Eyes off you

"Why don't you sit down while I continue talking to her?" Gwen suggested, her heart losing its usual rhythm seeing the panic setting in on her mostly apathetic cousin's face.

"No! She's still inside. I need to get her out, it's my fault she's in there in the first place—"

"Hey no." Gwen grabbed his broad shoulders and shook him as hard as she could with all her considerable power. "Now's not the best time to start blaming yourself."

Theo opened his mouth to retort back but closed it, knowing that in the end, she was right. He could punish himself later, maybe make a small trip to the Fates so that they could try their carvings on him.

Placing his hands on the door, he breathed out and tried his hardest not to lose control in front of his very cousin who was staring at him in worry. He hated that pitiful look on anybody especially when it was directed toward him. He didn't need anyone's sympathy, all he wanted right now was to see her face and hear from her own lips that she was okay.

"I'm trying again," he spoke, stepping back and summoning that darkness that he had caged inside a trunk, ready to open whenever he wanted his powers to be let free.

Darkness burst from his hands like a blast of fire and he put all his focus and concentration on aiming in all the directions where the spell wasn't working. Slowly lowering his hands, his chest heaved up and down but the door remained as firm as ever with only a small burn mark in the center.

"Call Kai and Sebastian back immediately," he spoke in a firm tone that instantly made it clear that he was not up to dealing with any arguments at the moment.

Gwen hesitated for a second, but when he didn't turn to glare at her or reprimand her, she only bit her lip and whirled around to run down so she could teleport to the Court to get Kai who was the only one who knew where Sebastian was currently staying.

Meanwhile, Theo neared the door, placing his hands on it again and leaning his head against the hard material. Fuck, how he hated being helpless and this woman did the very thing he hated to the furthest extent. And he didn't have it in him to say anything to her. About how she almost made him want to set fire to the whole world just so that the fricking door would open and he could see her again.

"I'm willing to get down on my knees and beg. Just please open that door..." he mumbled, and a heard a sob being stifled by something which he guessed was her hand. The very hand he had grabbed multiple times for a reason he didn't want to know yet.

"You need to take revenge. You can't surrender right now, it's only you who can control your demons."

[And oh how I wish I could do it in your stead... Just so you wouldn't have to go through the pain I had to suffer.]

It happened in the blink of an eye, and he wasn't able to pinpoint the exact time it occurred. Theo closed his eyes at the massive impact which he was hit with as the door was sent flying off into him and his back hit the wall.

The door crumbled into large pieces of debris at his feet and he looked up, unharmed yet his heart aching when he saw her completely break as her knees hit the ground.

Stumbling forward, he kneeled in front of her, his eyes searching her face for any sign of harm or anything that hurt her due to the force of her powers she just released. She was okay except that she wasn't. Deep down he knew she was cracking inside, blaming herself for everything and forcing her emotions to stay strong in front of him.

Cupping her face softly, he said, "Look at me."

Eva continued to look away and this time, he couldn't understand the cause of her uncertainty. Did she not want to see him? Or...

His heart dropped when he started wondering if she thought it was him who had locked the door after leaving. But it wasn't him! He needed to let her know that before she started hating him again. How long had it taken to gain her partial trust back in Xandria?

Maybe all she wanted right now, was to not see him...

"I'll leave the minute Gwen arrives back but you have to know that it wasn't me—"

"You think I don't know that already?" her voice was bleak and all he wanted to do at that moment was to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

"But you're angry at me..." he remarked more like a question and his eyes locked themselves on her face when she lifted her eyes and he felt spellbound by her beauty like all the previous times.

[God, she's going to be the death of me...]

Her eyes were a bright blueish grey and like all the times she had conquered him, she succeeded to make him speechless by everything about her once again. Theo gazed at her, unable to take his eyes off and couldn't help but fall deeper without meaning to.

"You're beautiful," he spoke and saw her eyes widen in disbelief.

She didn't believe him one bit.

And he didn't know how to make her accept that she was the brightest star in his darkness. The only light he had found after his mother's death and he couldn't watch it dim down without doing anything about it.

So he gulped, hesitantly raising his hand to tuck in one of her strands that had fallen over to hide her face from his sight. He didn't want her to hide, especially not from him. How long had Isabella planned to keep a gem like her concealed? Forever?

And he knew then.

Forcing himself to stay away from her was not going to work no matter how hard he tried to keep away.

There was only one way to end the turmoil brewing in his chest...

And Theo knew what he had to do.