Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Devil you called: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

Chapter 12 The city smelled different at night now.Sharper. Harsher. Like it was holding its breath, waiting for me to slip.I stayed near the alley behind my apartment, the one Malik had shown me where the shadows lingered longer than they should. My mark pulsed beneath my ribs, alive, coiling under my skin like a warning and a promise all at once.“You’re ready,” Malik’s voice whispered in my ear, though he wasn’t there. He rarely materialized when I practiced alone. “You won’t learn sitting behind closed doors. Feel it. Command it.”I swallowed hard. I was terrified. I was exhilarated. I was… hungry.A soft movement in the shadows caught my eye. I froze.Seven feet tall. Charred skin. Glowing white eyes. Its grin split too wide, like it knew secrets it shouldn’t.“You’re alone,” it hissed.“I’m not afraid,” I said, voice steady even as my heart pounded.The creature stepped closer. Its hands—clawed, blackened, curling like smoke—reached for me. I could smell its intent, feel its

Chapter 14 The city was quiet in that eerie way it only got after something supernatural swept through it. Windows stayed dark. Cars didn’t pass. Even stray cats avoided the streets.But inside Malik’s apartment—his newest hideout, ours now—the air pulsed with warmth.Not heat.Not danger.Something deeper.Something that felt like him.I sat on the edge of the mattress, still trembling from the battle. My palms smoked faintly. The mark under my ribs throbbed like a heartbeat trying to break free.Malik sat behind me, legs framing mine, his hands tracing my shoulders with slow, grounding strokes. He didn’t speak yet. He didn’t need to. His presence alone wrapped around me like a shield.Finally, he whispered, “I felt everything you did out there.” His lips brushed my neck. “Every strike. Every fear. Every thrill.”I closed my eyes. “I almost lost control.”He chuckled, soft and wicked. “Baby, you were meant to lose control. That’s how you find yourself.”His hands slid down my arms,

CHAPTER 15 – PART 1“The Prophecy Between Us”I woke up in Malik’s arms with a scream trapped in my throat and the taste of the dream still burning the back of my tongue. My heart was racing so hard I thought it might break through my ribs. The room around me was trembling—not violently, but enough that the picture frames rattled on the walls. Enough to tell me Malik’s emotions were leaking into the physical world again.“Sarai,” Malik murmured, gripping my shoulders like he needed proof I was real. “You were screaming my name like something was tearing you apart. What happened?”His eyes weren’t human—deep red spirals flickering inside black pupils—all power, no disguise.The bed dipped under his weight as he leaned closer. The heat of him pressed into my skin, and for a second, the world felt safe again. His presence always did that—wrapped itself around the broken parts of me, held me together even when everything else was falling apart.But Mama’s words still echoed: One of you

CHAPTER 16 – PART 2“Descent into Darkness”The underworld was nothing like I had imagined. It was alive—pulsing, breathing, moving like a beast with a thousand eyes. Rivers of molten shadow crisscrossed black stone plains, and spires of obsidian twisted skyward like jagged fingers clawing at some impossible ceiling. The air smelled of brimstone and iron, tinged with something almost floral—alive, sentient, and dangerous.Malik held my hand, his grip firm and grounding, shadows curling around us protectively. “Welcome home,” he whispered. “This is where our bond is strongest. Here, no one can reach us. Here, we survive.”I glanced around, heart racing, skin prickling as the mark on my chest pulsed violently. Tendrils of black smoke reached out to the underworld itself, connecting, twisting, fusing with the energy of the realm. My power wasn’t just growing—it was becoming. I could feel the pulse of every creature, every shadow, every ripple of molten energy beneath the stone.“This pla

⸻CHAPTER 18“Throne of Two Shadows”The Elders’ departure left the Hall of Ash humming like it had swallowed a storm. Dust drifted from the cracked ceiling. The molten veins in the floor pulsed brighter, reacting to the power that still clung to my skin like heat.Malik hadn’t stopped staring at me.Not in fear.Not in shock.But in the kind of reverence that made my knees weak.“You don’t understand what you just did,” he murmured, voice low. “Sarai… they bowed. The Elders bowed.”I took a breath that trembled. “I didn’t even know what I was doing.”“That’s what terrifies me,” he said, brushing his fingers over my cheek. “Because you didn’t do it—you became it.”Before I could respond, the ground shuddered.Not from danger.From acknowledgment.The underworld had felt me.Accepted me.Claimed me.And I felt it too—like a second heartbeat under my own, syncing with mine, whispering:You belong.Malik stepped back, black smoke curling from his fingertips. “There’s one more place I nee