Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

35.

Hongjoong was pacing around my room, his hands buried in the cerulean blue mess atop his head as he mumbled to himself, occasionally glancing at his reflection in the mirror before once again going back to circling like some star-speckled midnight bird closing in on its prey.

Except it was awfully clear that whatever answers he had been trying to grasp had escaped, whatever prey he had been hunting was nowhere to be seen.

The enormous black and white wings sprouting from his bare back were an eerie verification of our suspicion from earlier. Something was terribly wrong.

The same exact realization was reflected in his dark eyes as he, at last, came to a halt in front of the mirror and stared into its depths as if the man in front of him was a complete stranger.

I chewed at my bottom lip as I simply watched him from my spot on the bed, absentmindedly running my finger along the scarring wound on my calf as he slowly but surely crumbled before my very eyes.

"This is not right," the son of Lilith whispered, the words barely more than that of a shaky breath as they left his lips and he fell silent for a couple of seconds only to repeat the words a moment later. "This is not right."

The knowledge that nothing I could say or do would comfort him made my heart sink, but, still, I slowly and carefully made my way towards him, hesitantly reaching out to touch one of the white feathers among the sea of midnight ones.

But my touch only seemed to startle the demon even more, and I quickly pulled away as Hongjoong flinched and whipped around to face me.

His breath caught as his eyes found to mine, lowering his wings ever so slightly as he visibly shivered.

"Don't," he breathed, watching as I pulled my hand back, "Don't touch me, please. Don't do that."

"Are you hurting?" I asked, "Is it hurting you?" my heart heavy with mixed anticipation and worry, but the questions only lingered in the air between us for a moment before disappearing, unanswered.

"We'll figure it out," I added, sounding desperate this time, "Once we find the Lunar Flame, we can-"

"Dahlia, please," Hongjoong said, cutting me off, loud enough to surprise me though I tried my best to hide it as I watched the look in his eyes change.

"For once you have to realize that this world you're living in, all of this hiding, isn't real. This is not life. This-" he gestured at his wings, his voice shaking slightly, "This is real."

"The bones beneath the city are real, the weapons in the citadel are real, and the lies in the museum and libraries are real. They're real, and they're appalling, atrocious, and we've done nothing to change that except waste our time."

"Hongjoong," I tried, but, again, he cut me off before I got the chance to finish my sentence, "If you would just listen to me-"

"No, you listen," the son of Lilith demanded, my eyes widening as he took a step closer, realizing, with a sinking sensation in my stomach, that whatever darkness in his eyes made me want to pull away.

"A demon always stays true to his word. We made a deal. You gave me five days, but because I was utterly entranced by you, mesmerized by every little promise and laugh and glance, I was swayed. I wavered, and I stayed, but this-" Hongjoong paused for a moment, his wings raising with every shaky breath, now an impossibly tall wall of midnight black and stars.

"This is not right. Borrowed time is never free, nothing is. We can't live on time that is not ours for the taking which is why this has to stop. We both knew it was only a matter of time. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong."