Pledged Silence

| CHAPTER TWELVE |

In the one week that Archer had tried not to think about Moloch as he focused on his studies for the upcoming exams he realised one thing; he could never not think of Moloch.

Of course, there were ways he could distract himself and actually study for tests and get his reports done for the psychology classes, but when he laid in his bed at night, all alone in his dark apartment, he could only think of the prince of hell that he had left behind. And on top of all the memories of how hurt and heartbroken he felt when he had left, now he was down right... emotionless. He didn't exactly feel anything.

He hadn't cried once about the whole messed up situation since he had felt Moloch's mansion. Was there something wrong with him? He didn't know, neither did he want to find out soon.

Archer sighed and shook his head out of his thoughts before he walked out of his apartment and headed towards his college campus as if everything was normal.

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And he had managed to keep all of this 'everything is okay' crap for two more bloody weeks; wake up in the morning, do his morning routine, get some breakfast or at least a snack before heading to his classes after which he came back home or went out to the city or the park for a walk, then he would go to sleep and repeat the whole thing over and over again.

That was until the mother of the said person he tried not to think about decided to show up at his front door.

"Can I come in?" Lilith asked softly, staring into Archer's emotionless eyes.

Silently and slowly he stepped aside holding the door open for her as she walked in before he closed the door behind them. The both of them then stood in awkward silence for a whole minute or so, with Archer looking at Lilith expectedly and the said woman trying to think of what to say.

Finally she sighed and lifted her chin up high, staring at Archer with determined eyes. "Sit down," she ordered, "the both of us are going to have a serious talk, young man."

The sudden authority in her voice made him realise why Moloch had such a different opinion of her. This was a completely different version of usually calm woman he knew, she was furious. She had every right to be of course. He had lied to her, befriended her, listened to her and now he had ripped her son's heart from his chest.

"I want you to tell me everything, I want you to tell me why you felt like you had to stay," she stated, yet is sounded more like an order, but it got through him and so he did, he told her about it all. His false relationship with Moloch, the deal they had made, even how it had all started to feel so real, so... natural.

"You still haven't answered my question," Lilith stated as she stared right at him, her gaze tearing through his souls, jaw locked. "Why did you feel that you had to stay?"

Archer was stumped at this. Why did he stay with Moloch? He could have left at any time just as easily as he did, admiring to Lilith that they weren't actually together even before the wedding, probably leading to the wedding actually happening throughly in the first place.

"Because... because I didn't want to leave," Archer whispered. The numbed state his body was in suddenly disappeared as emotions hit him in full force. His eyes suddenly watered and as much as he tried he couldn't help but let them slide down his cheeks silently while biting his lip to not let out a chocked sob.

Liliths stance softened as she realized the reality behind it all. "You did fall with him, didn't you?" she asked quietly, and after a few seconds watched as Archer nodded his head slowly yet firmly. "Prove it."

"What?" He looked up at her.

"My son is a broken mess because he believes that you have abandoned him and that he is the reason for it," she said. "Tell him what you've told me, prove to me that you love him enough to break the deal you made."

Archer sucked in a sharp breath and stood up from the chair he had been sitting on as if he was about to bolt for the door. Instead he paced in front of Lilith who stood in the middle of his living room, her arms crossed. The human eventually stopped pacing and turned to face the queen on hell.

"I'm tired," he mumbled, defeated. "I tried so fucking hard to forget about him, but how can I forget about the man that made me feel safe, made me feel loved? I never wanted any of this," he waved his hands around, "to happen and at the start, no matter how much I tried to hide it, no matter how much I tried to push it away; I was afraid."

He turned and silently walked over to one of his windows that was facing the city, his eyes now overlooking all of the building and the beautiful sunset that was taking place.

"And Moloch made that fear go away," he continued. "He made me feel like nothing bad was ever going to happen, like this whole deal would work out without any complications but you know what," he turned and faced Lilith, "I never cared about the fucking deal. I told him I don't want my soul back and I wasn't lying. I came with him because he looked so vulnerable, he looked so... human that I knew that no matter how much I tried I couldn't resist helping him in this whole thing as much as I could. I guess I just never really expected to fall in love with him." He scoffed and looked back out the window.

Lilith stood in the silence that now surrounded her, shocked at what she had just heard yet her heart yearned for Archer to say that to her son, for them both to look past their differences and just... be happy together.

But even though she wished that, she knew that Archer had told her all of this to get her this stumped. She knew he wanted to go back but couldn't, not now at least. She sighed to herself quietly and walked over to him, reaching behind her neck and untying a black stringed pendant that hung around it that had a little silver teardrop on it.

"Here," she put it around his neck, tying it loosely as he stared at her, confused. "This is a teleportation device. It will teleport you to me at any given moment you want it to unless I don't give it permission first." She looked at him. "Use it, please."

Lifting herself up slightly on her tip toes she then kissed his forehead softly and in the next couple seconds walked out of his apartment before he could even bring himself to say something, leaving Archer to stare at the setting sun once again.