Hellbound Heart



Zeke had worried about this when she was accidentally sent to the Underworld. But Zeke was certain that Alicia would be fine. But what he never anticipated was the fact that Azy's demonic magic had awakened so early and that his power was now too strong for a young and untrained body of a child to handle. And that inadvertently affected Alicia negatively.

Zeke himself had awakened his demonic power when he was around seventeen. He was already a skilled trained fighter then. To think that his son had awakened his power at the age of five was just…

His jaws clenched as his body finally stopped trembling. 

He stared down at his wife and reached out to touch her pale face with still shaky fingers. 

"You did something, didn't you Alicia?" he asked in a whisper, even though his eyes were saying that he was already certain she did. "You've been using your body to receive all the physical blows that our son's body is supposed to suffer."

Zeke felt a painful lump growing in his throat as he realized Alicia had been suffering for five years. Holding on for her life for five years until there was almost nothing left in her but the faint beating of her heart and her shallow breaths. 

He ran his free hand through his thick dark hair and clenched so hard. Even as some of the roots of his hair got ripped out, the pain was nothing compared to the pain in his heart and the suffering that Alicia had to endure.

And then he cursed. It was a hoarse and painful sound filled with emotions. 

"I hate this…" he muttered under his breath. His grey eyes gleamed with unshed painful tears as he lowered his head until his forehead touched over her chest. "I hate that I always can't do anything while you suffer. Why can't I stop this from happening to you? Why is it that I can stop anything in this universe but I can't stop your suffering? Why?" 

As his quiet rage began to stir the tamed and calm darkness in him, Alicia made a faint sound that had Zeke instantly pulling away to look at her face. 

Her eyes were still closed but her pale lips were moving. 

She was… calling his name inaudibly. 

"Alicia…" he uttered her name in response as he pressed her palm on his cheek. The cool frailness of her hand was another stark reminder of how she had withered so much. "I'm here, my love..." he added in a hoarse voice and her lips tugged up into a smile so faint yet looked so happy as his fingers twitched a little against his skin. 

… 

Lucas finally caught up after following Sebastian. It took him a long while to catch up because Sebastian had used his demonic power to change his location. But thanks to the tracker he had on Sebastian, he was able to find his whereabouts. It was actually Zeke who put a tracker on Sebastian back when the prince was still in the dungeon, just in case he would escape. No one actually knew about this tracker's existence except Lucas and Zeke until now. 

But when Lucas arrived in the Underground cemetery, Sebastian was no longer in the cavern anymore. He was about to turn around after he saw that his location suddenly changed, when he heard a familiar voice from within the cavern that could only belong to Alexander. 

So Lucas decided to keep going as he also needed to tell Alex about something important when he was welcomed by two males. One he knew and the other was a stranger, though the other one certainly looked and felt familiar for some reason. 

"Oh, it's good that you're here, Lucas." Alexander broke the silence. "I'm leaving those to you to settle." Alex told the man, gesturing to the pile of unconscious bodies at one corner. "I think it's better for you to deliver those fellas back to the Black Forest. We still need them for some questioning."

Lucas glanced over at the pile of bodies before returning his attention back to Alex.

"Where is –"

"There's no time to explain for now, Lucas." Alex cut him off. "Because we need to catch up with Zeke this instant."

Lucas' eyes widened at what he had heard. What? What did he just hear? Z-zeke? His Highness Zeke?!

Before Lucas could even open his lips to clarify if he heard Alexander right, Alex was already facing the other male, talking to him. "Now let's go. You better use your teleportation magic for us to catch up with them." 

"If you say so." The other man replied with a shrug and Alex quickly leaned on that man's shoulder, as if Alex did not trust the man enough to not disappear without him. 

"Zeke actually asked me to babysit you for a while so behave, okay?" Alex grinned at him playfully when the man glanced at his hand on his shoulder. 

"I'm not certain what you are talking about but I do need to catch up with him this instant." The other male replied with a blank face and then the two of them were swallowed by black smoke that surrounded them swiftly, before disappearing and leaving Lucas standing there. 

A soft sigh escaped Lucas' lips before he looked around the entire place. He could still sense Sebastian's magic and finally… Zeke's presence. 

The realization that Zeke was truly back now had the man's eyes glinting in the darkness. Excitement and something more filled his gaze. "He's definitely in the Black Forest right now, right?"

Lucas was certain because Alicia was in the Black Forest! Azy was there as well, so of course, Zeke would go there as soon as he was back! 

"Alright! I better get there as soon as possible too!" tilting his head left and right, he cracked his neck menacingly, and then he approached the pile of bodies he was tasked to move.