The room was too quiet.
Not peaceful — never peaceful — but quiet in that hollow, suffocating way that made Damien feel like the walls were listening. Like they were waiting for him to break.
He sat on the edge of the narrow cot, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tightly his knuckles had gone white. The dim lantern in the corner flickered, casting long shadows across the stone floor. Shadows that stretched toward him like accusing fingers.
He didn't look up when the air in the room shifted.
Didn't look up when the faint shimmer of time magic cracked like thin ice.
Didn't look up when Piper gasped, stumbling forward as if waking from a nightmare.
He just stared at the floor.
"Damien?" Piper's voice was small, confused, trembling. "What… what happened? was I frozen? Where's Maddie? Where..."
Kyra caught her by the shoulders before she could fall. "Easy. You've been out for a while. A lot happened."
"A lot?" Piper blinked rapidly, trying to piece together the fragments of memory. "I remember… Damien was... he was..."
"Losing his fucking mind." Kyra finished bluntly.
Piper froze again, but this time it wasn't magic.
Damien didn't flinch.
He didn't defend himself.
He didn't even breathe.
Kyra shot him a look, sharp, assessing, edged with something between anger and pity. "He's been like that since we got here. Hasn't said a word."
Piper swallowed hard. "Damien…?"
Still nothing.
Kyra sighed, rubbing Piper's back. "Give him a minute. Or an hour. Or a century."
Piper hesitated, then nodded. The two of them moved to the far side of the room, whispering urgently, trying to make sense of everything piper had missed.
But Damien heard none of it.
Their voices were muffled, distant, like echoes underwater.
The only thing he heard, the only thing he could hear, was the memory of Seraiya's voice.
Her scream.
Her fear.
His betrayal.
His own roar of power as he'd thrown an energy ball at Maddie, one that had hit her instead. He was convinced, so convinced, that he was doing the right thing. That hurting her now would save her later. That becoming stronger, no matter the cost, was the only way to protect her.
He had told himself that lie so many times it had become truth.
Until she looked at him with those eyes.
Not angry.
Not afraid.
Just… broken.
Damien squeezed his eyes shut, but the memory burned behind his eyelids anyway.
He had promised to protect her.
He had sworn it.
And instead, he had become the thing she needed protection from.
A soft voice drifted across the room. Piper's. "He hasn't moved since he got here?" She asked "He hasn't even looked up?"
Kyra murmured back, "He's drowning in it."
"In what?"
"Regret."
The word hit him like a blade.
He didn't react outwardly, but something inside him twisted, sharp and merciless.
Regret.
Such a small word for something that felt like it was hollowing him out from the inside.
Kyra continued, her voice low. "He thought he was doing it for her. All of it. Every reckless choice. Every power grab. Every deal with forces he shouldn't have touched."
Piper's voice cracked. "But he hurt her."
"No," Kyra said softly. "He killed her."
Damien's breath hitched.
He didn't mean to make a sound, but the tiny, involuntary gasp slipped out anyway.
Both women went silent.
He felt their eyes on him.
He didn't lift his head.
Couldn't.
Piper took a tentative step toward him. "Damien… talk to us."
He shook his head once, barely perceptible.
Kyra crossed her arms. "Ignoring us won't fix anything."
He still didn't look up.
Kyra's tone sharpened. "You think sitting there in silence makes you noble? Makes you tragic? It doesn't. It just makes you a coward."
Piper winced. "Kyra—"
"No," Kyra snapped. "He needs to hear it."
Damien's jaw tightened, but he didn't speak.
Kyra stepped closer, her boots echoing on the stone. "You wanted power so badly you didn't care who you stepped on to get it. You told yourself it was for Seraiya, but it wasn't. It was for you. For your pride. For your fear of not being enough."
Damien's fingers dug into his palms until he felt the sting of blood.
Kyra wasn't wrong.
That was the worst part.
Piper tried again, gentler. "Damien… we know you didn't want to hurt her."
He let out a shaky breath.
Finally, he spoke, barely above a whisper.
"I did."
Piper's eyes widened. "No, you..."
"I did," Damien repeated, louder this time. "I wanted to hurt her. Because I thought… I thought if I pushed her hard enough, she'd understand. She'd see what I was trying to do. She'd stop fighting me."
His voice cracked.
"And she didn't."
Kyra's expression softened, but she didn't interrupt.
Damien swallowed hard, staring at the floor as if it could swallow him whole. "I told myself it was for her. That I needed more power to protect her. That if I didn't get stronger, they would try to kill her again."
He let out a bitter laugh.
"And in trying to protect her… I became the thing she needed protection from."
Silence settled over the room like dust.
Piper's eyes shimmered with tears. "Damien…"
He shook his head. "Don't. Don't try to make it better. Don't tell me I didn't mean it. Don't tell me I was confused. I knew exactly what I was doing."
Kyra stepped closer, her voice steady. "Then why stop?"
Damien finally lifted his head.
His eyes were hollow.
Empty.
"Because the moment my magic hit her... she looked at me," he whispered. "And for the first time… she wasn't looking at the person she knew to be her twin brother. She was looking at a monster."
Piper covered her mouth.
Kyra exhaled slowly. "And that broke you."
Damien nodded once.
A single tear slipped down his cheek, silent, unacknowledged.
"I thought I was strong," he said. "But the truth is… I was just scared. Scared of losing her. Scared of being powerless. Scared of not being enough."
He looked down at his palms.
"And fear makes monsters of all of us."
Piper knelt beside him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "You can still fix this."
Damien shook his head. "No. I can't."
Kyra crouched on his other side. "You can try."
He let out a hollow laugh. "She'll never forgive me."
Kyra shrugged. "Maybe not. But forgiveness isn't the point."
Damien frowned. "Then what is?"
Kyra met his gaze, unflinching. "Becoming someone worth forgiving."
The words hit him harder than any blow.
Piper squeezed his arm. "Seraiya doesn't need you to be perfect. She just needs you to be better."
Damien closed his eyes.
Better.
He didn't know if he could be.
Didn't know if he deserved to be.
But for the first time since everything fell apart… he wanted to try.
He opened his eyes, looking at the two, one who was his mother and one who was like his second mother, both beside him.
"Where is she?" he whispered.
Piper and Kyra exchanged a glance.
Kyra answered. "Safe. With people who won't let you near her until you prove you're not a threat."
Damien nodded slowly.
Fair.
More than fair.
He stood — unsteady, exhausted, but standing.
"I'm going to fix this," he said quietly. "Not for forgiveness. Not for redemption."
He placed a hand over his heart.
"For her."
Kyra smirked faintly. "Good. Because God's are still coming for her."
Damien froze.
Piper nodded grimly. "And she's going to need every ally she can get."
Damien's eyes hardened — not with arrogance, not with hunger for power, but with something steadier.
Resolve.
"Then I'll be ready."
Kyra raised a brow. "Even if she doesn't want you there?"
Damien exhaled. "Especially then."
And for the first time since the world fell apart, he took a step forward.
Not toward power.
Not toward control.
But toward becoming Seraiya's brother again
TO BE CONTINUED