She Belongs To The Devil

However, her daydream was disturbed by Edwin who knocked on her door. "Mother, it\'s me," Edwin called from outside the door.

"Come in," Edwin heard his mother\'s voice and went inside.

Lillian was lying down on her bed. After Edwin entered her room, she sat up on the bed and welcomed her son, "I was waiting for you." She patted on the bed by her side then gestured Edwin to sit down.

"How are you, mother?" Edwin tried to start the conversation by engaging in small talks.

Lillian caressed her dearest son\'s head and answered, "I am good as always. What could possibly happen to your mother?" And she chuckled as if she was invincible.

Edwin gave a forced smile to his mother. And he avoided eye contact with her knowing that a lot of things were about to happen to her.

Edwin was lost for words for a while. And Lillian took the initiative to know why he had asked to meet her so urgently. "So, what brings you here today? Is there anything that you need to discuss with me?"

"Yes. Actually, I had a few things to discuss with you." He hesitated for a while but then said what he had come to say, "You had suggested that I should visit Frostford to talk with my maternal uncle. And I was thinking of going there after a week."

He then vaguely planted the idea in his mother\'s head, "It has already been a while since we visited Frostford together." His eyes dilated as though he was remembering some distant memory. He clicked his tongue and said in a sad voice, "It would have been great if we were able to travel together. It\'s a shame that you recently returned back from Frostford."

Lillian easily took the bait and said with excitement, "Then let\'s go to Frostford together."

She clasped her hands together and added a few more members to the said trip, "Let\'s also take Juniper and Joyce. And if Alan agrees to join us then let\'s take him as well. It will be like a family trip. Your grandmother will also be really happy to see all of us."

Needless to say, Edwin was against the idea of taking the other three more people right into the warzone. He pursed his lips and tried to deny it while trying not to sound suspicious, "Joyce has to take lessons during the day. So, I don\'t think it is a good idea to take her and her mother along with us. And I don\'t know if Alan will agree to come along with us."

"Oh, don\'t say that. It won\'t matter if Joyce misses a few lessons. The tutor can always teach her later on." And the Queen spoke in a stern voice as though she was giving an order, "I don\'t care about Alan but let\'s bring Princess Juniper and Joyce along with us."

Edwin could not think of another way to deny his mother. And he simply tried to put off the matter for now, "I will try to arrange the trip with everyone. But let\'s see what happens."

"Ah! It is going to be so much fun. Let\'s enjoy this trip to our fullest." Lillian was widely grinning and was already excited like a baby.

But Edwin looked at his mother with quite a serious gaze and then said, "Mother, I also wanted to talk with the King of Mihir myself. I have already lived more than a quarter of my life and I don\'t want to keep on making you work for me. As I will be the one benefitting from the war, I don\'t want to be out of the loop. I want to work with the King myself."

Lillian felt proud of her son when he showed a willingness to take responsibility for his own path. However, she didn\'t think that it was right for her beloved son to get entangled with the vampires, especially when he was just a human who had not inherited the gene that could perform witchcraft.

So she denied politely, "I have already set the plan in motion. I don\'t think we need to do anything other than sit and wait for the right time to come. The people of Mihir will do every work for you."

Edwin was not going to back down that easily. He had to take the charge from his mother anyhow.

And he tried to persuade his mother again, "That is exactly the problem, mother. I don\'t want the King\'s title handed over to me when I didn\'t even contribute anything. I don\'t want to be a charity case. It will just turn me into a puppet King."

"But if I get involved from the planning phase to the execution phase of the war, I will at least earn some respect from the King of Mihir. He will be bound to listen to me and give me the necessary autonomy." Edwin hoped that this would be necessary to sway his mother.

And as expected by Edwin, Lillian was forced to rethink what her son said to her. She did not want her son to be treated like a puppet by King Reginald. He had already been treated as one by King Dragomir for a very long time.

What she really wanted for her son was power. And being a puppet was in no way a display of power but rather a display of slavery.

Finally, after thinking for a while, Lillian agreed to her son\'s request. "Fine. I will write to the King of Mihir saying that you want to have a meeting with him."

She then took a moment to herself contemplating something in her mind. Edwin crossed his finger hoping that she was not about to instantly change her mind.

But the matter that was haunting Lillian was something else. She looked at her son and then said, "Edwin, I have kept a secret from you."

Edwin furrowed his brows and asked, "What kind of secret?"

"I am fine with you meeting the King of Mihir but there is something that you need to know about that King first." Lillian tapped her fingers on her palm and then revealed the secret, "He is a vampire and a very strong one at that."

Lillian was expecting either a shocked reaction or that of disbelief. However, she got neither from her son. She didn\'t know it but that was not some new information for him.

Edwin already knew that Mihir had a lot of vampires. But what he forgot was the source of that information. He forgot that it was not his mother who had told him about the vampires but it was Adeline.

And he simply nodded his head, "Yes, you already told that the last time. You don\'t have to worry about that. I will take my guards along with me." He chuckled and then added, "I bet they won\'t prey on the very human who they will need later on."

Lillian narrowed her eyes and kept on staring at her son until he looked away. She smirked and then bluntly stated, "I think I have started to become old. I told you everything about the vampires and I thought that I was still keeping it a secret."

Edwin\'s heart missed a beat when his mother said that. It suddenly struck him that he had just made a blunder.

He softly gulped and then slowly turned his gaze towards his mother.. He wanted to check if she was really unaware or she was just being sarcastic when she said that she was getting old.