She can feel his anger the moment he arrives, almost palpable in the air around him. She’d been prepared for the anger, but what she hadn’t been prepared for was the hurt. But she shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, that’s what she does. She hurts those she cares for, like a goddamned curse.
She closes her eyes, remaining silent while he rages at her. Hadn’t it been enough that she’d had to give birth before an audience? Every instinct she has had been screaming at her to get away, to keep her children safe. She couldn’t protect them from everyone there, she hadn’t had the strength.
So she’d done the only thing she could think of in the moment.
It hadn’t been her intention the leave him behind, not consciously. But she’d been too weak to refine her abilities more. He’d been nothing more than a casualty to her exhaustion. Not that she would expect him to believe such a thing. She has always been a very deliberate creature, and that had been anything but deliberate. But was it even worth trying to convince him of that?
When he hurls his final insults at her, his tirade winding down, she opens her eyes. Her gaze focuses on him, surprisingly gentle, lacking the hardness that made them such weapons. “If I didn’t want you, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she counters, unable to help herself. “And if I wanted to take them from you, you would never have found us.”
She stares at him for a long moment then, teetering on the edge of something more. But she has already made herself so vulnerable before him. Too vulnerable. Just then, whether fortunate or unfortunate, their daughter begins to squirm against her, drawing her attention. She drops her head, fussing over the girl as she slowly wakes. “I just needed to protect them,” she finally whispers, placing a tender kiss on her small forehead.
She nuzzles briefly at little Dagen too, but the red and white girl has become more alert, blue eyes wide as her gaze moves slowly between the two of them. Heartfire brushes gently at her wispy mane before urging, “Say hi to your daddy, darling.”
Her wide eyes pop up to Dovev, curious and innocent. “Da da?” she says softly, testing the syllables on her tongue. Her features brighten then, a little grin touching her lips as she beams at him. “Dada!”
Heartfire smiles at that, unable to help herself. Her children have always been her greatest vulnerability, but also her greatest pride. They stole her heart without even trying. In that moment, she doesn’t even realize how open her features have become, a rare glimpse into her very soul, if one bothered to look closely enough.
Her gaze turns to Dovev then, unconsciously softened by love. “Come meet them, Dovev,” she offers, a rare invitation. “Lay with us.”
i see your sins
and i want to set them free
