AZA 

'Give him a pinch if he needs this.' That's all Faux had said as he handed her the little box. Aza wondered if it was like a pain drug or something. She slid the lid open and looked down at the cream-colored powder. It seemed a little random. She took a pinch between her fingers and sniffed it. It didn't have a smell. She contemplated licking some up but didn't.

Aza glanced over to Del, who remained with his back to the room. A lot had happened to him in the past week. Shot down twice, the second time by his own brother. And he was technically dead. He had died, as Evabelle had put it. But Aza still couldn't believe that. She remembered the fear of seeing the two of them lying in the ditch, but then the relief that both of them were breathing. She couldn't imagine what her reaction would have been if it had been otherwise.

She was curious, since Del's silence, she didn't actually know how he felt about the whole situation, other than annoyed that he wasn't going with Evabelle and the others. But a dark stirring in Aza's stomach burned with the question of what Del was thinking about his brother right now. Lucis had torn his wing off. Murdered him. Even though he was alive now, it didn't mean it didn't happen.

Aza hadn't said this to anyone, but she was afraid. No, she was terrified. And she was so angry because it was the man with the pristine, white angel wings that had her jarred. When Evabelle had first come back from running after Lucis, she'd seen the bruises, dark, and painful. Bloody, swollen lips. The wincing that she tried to hide.

It all flashbacked to when Aza had her own little bluish marks that she told everyone it came from her own clumsiness. No one questioned, since she had been a rather rambunctious kid. She remembered wishing that they had seen beyond her lies, that they would notice the wincing, and the tears behind the smile.

Lucis had hurt Evabelle just like Aza's father used to hurt her and her mother.

But Aza knew better. It was an entirely different situation, but that didn't erase the damage.

Aza stared at the back of Del's dark head. It was his brother. His brother did this to him. She opened her mouth, but then shut it. She looked back down at the box in her hands and chose a wiser path. "Um, hey, do you need this?"

"No,"

Aza looked up again. "Are you angry at me?"

Del didn't say anything.

"I should have known better," Aza sighed and leaned back in her cushioned seat. "Can I ask why? I mean specifically. I didn't choose to be the one to stay behind with you, you know. I know you wanted to go too, but there was definitely no way for you to go. And me, the one lacking in the super power department, is the cliché choice to stay behind, because clearly I'd wipe the floor with all of them."

Del groaned.

"Honestly, what made you so pissy all the time? Why are you so dark and broody like there's a rock shoved up your butt?" Aza snipped.

"Ah, you want to hear my abhorrent back-story. Confess all my pain to you, pour out my soul," Del scoffed. "Is knowing that my father is the cause of this mess and the truth about my brother not enough for you?"

Aza scrunched up her nose, but did her best to remain unaffected. "You said it yourself, your brother's truth." They had heard some of Lucis's background, and of course, Del was in there, but the discussion had been focused on the older brother. "Maybe I'd be able to at least understand you better if I heard some more of your side. And maybe seeing 'why' could help." Her mind flashed back to the fever induced Anahalian, his smile that made her breathless. What had happened to that? What had happened to that man?

Del shook his head again. "You'll just judge me to be as you see me. You did it before you knew me. People who do know my story, or whatever, still do."

Aza bit her lip. The very first time they'd met she'd seen the worst in him. Even though, he could still drive her up the wall, things were different. "I'm sorry."

Del went still.

"You're right."

Del's blanket flung off his body and landed over Aza's head. "Hey!" She leapt up, dropped the box, and tore the blanket off to gawk at Del staggering toward the door. He reached it and swung it open.

"What are you doing?" Aza scrambled after him.

"I need air," Del grunted as he stumbled into the entry.

Aza cut him off, blocking his path as she faced him. Del jerked and tripped forward, catching himself partway on a small decorative table, the other on Aza, herself. She cast up her arms and his hot chest pressed heavily against her damp palms.

Of course, he wasn't wearing a shirt either. With his wing the way it was, they thought it better if it wasn't dealing with any stress beyond the sling that wrapped around his waist.

