Sybil (Completed)

A Little Wicked

The morning air is crisp and cool, blowing through my wet hair as I sit on the porch, enjoying the silence of the morning as I breath in the fresh air. I barely slept after my talk with Penelope, her words repeating over and over again in my head as I became stressed about everything around me. I woke up at dawn, brewing myself tea as I came out to the sitting area on the porch, taking in the sunrise over the tips of the trees as the sunshine bled through the leaves. As the moon had faded away into the sky, I found myself recalling my two brief encounters with Lily Maxwell, as she was at my wedding and I had then gone to her later for questions about Zion. She was nothing more but a fragile human when I last saw her, afraid of the world she was thrust into, and unsure just how much she wanted to find out. 

"Do you wish we had met under different circumstances...at different paths in our lives?" 

Looking over, I spot Zion in the doorway as he looks to me, pondering his own question as well. "Nothing can change how we met," I comment, placing my cup of tea down as he walks over to the seat beside me. 

"But if we could, would you?" 

I bite my lip, thinking over the question as the silence seems to drag on. "I wish I could have known a younger version of yourself, the one before Lillian collided with your path." It's an honest answer, for I wish I could have met the Zion without such a dark and twisted past. "Would you change it?" 

"No." His answer shocks me. "The man I was before Lillian was one of arrogance, entitlement, harmful ways, and lack of respect for others. Lillian was a dark part of my past, but without all she did, I would not have become someone who would have helped you the day that thief took your purse, I would not have lead you to my car and whisked you away...let you see my life and have you be part of it." 

His words are honest, something which makes me happy to hear as Zion leans forward in his seat. His eyes scan the horizon, the treeline as the bright rays of the sunrise are reflected in his eyes. "I am scared of what is happening...of what could happen," I whisper, my voice weak as I want to seem strong in these moments. 

"The future is never certain." 

"Sometimes I wish it were," I comment, catching Zion's gaze as he shakes his head. 

"Then there would be no surprises in life, none to shock you and leave you happy or sad, angry, disgusted, and every other emotion which makes us human. Part of life is experiencing all of those emotions and surprises." Zion is right, for without the excitement and even the pains life gives us, would it really be the same? "Perhaps it took your death and resurrection for the two of us to really come together." 

I bite my cheek, wondering if we really are together. I have learned more of who Zion is than when I married him, I have come to terms with reality, we have started to trust one another as well...but will we ever really come together. We have promised Keva and her kin a child of our own, something I do not wish to produce unless I have really come to love Zion again. "There are still obstacles in our way," I point out, referring to Lily Maxwell and what she plans to do. 

"We will conquer those obstacles, I swear to you," Zion promises, his tone stern as he looks over to the door. 

Penelope stands there, her skin pale, and her face holding an expression I wish would be erased from her face. She steps forward, her legs seeming weak, arms supporting her up as she walks over to the lounge chair, colliding into the seat as I immediately ask her what is wrong. A phone drops from her hand, the screen cracking against the porch as the most powerful woman in this kingdom I've ever known seems completely weak in this moment. Her auburn hair usually curled with gently waves is in wet tangles from a shower, bags under her eyes, and the spark missing from her eyes. Zion calls out to her, telling her to inform us what happened, to tell us what has happened which scares her.