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

He shouldn’t dwell on it. Rayco shouldn’t dwell on the glorious feeling that admiring MC’s eyes inspires out of him. But how can he deny himself such a wonder?

He closes the distance between them. Just a little, but enough for his 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 he hasn’t experienced in centuries. Rayco can see himself reflected in them, and he almost doesn’t recognize his own image.

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

An angel.

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

A new sweetness, almost tangible. Euphoria and longing in every corner of his 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 his chest with the force of a whisper and the subtlety of thunder.

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

One is his. And the other…

Rayco steps back, the movement more difficult than he expected. His face forms a sad grimace as he averts his gaze from the eyes that make him reclaim feelings long forgotten.

He was so distracted by reveling in that beautiful sensation emanating from him that he completely forgot his duty.

“I’ve failed,” he says aloud, his shoulders slumping.

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

“Protecting you,” he responds automatically. The bitterest admission of his 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,” Rayco admits. He doesn’t have it in him to hide things from them any longer.

Rayco 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… Rayco lets out a listless chuckle at the thought.

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

He didn’t mean to say it aloud, it was just a thought for himself, but the words escape his mouth uncontrollably.

“Would? Does that mean that you also—”

“Do not say it,” Rayco 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.”

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

And MC doesn’t deserve it.

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

His eyelids droop in regret and he lowers his arm.

Sometimes, destiny isn’t kind.