"... don't belong here. You have no right to be here."

"She's sleeping for goodness' sake and even if she wasn't, I would still keep my voice down if I were you. I don't take well to disrespect and, frankly, that's all you've been showing me since barging in here."

I stirred in my sleep as the far-away sounds of an argument steadily grew louder, the voices clearer, more recognizable, and clutched my blanket a little tighter.

The sound of a scoff made me furrow my brows a little.

"Disrespect? Disrespect-"

"Yes, disrespect," the second voice interrupted, stirring something within me.

"Well, it seems that you were having trouble processing the word," they added, "And yes, it's not very humble of you to act as if you're the one in power here, a mere son of an Archangel as opposed to the heir to all of Odeion."

"What do you know of humble?" a third began, "You're exploiting the purest of all angels for your selfish ambitions, corrupting her. The fact that you, the very embodiment of all sins, are still here in her room-"

"I'm guessing you're the son of Gabriel." Another interruption, the sounds of shuffling and muffled arguments, "Seeing as you're awfully persistent of getting me out of here I'll spare you the trouble in advance and break the news to you now, disappointing as you may find it, that I'm not going anywhere."

A small whine left my lips as I squeezed my eyes even tighter shut, desperately clinging to the world of sleep and comfort only to have it ripped from me as, suddenly, the arguments stopped at the same moment the bed disappeared from underneath me, my eyes springing open just as I hit the floor and cried out in surprise.

"Did you just push me?" Hongjoong seethed, crawling off the bed before, seemingly realizing what had happened, glancing back at me with a mix of worry and pure wrath in his dark eyes as he watched me look around the room, slightly dazed and still sleepy, catching Heeseung, Sunghoon, and Jungwon's eyes as well.

And then I was suddenly wide awake, scrambling to my feet only to hiss in pain as I put too much weight on my wounded leg and almost toppled to the floor again before the son of Lilith was suddenly at my side, gently supporting me.

"Dahlia-" Jungwon began, but Sunghoon pushed him out of the way before the younger got the chance to finish his sentence.

"Get your hands off her," he growled, a threat rather than a warning, glaring at the demon at my side who only tightened his grip on my waist as he straightened himself a little and a daring smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"Or what-?" the son of Lilith began, but I cut him off before he got the chance to make the situation worse than it already was.

"Hongjoong, I'm fine," I mumbled, pushing his hand away and taking a step forward, placing myself between him and the three angels, as I straightened myself a little.

"Will one of you care to explain why you not only invaded my privacy by coming here uninvited, but threatened my guest and woke me from my much-needed sleep?"

"Dahlia, we have given you the time you asked for, given you the space you asked for, but this has gone on for too long," Heeseung said, almost pleadingly, and stepped forward.

"He has to go, now. We can't have him, a demon, the worst of one second only to Lilith herself, here in Heaven. I mean can't you see-"

"So you decided to take it upon yourselves to send him back?" I asked, cutting off the son of Raphael as I turned to Sunghoon instead, "Are you telling me that because you're to be the first Archangel, you thought you had the right to make that decision on my behalf?"

I prayed to everything good and righteous that they couldn't, wouldn't, see right through my act, through the facade I was struggling to uphold as I felt Hongjoong take a step closer, now standing right behind me.

I matched the look within those steely eyes of ash and cold defiance, challenging him to disagree, and, yet, hoping that he wouldn't. Because I was scared that they were going to take him from me, afraid that they would hurt him.

"Of course not, but you can't actually mean to keep him here when-"

"I owe him something back, something that's rightfully his, and he's going to stay here until we find it," I said.

"But Dahlia, we can't-" Heeseung began, but I interrupted him once more as I instead directed my glare at him. "Says who?" I demanded.

"Think of your mother," he tried, lowering his voice and glancing at Hongjoong before finding my eyes again, brown hair falling into his face in messy locks of warm brown as he bit his bottom lip as if contemplating his next words, "What will she say when she finds out?

"She will say nothing because you will say nothing, Heeseung," I said, fighting the fear that threatened to resurface at the mention of her as I raised my voice enough to silence the three.

"You do not answer to my mother. You answer to me, and I have given you an order. The demon stays until I have fulfilled my end of our deal."

"What- You're defending him?" Jungwon mumbled, looking taken-aback as he glanced back and forth between the son of Lilith and me, "Why?"

"Because I-"

Because I wanted to help him, and because it was the right thing to do.

Because I wanted him to be mine, and because I wanted him to want me back.

"Because I'm honoring a promise," was all I could say, pausing before mumbling, "Hongjoong, I can literally feel you smiling and it's not helping," and the demon's face once again settled into a mask of indifference and disdain.

"You're making a mistake," Sunghoon said, and as something flickered across the silver depths of his eyes, something dark, something unnerving, I couldn't help but feel that the heir to the Court of Diligence was threatening me.

"Actually, I'm fixing one," I snapped, grabbing the son of Lilith's hand and intertwining our fingers in a moment of defiance before pulling him with me into the hallway outside of my room.

