Lilac (1) Sons of the Deveaux

Chapter Nineteen - Lillith

Lillith

Once Catalina deemed her happy enough with Lilly's physical state, the Healer made her take a small tablet for her stomach to settle any more nausea before they left her in peace for the night.

Nobody else had been hurt so she could get some sleep yet.

Lennox had taken to carrying her this time, his warm body seeping heat through her own as they walked through the empty halls.

It didn't feel safe anymore as she watched over the redhead's shoulder. Something could be lurking in the dark. Something could be watching them from the shadows, waiting to reach out a disgusting misshapen hand and snatch them away from her.

Lilly pressed herself tighter against him, gripping his shirt in her fists as they headed for the King's quarters.

Was it sheer luck that this happened tonight? Before the royal couple were supposed to return to their own home?

Lillith didn't want to think badly of them, not when they had taken her in, treated her so wonderfully, but it was too conflicting not to at least consider something had happened.

What if Orian was correct and there was a traitor in the grounds that was out to get her?

Somebody that wasn't happy with her sudden appearance.

A jilted lover that was trying to remove obstacles from their way and claim the twins for themselves?

Although Lilly had to be a little bit rational at least. There weren't very many females around the place at all, any in fact she had seen were staff members or the Queen herself.

It was overwhelming.

One thing after another had battered her since coming here, both good and bad.

A discovery of who she was, who she could be once upon a time. Abilities the fairy had long thought gone. Experiences and connections with demons she thought would kill her outright in brutality.

And now this. Now the realisation that she could destroy monsters with a mere touch.

How would this shift the tide in their drive to find the rest? To find how they connected to the Life Tree?

There were too many questions to answer, too many thoughts to keep track of as they rounded into the large living quarters where hushed voices were coming from already.

"Please. I have to see her, you don't understand, none of you understand!"

Dread curled in the pit of Lilly's stomach as she pushed herself away from them to touch down on cold tiled flooring.

She knew that voice. Knew it, but it wasn't in the right place. There was no reason for her sister to be behind those doors right now.

No reason at all except for something ... Terrible to have happened.

"Lilly. Wait."

Orian's hand was held out to her, blocking her path as they lingered there, in the dim moonlight trying to overhear anything more.

"You have to understand us, Ms Evergreen. You cannot just turn up in the middle of the night demanding to see your sister. Where are your guards? Why has your father sent nobody with you?"

The Queen's voice. Soft. Gentle. Coaxing answers from a tearful Delilah.

"Don't speak to me about that man!"

Again, Lilly took a step forward. Her sister had yelled, wailed at the Queen herself. She had never heard their youngest sibling ever raise her voice before. Liah had always been the apple of their fathers eye. The one that looked like him the most, the one they made sure he kept his hands off of as best they could.

Was Gen here as well?

Were they just waiting in that room for her?

Again, the fairy took a step forward, her wing fluttering against her back. Excited to see her sister, worried for whatever had happened and drove to protect her from anyone who tried to minimise whatever had taken place while she was gone.

"You weren't there, you didn't see what he did. How he ... he ..." Delilah hiccuped a sob and Lilly couldn't take it anymore. The fairy pushed by Orian to throw the doors open.

The sight that greeted her was one she'd never hoped to see.

Delilah was beaten, her dress bloodied and tear streaked. Her dress was destroyed, tattered in places and just about holding together as if she had dragged it to her body in haste as she ran away.

"Lilly!" Delilah wailed the second she spied her, hurriedly coming to throw her arms around her sister and squeeze tight as she dissolved into a flood of more tears and sobs.

"Wh-what ha-happened, what ... I d-d-d-dont ..."

"He killed her! He killed Eve!"

The information hit Lilly like a boulder, weighing her down with shock as she held onto her younger sister. Everything in the room turned to white noise aside from her voice as she relieved the details, hiding her watering eyes against Lilly's shoulder while Lennox' shirt soaked up the sadness that poured through her.

"I tried to stop him, I promise, but he wouldn't listen. He kept talking crazy, that she needed to learn a lesson but he hit her so many times, Lilly. She stopped fighting back, she just lay there and wasn't breathing."

Lillith couldn't put the emotions churning through her into words. It was like a black pit had opened up inside her chest, a cavity that swallowed her internal scream.

Eve couldn't be dead. She couldn't be, she swore it would be okay. She promised. Her sister never broke her promises.

"He butchered her, Lilly. Cut her wings off and mounted them on the wall by the throne. I tried to wake her up, I screamed so much at him but nothing worked."

Lillith's fingers curled around her sister's back as she tried to breathe, the mental image of gore and blood filling her brain.

He killed Genevieve. He took their sister.

The fairy wasn't even aware of the tears filling her eyes or the way that ran down her cheeks silently as she stood there, trying not to splinter.

Thorns grew slowly, twisting through surfaces, splintering wood and curling tight. Anger, thick and ugly rose its head inside her and smiled. An unused muscle finally getting to stretch as poisonous flowers bloomed along the slow crawling vines, deadly mushrooms and carnivorous plants snapping to life.

Over her sister's shoulder, Lilly's gaze found the twins standing across from her, watching. Waiting for anything she had to say.

The fairy brushed a shaky hand down the back of Delilah's hair gently, her fingertips trembling so badly Lilly had to squeeze her hand into a fist to stop it. "It's okay." Her voice was hoarse with emotion, her throat raw from holding back the pain that was building up inside her like a poison, sinking through her veins.

She knew their rage.

Orian's for the state he had found her in.

Lennox for the scars she bore and nightmares.

Nox grit his teeth, his jaw standing out in stark tightness as Orian inclined his head a little. She may not know her fiance's as well as she could just yet, but they understood her already.

Neither one of them would be the one to make her father take his last breath.

Lillith would be. And she was going to make sure he choked on it, gargling on it until he couldn't spew any more cruelty. Couldn't inflict anymore pain.

She was going to gut that sorry excuse of a male from his tongue to his intestines and watch the evil spill out of him.

She wanted revenge for her sister. For herself. He couldn't be allowed away with this. Not with so much going on, not with all these discoveries happening.

What else had their father hidden from them?

If Eve was truly dead, then he wouldn't leave Delilah alone. She was the only way he could have an heir without marrying again, she was his golden ticket to the perfect Fae he wanted to create so badly, to make more fine creatures he'd created inside his head.

Lillith was declaring war on the Fae monarchy.