Rule and Ruin

twenty-five; the light of freedom

chapter twenty-five.

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NIX DID NOT kill Dino immediately once they captured him. Something about wanting to play with his food.

Selene didn't really have a say in things regarding Dino anymore. He was Nix's prey, and Nix had starved for the past ten years. The hatred that burned in his eyes was enough to raise hell on Earth.

The next few days, Nix spent his time wherever he had Dino locked away while Selene spent her time with Adelaide. Nix never spoke about what he did to Dino when he returned, so Selene never asked. All she knew was his murderous intent was being satisfied.

As for Adelaide, Selene still had trouble talking to the girl without flinching.

"Do you know who I am?" Selene asked her one day.

"You're Selene."

"Who I was," Selene clarified, "before I came here."

"Were you someone different?"

"Yeah," Selene looked away. "I was bad, Adelaide. You would have hated me."

Adelaide was silent. Part of Selene wanted Adelaide to hate her, because then maybe she wouldn't feel this goddamned guilty all the time.

"I didn't know you then," Adelaide said finally. "I know you now, and now is what matters."

It was Selene's turn to be silent.

"I want to forget the past," she continued. "I don't want to think about it. If your past scares you too, then maybe you should try forgetting it too."

So Selene tried to forget by thinking long and hard about what she wanted to do next.

The underground was in turmoil now that Dino had disappeared. Everyone was climbing over themselves trying to grasp for power they could not wield. It was a mountain of arrogant, power hungry idiots who would have destroyed the empire she built if she didn't do something.

It felt strange to be in a world without Dino. He had once controlled everything in her life, even her memories.

Now, she let herself dream of a world past that. Past Dino's manipulation. Past her father's shadowed face.

"He's dead," Nix said one day as they sat on the roof. He stared up at the sky, informing the stars of the promise he had kept.

"Okay."

Selene did not ask how. Did not ask when.

Selene did not feel anything for the death of her previous guardian. Instead, she gazed over at Nix, watching the moonlight trace the crease of his eyelids, the curve of his nose, the cut of his jaw.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Satisfied. Fulfilled," he hummed. "Free."

He looked freer. The demons no longer followed his gaze, no longer circled his shadows. He turned to look at her, and his eyes held a childlike brightness she had never seen before.

She smiled, "Good."

On that cornered rooftop, silence was a soothing melody that quelled their fears. They sat beside each other in silence, basking in all they had accomplished.

"Nicholas," she said after a few moments. "Will you help me with something?"

He leaned back on his left arm and looked at her, his eyes gleaming under the moonlight. He took a strand of her hair.

"For you," he said softly, "I would do anything."