Maddox was a tricky thing indeed.

He always knew what to say to get my mind rolling.

He always knew what to say and what to do to get me questioning everything I had ever known in my life.

There was just something about him that seemed to put me at ease. It was such an oxymoron: someone so powerful and ruthless but so calming and soothing all the same. I had been down here for two and half weeks and in that time, I begrudgingly came to realize that this experience had been the best highlight of my life. It wasn't the fact that I knew information about what was happening because I didn't. I was still in the dark on that one. Though I wanted to know every single thing, I could not deny that some part of me felt enraptured by his enigmatic nature. I couldn't describe it, but despite everything that it took to get me here, I knew that I had come to make a place here.

I didn't know it then, but the smell of Hot Cheetos was ingrained into my very being until the end of my time.

"How's everything going up there with Sir Alistair?" Maria peered into my face, watching me scarf down a big bowl of Lucky Charms. "What do you mean?" I slurped. "Everything is just fine and dandy. He's still the same old piece of crap. Only difference is he becomes more tolerable each day," I raised a brow as she fixed my father's shirt. "I don't know why people are so afraid of them," I chewed on my cereal, realizing that even his own people were deathly terrified of even saying the wrong thing because he got so angry. "The only thing I see when I look at him is an oversized golden retriever." I rolled my eyes, pushing the remaining milk aside as I listened to the bustle of humans doing their job in this spacious and lavish bunker.

"I don't think you understand how mesmerized he is by you, Troy," My mother giggled, covering her mouth as if she had something to say but she wasn't going to say it. "Maddox is just that way because he's never had someone tell him like it is," I smirked and she slowly sighed, knowing full well that I was right. I could tell that he had never dealt with someone who defied every single thing he said, talked back to him like he was some mere being, and stood on the same level with him. "He's never had someone keep him on his toes," I felt oddly proud of being the first and only person to do so.

That would teach him to try and tell me what to do. He only had that privilege if he was using those sinful hands to touch my body. Hehe.

"That could be why he feels so taken with you," My father mumbled as if I could hear him and I completely disregarded what he said. "And how do you two know how we are with each other? You guys always stay down here!" I groaned, completely exasperated with how my parents seemed so relaxed and calm despite the big man upstairs. "Oh, you didn't know?" Maria tilted her head, a soft smile playing at her lips as she looked from me to her husband, who seemed to be sharing the same feelings she had. "Sir Alistair comes down here to spend time with us." She beamed and I narrowed my eyes.

"Maddox does what?" My mouth frowned at the sound of his actual name, preparing to tell me that I should address him like so, but we all knew I wasn't. "What for?" I grimaced, wondering this lord decided to finally grow a heart and share it with my parents. "He comes to listen us talk about stories of you growing up and things like that," I was too taken aback to formulate a response, so she kept talking. "He had never done that before, but I guess he wanted to know more about you when you came."

I couldn't believe it. What was the bastard trying to get at?

"Speaking of such," I turned to the piped up voice, trying to reel my mind around the new facts. "What do you want for your birthday, Troy?" Vasily asked and I shrugged, knowing that everything that I ever wanted was standing in front of me, looking at me with a soft smile that told me that everything was okay. "That dang lord already asked me that and I told him I'd be fine with you guys, Jade and Avery here," I explained and my father nodded, a gleam in his brown eyes.

"Who are those people?" Maria questioned intently and I let out a breath, understanding that my parents never met the second most important people to me. "They are the people that I met in No Man's Land. People here," I pointed all around us. "I don't recognize some, but the rest seemed to be from No Man's Land in Toronto," My mom furrowed her brows, mulling over how I even got there in the first place. "Jade McKinley is the person I live with in the city and Avery is a guy that we met along the way. He's here as well," I explained and she put a hand up to her chin. "Is his last name Carmichael?" I nodded in reply and she pointed behind her to a pair of people, a woman and a man.

"They are Evelyn and Ross Carmichael. He has a sister, doesn't he?" I acknowledged that with a bow of my head, realizing that this situation was much more complex. Avery was here, yet he had no idea his parents were. He had a sister, yet for all we knew, she thought he was dead. "That's just great," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "Just great." I blew out air from my lips, watching the other humans pack food to be sent to the cities that Maddox had control over. It really was a shame.

