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Our faults and fears must never be seen.
That’s what Celine’s mother told her. That’s what the last generation of Hunters reinforced in her. That’s what she truly believed.
So did falling in love with her best friend count as a fault?
Celine kneeled at Ryu Mi-yeong’s grave, tears frozen in her distant eyes.
It didn’t matter anyway. She was gone, after all. She was gone and even if she wasn’t, she would have chosen… him.
“Why, Mi-yeong?” Celine whispered, swallowing a sob. Despite growing up together, despite learning how to be Hunters hand in hand, she had never gotten a chance to save her friend.
She didn’t think it was possible, after all. That a demon could be smart enough to manipulate a Hunter into thinking he loved her. Much less Mi-yeong. She… she was too smart for that.
That’s what she used to think.
Celine bit her lip and dug her fingernails into her thighs. Should she go back to the temple? Stop dwelling on the past? Go and take care of that child, like she’d promised?
No. Their third Sister could watch her for a moment longer. Celine couldn’t go back and hold that infant, look at her face… Ryu’s face, mixed with something horribly unfamiliar.
She wished she could have just killed the child. That she could look at it, and see only the demon half of her. She could be the world’s undoing, after all.
But despite everything, little Rumi had her mother’s eyes. Not disgusting amber demon eyes like him.
Another soft sob escaped Celine’s throat as she touched the damp earth under which her Sunlight Sister lay.
“We are.. Hunters, voices strong…” she started singing, choking up.
“Slaying demons with our song…” She tightens her hands into fists. She had to make sure all the demons suffered for what they did to her… to her…
But they didn’t kill her, did they?
A voice tainted Celine’s mind. A voice that sounded like her own, but she knew better. She’d heard it many times before.
“Give it up, Gwi-Ma. I won’t be manipulated, not even after you took her away.” She kept her voice low, in case someone might hear. No one needed to know she had the demon king in her ear, trying to make her one of his disciples.
They didn’t kill her. You did.
Against her will, Celine was thrown back into a memory, one from not too long ago but one she already wished she could forget.
Celine walked carefully through the forest, trying her hardest not to make any loud noises. She saw that demon take her away, so she had to be stealthy. She could not afford to lose… to lose her.
Finally, she heard them. He was laughing—disgusting. But, then she heard something else. Ryu Mi-yeong’s laugh, one that usually gave Celine butterflies, now only brought her fear.
“Mi-yeong? What are you…” Celine gasped, seeing them. They were embracing each other. She was embracing him.
Immediately, she pulled at the strings of the Honmoon and materialized her magical sickle. In a fluid motion, she ran between them, pushing Ryu away and backing the demon into a tree with her rounded blade at his neck.
“Celine? Wha.. what are you doing here?” Mi-yeong stammered. Celine’s eyes were only on the demon.
“What were you doing to her? Release her from your mind control, or I’ll kill you right now!” Celine snarled, fully intending to come through on that promise.
The demon in front of her was… shaking. Celine would think it was afraid, but she knew that demons had no feelings.
“Celine, please— let me explain to you. He’s.. not like the others. Gwi-Ma doesn’t control him!”
Only now did Celine dare turn her head to look at Mi-yeong. “You… aren’t mind controlled?” she demanded. “What did he tell you? You must know he’s deceiving you!”
“Celine, please don’t hurt him. I… I love him.”
Celine’s heart skipped, but not for the usual reason. She looked at the demon, who was gazing back with wide, pleading eyes. Why is he just standing there? Why isn’t he trying to fight?
“If you believe I would stand idly by while you brainwash a Sunlight Sister… you can send a message back to Gwi-Ma. I will not let you take advantage of her faults!”
She swung her arm, cleaving the demon’s neck in two. He dissipated just like all the others she’d killed, because he was just like all the others.
Ryu Mi-yeong dropped to her knees behind her. “SAEYORI!” She sobbed. The demon had a name?
”Celine, what have you DONE?”
Celine rushed to her. “Oh, no. Mi-yeong, come here. The effects of the mind control should wear off, I’m here. Don’t you worry.” She knelt beside her and put her arms around her, but Ryu almost shrunk away from her touch.
“It wasn’t mind con.. control,” she hiccuped. “I loved him, Celine. He wasn’t evil… he wasn’t heartless. We were wrong.”
Celine felt rage bubble up in her chest as she softly ran her hands through Mi-yeong’s unbraided hair. “It’s going to be okay. He’s gone now, you don’t need to fear him anymore. Did he hurt you?”
Celine abruptly started looking her up and down for bruises or scrapes. She found a bruise on her rib, but not much else. “Did he…” she hesitated.
“..Did he touch you?” Celine asked, her voice low. She didn’t know if Ryu would have the strength to answer such a question in that moment, but if she did, then Celine would know just how bad the situation had been.
Ryu Mi-yeong just numbly shook her head. Celine didn’t know she was lying, not at that time. She couldn’t help but sigh in relief. At least she hadn’t been hurt in that way, and at least she was alive.
It was finally over.
Except it wasn’t. Because that day was the first time Celine heard Gwi-Ma.
Celine flashed back to the present day, an ache momentarily clouding her head. “How dare you,” she spat, her scorn directed toward Gwi-Ma.
She chose him. She hadn’t chosen Celine, because Celine never told her. She was brainwashed, but still she chose that demon.
He didn’t kill your precious Ryu Mi-yeong, or did you forget? No, it was you who did that.
“I DIDN’T KILL HER!” Celine shouted. “It was him. I didn’t know who the father of the child was until I saw those patterns. He killed Mi-yeong. That demon baby made sure she didn’t survive that birth. IT’S NOT MY—“ Her voice broke, and she buried her head in her hands.
“My fault,” she muttered. “It’s my fault. Maybe if I talked to you more…“ She stared at the gravestone again. “Then I wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“I promised I’d preserve every last piece of you, but… how do I do that without letting in the only thing you swore to kill? The only one you didn’t kill?”
It was wrong to be angry at Mi-Yeong, Celine knew. She hated every time she caught herself thinking bad thoughts like her own brain loved to gossip with itself. It wasn’t her fault. It was the demon’s, it was Gwi-Ma’s, and it was Celine’s.
As Celine stood up and walked away, ignoring the treacherous voice in her head, she made a silent promise that if that child ever felt that demon side, ever lost track of the piece of her mother that was within her…
She would kill her. Kill it. Without hesitation.
”Fix the world, and make it right…” Celine sang under her breath as she approached the temple, and the sweet sleeping purple-haired child came into view.
She touched the infant’s shoulder, where jagged patterns snuck up her skin. She looked away. She couldn’t… look at her, not until those markings were rightfully covered.
“When darkness finally meets the light…”