Chapter 522: Chapter 522: Empty eyes
Chapter 522 – Empty eyes
He didn’t know why.
He didn’t know why he had made such a decision, and he didn’t know why everything inside of him was screaming at him to just kill Elijah and be done with it.
It wouldn’t be difficult. Oh no, not at all. If he wished, Elijah’s soul would die a million times from a single touch.
’Then why am I risking this?’
Because it was a risk. A real one.
Noah couldn’t deny the truth behind Elijah’s words. And maybe that was exactly why. Maybe because those words held enough truth that his own ego couldn’t accept them easily without lashing out.
Pride was sinister like that.
He had no choice but to admit it...he had felt insecure, for a fleeting moment. The feeling was as brief as a flash of light, yet to Noah it felt as though he had been carrying it for thousands of years.
So he asked himself,
’Does Justicia truly love me? Or does she only think she loves me because it was the only way forward left to her?’
He couldn’t answer. He didn’t know.
So he did it.
He challenged Elijah in something that could wound him in ways nothing ever had, all to prove to himself that what he had lived with her was not born out of fear or despair.
It had seemed like a good idea when he proposed it. But now, standing right in front of Justicia — all his wives behind him, their expressions the very picture of shock and horror as they stared at Elijah — Noah’s confidence wavered.
"Husband..." Emmie whispered, her tone dripping with such worry and fear that it broke Noah’s heart a thousand times at the sound of it alone.
It wasn’t only Emmie. All his wives felt as if they were standing at the edge of a bottomless pit, everything they were on the verge of being swallowed by darkness.
They were not fools.
If Justicia chose Elijah, their family would be permanently wounded. And that kind of wound could breed things capable of destroying them all.
Realising this, many of Noah’s wives fixed Elijah with a killing intent that could have cracked the air.
"Let’s just kill him, Noah." Virgo said, her tone tight. "Why are you humoring this man?"
"Elijah, huh." Apollonia looked at him with open disdain. "Of course. Why didn’t I make the connection sooner? How did I forget everything about you?"
"All these women can talk to me all they want. Their venom is, at worst, adorable." Elijah said, side-eyeing Apollonia. "But stay quiet, Apollonia. You look exactly like your whore of a mother. And I loathe—!"
"Elijah." Noah cut in sharply, tilting his head as he looked at him with empty eyes. "This is your second warning, and certainly your last. Speak that way to my wives again and I take back my word."
"Kill me, you mean?" His voice was sweet yet defiant. "That’s certainly what you’re eager to do. But you wouldn’t dare..."
His voice trailed off as he turned to look at Justicia.
The woman’s golden eyes were fixed completely on Elijah, staring at him in the way two souls unjustly separated come to meet again.
Justicia was sprawled on the ground made of golden weeds, her clothes drenched in sweat from the harrowing process of having everything in her mind mended back together.
She remembered everything now.
Her chest heaved up and down — exhaustion deeper than words — yet her eyes were clearer than they had ever been.
She remembered what she was before Idalia Marigold broke her and turned her into a pawn. She remembered what she had been living, and most importantly...who she had been living it with.
’Elijah Lightbringer. My husband.’
Yes. It was him. The man who had loved her above everything and gone through setback after setback just to be with her.
The man who had refused Idalia Marigold of LightTorcheur — a True Child of a Progenitor — just to be with her.
And now that same man had come again.
After thousands of years apart. After she had lived another life, forgotten him, broken the promise she had made to him.
Her promise to never allow another man but him.
To most men, that alone would have been reason enough to abandon her entirely. To treat her like something worthless. Yet Elijah didn’t. And here he stood again, with his gentle and loving smile.
"I promised you, didn’t I?" He said, walking toward her slowly, his steps measured and calm, not caring in the least about the murderous gazes burning into his back.
In seconds he was already before her, crouching down gently, facing her directly, her eyes shimmering with restrained tears.
"I always said it, Justicia." He continued, tenderly taking her hands into his. "I am yours and only yours. Neither woman, nor power, nor principality will ever keep me from you."
"You..." Justicia wheezed, her voice broken. "...you took your time."
Elijah’s body shook slightly at the fear and vulnerability behind those words.
Behind them, Noah watched the scene with blank eyes. To anyone else, he was completely indifferent to what was unfolding.
But only Laeh knew how much power she was quietly exerting to keep the world from trembling under Noah’s hidden rage.
Yet Noah said nothing. Did nothing. He only watched and waited for Justicia’s decision, because that was what he had promised.
"Many things happened." Elijah replied. "It’s not an excuse, I know. But I will make sure we reclaim the time we lost."
"We can’t reclaim it, Elijah." Justicia whispered, tears running down her cheeks. "We can’t."
Elijah’s heart knotted. "We are immortal, my love, did you forget? We won’t die unless we are killed. So what if we lost time? We have infinity ahead of us."
He smiled brightly, trying to ease her. "We can live however we want. No more responsibilities in the Celestial Faction. No more Marigold. No more anything, my love. I have learned my lesson. I will grow stronger, strong enough to keep us together this time."
He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. Justicia let him.
They locked their eyes together, each one feeling the unanswered questions of the other, and the scars that thousands of years had etched into them both.
For Elijah, those scars went beyond physical torture, or rape by Marigold or even the terrible wound in his soul. Oh...they went far beyond all of that.
Yet he had gritted his teeth and borne every single thing, all in order to see her again. To be with her again. To build the family they had promised each other.
His love for her was the greatest thing she had ever known. There was nothing like it.
Because if Noah loved her...he loved dozens of others too.
But Elijah’s love was hers, and hers alone.
At that realisation, she smiled. Then she cried.
She began to weep like a newborn left to fend for herself, sobbing as if the universe itself was crashing down on her.
The abruptness of it flustered Elijah. "What is wrong?" He stammered, trying to pull her into a hug.
But Justicia recoiled from his touch. "N-No..." She shook her head.
Elijah froze, face aghast.
Justicia lifted her head to look at him, then her eyes travelled past him, settling on Noah, who stood silently watching all of this unfold with blank eyes.
But could he fool her?
He certainly couldn’t.
Justicia knew how hurt Noah was. She didn’t need a physical reaction to be certain of it.
She turned back to Elijah, still crying despite herself.
"I told you, Elijah..." she said. "You took your time."
"What?" His lips trembled, eyes widening.
Justicia cried harder.
"We can’t reclaim the time we lost. And I..."
Her face broke into a sorrowful, loving smile.
"...I can’t forget what I lived during that time either."
—End of Chapter 522—