Blood roared in Aza's ears as his head bowed forward over her face, his breath, ragged and blazing. His dark hair hung limply down, over the pair of them, blocking out their surroundings like closed curtains.

The subject they had silently promised to never bring up slipped out of Aza's mouth in the form of a deadly question. "Why did you kiss me?"

Del's pained, exhausted eyes widened. He propelled himself up and away from her, using his hand on the table, nearly knocking it and the pretty blue vase over. He shoved forward, as wobbly as a baby animal but far more stubborn than one, toward the front door. He jostled the large doorknob until it opened and lurched out into the night.

Aza followed quickly, just in time to see him reach one of the large pillars at either side of the front porch, and slide himself down it, sitting on the step. The tiny blonde girl didn't move from the doorway, but she stared at his back, the lines of strain along his spine. The lean v shape of him, down to his hips, were taut. The muscles along them shifting as he settled himself and his glorious black wings, sweeping behind him, like a dark cape.

Why did he have to be this way?

Aza clenched her fists. Well, she had said it. There was no backing down now. "It happened." It happened again, though she hoped he didn't know that. There had also been several times where she thought that it might happen again, when they were both lucid enough for it. "We can pretend it didn't happen, but it did. Maybe you don't think about it, but I do. It's screwed with me ever since it happened, okay. I just want to know what made you kiss me, when you're in love with Cedia." Okay, so she was going there too.

Aza watched the metaphysical ice bucket wash down Del's back as he somehow stiffened more.

"Who...?" Aza started to whisper.

"I don't know!" Del snapped.

Aza blinked. "What?"

"I don't know why I kissed you."

A gentle breeze ruffled his hair and made some of his feathers stick up. It blew past Aza as she closed the door behind her and went to the pillar on the other side, across from him, and sat beside it. The two of them didn't say anything for a long while. Aza tilted her head back and stared up at the glowing speckles in the sky. It didn't bring her normal peace this time, though. Her stomach was tied in too many knots. Her hear t felt like it was beating in a far smaller space than it should be.

"I've always hated being the Oracle."

Aza's gaze fell and she slid it over at him.

"But after my dad killed my mother and everyone found out my brother had demon heart, it became so much worse."

Aza bit her lip, determined not to interrupt him.

Del ran a hand through his hair. "I was never good at being the Oracle. It's a difficult thing for everyone, so they have to work through it. Overtime people get better. They don't pass out. They can semi-manipulate when they know a vision is coming. They have a have a hand in it. More control." He turned his head away. "King Zion was trying to teach me that, but I was a terrible student. I was afraid of the visions and the dreams. I hated them so much. He gave me a drug, a powder that eliminates dreams. It was only until I gained more confidence, but Averno killed him. Everything got worse after that. I was more stressed and scared than ever and there was no one who could..."

Aza's insides writhed. He didn't have a lot of emotion in the words, but the pain was right there, underneath the glass he placed over it. She wanted to reach out and touch him.

"That box that Faux gave you is the stuff. The stuff I'm dependant on because the thought of going back and diving into the Hell that I used to have to swim through was too much." Del's wings moved a little. The fragile one made him grimace. No one had said anything about the faint line of gold around its base. It hadn't gone away since they'd found him. "After my mom and the king and queen's deaths, Lucis and I were practically on our own. We stayed in the castle, under Kayne, but he was a busy man, taking care of council business. So we were left to fend for ourselves against the rest of the Anahalians that hated Lucis."

Del banged his fist on the stair, making Aza jump, as he finally looked at her. "I owe my brother everything. I know what you think of him after this. It's what everyone has ever thought about him. He's not a monster! He fights every day. He's sacrificed who he was for the sake of everyone that's berated him."

Aza shook her head, her eyes burning suddenly. "I d-don't..." But it wasn't true. She was scared. "He hurt Evabelle. He k-kill--"

"No," Del snarled. "That's not who he is! Lucis is the boy who took care of his baby of a twin after we both lost our parents. Lucis is the boy who was beat when he had done nothing, and yet he was the one who apologized. He was the one who would leave for days at a time, to go off on his own and meditate, clear away his own dreams of adventure and heroism and higher-strung emotions, so that he could pour all his focus into keeping back the dark desires that his heart told him to do. He's the boy, who I watched as his personality, my brother's spirit, trickled out of him so that he could become strong against what was in his own body." The glass shield was smashed as the emotions poured into these words, and Aza found herself pressing herself into the pillar as they were thrown at her.

Del turned away again, looking down at his feet. His tone dropped, but the intensity still held. "And yet people still loathe him. They want him dead. And they all pitied me."

Aza blinked, slowly pushing herself back up.

"They pitied the weak Oracle, who couldn't control his power. They pitied the boy with the demon family." He clenched his fists again. "My brother has never been a demon. He's the furthest from one. I decided if they were going to call him the demon, I'd show them that I was the one who deserved the title. And in the end it worked. We were both the boys, who worked for our psychotic father, and that was better. I'd rather be hated than pitied."

"But you hate that too," Aza whispered.

She saw his eyes widen fractionally as he stared at the ground, but he didn't speak. Again there was a emptiness in the air, still riddled with anxiety and tension.

"Why did you kiss me?"

All the heat in Aza's body evaporated at his question.

He knew.

He knew what had happened. He'd put it together. His voice was, again, completely unreadable. Her heart buzzed. Though her insides had a freaking siren blaring, she managed to keep composure on the outside. She turned her head forward and rested her chin on her hands. Her eyes were still stinging, like mad, but she wasn't going to cry.

"I don't know," She lied.

LUCIS

Klan did agree to go and tell the others where the witch was, and Lucis had convinced him to keep it straight with them and drop the riddles. But the kid had ran off with tears in his eyes and the feeling of elation sapped away, the further the changeling ran.

Lucis had done it again. It was like holding running water in his hands. It just slipped out. There wasn't enough to contain it all. His stomach was still weak and he thought he might hurl again, but not from the smell of sewage that surrounded him.

The portal was within a crevice in the wall. Lucis could feel the magic around it that probably warded off normal humans. Open portals with no mages manning them, was very illegal, but witches had learned the trick and did it all the time.

Lucis held his breath, pulled his wings in tight and slid inside. Suddenly, the smelly cesspit was replaced with an earthy, overgrown tunnel. He was forced to duck as he trailed down in the direction that Klan had instructed.

Anxiety crawled along his back and arms, or that might have been the insects. Anahalians did not do well in closed spaces. And with Lucis, a few ticks away from a mental breakdown, this was not the best place to be, yet he pushed forward.

He almost missed the bar. The darkness around him and the lack of sound coming from it practically camouflaged place. He had almost passed right by.

He bowed lower and pushed back the lichen door to find a the hovel in ruins. The place couldn't have been that nice to begin with, but now broken tables, shattered glass, dark unknown drinks spilled all over, littered every inch. Trolls, goblins, dwarves, and imps all lay in unconscious heaps. Blood pooled at a few mouths, where Lucis could see long claw marks scored into their chests, and that's when he realized they were dead. Not all of them, but the ones nearest the door behind the counter were definitely gone.

Lucis stepped over them and eased himself around. His heart thumped in his ears and he did everything he could to avoid thinking about the death and how disappointed he was that he'd missed the fight.

A glassy-eyed dwarf with long dreadlocks lay right behind the big bar. There was a massive hole where the claws were plunged directly through. It was all so fresh. The scent was everywhere. Lucis held his breath again and pushed the door open that lead to a hallway of a few doors. It was where people might stay the night, or make illicit deals of some kind. At the end, he saw orange light coming from the far wall, as well as a few more slumped over men. These ones had claws, and open, empty yellow eyes. Werewolves.

Lucis lifted his leg to step over the pile when a furry, gnarled hand seized his ankle. Claws sunk into his flesh and the Anahalian bit his lip and stared down at the bony man. "No...no one can get past m-me. I am Kenneth, the greates--"

Lucis brought his foot down on the werewolf's face, cause blood to burst from the beast's nose. He howled and released Lucis. The winged man kicked him harder and the man fell silent.

Lucis stared down at him, hungrily. He could finish this one off. He was evil. It was okay. The flutter of his heart triggered Lucis. He still held his duren-dal blade. He could rip him to shreds, right here. His hand trembled at the inner struggle.

