"What do you mean that we might be too late?" Celso asked. He held her closer to him.

Athena shook her head and rubbed her temples. "I think I heard him."

"Who?"

"The King," she explained. "He told me to be ready, but that we're late to prepare."

Celso was quiet for a moment until he spoke up. "Come on. Let's think about this while we eat." He turned to leave.

Athena looked at him and shook her head. "Really? You think eating would be the best thing to do at this time?"

"I'm hungry." he shrugged.

Athena huffed. "I just said that we might not have time to get ready for when that King comes and all you could think about is that you're hungry? How could you think that? Aren't you worried?"

Celso sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he stopped walking. "I'm not."

"You're not?" Athena asked him. She thought that he would have reacted different, but not this way.

"Athena," he sighed. "I'm not worried about being prepared."

"Why?"

He turned back around and stepped closer to her. "I'm not worried about being prepare because we'll be fine. There's nothing to worry about. From the past, many people have gotten voices in their head that warn them about an early arrival."

"So," Athena said quietly while looking down at her feet. "You don't think it's real?"

"I think the voice was real, but his threat wasn't."

"What if it is?"

Celso grabbed her chin and raised it so she would look at him. "It's not. Trust me."

Athena stared at his eyes for a moment. She was trying to see if any other emotion were in them, but all she saw was concern and confidence. She sighed and smiled at him. "Alright, I trust you." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the kitchen. "Let's eat."

After their meal was finished, Athena found herself laying on Celso's bed flipping through her phone. She didn't know where Celso had gone, but from hearing the water running in the bathroom, she assumed he had left to take a shower. Growing tired, she turned her phone off and placed it on the bedside table. She turned on her side and closed her eyes.

A couple of minutes later, she felt the bed move beside her and an arm wrap around her waist. A kiss started at the bottom of her neck and gradually worked its way up to her cheek. She giggled as she turned over and looked at him. She ran her fingers through his hair before pulling him in for a kiss.

Their lips moved in synch as Celso moved so he was on top of her. He kissed down her neck and back up.

A crash sounded in the other room making them stop. Celso became tensed and broke away from the kiss.

"What was that?" Athena asked nervously. She shrunk underneath Celso.

He looked down at her. "Stay here. I'll be right back." He got out of bed, grabbed one of his swords, and walked to the door.

Athena propped herself up on her elbow and watched as he opened the door and walked through, closing it behind him. She laid back down on the bed and ran a hand down her face. She hoped it was nothing. She hoped that it was just gravity bringing something that was unbalanced down. Nothing more.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, but kept her ears opened for any noises that didn't sound good. A few minutes later, she heard a door open. Opening her eyes, she looked towards the door leading to the living room and noticed that it wasn't opened. Sitting up in bed, she looked around to find the source of the creaking.

The closet door was slowing creaking open. A large, black hand slithered out of the closet. Athena's eyes widened when she realized it was coming towards her.

She jumped out of bed and ran towards the door that Celso had gone out of. She was able to grab the door handle when the hand wrapped around her ankle and pull her down. She screamed as her body hit the floor. 

"Celso!"

The hand roughly pulled her towards the open closet. She grabbed one of the legs of the bed and held on with all her might. Her body was lifted off the floor as the grip on her ankle tightened. She screamed again as she felt claws dig into her skin. She hand lifted her body up even more before slamming her down on the floor. Closing her eyes on impact, she willed for something or someone to come help her. 

"Celso! Help!"

The claws dug deeper into her skin. Something hard hit the side of her hand. She opened her eyes to see the staff laying next to her. She stared at it for a moment or two before grabbing it. She made the mistake of taking both of her hands off of the bed leg. The hand tightened around her ankle even more and pulled her quicker towards the closet. She flipped over so the blue bubble on top of the staff was pointed to hand. 

"Athena!" she heard Celso yell to her as she was pulled into the closet. The door closed behind her. 

The bubble lit up as it gave off a little bit of light. Just enough so she could see around her. The hand had let go of her and she didn't know where it had gone to. She moved the staff around in front of her to try to find where it went. 

