Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

61. Epilogue

Like the rest of the palace, the meeting room was dark and gloomy. After Odeion had risen and the light had returned to its rightful place in the world above, the sunlight which had previously filtered through the endless windows of the hallways was no more.

An atmosphere of sinister nature and weight lingered in the air, and the silence within the room was heavy, suffocating, as my eyes traveled across the vast circular space and the infinitely tall columns cut from the same cold marble as the tiles beneath my feet before, at last, settling on the kneeling figure before me.

Iron bound my mother's wrists as it had done mine. As it had done Hongjoong's. Her wings, blackened by sin and vengeance lay limply behind her, flat against the floor like those of a wounded animal.

Behind her, the Archangels perched on eight silver thrones arranged in a crescent shape faced the ones in which I sat along with Lilith and the Seven Princes of Hell, more awe-inspiring, grand, and noble than those below.

The heirs of Odeion stood beside their fathers as those of Illenium did theirs, yet the distinction of power was clear. In the lower half of the sphere, a single throne was left empty.

Between Gabriel and Azrael, the first and fourth of the Archangels, the seat stood vacant, confirming the loss of their leader who kneeled before the Court of Deadly Sins, the short chains around her wrists rendering her unable to rise. Confirming their defeat.

My mother's words haunted my thoughts as I watched her silently.

"One day, you will be the ones occupying these thrones rather than watching them from a distance. One day, you will be the ones yielding our power. One day, you will be the ones leading Illenium, reigning, ruling."

Today would be the day I yielded that power.

Today would be the day I used it against her.

Today would be the day I took Illenium from her to rule it as my own. Today would be the first of my reign.

"I loved you," I confessed hoarsely, my voice travelling through the air like a broken arrow, clattering weakly to the floor before my mother who raised her eyes to meet mine.

"And it repulses me," she seethed, meeting my gaze with mockery.

A faint chuckle parted her lips and grew to that of a chuckle which filled the heavy silence. The temperature dropped as the sound traveled through the room in severed fragments, and the hairs on my arms stood on end as I shifted in my seat.

Her grin faltered, replaced with a look of disgusted delight. "Love is a feeble thing," she declared, "It renders you useless, toiling over a concept of which you have no control. The world can never run on love. It is merely an enmity, a luxury that people pretend to experience."

Silence. I sighed, realizing that the creature before me had never been my mother. She never would be. This thing, with midnight wings and an even darker heart, had been the devil in disguise all along. This broken soul was a demon.

"Still, something as obsolete as love resulted in this," I said, reaching for Hongjoong who stood between Lilith and myself, proudly intertwining our fingers, "Being vulnerable, defenseless, isn't as devastating as you think."

Nothing. Her silver eyes remained indifferent as they bored into me, and then they flickered, wavered, hardening as she turned to the empress of Odeion at my side. Lilith watched her with the same melancholy and regret as she had done the day before where she had approached her like a hunter did its prey.

"You look at me with pity in your eyes," my mother spat, "And it is the will of the cosmos that I haven't ripped them from your pretty little head."