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She was stroking his hair softly, his head lying idly on her lap.
She hummed lightly in the low-lit room, the lamps covered by rags so they wouldn’t hurt his eyes.
Delilah didn’t mind: she had grown accustomed to the darkness.
She had found herself shifting in the shadows lately, treading close to the walls when she moved around the Candles.
She had started feeling exposed in her office, listening to gusts of wind creeping in from the window and making the lamp quiver.
Paranoid, she had become paranoid.
It was not going to be an issue after that night.
Delilah held the letter tight in her free hand, crushing it softly between her fingertips.
To the attention of the Archmage of Antiquitiy.
Due to the discovery of an immoral conduct, pursued in discordance with the principles of the Cerberus Assembly, we inform you that you will be lifted from your duties, effective immediately. The Cerberus Assembly wishes to express…
She sighed deeply, removing a wild strand of hair from Sylas’s forehead. His skin was cold against her hand, like marble kissed by the chilly night air.
“They will be here any moment now, my love,” she whispered. “It will be over soon.”
Sylas looked up at her, frowning.
“Are you afraid?” he murmured, lifting a hand to cradle her chin. He caressed her skin softly, lovingly, and Delilah let herself melt into his touch.
“Never,” she replied. “I am never afraid when you are here.”
He smiled. He propped himself up on his elbow, bringing himself to sit on the couch. He rested his head on her shoulder and took her hand in his. He pried the letter gently from her fingers, laying it to rest on the low table.
“I destroyed your career,” he mused.
She shook her head, soft laughter curving her lips.
“I destroyed it gladly. I would do it all over again, every day of my life.” She kissed the back of his hand. “The Assembly means nothing now. We serve a higher purpose. We are His blood.”
Silence fell lightly on their shoulders, shadows engulfing them like a shroud.
“Are you afraid?” she asked, listening to the faint voices rising outside the window.
He grinned. “Always. I am always afraid to lose you.”
She scoffed. “You think me weak, love?”
“I think you could lay waste to this entire wretched town, but you won’t do it as long as I am around.”
She nodded, adjusting the collar of his shirt. It was almost time to go. “Not yet. It is not time. When He rises, Exandria will fall under his grasp. And ours.”
The noise of footfalls echoed in the street. Delilah straightened her back, holding his hand tighter.
“We are going to be together for eternity. Be brave, my love,” she said.
She rose slowly from the couch, never letting his hand go. He followed her in silence as she walked to the centre of the room.
She hummed under her breath, and all the candles fell dark.
The door burst open as two guards shoved it off its hinges. It clashed against the wall with a deafening thud, nails falling on the floor like iron rain.
“Stay where you are,” a guard shouted, blade unsheathed against the dark of night. In the street, a dozen more soldiers held their weapons high, eyes glistening with fear behind their helmets. A blue-robed figure lurked in the shadows behind them. Cowardly little monks, so pathetic.
Delilah took a slow, deliberate step forward, watching the guards take a full step back in unison. She grinned, raising her free hand. They were so afraid, those little ants. So scared of them, like insignificant insects.
Oh, they would all perish under the hand of the Whispered One.
She couldn’t wait.
Sylas stepped beside her, still holding her hand tight. “We are unarmed,” he grinned, his fangs shining in the moonlight.
Delilah laughed under her breath.
She would have loved to smother those pathetic little bugs under her hand, to make them pay for the crime of slowing them down. A nuisance, really—but it made her hands itch.
“Patience, my dear,” Sylas whispered. “It will all be over soon,” he echoed.
Slowly, achingly, they let go of each other’s hand.
Stepping away from him hurt her broken soul. She remembered the void that had followed her in her travels, the palpable absence that had clung to her when she was away from him.
She remembered her heart stopping when she came home and she couldn’t see his chest rising and falling. His cold skin as she held him, murmuring empty promises and broken, silly rhymes in the dark until somebody had answered.
She never wanted to be apart from him—never again.
Soon, she would never have to be.
Soon, it would all come falling down, and they would rise upon a new world.
As long as he was by her side, Delilah could wait.