The Crown's Obsession

Vladimir remembered it. He remembered the memory very clearly because it used to happen quite often and the memory went like this...

'Odin!' Constance hugged Odin's leg when he appeared in front of her. Odin brought his hand in front of his face out of happiness that the child loved him.

'There are no horses in the tower, milady, but I can be the horse,' said Odin before having the little girl hopped up on his back.

Having a faint recollection of her dream, Constance laughed, "I wonder if I was a troublesome child." The dreams were unclear, similar to a fragrance that was hard to hold on to, but she remembered it to be a sweet memory.

"You weren't," Vladimir cleared her doubts, "You were one of the most well-behaved child when you were small, and the most loved."

A warm smile spread across Constance's lips, "Thank you for your kind words. If you ever want to borrow a canvas, you can ask me for it. I would be happy to share my canvas and the charcoals with you," she offered.

When Vladimir had decided to come to Heaven to help Calhoun and find his way to Heaven, which was ironic, but that wasn't the only reason why he had agreed to help. He had hoped to take Constance from Heaven too. After all, she was his daughter. What were the angels thinking by keeping the Devil's child with them?

Tch, kidnapping her, huffed Vladimir to himself.

He was the Devil, and he wanted to live up to his name by taking Constance away from here. Being the Devil, he could do it. But he knew the pain and misery Constance had gone through in the living world before coming here.

Calhoun wasn't the only one who had gone looking for answers about his mother, as even Vladimir had tried to get information about Constance, trying to know the life she had led. He had tried to hunt down who had hurt her in the past, but Calhoun had killed them all.

"Do you like it here?" questioned Vladimir, and Constance looked at him.

Constance nodded her head, "Very much," and that decided what she wanted. In the past, Vladimir had forced her to live in his way, and it had resulted in her life taking the worse turn. He wasn't going to do something that she wasn't ready for.

Vladimir exhaled and said, "That settles then. I will come back again, and I hope at that time, you will be able to remember more things."

On the other side, Michael and Raphael were taking a stroll next to each other, with Raphael intently explaining something as the other archangel listened to him. When their eyes fell on the person with whom Constance was speaking to, Michael's eyes narrowed.

At the same time, Vladimir disappeared from there, and Raphael said, "He must have missed her. She is his daughter."

Michael's eyes hardened, "Make sure to check her memory as well as increase the number of angels to guard the perimeter and near the gates of Heaven."

Raphael waited for Michael to say something more, but Michael didn't say anything more, Raphael let out an internal sigh of relief when Michael turned around and went back to the main tower. Right now, Raphael and Paschar were not allowed to step out of Heaven, but hopefully, one day, they would be able to go back to the living world.

Back in the living world, in the Hawthrone Castle, Madeline and Calhoun who had returned to their room had locked the room's door.

Madeline had made Calhoun to sit on the bed, and she tended his forehead that had a mark due to the wound that he had received while fighting with Michael. As it was a wound inflicted by an archangel on a demon. The mark had not disappeared the way it usually did and it continued to stay.

She dabbed the wet cloth on Calhoun's forehead while standing between his legs, "Does it hurt?" asked Madeline with worry in her voice.

Calhoun was not bothered with the wound or the ache that he felt on his back because of the archangel's staff. There was a smile on his lips as Madeline was back, and that is all he wanted—not caring about anything else.

"Cal?" Madeline stopped dabbing the wound and looked straight into his red eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Perfectly fine. You worry for nothing," Calhoun caught hold of her hand, that held the wet cloth, and he brought it down. He took the cloth and put it down before making her sit on his lap so that he could hold and look at her. Cherish her even more than before. "Kiss me, and everything will feel better."

Within a heartbeat, Madeline closed the distance between their lips and she kissed him. Pressing her warm lips on his, "If it doesn't feel better, I can kiss again," she whispered on his lips.

Thinking back about the time where she had spent a few hours without knowing who Calhoun was, it somewhere frightened her. She knew the angels did what they had to do, but remembering the memories she had forgotten before gaining it back was something she was not ready to let go of.

Calhoun's nose touched her nose, rubbing the tips. "I would like some more, maybe lots, but you already know how I feel," he said, pulling her closer and kissing her again. Madeline circled her arms around Calhoun's neck, and she pushed him to the surface of the bed to only have her positions changed with Calhoun on top of her as he had flipped her on her back. "When did you learn such things?" he asked her, his eyes fascinatingly looking at her.

Madeline's lips stretched with a smile she couldn't keep to herself as she was happy to have Calhoun's presence near her. Her hands reached for him, her fingers tracing his cheeks and then jaw before it slid down to feel his broad shoulders.

"There is a saying that when two people love and live together, they end up picking up each other's habits," said Madeline. Calhoun caught hold of one of her hands, kissing her wrist with his eyes closed before he opened them.

"You learned it from me," Calhoun hummed in approval. His eyes fell on her face, staring deep into her eyes, "I was worried I lost you."

"But you found me." It was a risky move for him while being a demon to enter Heaven. Not to forget, even if Calhoun wasn't Vladimir's grandson, he wouldn't be welcomed into Heaven because of the sins he had committed. "Thank you for coming to get me."

Calhoun pressed his lips on Madeline's forehead, leaving a tender kiss before he said, "I would never leave you alone."

When he pulled away, tears appeared in her eyes, and he gave her a questioning look, "What's the matter, my sweet rose?"

Madeline smiled at him, "It's been a long journey."

Calhoun offered her a warm smile, "And there's more ahead of us. Now that we have the demons and the angel's out of our way, I think it's finally the time to have for ourselves." With one snap of his fingers, her angelic robes turned to white feathers before they disappeared from the bed.