For the damned | ✓

37

"HELIO," SHE BREATHED, BUT he didn't seem to hear her.

He was still too much in a haze, staring at her as if she was a dream. She couldn't say she was in a better state herself. Her memories of the past and the present were flooding her mind, as well as the ones from the past lives she had had as this human doll her mother had created. How could she have ever let her guard down around her? More importantly, how many years had she lost playing a game she hadn't signed up for? One look around was enough for her to see the strings on the puppets now, the way they were tied so tightly around their necks that one wrong movement would cause it to snap. Was there even anyone around her who hadn't been her mother's toy?

"Delilah," Roshan said, voice soft.

She glanced at him, his wings almost completely gone now.

"You got your wish," she said.

"I did," he replied, gaze flicking down to his fidgeting hands, before he looked back at her again," none of that matters though. I didn't mean to hurt you, truly. I've grown to care about you, outside of this whole farce, but I couldn't stop it. No one could. Your mother -"

"Niccolo stopped it," she noted, glancing at the shattered opal on the floor.

"I don't know how," Roshan frowned, looking genuinely startled about it," even if the magic was wearing off, it shouldn't be able to break. She told me the magic on it was so strong that even if you took it off, nothing would happen. It had to be, she was paying for it with her life."

She wasn't surprised of the price the magic had been asking of her mother. Hypnotizing anyone would have been difficult, but the Soulweaver was made to be an existence above the others. Of course this had been the only way she could've thought of. All Delilah wondered was how many of these meaningless lives still had been left until her mother's soul had turned into ash. Still, Roshan was right. The magic shouldn't have been able to break that easily. How did Niccolo do it?

As if hearing her thoughts, Niccolo finally looked up then, his gaze which had been trained on the crystal settling on her. He was smiling, like he always had been, but there was something so heartbreaking in his expression that she could almost taste the tears. It was gone within a second though as he snapped his fingers at the shards on the floor, flames dancing around his hands as he let it burn.

"Hey, Lilah," he said," long time no see."

"Let's get out of here," she said, gently placing a hand on Helio's cheek as she glanced at him," all of us."

Roshan lowered his gaze shamefully, but she forced him to look up at her with one wave of her hand.

"You too," she said," we have much to discuss."

She teleported them out of there, immediately making sure the memories of all the people who were present were wiped as well. Though it was only a matter of time before her mother realized, she still could stall it for as long as possible, which meant that none of her puppets could know. Not all of them were under her mother's control, but she couldn't risk it.

She stepped from the portal in the gardens then, unconsciously having chosen Helio's house as the place to go. Once, it had been her home as well. When she passed the fountain she remembered pressing her forehead against his and professing her love. Now she was a stranger in her own life. Helio was the first one to break the silence, but there were none of the usual questions, nothing about how it had happened, how Niccolo had known about the opal. She hadn't expected there to be any. No, when he let himself sink to his knees in front of her, cradling her hands in his like he'd accept any punishment she gave him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered," I'm so sorry, Lilah. How could I have ever let this happen to you?"

"You didn't, Helio," she replied, lowering herself so they were back on eye level again," please don't blame yourself, this wasn't you." She smiled then, cupping his face in her hands. "Besides, you found me again, didn't you?"