Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

15.

I hesitated for a moment as I stood facing the door to my room, hand wrapped around the silver handle which felt cold and wintry to the touch; a stark contrast to the golden lights flooding the hallway, bathing it in warm hues and a glow which danced across the walls as the flames licking away at the tops of the torches flickered in a nonexistent breeze.

I was exhausted after the meeting which been a reprimand more than anything. My cheeks were still flushed after what had seemed like hours of criticism and disapproval.

They had not been happy. The Archangels had most definitely not been happy, and my mother, the empress of Illenium, had definitely not taken my side.

Still, standing out here wouldn't solve any of the problems I was slowly drowning in. I was already in way over my head which was why I, at last, turned the handle and opened the door, slipping into my room before shutting out the world and facing the eight demons inside all of whom fell silent as we stared at each other.

The silence was suffocating, and the son of Lilith, whose attention was only making me more flustered, wasn't helping as he decided to stay quiet and crossed his arms over his chest, lounging in one of the chairs by the window.

Yeosang looked back and forth between the two of us, jaw slack and eyes wide before he, at last, locked his focus onto the blue-haired demon and whispered, "You are absolutely insane for kidnapping her of all people. You could have taken literally any of the others and-"

"You lied to us," San stated almost matter-of-factly, cutting off Yeosang's hushed rant. I could hear the hurt in his voice despite how he tried to keep up his mask of indifference.

"You trapped me down there," I said. It wasn't necessarily an answer, but it was enough. We had all been in the wrong.

I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair, "Still," I sighed, "You did protect me despite not knowing anything about me, let alone my name. Whether or not you would have done so if you'd known who I was doesn't matter to me. I'm willing to do the same for you."

I turned to Hongjoong, my chest tightening a little at the fact that he had already been looking at me, "Five days is what I'll give you. Five days, nothing more, nothing less. You kept me locked up in that room, and I'm going to do the same. You're not going anywhere without my knowledge. Say what you want about angels, about evil, because they will kill you on sight."

"I'll show you Illenium as well, just as you showed me Odeion, but only once," I told the son of Lilith, clenching my hands at my sides, "And then we'll be equal. In five days, none of us will owe each other anything. You'll go back to Hell, and we'll destroy the portal for good."

The silence following my demand was deafening, yet I didn't dare lower my eyes until Hongjoong, at last, nodded. The grin on his face was not just that of a demon, but of the devil himself. I had offered him exactly what he had wanted, expected.

"Dahlia," Jongho mumbled, frowning a little as if the sound of my name on his lips was more than just foreign, curious. He caught my eyes, "Can I ask a question?"

"Of course," I smiled.

"How are you going to hide us?"

I halted, realizing that I hadn't even thought about that yet. "I mean," he added, gesturing at himself and then at the others, lingering a bit at Hongjoong who stood out the most, "There's just a lot of.. dark, you know."

"I'll figure something out," I promised, hurrying into the bathroom to pick up a bunch of towels before heading back out, "But first, you should really take a bath-"

"Hey-" Mingi exclaimed, looking more than just a little offended. I stopped, clutching the soft material with a quizzical look on my face before rolling my eyes as he said, "Just because we're demons doesn't mean that we're dirty- Ow!"