Chapter 62 – I Choose You
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Beneath the pale and burning tree, two wounded souls at last were free. One offered love with open hands. One chose at last where she would stand.
No chain was forged, no lie was spun, no heart was stolen, no battle won. One waited through the other’s fear, until she chose to hold her near.
The world had taught them love would leave, that every tender word deceives. Yet there beneath the crimson skies, they found the truth in each other’s eyes.
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For the first time, being seen so completely did not make me want to turn away.
I remained seated on Lilith’s lap, my arms resting around her shoulders while hers held me gently at the waist. Neither of us looked away. I stared into the crimson eyes that had once filled me with such fear.
There was nothing hidden behind them now.
Through the bond, I felt her patience, her concern, and the tenderness she had never once tried to conceal from me. Beneath it all remained that same impossible depth of love, but it no longer frightened me as it once had.
Lilith said nothing.
She waited.
Even now, after I had told her everything, she allowed the silence to remain mine until I was ready to break it.
“I’ve spent my whole life trying to find somewhere I belonged,” I said.
My voice was softer than I intended, but I did not stop.
“Someone who could look at me and see Eliza instead of a blessing or a weapon.”
Lilith’s eyes softened.
“I thought I had found that with Beatrice.” Saying her name still hurt, but I no longer turned away from it. “And if she had truly loved me, I wouldn’t have cared what she was. Demon or human… it wouldn’t have mattered.”
My fingers moved slowly through the hair at the back of Lilith’s neck.
“I would have stood against the Church and the Order if I had needed to. I would have abandoned everything I had been taught if only she had truly loved me in return. But it was all a lie.
“She made herself into everything I needed because she knew it would make me easy to use.”
I leaned closer until there was barely any space left between us.
“You’re different.”
Something shifted within Lilith, and through the bond, I felt a small flicker of hope.
“You never lied about what you were. You never hid what you wanted from me.” My throat tightened. “And when you could have taken everything… you stopped.”
Tears gathered in my eyes.
“You knew I wasn’t ready, even when I told you I was. So you waited for me to choose.”
Her love moved through the bond, warm and endless, filling every place inside me I had spent years keeping empty.
“I can feel you, Lilith,” I whispered. “I can feel how much you care.”
My voice broke as the first tear slipped down my cheek.
“It’s so much.”
Lilith lifted a hand toward my face, but before her fingers reached me, I leaned forward and kissed her.
This time, I was the one who reached for her.
I kissed her because I wanted to. Because I wanted her arms around me and her lips beneath mine. Because being close to her no longer felt like losing myself.
It felt like being found.
When I pulled away, Lilith stared at me with such open wonder that something warm rose inside my chest.
A smile spread across my face before I realized it was there.
It was not the tired smile I gave others when I wanted them to believe I was fine. There was no bitterness hidden behind it, no pain I was trying to cover.
It was simply mine.
The last time I remembered smiling that way, I had still been a child.
Lilith’s happiness rushed through the bond, and a laugh escaped me.
A real one.
The sound startled me, but the feeling did not. I laughed again, and the joy shining in Lilith’s eyes made my smile grow wider.
“Lilith,” I said, holding her gaze. “I choose you.”
Her breath caught.
“Not because you defeated me. Not because I have nowhere else to go.” I took her hand and pressed it against my chest. “I choose you because this is where I want to stay.”
Her palm rested over my heart.
“I want to know all of you—not only the demon or the darkness everyone else will see, but the woman holding me now. I want to learn what makes you happy, what makes you laugh… and when you’re hurting, I want to be the one who remains beside you.”
I covered her hand with mine.
“You gave me your love without asking me to become someone else. You waited until I was ready to answer it.”
Fresh tears ran down my cheeks, but my smile remained.
“And now I have.”
I rested my forehead against hers.
“My heart. My soul. Every part of me I spent my life hiding.” My fingers tightened gently around hers. “They’re yours, Lilith. Not because you took them.”
I held her gaze.
“Because I’m giving them to you.”