"Let him if he wants." Blake muttered, "Let him ruin his life for his love of someone not of his world, pay whatever price they would demand. Gods only know he wouldn't be the f-first one."

Blake had never been to faerie, but there had been enough of them hanging around, feeding off the impurity of his people, indulging in whatever petty chaos they wished, for him to have a pretty good idea what they were like.

And had seen enough mortals walk blindly into arms of uncarig fae, too far gone to understand the consequences of lying with thorn-covered bodies, or too recognize the bruises as the handprints of something with talons where fingers should be. They had been some of the mortals he had been trying to save.

Go on, Seth, prove to me again that my sacrifice was worthless; demeen my suffering on a petty, childish whim.

Dell tumbled out of Terry's arms and hugged Blake.

"Y-you shouldn't say things like that, Seth. Y-you're making B-Blake upset. I don't like it when he's upset." The boy pressed his face into Blake's stomach.

2I'm sorry. I'm not gonna change my mind, though. I mean, look, Blake, dude..." he tilted his head slightly to one side, watching the slightly smaller boy as he tried to think of what to say, "What happened to you, would you wish that on another?"

"O-of course not. Seth, that wasn't what I was saying-"

"It's what will happen to me if I stay a mortal in their world." Seth cut him off, "Ad don't try to deny it. Most of you can't lie anyways, right?"

"I can though," Blake smiled slightly, hugging Deillion, "So I'll say that Midona would keep you safe no matter what."

Deillion carefully released Blake and turned to face Seth.

"You want to be one of them? You want to be like them? To be as p-powerful as they are and feel like they do and be able to d-do what they do?"

Slowly, Dell reached behind his head and carefully untied the material covering half of his face. The bandage unravelled and pooled on the floor.

Deillion's wide, blank, milky-green eyes stared unblinkingly at Seth. This only served to emphasise the fact they had no pupils. A long, thick scar tracked its way across the boy's face, from one side, through the place where one eyelid met the other, over the bridge of his nose, and through the other eye; something that was usually hidden behind the bandage.

"T-they did this to me. Even if the damage the angels poison did heal, they'll always be u-useless. And do you know why they d-did it?"

A lone tear trickled down his cheek, brought forth by a combination of the searing pain of the light in his eyes and the humiliating, crippling pain of rememberance, and he looked down.

"For fun."

He took a deep breath, and raised his head once more.

"And you want to be like them? You want to be one of them?"

The sheer force of the pity and disgust in his tone - so mature and warped from his usual juvenile lilt - rocked the room.

"No. N-not...not like that. I just...i want to be her boyfriend, not another of her mortal pets. Okay?"

"Seth, seriously, you aren't like...them. You are acting like an ass though."

"Yeah? you would know, gancanagh. I mean, why is Blake with us, huh? Full story. I'm sick of fae half-truths."

"Because I thought...does that even matter? I mean, isn't a person entitled to change their mind?"

"Because you thought keeping a mortal around would be inconvenient, so you wanted to hand me over to them. Out of sight, out of m-mind, right?"

Seth bit his lipring, a nervous habit that meant he felt cornered, before turning and running from the house.

I could force him to stay, but that would only prove his point.

The door slammed. Midona got up to follow him.

"Leave this to me, princess." Cerise laughed, and slipped out after Seth -the Wild Hunt could move as fast as shadows and sunlight, slipping though gaps that ween't truly there- before Midona had a chance to argue.