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!"
He stumbled backwards as I threw the towel in his face. Wooyoung laughed, not even trying to hide it.
"I don't care if you're a demon, an angel, or a piece of toast, Mingi. You're covered in dust, dirt, and pebbles because you decided to get into a fight the moment you got here," I paused, "Broke in, mind you, so yes, you do need a shower."
San headed over and took the rest of the towels from my hands, still not meeting my eyes, "I'll get you some blankets," I said, about to head back out into the hallway before I quickly turned back to look at Hongjoong who still hadn't uttered a word.
"And just so you know, you're sleeping on the floor."
〄
It had been a long night, and I had desperately needed the sleep, but, somehow, I still woke up before the others, turning on my side as I looked over the edge of the bed and watched their sleeping faces for a moment before getting up only to freeze as I watched a dark figure standing by the windows.
Hongjoong was nothing more than a silhouette against the bright golden light from the rising sun, eyes glued to the window just as his hand which he had pressed flat against the glass as he simply watched the spectacle of changing colours.
Yawning, I made my way over to his side, glancing at him through the corner of my eye before following his example as I too stood and admired the sunrise.
I could hear the quick intake of his breath as he mumbled a small, "Wow," seemingly unable to take his eyes off the horizon as the sky continued to brighten, going from red and orange to purples, pinks, peaches, and then slowly back to the blue that would dominate it for the rest of the day.
Realization hit me before the blue-haired demon's next words had even left his lips, "I've never seen-" he began, trailing off as he swallowed thickly and moved even closer to the glass, a mask of wonder on his face.
They settled upon me, upon my heart, with a weight I found strangely foreign as I tore my eyes off the sun, glowing and red against the clouds, and mustered up the courage to look at him instead, feeling guilty, greedy, all of a sudden as I realized that I had never considered it to be something special.
But Hongjoong looked at the sunrise as if it was precious, something priceless, and it broke my heart a little as I watched the light reflect in his eyes, turning them brighter, blazing with curiosity and an unquenchable thirst.
Because demons had never known anything but darkness, I reminded myself, biting my lip a little. And while they had been suffocating in it, angels had been living with both night and day, painfully unaware of the fact that, if the heirs to the Court of Deadly Sins had told me the true, we had stolen it from them.
If they had been telling me the truth, and if what they were looking for really did exist, we had robbed them of something which had become so ordinary in Illenium that it had lost its beauty because we had no one to share it with.
"It's the same at nightfall," I said, breaking the silence as I kept my eyes on him, unable to look away just as he too seemed to be entranced by the view, "Sunset," I added.
Hongjoong nodded almost absentmindedly, "Sunset," he repeated, still not looking at me. A small, daring smile tugged at the corners of my lips, and I didn't try to fight it. As long as he didn't see.
"Sunrise," I said, and I watched him nod again as if memorizing the word, "Sunrise," he mumbled, eyes widening a little as the sun finally made it above the horizon and began to rise along with the clouds.
"Would you like me to show you? There's somewhere we need to go first, but I'll give you my word that if nothing goes wrong, I'll show you the best view in all of Illenium."