Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

44.

Hongjoong was so close I could see the tears brimming in his midnight eyes which refused to leave mine as Lilith disappeared and he eliminated the last distance between us with determined steps.

I was overcome with emotion, barely able to breathe as I was about to voice an apology, wanting to explain myself and tell him about everything that had happened, why everything had happened, when he reached me and, in one fluid movement, cupped my cheeks and pulled me in for a kiss.

All words and excuses melted off the tip of my tongue as I breathed him in and let my eyes flutter shut, hands shakily trailing to the back of his neck where my fingers almost instinctively dove into the soft sea of cerulean blue.

My heart soared as the son of Lilith's lips moved against mine, and I sucked in a quick breath as his cold hands trailed from my cheeks where his thumbs had been moving in excruciatingly slow circles to the nape of my neck where they ran down the soft arch only to pull me closer, and tangled in my hair as my hands had done in his.

I was overwhelmed, laid bare like an open book for him to read every soft sigh and breath that escaped my lips as I melted into his touch.

The longing I had suppressed for so long turned into yearning all at once; a craving that washed over me in a wave so devastating I would have drowned in it had he not been holding me.

I had missed him so much, and now I felt the full weight of it all as he began to pull away, trying to catch his breath.

A small sound of defiance escaped my throat as I pulled him back in and connected our lips again, earning a sigh of content and something deeper, rougher. Something with an edge of approval.

Hongjoong cupped my cheeks again, gently, as if he was afraid I would break if he handled me with anything but a tender touch, as if he was afraid I would crumble and seep through his hands like nothing more than the sand that lined the beaches of the ocean below.

He pressed his forehead to mine for a moment as he let his eyes flutter shut before once again revealing the endless midnight landscape within their depths as they found mine. My breath hitched as he pulled away at last.

Realization hit me at first like the earliest droplets of a brief rainfall, unexpected and suddenly, before I felt my thoughts and emotions came crashing down in a shower of unforgiving and ruthless clarity.

"Angel," Hongjoong breathed, and I felt my throat go dry.

Because I couldn't seem to put what I was feeling into words.

His dark eyes fell on the bruise still marring my face. The memory of my mother's cruelty and the Court of Heavenly Virtues' violence was like a splatter of twilight sky blooming around my eye and cheekbone, dark hues of purple and blue and crimson red creating a bizarre painting that stretched across my skin in a way that was both beautiful and macabre.

"Who did this to you?"

His question went unanswered as my eyes flickered across his face.

The feelings blossoming within my chest, pressing almost painfully against my ribs as they continued to expand, were like those of the first flowers after a cruel and deathly winter.

"Dahlia."

They were delicate, tender, like the wings of butterflies fluttering through the bright, golden light from the Illenium sun that danced through leaves and foliage in intricate patterns that etched shadows and stories into the ground beneath our feet.

Hongjoong's voice was sharp as he repeated his question, now honed with an edge of worry, "Dahlia, tell me who did this to you. Who hurt you?" and then with barely concealed anger as it shook with a threat, "Tell me their names so they can bleed."