No. Lucis ripped his gaze up and forcefully pushed himself beyond them. Not now, not like this. He couldn't do it when he was as weak and susceptible as he was. The further he dug the harder it would be to eventually get out of the hole.

He shoved the wall, harder than was necessary, and it opened to another hall, but with nice tile and colored walls. Once inside, he almost slammed the slab shut behind him, but then thought of the others. They'd be coming, He should leave it cracked for them.

The corridor was low lit by regular electric lights along the redwood walls. However, Lucis doubted that they were connected to any grid. The ceiling was too low for his taste. It wasn't like the tunnels on the other side of the tavern, where he was ducking low, and his wings were crammed into his spine. However it still felt like the walls were a little too close together. And were they moving in?

He shook the claustrophobia away, though his lungs still felt like they couldn't take in as much air as they normally could.

Lucis blinked down at the floor. The tile was cream and pocked with splotches of other variations of the color. Among them, however, were distinct discolorations that were not a part of it. The faint smears popped up every once and a while, which was clearly the blood from the battlefield he'd just past through.

Was it on her hands?...Or claws? Was it her blood? Was she hurt?

Lucis picked up the pace. The knife in his hand lengthened out into his sword and his roiling insides eased slightly. There was something about his soul weapon that always helped to cool him. He zoned in on his hearing, to catch any movement or heartbeat. There was nothing in the general vicinity as he continued on.

He paused as he came to a perpendicular hallway and saw doors down them on either side. He tried to focus in to find if there was anyone behind any of the doors, yet still there was nothing.

It was too quiet. The place could be soundproofed against him. That witch had far too much power if she could keep an army, like the one they suspected she had, this still.

Even with his sword, this made him more wary. It was looking more and more suspicious. He'd already considered the possibility of it being a trap, and this was either a sign that it was or that they'd missed their chance. Etheldreda might have figured out they'd been found and left already. However, Lucis doubted this, since the werewolves by the secret door, seemed to be guarding the place.

None of the doors opened for some other monster to pounce on him, though. He rolled his wrist, the light glinting off his prized weapon, as he prepared for the strike. But it didn't come.

Lucis considered turning right and just checking the first door, but just a few steps ahead of him, he spotted another smudge. His grip tightened. This one was different. He passed the turn and went over to the puddle. Yes, puddle. The others were a few drops, like some had slipped off from her hands, but this was far more. It was a splatter mark that boded far more ominous.

Beyond it, he saw a cluster of silvery blue feathers. He's seen one a little further back, and that was when he knew he was on the right trail, but this was a lot.

Sure, Anahalians lost a few stray feathers from time to time, but this was full on molting. Anahalians molted all their feathers when they were young, and then it would come in stronger and more powerful. It was like losing teeth, but that didn't happen again until they got on with age.

What Lucis was looking at, should not be. It went on, and he saw more and more down the way.

An almost imperceptible sound finally reached his ears. A gasp and a grunt of pain as someone fell onto hard floor.

It came from straight ahead, which was where the Anahalian ran. The looming passageway, graciously ended when he burst into a spacious room that reminded Lucis of the Sanctuary entryway. It was rounded with a few doors on either side. The ceiling was tall with a large immaculate crystal light. There was even a grand staircase leading up, although it did not split off into two more flights like the one at Calandra's.

Lucis would have been relieved to finally be in a place not so closed in, where he didn't feel the tension in his bones as he pulled his wings tighter in, but the chances of that were instantly decimated by the mutated girl at the bottom of the stairs.

An elongated spine with sharp vertebrae jutting out through stretched leather skin, faced him. Wings with mere patches of gray feathers shuddered. Blood beaded down them, but pooled all around her. Most of her hair had fallen out. Hands...one hand and one set of extended talons, clutched her head as a shriek hissed through her teeth, as she did her best to repress the sound.

"Tru!" Lucis dashed forward.

She whipped her head around and he saw one eye sealed shut, the bone growing into place where it had been. Half her mouth tugged her skin up, revealing the long needle fangs replacing the teeth. "Stop!" She held up her still human hand, her one eye widening. "I'm contagious! Stay back!"

