Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

53.

Hongjoong snaked his arm around my waist the moment I reached his side, hand resting comfortably above my hip bone where the cold touch of his fingers seared itself into my skin despite the layer of fabric separating us.

"You are a sight for the whole city," he whispered as he held the eyes of the strangers gazing our way, daring them to keep staring as he noticed me shift my way from one foot to another at the attention.

I stopped as his words settled the air between us, tearing my eyes from the sea of midnight wings to look at him instead. To look at his instead, admiring the way specks of white littered their darkness like the stars visible through the glass dome overhead.

"Yet it is only your eyes I long for," I said, watching how they turned to glass as I spoke.

A voice pierced the air, suddenly and powerfully. Not violent, but with a sense of graceful strength that finally allowed the breath I had been holding to escape my strained lungs as the eyes of the crowd released me from their hold.

The basilica fell silent as everyone turned to Lilith, watching as she stepped onto a dais at the very top of the cross-shaped room.

A flash of starlight skin caught my eye as slender legs ascended the steps of the podium, visible through silk so pure and uncontaminated it could have been woven from the night sky itself. Her dark wings were raised tall and proud behind her as she came to a halt.

"Tonight," Lilith began, pausing for a moment to let her ebony eyes travel across the sea of people gathered before her, "Tonight we are gathered as a family, as one people who will witness the end of an era and stand together in welcoming another."

Her fiery hair posed a stark contrast to her dress which worshipped her lithe body, the fabric complimenting and caressing every cut and curve as it flowed down her figure.

Her face was kind, her expression even more so despite her eminent beauty which was ethereal in a way that was almost cruel. She had the face of an angel, heavenly features sculpted by otherworldly powers.

Hongjoong pulled me closer, and I reveled in the comfort of his touch as she continued.

"Light and darkness," she said, her melodious voice powerful as it traveled across the room, "Since the beginning of time, the two have been perceived as polar opposites. Like good and evil, their influence on the war between the two worlds was crucial to the outcome, and to the sentence we have endured because of it."

Regret settled in the depths of her eyes as she spoke, and my heart became heavy as her next words rang through the air.

"Many of you were born in the darkness as a consequence of the choices I made during the war with Illenium. I valued life over sovereignty, but in doing so I realized, too late, that you would never truly be able to live without the things that were sacrificed instead. For that I am, and will always be, deeply sorry."

Even if the fallout of the battle had been different, if my people had been the ones forced into exile in the world below instead, I knew that my mother would never have stood where Lilith did then. My mother, the true villain of the story, would never have apologized.

"Still, light lives on in even the darkest of places. Even in Odeion which has dwelled in the shadows for centuries, a sleeping paradise surrendered to the night, some light has stayed with us."

She gestured at the grand chandeliers and candelabras along the walls, bathing the basilica in an amber glow as a swift breeze made the flames of the torches by the altar dance, "As beautiful as the darkness is, it would never be complete without the light."

"So tonight we welcome a brighter future. A future led by loyal and dedicated rulers, not to mention generous and kindhearted allies." I felt heat rush to my cheeks as her eyes found mine.