It was nowhere to be found, but that didn't take away the funny feeling she was having in her stomach.

Athena whimpered as she looked down at her ankle. Blood was dripping down and onto the floor. Holes and scratches vandalized her ankle where the claws had dug into her. She heard the door banging on the other side of the door and Celso's voice yelling for her. She tried to stand up, but putting weight on her ankle wasn't the best idea. A shooting pain went through it, making her sit back down. 

She crawled towards the door and banged her fist against it. "Celso?"

"Athena!" his voiced sounded panicked. "It's alright. I'll get you out of there." She heard the doorknob rattle and Celso cursing. 

A deep growl sounded behind her. She turned around and held the staff out in front of her. She gasped when she saw the demons face close to hers. It had large, red eyes that seemed to bore into hers. Its mouth was open as it showed it's long jagged teeth with blood dripping down them and onto its chin. 

Athena pressed her back against the door and the demon brought its bloodied clawed hand up to her face. It ran one of its claws down her cheek. It pushed the tip of it into her skin and drew a line a blood down her chin. She pinned her mouth closed and kept herself from screaming in pain. 

The demon's face grew closer to hers. When it was a few inches away, it let out a loud, deep roar. Athena closed her eyes and bit her lip. On the other side of the door, she heard Celso banging on it and trying to get the door opened. 

She felt both of her ankles being grabbed. She opened her eyes to see the demon smirking and chuckling as he pulled her deeper into the dark. She screamed as her head hit the floor and her hand let go of the staff. She tried to reach it, but it was out of her reach. 

"Celso!"

Something hard hit the back of Athena's head. Her vision started to blur and soon she blacked out. 

-

Slowly, Athena opened her eyes. Bright light flooded her vision, making her bring her hand up to shield the light. When she moved her hand, she heard the sound of metal chains banging against each other. Once her eyes were adjusted to the light, she looked at the object that was making the sound. 

To her surprise, a large metal chain was connected to the slab of metal on her right wrist. Following the chain, she saw that it was connecting her to the stone wall. Looking at her other hand, she noticed that the same thing had happened to it. 

Taking deep breaths, she looked around her. She was in a cell. The walls around her were stone and the bars that locked her in looked rusty and weak, but she had a feeling they looked stronger than they appeared. A lone barred window was carved into the stone to give her some natural light.

The scene around her looked like a medieval dungeon. The smell of mildew filled her nostrils and even the smell of something rotting hit her. 

Where am I? she thought nervously. 

She could hear her heartbeat in her ears. She was scared. She didn't know where she was and where Celso could be. All she could remember was something hitting the back of her head in that closet and then the world had gone black. She couldn't remember anything that had happened after that. 

Heavy footsteps sounded through the hallway outside of her cell. She crawled over to the bars, but the chains restrained her so she was only able to sit a few feet in front of them. She strained her neck to try to catch a glimpse at what - or who - was making the footsteps. Her breath stopped in her throat when she saw him.

A large demon was walking towards her cell. His scaly skin was black and green and his slitted eyes were red. His thin mouth was pinned together in a straight line. A solid black crown sat on top of his head with a large blue jewel pinned right above his forehead. A flowing cape followed behind him as it connected with his black body suit. 

The King of the demons.

Athena backed herself against the farthest wall as the King stopped in front of her cell. He looked down at her with no emotion. His eyes trailed up and down her body and rested on her bloody ankle. Athena shivered as he licked his lips at the sight of her blood.

He noticed her slight movement. His eyes snapped back up to hers. 

Both of them were quiet for a while until Athena had the guts to speak first. "Wh-what do you want?" she stammered.

The guards on either side of him pointed their long spears at her through the bars. The King raised a hand and they drew back their spears. 

"Athena," his deep voice penetrated the air. "What do you think I want?"

Her eyes widened. "I-I don't know."

His eyes remained on her as he drew closer to the bars. "Do you know who I am?"

Athena shrugged. "I kn-know that you're the King."

He nodded. "That's right, but do you know my name?"

Athena shook her head slowly. 

"My name is to be feared, Athena," he explained. "My name is King Buledal and what I want from you, my dear, is the magic in your blood."