on them. But neither of those things mattered now.

I sat up, my head against Cerolus' shirt, tears staining the soft fabric. His heavy arm circled around me, the large hand grasping at my shoulder.

I looked up. I didn't know what look to expect from his face. The hesitation washed over me, but I steeled myself to at least do so much to look at him.

His face was calm, comforting. He wasn't angry, scared, or frightening. His lips curved slightly into a small smile. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

I didn't know the answer to that question. 'Was there a correct answer to it anyway?'

"I hurt Gavin." More tears welled in my eyes. "I wanted him to stop, wanted him to shut up. I wanted everyone to just go away. So I..." my voice wavered as put my palms in front and gazed into them. "I burned him. I'm a monster."

"Why would you think like that?" Cerolus' voice was soothing to my ears. It felt nice to hear him say anything at this time.

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"Because I'm a monster who hurt her own family. And now everyone hates me. Monsters are hated by everyone."

Cerolus' other hand took hold of my chin and he turned my face to meet his. "I don't hate you."

"You don't? Why?" my voice came out to convey surprise and relief.

"Why would I hate you? He insulted you, and you had every right to strike him back. If you hadn't, I would've probably done much worse to him than what you did."

"Why?" I had an endless supply of 'whys' when Cerolus was around.

"Because you're my wife, of course. And because I love you," he smiled briefly. My face flushed with heat.

'Why would he say that? No, how did he say that? I hurt someone. What does he mean by 'love'?' Questions spread around my head, the list of them growing before I could find an answer to either one.

"But... I hurt someone... I am horrible..." I tried to get some semblance of speech back but was too taken aback to even think and comprehend words, let alone speak them properly.

"You're not horrible. You're kind, sweet, young, beautiful. I have every single reason to love you. I'm not going to stop loving you because you slapped someone, Sophia," he chuckled. "Also, it was a pretty nice slap. Nice use of Flame Burst."

'He thought it was... nice?' I was confused. Thoroughly and utterly confused.

"But I hurt him! Now he's going to hate me. Every one of them is going to hate me."

"So, what? He was an intolerable drunk, and you put some sense into him. Some people are going to hate you no matter what you do."

"And you?" I was terrified of the question, and of the answered that would follow. Any answer that would follow.

"I'm going to love you, no matter what." His rough lips pressed against my own and for a moment I forgot about everything that happened today. Here, it was just me and him.

I was lost, completely and utterly. Thoughts swirled around my head. Feelings contradicted each other. Wishes took turns manifesting themselves. I didn't know what do to. I had no idea how to proceed.

The kiss wouldn't last long. But I somehow didn't want it to stop. My thoughts coalesced into a single barely coherent stream. I suddenly knew what I wanted to do.

I wanted to love Cerolus. I needed to love Cerolus. I needed to have Cerolus.

I opened my mouth, my tongue grazing across his lips. My hands involuntarily moved across his chest, slowly starting to feel at his body. My head was a jumble, but I didn't want it to be anything else.

His mouth opened, his tongue intertwining with mine as it entered my mouth. Cerolus explored my mouth thoroughly, as his hands slowly went around me and pulled me into him further. The heat of his breath flared across my face, as his hands slowly caressed my skin as they made their way to my back.

I somehow managed to grab hold of his shirt, and our faces parted long enough for me to yank it upwards. He smirked and simply took hold of the little clothing I had and ripped it off me. His mouth went for my neck, his tongue and teeth slowly caressing every bit of flesh they could find. The warmth spread around me uncontrollably.

Fingers felt up one of my breasts, and a soft squeeze made me shudder and whimper. Cerolus stopped moving briefly and looked into my eyes, the red circles in the blackness of his swirling around.

His face went down to meet my other breast, and a moment later I felt something soft and wet across my nipple. Waves went across the entirety of my body, as Cerolus gripped one of my breasts firmly and caressed the other one with his tongue.

My hands tried to grasp the entirety of his muscular body, going from his defined stomach to his hairy chest, up to the curves of his horns. I tried feeling up every part of him that I could as he didn't let me go.

One of my hands tried to slide down his belly, and Cerolus took my intentions in kind. He briefly sat up away from me, propping himself to unbuckle his pants. I watched his chiselled body move as his hands stripped away every piece of clothing he had on him. The last to go were his underpants, something I'd never seen him lose before. With a swift motion, he pulled them off. I gasped, then took a slight step backwards.

"What is that?" I pointed at his member. Even from here, it looked huge. A solid slab of meat that ended in a dark red mushroom sprung in my direction. Two large bulbs accompanied the image, lazily hanging below the staff. I just stared at it. Veins went along the length, pulsing slowly as if the thing itself was alive.

"A... dick?" Cerolus had a puzzled look on his face as he scratched his head, the atmosphere suddenly changing.

"That's... going to go... inside?" I shuddered at the mere thought of it going anywhere near me. "It's not going to fit!"

Cerolus just had a wide grin on his face as he winked at me. "Don't worry, we're going to make it fit."

He approached me again, the look on his face reminiscent of that of a hungering dog. His lips approached mine, as he slowly kissed me. The enjoyable kiss, however, was cut short by Cerolus moving his face downwards. His tongue moved across my body, tracing around my breasts, as his arms made their way all over my naked body. The roughness of his hands contrasted with the gentleness of his touch. He grabbed one of my buttcheeks, eliciting a gasp from me. He smirked every time I would make a sound, never stopping in his ordeal to go all over my body.

