A Pirated Heart: Magic Unbound

Her Guilt and Relief

"I am sorry, young one," Ashik remarked as he watched Damien peel away the wrappings from his burnt flesh. Damien didn't answer him. It was becoming a common occurrence. He was sure that the man tending to him hadn't said a word since he gunned down his own father. Not to mention that his sister had ripped out their mother's heart and squashed it in her hands in front of him.

"You must talk to someone, young one. Your sister perhaps," Ashik offered before he grimaced in pain. The salt air burned his oozing wounds.

"Bella isn't conscious yet." Damien replied quietly. Ashik frowned at the man's tone. It was the coldest he had ever heard Damien sound, especially when it concerned his sister.

"I'm conscious and it's not as if I can run away," Ashik threw out suddenly as Damien continued to work on wrapping his legs in fabric. Silence followed Ashik's offer.

"I tried to save them. They were our parents, after all," Damien admitted softly. Ashik smiled gently as he remained silent. After all, there was nothing he could say that would ease the young man's grief or guilt.

"I made Bella go back to that place. I should've just let her do what she wanted. She didn't want to go back. She knew what it would do to her, but she let me have my way. I was selfish and look what it got us? Bella murdered our mother. I had to shoot our father. Not to mention, Bella lost herself to the demon." Damien stopped as tears flooded his vision and a lump formed in his throat. Ashik felt pity for the younger man; in an attempt to save his family, he destroyed it.

"She never should've listened to me," Damien sobbed as he buried his face in his hands. Ashik sat up and listened to Damien sob into his hands.

"It is not your fault, young one. You hoped that your parents would realize their mistake. You wanted them to love your sister the way they clearly loved you. There is nothing wrong with wanting love." Ashik spoke softly before Damien scoffed viciously at his words.

"I was a fool."

"Yes, but that is not something that is news to any of us." Ashik answered honestly. Damien pulled his head away from his hands and turned to glare at the Leviathan. Ashik met his glare with a look of empathy.

"I am baring my soul and you decide to mock me?" Damien snarled as his hands fell to his sides and curled into tightly wound fists.

"Who said I was mocking you, young one? I am merely speaking the truth. When it comes to matters concerning your family, you are a fool. I know it. Lockes knows it. Jarrus knows it. And your sister knows it. I have never met a human as foolish as you, but it comes from a place in your heart that is filled with love." Ashik replied with a shrug. Damien's eyes widened as his hands fell out of the fists. Ashik smirked at his reaction.

"And if it makes you feel any better, if you had not shot the Admiral, I would have ripped his head off of his shoulders for threatening little one." He added with a note of absolute conviction. Damien looked momentarily confused for a moment before he remembered that Ashik's pet name for Arabella was "little one." Damien didn't know whether he wanted to punch the Leviathan for calling him a fool or hug him for attempting to quell his self-loathing. Damien didn't understand when or how Arabella had earned this strange man's unwavering loyalty, but he was grateful for it.

"Thank you, Ashik."

"Anytime, young one."

***

Haunting voices. Distant screams. Threatening whispers. Arabella didn't know where any of them originated in the suffocating blackness she found herself in. She struggled to find a way out of this dark place, but she kept stumbling.