"In this day and age, that sort of thing you call love doesn't really matter if you're desperately focused on trying to survive," I relented, wondering why everyone seemed to be so hellbent on changing the way that I felt about things. "Just look at every one. How do you think they feel?" I murmured, watching some of the looks on their faces. You couldn't tell if they were happy or sad because they didn't have the ones they loved and wanted with them.

"Son," Maria rubbed my face, making sure that I was looking at her. "I get where you're coming from. I get that you don't care for that thing because of what this world has made of it. But when you truly understand why Sir Alistair did what he did," She shook her head, chuckling softly. "You'll realize that your morals are all wrong. You need somebody to love you too," My mother whispered, nodding affirmatively and I clicked my teeth, not believing a word she said. "How can you say that when you've been stuck down here for four years?" I gritted my teeth and Maria just smiled.

"Because I'm down here, Troy, I don't have to worry about fighting to live. I can focus on what I have left," My eyes slowly enlargened as her words set well inside my mind. "Take your time. Enjoy what you see. The slower you live, the more beautiful things will be to you."

After that conversation was over, I took myself for a walk on the outskirts of where the castle sat, nearly fighting Maddox to let me go alone. I didn't know why he thought that I was someone who needed protecting. For fuck's sake, I kicked the asses of his demon cops for a living. Troy Morelli could handle himself.

Though, I didn't think that reassured him at all.

"Maddox can kiss my ass," I mumbled to myself, kicking the black dirt as I crouched down in the flower garden, the sweet smell of the aquamarine flower wafting into my noses, giving me a serene sense of calm. I felt oddly at peace.

"Aw, you're as cute as Sir said you were."

I narrowed my eyes, stiffening upon the sound of the leaves crunching and I turned my cold gaze to see a female smiling up at me. I stood up slowly, on guard, but something about her seemed familiar.

"I know who the hell you are," I pointed to the short girl with light brown and blonde hair stopping at the crook of her neck, her blues eyes twinkling up at me as the halo around her head glowed under the light of the sky. She looked utterly majestic and angelic, and it was almost too captivating to remove my eyes from her.

"I knew I would come to meet you at some point, Troy," The girl tilted her head with a grin on her lips, offering a hand to me. "My name is Malay," I reached a tentative hand out and took hers, watching her warily. "No, it isn't," I recalled the little children's conversation about their mysterious princess and she seemed to fit the bill because I had never seen her, not once since I had been here. "It is one of my names," The girl sighed, looking extremely conflicted as she scanned the area, making sure that we were alone.

Well, we weren't completely alone because the demon lord heard all.

"Your name is Hannah Vandenrei, isn't it?" I asked and her eyes darkened sadly as she nodded, biting her lip. "Is it wrong to say that I don't want it to be?" She whispered and I got the feeling that she was here for a reason and that reason was very detrimental to the survival of everyone here. "You aren't a demon, so what are you?" I pointed to her halo and her very bright blue eyes, seeing no change in her skin color. "I'm just the very opposite actually," She covered a grin with her hand and I blinked, wrapping my mouth around the discoveries and whatnot, trying to understand what happened here.

"Though I can't tell you much because I'm not permitted to under Sir Alistair, I will tell you this," She rubbed the ring around her finger, gritting her teeth. "There are things much bigger that even Sir Alistair can't defeat them alone. There's someone even more powerful than him," She smiled sadly and I listened closely. "Sir Alistair isn't the man that you think it is so I ask you," She reached over to grab my hand, looking deeply into my eyes. "When the time comes, stand by him."

I didn't know what it was, whether I felt sorry for her or for Maddox, or if I just felt like it, but I nodded in agreement. I didn't completely get what she was talking about and I felt as if there were a lot more sinister things happening behind the scenes. A more powerful person? Who? As far as I was concerned, the Maddox Kane was the only person who held that title. Well, he did before he was demoted to puppy lord.

The silence quietly overtook us as she let my hand go, letting me digest this information. "It never rains here," Hannah mumbled, pointing to the swirls in the sky, the soft wind whipping past our cheeks. "Tough shit. It always rains in No Man's Land," Some part of me missed the thrill and excitement of each day living there, but I knew that it was for the best because somehow, someway, I was going to find out what the hell everyone was doing here.

"...so do you expect me to call you the lord of Hell as well?" I visibly grimaced as I turned to her. "Why in the fuck would you ever call me something so wrong?"

