CHAPTER SEVEN
THE DEMON KING WHO WAITED FOR HER
by C.G
After leaving the hospital, Mako summoned the butler and his assistant, John. His voice was firm, carrying no room for argument.
"Take care of Linah," he ordered. "I will be gone for a few months. Nothing must happen to her while I am away."
Both men bowed in understanding, though neither dared ask where he was going.
---
That night, Linah slept restlessly in her room, her mind struggling to remember what had caused her sudden panic attack. No matter how hard she tried, the memory refused to return. What she did not know was that Mako had already used powerful charms to erase that moment from her mind, fearing that once he left, the truth would terrify her.
As sleep claimed her, Linah dreamed again.
Her mysterious man appeared before her, but this time something was different. He looked worried, troubled in a way she had never seen before. He sat beside her and gently held her hand. Linah noticed his eyes — they were heavy, red, as if he had been crying bitterly.
"I will be gone for a few months," he said softly. "You will miss me."
Her heart tightened painfully, though she did not understand why.
"When I return," he continued, "I will finally reveal myself to you. And then… I will make you mine completely."
Linah felt tears sting her eyes. She wanted to ask where he was going, wanted to beg him not to leave, but the words refused to come. Instead, she swallowed them, her heart aching in silence.
The man leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.
"Keep the bracelet with you at all times," he whispered. "Never take it off."
Then, like mist before the sun, he vanished.
---
Night descended heavily, as though the ancestors themselves had drawn a veil over the world.
Mako stood alone at the edge of the sacred river — the same river where his blood had once been betrayed and his life spared. It was here that his father's kin had cast him aside, wounded and unwanted, driven by greed for a throne they believed should never belong to him. It was also here that a young woman named Linah had found him broken and bleeding, choosing compassion over fear.
The river remembered everything.
It remembered love defying blood.
It remembered a king crowned by his mother's people deep within the forest.
And it remembered how that same love had cost Linah her life.
Tonight, Mako returned not as a crowned ruler nor as a forsaken child, but as a man prepared to walk a forbidden path — a path that led beneath the roots of the world, where truth waits only for those willing to bleed for it.
He turned and faced the direction of the hospital, where Linah lay.
His heart was heavy.
He did not know if fate would ever allow him to stand beside her again. He wanted to return, to abandon everything and stay by her side — but danger still followed her shadow. To save Linah, he had to move forward.
---
The River of Njuzu
The river was restless that night.
Its surface shimmered as though moonlight had sunk beneath the water and was breathing from below. Mako stepped closer, removing his sandals and letting his bare feet touch the cold earth that had once soaked up his blood.
He whispered no spell.
He called no name.
For the njuzu do not answer the loud or the proud.
They answer blood.
The water began to circle.
Slowly, the river opened its mouth.
From the depths rose beings neither fully human nor fully spirit — bodies smooth like carved stone, eyes glowing like lightning trapped beneath water. Their hair flowed like river weeds, and their voices layered together, many speaking as one.
"Son of the forest queen…"
"Child cast away by jealous blood…"
"King crowned by those who did not birth him…"
Mako lowered himself to one knee.
"I seek the truth," he said. "And I am ready to pay its price."
The njuzu studied him in silence. Then one moved closer, her eyes darkening.
"You have already paid," she said. "With love."
The water behind them shifted, revealing visions — Linah pulling Mako from the river, Linah standing beside him in the forest, Linah falling beneath unseen hands.
A current of anger rippled through the river.
"Your father's blood spilled poison," the njuzu hissed.
"Your mother's blood crowned you in fire and leaf."
"Why was she taken?" Mako demanded, his voice breaking. "Who ordered her death?"
The river trembled.
"Not one hand," the njuzu replied. "But two hearts bound by envy."
Before Mako could ask more, the river stilled.
"You must face those who raised you," they warned. "The forest remembers your abandonment."
---
The Forest of Crowns
Mako did not walk to the forest.
The forest pulled him in.
Roots curled aside as he passed. Drums beat without hands. Fireflies gathered, forming a circle where elders once stood. From the shadows emerged the spirits of his mother's bloodline — tall figures wrapped in bark and ash, eyes burning with ancestral fire.
Their voices thundered as one.
"Why did you abandon what was given in blood and breath?"
"I left because the throne became a grave," Mako replied. "Because love was punished."
A heavy silence followed — wounded and deep.
An elder spirit stepped forward, her voice softer yet sharper.
"We crowned you knowing your destiny would shake worlds. Yet you turned your back on us."
Mako bowed his head.
"I did not reject you," he said. "I rejected a crown soaked in her blood."
A murmur rippled through the ancestors — grief tangled with pride.
"You were loved," one spirit said. "You still are."
Then their anger rose.
"But love does not erase consequence."
The ground split briefly, revealing fire beneath.
"You broke sacred law," they warned. "By loving where you were forbidden. By choosing heart over balance."
Mako lifted his head, his eyes blazing.
"I would choose her again."
The forest fell silent.
At last, the eldest ancestor raised her staff.
"Then you will walk the path no king before you dared."
"The gate beneath the world opens only to one who has lost everything."
---
The Watching Eye
As the ancestors withdrew, the forest dimmed.
Unseen by Mako, something stirred.
Far beyond the river, beyond the forest, beyond even the underworld gate — an eye opened.
It watched with hunger.
With memory.
With hatred older than crowns.
A voice whispered into the darkness:
"Let him walk.
The deeper he goes,
the easier it will be
to destroy what remains of him."
The wind shifted.
Even the ancestors shuddered.
Mako felt it — the weight in the air, the closeness of danger. Yet he did not turn back.
He would uncover everything.
He would avenge.
He would protect Linah.
---
The Gate Beneath the World
The ancestors did not guide Mako to the underworld.
They allowed him to find it.
At the deepest edge of the forest, where even hunters feared to step, the earth breathed — slow, heavy, alive. Stones marked with symbols older than language circled a hollow ground. No birds sang here. No insects crawled.
Mako stepped forward.
The ground cracked open with a sound like a drum breaking.
Darkness rose — not empty darkness, but thick with voices, memories, and old blood. The gate revealed itself, a mouth carved from bone and stone, glowing faintly red like dying embers.
"This is where kings are unmade," a voice whispered behind him.
Mako turned.
The mysterious woman stood there, no longer floating. Her feet touched the soil as if burdened by fate.
"You were warned," she said softly. "Even your mother's bloodline cannot follow you here."
"I did not come for protection," Mako replied. "I came for answers."
She laughed bitterly.
"You always did."
As the gate opened wider, heat rolled out, carrying screams, prayers, and names long forgotten. Regret twisted the woman's face.
"Linah was not meant to die then," she said.
Mako froze.
"Then?" His voice shook the earth. "What do you mean… then?"
She turned away.
---
END OF CHAPTER SEVEN