His steps slowed. "But--"

Tru forcefully shook her head. "Don't," she choked out, yet it held the firmness that brought Lucis to a halt and bitterly stare down at her in complete helplessness.

Amazingly, the other side of her face, that was still mostly human, split upward in a fragile smile. Her eyebrow angled up in an expression of had to be impossible relief. "So you did get me message, then. You got here fast. Where are the others?"

Lucis took in a deep breath. "I was on my own when your messenger found me, but I told him to go get the others as well. I went on ahead."

Tru wheezed out a strained chuckle. Her fists opening and closing against the stained marble. "I think I'm actually thankful for that. It means I might actually be able to make it up to you...well at least say something I should have."

"Why did you send it for me?" Lucis suddenly butted in. "You sent the boy to directly find me. Why?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said, you idiot?" She laughed again, a laughter that was filled with the agony that had to be coursing through her palpitating body.

Lucis just couldn't understand how...and yet he did.

"I wanted to talk to you. To you, specifically. I've been wanting to talk to you for months." She curled forward on herself, the shaking getting worse. The lines of pain deepened in the human half of her face. "But I couldn't do it. I just couldn't face you. I couldn't face anyone after everything I'd done."

Lucis shook his head and took a silent step closer. "What are you talking about?"

Her eye shut tight and a tear was quickly wiped away. "I'm sorry, Lucis. I'm sorry for taking my own fear and anger out on you. I'm sorry for giving up on you."

Lucis's breath caught in his throat.

"I knew you were a good person. We grew up together and I always knew you never wanted to be a monster and that none of it was your fault."

Lucis indiscernibly flinched.

Tru lifted her head and pushed herself up a little more as a clump of feathers fluttered down from one of her frayed wings. "In the end we were all pulled into Averno's war, but you'd been living with one inside yourself for so much of your life. You fought every single day. I watched you. I knew you fought tooth and nail to never slip off the straight and narrow. You were a better man than any other Anahalian in Jovis. I stood up for you over and over. But then in a single moment, I forgot all of that. Then when I went after you for it and..." She trailed off, but they both knew what she was talking about.

Lucis could still feel her heartbeat under his fingers as he squeezed the life from her. Her eyes rolled back and the adrenaline of exhilarating fire, danced in his chest.

After that he'd embraced every word, insult, and accusation she threw at him because he deserved it. He deserved so much worse.

Lucis bowed his head.

"The fight isn't easy," Tru started again. "I know firsthand, and I am grateful."

Lucis's head shot up and he gawked at her. "Grateful!"

A tear that she didn't have time to rub away, rolled down her cheek. "I'd forgotten about the greatest Anahalian. I'd forgotten his war and his pain, and then I was given it too. It wasn't until I was lost, flying over a lake, miles away from everyone where I let myself fall in and intended on letting go, that I thought of you. I thought of the boy that never gave up when his world hated him, when his own heart and mind betrayed him, when I betrayed him. I thought of how he did fight every day. To live and to be good. He never let the beast win. Yes, you stumbled, but you straightened back up and moved forward again and again and again." Tru took in a breath that sounded like, she was sucking it through a rickety straw.

"Lucis, it was you who kept me going, who kept me fighting. Without you, I couldn't...I...." She shook her head and coughed but cleared her throat, quickly. "I haven't done as well as you, though. This virus attacks the body and the mind. You saw what I did back there." She waved a clawed hand vaguely behind Lucis. "Animal instincts drowned me out and suddenly everyone was bleeding out in front of me." She coughed again, and Lucis heard her heart pound harder. "Sure they weren't good people, but I lost myself for a moment. I had no control. I don't--want that. I'm not--g-going to let--it." The words were coming out disjointed as if each one took too much effort.

Her heart spasmed and Tru's cough broke through again, taking hold, sending waves through her entire frame. Flecks of blood dispelled over the floor. More and more of it came, and it slowly started to resemble the puddle Lucis had seen earlier.

He knelt down a few feet from the seizing girl. "Tru! Tru, can you hear me?"