The door had barely closed before I was dashing through cold corridors and taking turn after turn in the marbled maze that was the palace, wanting to put as much distance between ourselves and the angels as possible.

It was only as we reached one of the galleries, grand and gloriously decorated, that I let go, pressing my back to the wall and letting my eyes flutter shut with a sigh as I tried to catch my breath and ran a hand down my face.

"Are you hurt?" was the first thing Hongjoong asked, his eyes not on mine, I realized, but on my leg, on the wound only he knew of. I shook my head a little, pushing off the wall and dusting myself off, "I wasn't the one in danger back there."

"And I was?"

"What do you mean- Of course you were. Do you not realize what will happen to you if they tell someone that you're here, if they tell my mother about the portal, about your existence, about what we've-?"

"I'm worried about you, Dahlia. Not me," and I could tell by his eyes that he meant it, by the sincerity in their nocturne depths as they studied my face, my own of steel and ash and turbulent clouds.

"She won't hurt me. Not in the way she will hurt you."

"Is that why you're so determined to hide me away?"

"Hongjoong," I sighed, "I'm doing my best, I'm trying to protect you, what more could you possibly want?"

The same question I always asked. The same question he had claimed I already knew the answer to.

"We could make it fun. We could make it worth our time."

〄

The son of Lilith had changed drastically since arriving in Illenium. Every sense of seriousness, urgency, and rage that had previously made up the mask covering the bright features I now admired every time I looked at him was long gone.

And so was he.

I had spent most of the afternoon looking for him, the demon turning out to be quite skilled at hide and seek, and although he was nowhere to be seen at that moment, neither was I.

The thought thrilled me, and although I didn't possess his ability to manipulate the shadows and become one with them, I had managed to stay hidden for several minutes this time.

I held my breath as I slowly peeked around the corner before tip-toeing toward one of the pillars lining both sides of the gallery, a sense of childish excitement bubbling up within me as I waited for a moment before continuing on to the next, constantly glancing across my shoulder before my next move.

The idea of me winning for once, of surpassing the ten minutes he had promised to reward me for, thrilled me enough to put a bright smile on my face only for it to falter as I heard a low chuckle pierce the silence behind me, the sound like music to my ears despite making my heart skip a beat as I froze in my steps.

Hongjoong was leaning against the wall I had left only moments earlier, arms folded casually across his chest as if he had been waiting for a while, watching me for a while. "Found you," he smiled.

"Oh, come on, angel," he added as he watched my face fall.

"Can't you let me win at least once?" I mumbled, the smile now completely gone as I watched him saunter over to me, closing the distance between us.

"Why? So you can be rewarded? Do you want me to spoil you, Dahlia?"

"How could you possibly know where I was?" I asked instead, ignoring his question.

My words faltered as Hongjoong grabbed the golden chain around my neck, hand closing around the jagged piece of onyx, and pulled me toward him, my breath catching in my throat.

I fell completely silent, simply watching the subtle smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he fished a similar necklace out from underneath his shirt, not once letting go.

"This," he said, as if the word alone would be enough to explain everything.

"But you only bought one," I said, remembering our night in Odeion and how he had gifted me the same exact piece of jewelry before we returned to the palace, the memory bringing back the salty smell of oceans and the warmth of his arms around me.

"No, I only gave you one. This-" Hongjoong said, pulling the chain from his neck and holding it out to me, "This is my way of watching over you. This is because you refuse to hide, and because when you do, you're too easy to find. This is my only way of knowing where to go to make sure that no one hurts you, to make sure that I will be there to take the hit."

As he spoke, I reached out to touch the piece of jewelry in his hand only to flinch a little as I felt it pulsating like that of a miniature heart beneath my fingers, singing a silent song that made my eyes widen a little before they found his again.

"Promise me that you'll never take it off," the son of Lilith added, almost pleadingly, still holding me close as he clutched my necklace a little tighter and carefully put his own back on.

"Then promise me that you will always find me," I demanded in return, wanting to appear strong despite the fact that the request was laced with a hint of fear that he wouldn't.

"When making a deal with the devil, know that he will never go back on his word. But for that same reason, I need you to say it, Dahlia. I need you to promise as well."

"Because otherwise, you'll have my soul?" I mumbled, heartbeat picking up as the demon leaned closer for a moment before, at last, letting go and pulling away.

"Dahlia, I already have your soul. You've been dancing with the devil for quite a while now. No, what I want is something else entirely."

"You know, you really do deserve to wear silver," I said, "Because you're just as cunning as every angel I've ever had the pleasure of encountering," pausing for a moment, gathering my courage before asking, "What do you want, then?" for the last time.

"I'm not cunning, angel. But I am greedy, selfish, dangerously so-"

"Hongjoong-"

"Your heart," the son of Lilith said, finally and at last, "I want your heart, and if you swear to me to always wear that necklace, to always keep it close, you can have mine as well."