Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

02.

I cried out in pain as Hongjoong slammed me against the wall, caging me with his arms this time instead of golden bars. He glared at me for a moment as if trying to catch his breath, to figure out what to say, before he exploded.

"Are you fucking insane?!" he exclaimed, making me flinch slightly as I felt myself shrinking underneath the burning embers within his dark eyes, "What were you thinking?!"

I opened my mouth, wanting to say something, to defend myself, but found myself unable to grasp any of the words that came to mind as I simply stared at him. He scoffed, rolling his eyes as he pushed himself off the wall and gave me a bit of space to breathe.

"Listen here, angel," he growled, once again lacing the word with a tone of anger that left me more confused than scared, "This situation is bad enough as it is, and I don't need a murder on my hands as well just because you-"

"I want to go home," I said, finally mustering up the courage to speak as I interrupted him, fighting to hold his gaze as the look in his eyes darkened.

"Go home? Go home? After what you've seen here? You want to go back to Heaven and revel in the light that you have so greedily been keeping to yourselves for centuries while the rest of us have been withering away in the darkness below?" Hongjoong said, closing the space between us again as he scoffed.

"Are you honestly naive enough to believe that I would send you back up there, with the portal open and accessible, so you can tell the rest of the angels that Odeion is open for another invasion? We haven't even recovered from the last one!"

I flinched again as he raised his voice towards the end of his rant, pressing myself against the wall at my back. I forced my eyes to the ground, breath picking up as my mouth went dry.

"The last one?" I croaked, my voice rough and low, embarrassing. I felt my cheeks heat up. The war. He was talking about the war, but as far as I knew, there had never been an invasion.

"Excuse me if I'm not really in the mood to discuss good and evil with someone of your kind," he drawled. I furrowed my brows and, almost as if I couldn't help it, I glimpsed up at him again, dark and so different, and noticed that his eyes were still on mine.

"Why don't you have any light?"

Lilith was known as deceptive, calculating, and cunning. She was attracted to power and a ruthless ruler, the traits having brought her to the throne of Odeion after her fall from Heaven and the Garden of Eden. And I was looking directly at her son.

Hongjoong simply stared at me for a moment, much like he had done after he had stepped through the portal at the palace in Illenium, before he once again took a step closer.

My heart skipped a beat as I felt his hot breath fanning my face.

"The Courts of the Heavenly Virtues," he said, "Diligence, Charity, Temperance, Patience, Kindness, Chastity, Humility," his voice was dripping with sarcasm, "Please, you're acting as if it's at all possible to be free of error, but you can't actually be meaning to tell me that they have been sugarcoating history as well, can you?"

I swallowed thickly, realizing that, already, I was starting to doubt the things I had learned of the world below, of Hell and Odeion. Because it had been beautiful. Despite the darkness, it had been beautiful. And no one had ever told me that.

But I refused to believe the man in front of me.

I didn't want to believe him, I couldn't, as Lilith was not only the Mother of all Demons, but also the most infamous villain in every part of history taught in Illenium.

"And what about you, then?" I tried, attempting to straighten myself a little as I challenged the look in his dark eyes, realizing quite quickly that I was falling short, "Is there not a single sliver of goodness in you? Are you all error and immorality, then, with your Courts of the Deadly Sins?"