She nodded through the hacking.

"Please, I need you to listen right now. Fighting is good. Fighting against the monster, but this is killing you. I think you should stop. We'll get the cure, okay. We'll fix you." His hand shook with the urge to extend out and hold her.

The coughing slowed and she turned her head to him again. Exhaustion cracking though every pore of her expression. Her mouth came up again in the half smile that made no sense. She scraped out. "Is that what you would do?"

Lucis's mouth pressed shut.

Tru nodded. "Exactly. I won't let it win." Her human hand suddenly reached out toward him, stopping just a few inches away. "Promise me, you won't let it win."

Tru had no idea what had happened to him over the past few weeks. She hadn't watched him fall as low as he was now. She didn't know his defenses had crumbled, that at any moment he might just randomly kill anyone, who was looking at him funny.

"I promise."

Tru's grin grew. "I know."

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her entire body bucked as blood bubbled up from her parted lips. Rasping, gurgling sounds replaced the screams of pain. The rest of her feathers floated down from her wings and her heart fell still.

And Lucis knelt there the whole time, watching her slip away from him, as he did nothing.

Her body lay covered in blood and feathers. Her one eye was still halfway open, but Lucis couldn't even reach out to close it.

There had been other Anahalians that had not survived the transformation. Lucis had figured it was because it affected some people differently, but now he thought he finally understood.

The image of the lifeless girl flickered to the others he'd seen. He remembered the hospital lab that an Anahalian woman, who co-owned his favorite sweet shop, Mrs. Karem, had dragged him too. She'd illegally taken him into the quarantined zone, one night. She'd shoved him against the window and told him to look at the fruits of his labor. She had asked him if this was what he wanted. If him and his father would ever be satisfied.

Some were dead. Some were screaming in agony, writhing, and sobbing, chained to their beds as their body turned against them.

Lucis never broke face in front of anyone, even when everyone provoked him. When his teacher had attacked him as a child, he hadn't even reacted, even when he saw it coming. He didn't say anything when his friends flew away from him. He held his own brother back from going after them to shout at them. They weren't worth it. But seeing those people that day, had broken him and he'd folded. He hadn't cried, he'd just stared down at the floor as the woman's shrieks that this was what he'd done to Jovis, faded into the back of his mind.

But there were tears that fell over his cheeks, because then Tru's image flickered to another. Dark hair, pale face, blood everywhere, one wing, and no heartbeat. That truly was his fault. Dead. Even if Calandra said it wasn't true; that Evabelle had saved his brother, it didn't mean the feeling of Del's corpse under his fingers would go away.

Then it was Tru again. He hadn't infected her, but she'd apologized to him. He didn't deserve that. ' Lucis, it was you who kept me going, who kept me fighting.' And now she was dead because she'd fought it. Because of hi--

A sharp clicking against the hard floor, put Lucis's mind back on alert. He looked up to see the red-headed witch, slip out of one of the side doors of the round room. Her hands rested on her hips as she shook her head at Tru's disfigured form. "That sometimes happens to those who think they can stop the virus by sheer strength of will. It battles it out inside them and hurts them far more than if they just accepted it. If she had just let it happen, she'd still be alive. Stupid girl."

Lucis moved before his mind could process that he'd made the decision. He zoomed forward and slammed Etheldreda into the wall, hands clasped around her throat.

She gasped and blinked through the sudden strike, but her surprised expression melted and was replaced with a smirk. She'd couldn't speak, yet she wasn't even afraid. Is this what she wanted?

Lucis ground his teeth and yanked her forward and knocked her into the wood again. She grunted, but still managed to keep her twisted smile. "You killed her!" He spat in her face.

Etheldreda nodded and gave a dreadful little shrug.

Lucis's muscles clenched, then flapped his wings, towing the girl up with him, until they almost reached the ceiling. That's when that smug expression vanished. Her eyes widened and she blanched, as her irises darted back and forth as they rose. Her hands scrambled at his that still held tight around her neck.

Lucis grinned at her panic. "What? You don't like it up here?" Now this was what he talking about. "That's right, you're afraid of heights."