Hannah chuckled, giving me that knowing look that everyone seemed to give me and it was pissing me because I got the feeling that I was missing something. "You'll understand later," Hannah dismissed herself by tapping me on the shoulder and smiling gently as if we had known each other for years prior before. "Until next time, Troy."

Then she vanished.

I was tired of these assholes doing this to me. I sat down on the ground near the flowers and took a deep breath, trying to find some sense of soothing in this drastic moment. It seemed as if I had stepped into something that was much bigger than I could tell, and it involved every single person on Earth.

But I needed someone to talk to, someone I confided in for the last four years of life. I pulled out my phone and pressed the screen to immediately make a call to No Man's Land. The sound rang through my ears as I placed the phone on the ground, waiting for it to go through.

"Why did it take you so damn long to answer my call, Jade McKinley?" I growled playfully once I heard a voice and Jade threw her head back in a laugh, something that I missed dearly. "Sorry, Troy," Jade's holographic figure waved at me. "I was too busy packing," I furrowed my brow, wondering what she was packing for but I ignored it. "Don't curse, Troy. You're on his turf now," She glared at me warningly and I rolled my eyes. If only she knew how passive Maddox was compared to his image as a lord, she'd say absolutely nothing.

"So, you won't even understand what has been happening down here," I mumbled, watching a gold lightning bolt strike the sky, sending waves of tremors across. "Turns out, we were all living a lie," From there on, I began to explain to how I found humans, how I found my parents down in the beautiful bunker underneath the castle, working as servants to the cities that the rest of the humans lived in. "There are also so many people across Earth that we don't even know," It was crazy to realize that somebody like him had so much reign over a large amount of territory. "We don't even know it, Jade."

Jade pushed her hair behind her ear, listening carefully to me. "...but does that scare you, Troy?" She asked and I shook my head in reply. "No. It just means that there's a lot more that we cannot see. It just means that there's a reason for this," I pointed to everything about me. "For everything that has happened since Maddox Kane came to town." 

I looked up to the sky, watching it circulate around the breach, swirls of red and gold clouds falling over me. "I just don't know what to do, Jade. A part of me wants to get to know this man, but I don't know what will happen," I knew what would happen. I knew it all along but I just didn't want to think it to be a reality. I was only aware of how far my feet could go before it touched the ground, but I didn't want to find out how much it took for me to completely fall.

"Just do it," Jade gave me the push that I didn't know I needed. "Go ahead and take a risk. F everything, like you normally say." I laughed at her as she gave me my own advice. "Deep down inside, Troy, you know what you want to do. Stop being afraid and stop being so held back by what has happened," I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath, fighting the urge to yell. I hated when she was right but that didn't mean that I had to agree. I merely just didn't see the point when everything was focused on making sure that you lived.

Nothing else mattered.

"I'll call you later, okay, bud?" Jade could sense that I had a lot think about. That was what I liked about her. She knew when to give me space to think and when to pry and when to nag. She really was my sister. "Okay, love you," I waved to her and she blew me an exaggerating kiss. "Love you, bro," And that was the end of the conversation.

God damn it, that shit lord was really wreaking havoc inside my mind, my body, my soul. I literally had no idea what to call this feeling, but I knew I was nervous.

"What's on your mind?" What was it with people popping out of nowhere? Did I have some sort of tracking device on me that I didn't know about? I snorted to myself as a body planted itself next to me in the row of flowers, looking up at the sky. I gazed at Availa, realizing that I was probably the first friend that she had made in a long time and there was so much about that thought that was beautiful. I watched as she held the necklace around her neck, and I had to ask.

"Why do you always clutch that necklace? I mean, I know it's important to you," Availa looked at me longingly and I raised a brow, watching her take a seat next to me. "But why is it?" Sooner or later, she was going to have to tell me if she trusted me enough to help her when the push came to shove. My attendant looked at me uncertainly, looking around to make sure no one heard us. "First, I must tell you something else," She whispered, a dark feeling looming over us.

"You can't tell anyone that I told you and you must let no one else know." I nodded, furrowing my brows in confusion as a marking on her wrist started to glow a dark blue, her horns growing in on her scalp. She stared directly at me, a sign that she trusted me after saving her life against the demon lord. She took a deep breath and leaned forward, opening a breach that would soon destroy the world.

"My real name isn't Availa," She whispered and I peered in closer to listen to her, making sure that her words were heard to me and only me. My eyes flinched back and forth, questioning what she meant by that.

"It's Adira Caswell."