Luna Rising

FIFTY ONE

"Again."

I fall back to the ground, my chest pumping hard from exhaustion.

I trained my magic with Boran but nothing intense when being taught demon magic with my Dad.

Boran only trained me some essential healing magic from his hometown and had it easy.

Whereas with Dad, after thirty minutes of training, he made me do so many things all at once, and some of his teachings were something I never knew existed.

Is this how demons are trained?

"Again, Lippy."

I raised my hand. "Give me a minute."

"It's only half an hour, and already worn out. You aren't building much stamina," Dad says as he scolds.

"I defeat a psycho she-wolf and narcissistic demons. I have stamina." I told my Dad everything about me. I told him how I found Saye and Arlo locked up by some priest and told him about being a guardian of a werejaguar, a dire wolf, and a teenage ogre. I even told him about my life in the Blue Moon pack, the good times, not the bad ones. I don't want him to head over there and destroy the pack.

My Dad and Mom were sleeping soundly, I told him everything, and he never once looked the other way. He was fascinated that his daughter could handle herself.

"Not with that amount. To defeat Demir, you must prove yourself and fight me first. When I started training my magic, I was five years old. My father had started teaching me at that age."

"Are you serious?" Lifting my head and got up. "Five? You were practically a toddler."

"As the eldest son of the Demon King, I had to be on top."

"What about Demir?"

Dad's face fell as I mentioned his half-brother. "Father spoils Demir. It allows him to do anything he wants. He was never scolded or punished by Father. But if I were to have done something to be proud of, Father wants me to do ten times better."

I wipe the sweat off my face as Dad explains how much Demir was his father's favorite child.

Dad had to study hard, be good at magic and be the best. He couldn't slack off or play. His father says children who play and don't work are weak. He never had a healthy and loving childhood.

"Father became like that after Mother died," his tone softened yet filled with sorrow. "He got stricter and more authoritarian that sometimes I thought he wasn't my father. When my mother was alive, he was full of happiness, and he would always play with me. Although a Demon King, he must think of his kingdom, and people always have time for Mother and me."

I step closer to him. "How did your mother die?"

"A human name Julie arrived in the Demon Realm, and Mother took pity on her and hired her as a maid. She was young and clumsy, and I made friends with her because she was nice. But she was putting on a mask." Dad glanced at me. "She seduced my Father and became pregnant. At the same time, my mother got sick for unknown reasons because demons can't get sick. Golven said Mother was given Divinity."

"Divinity?" I frown, then ask, "what's that?"

"It's holy water from Alteria that angels use to poison demons," Dad explains. "Pouring it on a demon can burn the skin but drinking it can kill us. Mother was given a small dose of it from her tea. But her health started to disorient since Julie was brought back with her. I don't know how a human-like Julie can obtain such a dangerous item."

"So, let me get this straight," I interject before Dad can continue his story. "You lid with your parents until that woman came along and ruined everything."