His head reached my navel, and my legs were clasped together. The terrifying thoughts of his rod splitting me from inside were still prevailing.

"You don't have anything to worry about." Cerolus came back to kiss me briefly, as his hand made its way to my inner thighs. Fingers slowly circled around, caressing my inner thighs as he kissed me slowly, the other hand playing with whatever part of my body he wanted. The tension that I had was soon lost, and my legs slowly came apart, opening me up to him completely. I had never felt more vulnerable in my life, but I somehow knew that everything would be fine. A single look into his deep eyes comforted me.

A smile on his face was all that I saw before his head went down between my legs. His tongue started moving around my flaps. I squirmed and moaned as the slow assault of his moist tongue made everything in the vicinity wet, as I slowly realised I was the one who was producing all that wetness. The electrifying touches of his tongue on my lips soon became unbearable as his tongue slowly went inside, the soft flesh looking for things to push and prod inside. The tip of the tongue finally pushed a small button inside that made my mind blank. Pure extasy came rushing out of me as I attempted to somehow vocalise what was happening to my body.

I could hear myself spouting moans and groans, but I had little control over what my body was doing at this point. Cerolus' tongue kept grazing around the lips, occasionally grazing the small flesh button inside, shocks rippling through my body each time he would do so. His fingers danced around my body, my mind trying to stay in focus of what was going on, and failing consistently. It was terrifying to be left to the mercy of someone else, but the sensation that he provided were wonderful.

I tried to focus myself on doing something, but could only bring my hands to rub Cerolus' horns repeatedly, eliciting a small groan. His passing breath brought another wave of shivers to ripple through my body, as he slowly ascended to meet my eyes. A sudden desire for him to continue what he was doing welled up in me, but all that came out of my mind was a gasp.

Cerolus' face came up to mine again. "This might hurt a bit at first." I didn't care. At that moment, I was prepared to go through anything if it meant that this wouldn't stop. He kissed my neck as his hands slowly guided my legs in the air.

He positioned his hips towards me and put my legs in the air, my thighs grabbing his waist.

In an instant, I felt pain as the tip of his rod started going inside of me, every small movement further inside followed by a small burst of pain. My body felt like it was attacked, but instead of trying to defend, it simply surrendered and gave way to his member. I screamed out while Cerolus spoke softly into my ears. "Yes, that's it, just relax."

The large head burrowed through, pain intermixed with pleasure coating every second of Cerolus' slow prodding.

Finally, the assault stopped, my body weak from being pushed open. I slowly came to, realising that he stopped moving altogether, and looked into his eyes. I panted for breath. Cerolus just kept on looking in my eyes, a small smile on his face. "Now, that wasn't too bad, no?"

I failed to send any sort of reply as he slowly started retreating outwards, my body now overwhelmed to have the assault finally end. But I knew better.

The head of Cerolus' staff rested just inside me, and I could feel it expand my opening as it stood, each second drawn out in spades as a multitude of sensations coursed my body. "Ready?" was all I could hear as I nodded slowly and shut my eyes, giving Cerolus complete control over my body, if that weren't already the case.

Cerolus hips slowly went forward again, a groan escaping his mouth as my insides were once again attacked. This time, the pain receded quicker, and a moment of bliss washed over me at one point. Cerolus started moving slowly at first, the slow movement of his staff inside me slowly eliciting less and less pain as it moved, until at one point there was no pain at all. Just pure bliss remained as every thrust forward elicited a moan from me, and a small groan from him.

Cerolus sped up his thrusts, my hands trying to find any surface to grab hold of, as pure pleasure washed over my entire body, coating me in sweat.

I registered some of the words that came out of his mouth, most being the repeats of the words "yes", the other ones being "tight". I cared little at this point, my own moans taking up most of my spare time as my entire body pulsed and a wash of relief coursed through me.

My limbs felt limp and my mind was in a haze as I slowly came to again, only to see Cerolus clasping around me, pinning me to the bed, and slowly speeding up his movements. Moans echoed around the room as neither of us stopped making sounds.

Cerolus' movements reached a steady beat where he would continuously thrust back and forth, every thrust bringing more joy than the last. Finally, he grunted and I could feel my insides getting coated with warmth and my mind went into pure ecstasy again, losing every sense of what was going on around me. I could feel my toes tensing up, as everything reached a pinnacle. Every piece of my body felt light and pure.

The thrusts calmed down to a halt, as Cerolus pulled away from me, and everything seemed to pour out of me as he did. He lay next to me, his body touching my own, as he put an arm around me.

I lay there motionless, processing what had just happened. It was surreal. I never thought I'd feel like that, and I knew I wanted to feel like that again.

Cerolus' nose nuzzled into my face. "See, it wasn't so bad."

I smiled briefly. "It was... amazing." The next thing that came out was completely unthought of. "I love you too."

Cerolus briefly looked up, the red circles in his eyes slowly swirling, and he kissed me again, before returning to nuzzling.

A wave of fatigue washed over me, and I slowly closed my eyes. At that moment I knew everything would be fine because he was next to me.