The god crossed one leg over the other mid-air and lowered himself onto the sofa with theatrical grace, folding his luminous hands on his lap. "Oh, mortal impatience, how charming. You're not dead, not quite. But you were close enough to knock." He leaned forward slightly, a gleam in his eyes. "So, I opened the door."
Leesa's jaw clenched. "If I survive this again, I swear I'll come back here just to strangle you."
"That's the spirit." He smiled brightly, utterly immune to her threat. "Tell me, Leesa Marlene… was he worth it?"
At that, her mouth fell silent. The crackling flames, the blood on her hands, the sight of Flavian limp in her arms, it all came rushing back. She looked away; her jaw tight.
Though the sensation flooding her body was far from unfamiliar, it struck her with a haunting clarity. This heady rush, the tremble in her limbs, the fire coursing through her veins, she had known it once before, long ago, in another life, when she bore the name Ella Boone. That storm-wracked night, when the heavens split and the earth trembled, and the last breath of Ella was stolen from her lips, this was the very same blood rush that had surged through her. A breathless fire of fate's making. That night, too, her body had been broken, her heart ablaze with love and fury and sacrifice. And just as now, death had reached out its cold fingers to claim her. Yet it had not succeeded.
The god nodded knowingly, as if her silence spoke more than words. "You mortals and your love… so dramatic, so chaotic. A performance I will never tire of watching."
Leesa turned back toward him, her eyes hard. "Love? What love?"
The god exhaled in mock exasperation, shaking his shining head. "Still the same airheaded fool, are we?"
"I am not airheaded," Leesa snapped, her eyes narrowing. "I am merely… not yet prepared to call this feeling love." Her gaze fell, uncertain for the first time.
"Hmm..." the god smirked, his lips curling with a mischief older than time. "Confused, then? Or shall I say, still at odds with the memories you carry?"
She looked up, defiant. "You already know, don't you? Almighty and all-knowing, far too full of yourself."
He laughed softly, and the heavens seemed to echo with it. "Indeed. But even omniscience has its joys. Watching you stumble and flare like a tempest, Leesa, is divine entertainment."
Then, without warning, he lifted a glowing hand and gently touched her brow. "Very well. I shall offer a fragment of aid." His palm settled against her head like the sun cresting the horizon. Leesa's form began to shimmer, her edges turning translucent as if she were being called back to the world she'd left behind.
"Now," the god murmured, his voice growing distant, "see to it that you do not return here too soon. Though... I may linger still, in the quietest corners of your mind." With a final glimmering smile, he withdrew, and Leesa's body dissolved into silver light, rushing downward like a star falling back to earth.
Ella Boone stumbled down the dimly lit alley, blood seeping from the gash along her ribs. Her breath came in ragged gasps, the mission completed. Darkness swirled at the edges of her vision before everything gave way.
When consciousness returned, it was not under a starless sky but within a clinic. White walls, sterile light. The hum of machines. A man stood over her, tall, composed, with dark, intelligent eyes that held more warmth than she was accustomed to. Dr. Leo Mecana had introduced himself. He tended her wounds with gentle hands, his words light, attempting conversation as if to ease her pain. Doctors must speak with their patients, she mused, then. Nothing more.
Once healed, she left without a second glance. Her path was not one of healing, but of shadows and daggers. The West Organisation, her lifelong quarry, left little room for distraction. Yet fate, ever meddling, brought her again to Leo, though under far stranger circumstances. She had traced her mission to an abandoned warehouse, where he appeared once more, an incongruous figure amidst such danger. What business does a scholar of medicine have in such cursed corners of the city? she wondered, suspicion narrowing her eyes.
His tale was a mad one, or so it seemed. Words of fate and forces she deemed foolish filled the air between them. She dismissed him quickly, turned to leave, but he followed. His voice trembled not with fear, but with conviction.
"I love you," he said, plain, bright, and sincere.
She froze. Love? For an assassin, love was not a luxury, it was a liability. The ones she cherished would become weapons turned against her. It was not a rule written in doctrine, but a truth carved by blood and betrayal.
She denied him, stern and cold. Not to wound him, but to save him. Yet Leo Mecana was not one to yield to fear. Their paths crossed again, this time in a run-down apartment she used as a decoy. She was fleeing, luring her enemies astray, and had stumbled upon his room. Within it, candles, a summoning circle chalked on the ground.
"Were you trying to summon a demon?" she asked, settling cross-legged across from him.
"A ghost," he replied, mirroring her pose. "To help me find you."
She laughed in disbelief. "You wished to see me so desperately, you called on spirits?"
"I am mad with love for you. Can you not see that?"
"I told you before, let it go. You'll only suffer."
"Don't cast my feelings aside like refuse. They matter. You matter. I have scoured this city like a madman, just to see you again."
"That much?" Her tone softened, touched by sorrow.
"I don't ask you to love me, only to give me a chance. I'm not such a terrible man."
"That's the trouble," she whispered. "You're good. And goodness cannot survive alongside me."
"Then would you prefer me wicked?"
"I don't care about that sort," she murmured. "I just… don't want you to suffer when you need not."
"How could I ever suffer, so long as I'm with you?"
How do you fight someone who isn't afraid to bleed? No reason could dissuade him. No refusal would suffice. Against her better judgment, she relented, not because she believed it would last, but because his love had already burrowed too deeply.