The Ladies of the Past

“No. No,” I shook my head. “That was Renee. That wasn’t me. I’m Arianna. Not Renee from your past life.”

“You are The Lady,” Tony said, “So you are one and the same.”

That sounded gibberish to me. How could I be the same person as all of those girls Xander showed me in the paintings? It was bollocks!

“What about Crishella and Kinara then?” I asked. “Kinara can’t be me. She’s too badass to be me.”

“They were you too. Just in a different time,” he answered calmly. “Plus, you are a badass, Arianna. You always were and always will be.”

Oh, that was actually nice. But that was beside the point.

“I don’t remember anything from their lives…”

“But you’ve started having flashbacks, right?” Tony continued, “You’ll start to remember them one by one and not in sequential order.”

Okay… that was a lot to take in. So, I was about to remember all eight–because I was the ninth–lives I hadn’t known.

I wrote Renee’s name on the paper, then I made a line from the name to Tony’s name. “So… we were lovers. In which cycle was this?”

“The third.”

“Hmm. I– I mean, she... Renee, I mean... She didn’t take a turn dating all of you?” I asked.

“You did,” he said, “But you chose me.” A gentle smile quirked up from his face. “And I’m honored because of it.”

I blinked.

Did I choose the devil? Did I choose him over all the other princes? Then… wasn’t that the same thing as my past life telling me that Tony was the one? That he was the one destined to be the Dark Lord? To think about it, Tony was the only devil in this group of princes. He was the only one with dark powers, and even the demon that attacked me and Mateo in the hospital cowered from Tony.

So, was it not logical for Tony to be the Dark Lord?

“Tony,” I continued, “Why do you want to be the Dark Lord?”

He took a long sip of his coffee. His eyes were glued on me. “I want to get back to Hell,” he said, “My father is the demon king, but he banished me from the realm and reject me against my right to the throne of hell.”

“Why?”

He took another sip. Longer this time.

“Because I fell in love with you.” His words came like a cutting knife to ice. Cold and sharp. Yet it left a hollow pang in my chest.

“Before the four princes were acknowledged,” he started telling his story, “No one knew of who would be considered as contenders to win the Lady’s favor.”

*Huh*. ‘Contenders’. What a fancy word… not. It sounded like I was a trophy that would be given to four men fighting each other to death in a bloodbath arena. But I decided to keep my mouth shut and let the demon continued his story.

“But for the first two cycles, each of us started butting heads out of the blue. At first, it was just Alexander, Michael, and I, Because Renald isn’t born yet.” He took a deep breath. “We kept getting entangled with the same woman for decades until Alexander finally told us about the prophecy and took us in.”

Tony told me that the first woman was a princess. The second one was a slave that Alexander bought. The third one was Renee. The fourth and fifth were actually related by blood. Yes, the grandmother and the daughter. The sixth was Crishella. The seventh was a real princess named Fiona. The eighth and the last before me was an ordinary girl named Anastasia.

“Hey, look at that,” I said, wanting to put a lighter vibe to the conversation, “Finally another ordinary girl than me.”

I secretly wrote down the names of all the Lady ever existed in my journal. I noticed that with each cycle, there were more names. As though the princes were getting more and more personal with each Lady in the later cycles. There was, however, one name that I couldn’t find.

“Where’s Kinara in all this?”  

“Oh.” Tony’s gaze darkened again. “That one is the original Lady. The one that causes these cycles and prophecy to begin with.”

I digested his words while remembering the facts about the cycle that Xander had told me the day before. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I could not remember a single thing about the origin story. 

"How did she cause the prophecy?" I asked carefully.

Tony took another sip. I did too. And...

"Oh, my god!" My eyes widened at the taste of the coffee. "This is so good!"

I saw Tony smiled seeing me impressed with the coffee. 

"One of my many talents, babe," he said. Then he drooped his eyelashes again. His tone grew small, "You used to love the coffee I made you every day."

I quirked my eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure coffee is only discovered by the fifteenth century after christ was born," I said confidently, "And you said the cycles have started even before christ was allegedly born. It doesn't add up, demon." I crossed my leg just to prove a point.

"True," he answered calmly, "When I said 'you', I didn't mean Renee. From Crishella to Anastasia, all of you always loved the coffee I made."

*Aha!* I wrote down 'around fifteenth century' next to Crishella's name. Knowing the timeline of the previous ladies might give more clues. I don't know how it would help me in discovering the cure for my illness. It seemed far-fetched for only a day of observation. But hey, any clues can be useful in given time. Besides, I might found a clue to who amongst the princes was the most likely candidate to be the Dark Lord. If I crown one, wouldn't that mean the cycle would stop and I would be free of my illness? After all, they did say my illness is the deadline set by nature for the ninth cycle.

*Hmm... Possible.*

"Did any of my past lives have children with you too?" I asked, "Or with any of the other princes?" 

I was expecting for Tony to answer no. Since Renee seemed to lean on Tony, wouldn't that mean Tony was the most likely candidate?

Plus, if I secretly have a lineage I never knew of... I would want to know.

But his answer surprised me. "I heard you were expecting with Alexander too."