Exiled Princess

Chapter nineteen

The cold water pushes through my lungs like fatal ice. I open my eyes instantly, finding my vision completely clear—the water the color of shady green, tiny dead fish close to the surface, and the ruffled sand underneath me so deep I can hardly detect it. The oxygen I gasped before jumping in becomes useless, the urge to open my mouth to inhale is unbearable. Any time now and I'll wind up with a handful of salty water in my stomach.

I give up on myself, inhaling a huge plump of salty water. Instead of feeling cold sea water invading my chest, I only inhale pure oxygen.

I laugh, causing bubbles to illuminate around me. I completely forgot I can actually breathe under water. I'm a water lord, for God's sake.

I concretely concentrate, closing my eyes as I command the water particles to click my shackles open. I can sense them, smoothly caressing my skin as the water bends to form the shape of a key. A few streaks of light forming ancient letters appear around me, causing a soft hint of blue light to implode around me like a thin bubble.

Sure enough, I can feel the shackles relaxing around my wrists. I free myself, readying my body for a long, exhausting swim.

As I stretch myself beneath the surface, I softly start hearing the shouts of frustration from the soldiers above the water–their voices muffled. They must have realized I'm no longer within their reach.

The funny thing is, they think I have no idea what their true intention was. Seok-jin honestly thought that I believe d he had come to wander the human realm, and that he coincidently ran into me. But I'm no longer a girl that believe s in anything but the truth. Therefore, the moment Seok-jin ordered his soldiers to bind me, I knew that the ill emperor sent them here to kidnap me, to take me to him. My father must have realized The Midnight Cats failed in doing so, moreover, he decided to use a much better method. That's why Seok-jin asked me my name before doing any actions, he was making sure I'm his target.

But I wasn't planning on leaving with them. No, I'm planning on going to the sixth phase of Hell through the portal settled in the middle of the ocean.

...

It's been a full day since I started swimming towards the gate. I long since lost the massive ship that left during the morning with a fuming Seok-jin for his lack of success. He didn't have much time to look for me, since his coronation is due in one day.

My body feels a fraction from blacking out. My limbs aching like they're on fire, my skin peeling from the amount of salt powdering its surface, and my ankles so close to breaking at how much I've exhausted them. Not to mention my belly is so close to devouring itself now that I'm starting to starve.

I swim to the surface, greeted with nothing but the sea surrounding me, soft waves making me rise further–not a single island is in sight, not that I'm looking for one. I keep telling myself I'm not lost, and that soon enough, I'll witness a hole in the middle of the ocean, where I'll dive and find myself in Hell.

It's ironic how much I'm looking forward to entering a world full of demons and vampires. Where it is so easy, almost too easy to become another soul devoured by Hell's wickedness. But it's the only place I can share my evilness with, the only place where I can have a fresh start, a beginning I choose. That's all that matters.

There, I can do cruel things without any judgmental glares, I can keep my head down as long as I stay away from everybody. There, I can finally be me, I can finally forget the past to itself, and become the person I want myself to be.

The only issue is; Hell is known to hold unforgivable creatures; it's known to hold the most beautiful yet most cruel demons. In Hell, you'd meet a demon as striking as the moon yet with a heart of stone. Therefore, we're always warned to stay away from any beautiful being, for we might be walking straight into their nest.