Etheldreda shook her head, as he gave her enough space for the movement. Why kill her now, when she was finally starting to be some fun?

"P-P-Plea-se--" She struggled out.

"That's right, witch. Beg. Beg mercy from me." He snarled.

Etheldreda's expression contorted as she fought back her own pleas, but they still slipped past her trembling lips.

Lucis threw back his head and laughed. This was too good. Finally, this monster got what she deserved. His unclamped his hand and he flung her from his grip. Her scream echoed through the chamber like blissful music. Then he swooped down and caught her and brought her back up.

Sweat and tears rolled down Etheldreda's forehead and cheeks. She'd shut her eyes tight. Her knuckles were white as she curled them into his arm, determined to not fall again. Her head flopped forward, copper hair, sliding over her ashen face.

Again Lucis pinned her, this time with his knee against her hip, so that he could slide a finger under her chin and lift her head so that her eyes met his. "Now," he whispered. "Beg for death."

Her pupils shrunk as her eyes widened. "W-What?" She gasped with barely a voice left.

"We can play this game for a very long time, Etheldreda. The only way it will stop is if you beg for me to kill you. That is my mercy."

Etheldreda's mouth started to move, but he curled his fingers around her throat again. "No spells, just a plea for death. You understand?"

"Lucis!"

Lucis's head jerked around and he gaped down at the dark-haired woman standing below. Soft bronze freckled skin, slender waist, highlighted through the fighting stance, fists tight at her sides, narrowed eyes of riveting gold that glared up at him, struck him strangely.

He could expect the girl to stare at him with a deeply disturbed expression or in one of complete horror, like when he'd torn Del's wing off, but this was one of scolding. Of strong determined anger that said: 'You're better than this.' It rocked him, but he didn't relinquish.

"She deserves this!" He shouted. "Just think of all that she's done. She deserves to die."

Evabelle shook her head. "Not like this, Lucis."

'Not like this,' He'd held himself back with the werewolves with that thought. Not like this. Words from the dead girl, a few feet from the one he couldn't tear his eyes away from had said, 'I won't let it win...Promise me, you won't let it win.' Had he already forgotten?

Slowly, he began to descend, keeping his eyes on the brunette. He was aware of Raoul standing behind her, standing near Tru's body, and of course the witch in his hands, but Evabelle's words and gaze held a command. One that he found himself unable to refuse. Unable to turn away from.

Etheldreda slipped from his slackened grip, just a few feet from the floor and she instantly cried out, "Pyres!" He arced her arm around and encircled herself in orange fire, and then shot a jettison of flame up at Lucis. He dodged away and landed beside Evabelle.

No words were exchanged. The enchantment had broken with their eye-contact. But it didn't matter; the witch was already rambling out her spell to summon the vagi. She was still shaken, so she was finally bringing in her armies.

Men and women stumbled into the room from the hallway that Lucis, Evabelle, and Raoul had come through. They leapt awkwardly at the three of them and they easily dodged, but the room was filling up.

Raoul pulled out knife. "Vagi? Honestly, this is pathetic. This fight isn't going to be any fun."

"Fights aren't supposed to be fun." Evabelle adjusted her position, her eyes roaming around the enemies.

"Clearly, you've been in the wrong fights, princess." Raoul leered, crouching down.

Lucis unfortunately had to agree with the werewolf. He scooped as sword from the floor and reached back to make a basic blade for Evabelle.

Before he'd even brushed his munera, an orange streak of light burst through the horde, knocking them down, and made way from the captain of the witches guard. A skinny boy, with messy brown hair, and glinting glasses, reflecting from the chandelier's light, strode through the vagi. His hand glowed bright with Etheldreda's power. He raised his fist about to fire directly at Lucis.

Evabelle darted forward and lifted an arm in a high arc, a long steel dagger flashing out. It wasn't an Anahalian's weapon. It matched the knife in Raoul's hand. And she took it straight to CJ. She was going to get hit with the magic and Lucis couldn't make it to her in time.

His heart stopped as he watched her swiftly bring down her blade, without a moment of hesitation, and stab the witch's familiar.