Extra Scene, Act 1, Chapter 9 (Gara’s POV)

She shouldn’t dwell on it. Gara shouldn’t dwell on the glorious feeling that admiring MC’s eyes inspires out of her. But how can she deny herself such a wonder?

She closes the distance between them. Just a little, but enough for her wings to barely brush against MC’s arm.

Oh, if only they knew the meaning of that simple gesture.

In the dark of night, those eyes seem to glow more than usual, with the moon and fireflies as the only witnesses to the mortal beauty she hasn’t experienced in centuries. Gara can see herself reflected in them, and she almost doesn’t recognize her own image.

“Is this how they see me?” she wonders. “Not as the monster I always see, but almost as…”

An angel.

The word echoes in her memory like a distant call. Gods don’t feel temperature, yet Gara would swear she feels her chest warm like never before. Emotions she can’t contain begin to drown her in happiness.

A new sweetness, almost tangible. Euphoria and longing in every corner of her being. Time stops and runs frantically all at once. Scattered thoughts now focus on a single bright point while a heart, previously indifferent to its rhythm, syncs with another.

It’s a serene chaos, a silent storm. An abyss of emotions that crashes in her chest with the force of a whisper and the subtlety of thunder.

But wait... these emotions are hers, and yet they aren’t. Gara feels them as two lines beginning to merge.

One is hers. And the other…

Gara steps back, the movement more difficult than she expected. Her face forms a sad grimace as she averts her gaze from the eyes that make her reclaim feelings long forgotten.

She was so distracted by revelling in that beautiful sensation emanating from her that she completely forgot her duty.

“I’ve failed,” she says aloud, her shoulders slumping.

“Failed? Failed at what?” she hears MC ask shortly after.

“Protecting you,” she responds automatically. The bitterest admission of her life. “It’s my duty to keep you away from anything that could potentially cause you harm. Even your own feelings.”

“My feelings?” MC whispers. “So you know.”

“Yes,” Gara admits. She doesn’t have it in her to hide things from them any longer.

Gara feels the sadness MC tries to control as they state, “And you don’t feel the same.”

If MC only knew how wrong they are… Gara lets out a listless chuckle at the thought.

“That would make it easier for both of us, wouldn’t it?”

She didn’t mean to say it aloud, it was just a thought for herself, but the words escape her mouth uncontrollably.

“Would? Does that mean that you also—”

“Do not say it,” Gara interrupts before the inevitable happens. “I won’t be able to hide from that fact if you do.”

MC shakes their head in disbelief. “Why hide? I told you, you don’t have to do it with me.”

Gara feels sick. The venom of guilt corrodes her insides as she feels the desperation accompanying MC’s words. How can she do it? How can she do this to MC? The pain of the end… Gara knows what it feels like.

And MC doesn’t deserve it.

Her violet gaze drops to their collarbone, where the artefact that will end her life rests peacefully. Even now, with some distance between them, Gara can feel a slight burning sensation, one that transforms into a searing pain in her fingers when she raises an arm towards them and the pendant glows. She hasn’t even touched it, yet she already feels weak.

Her eyelids droop in regret and she lowers her arm.

Sometimes, destiny isn’t kind.