Blessed by Night-Chapter 378 : A Long Road

Sei was pulling everything off the stove as her timer blared in the background.

She wiped her brow of sweat and smiled at the bountiful harvest she had prepared through her blood, sweat, and evolved tears.

"Looks good."

"AAAHHH!!"

Sei nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a brand new voice coming from inside her kitchen.

At some point, her home had become filled with a whole host of visitors.

Nyx, Aubrey, another of Thea's wives, Jasmine, Nemesis, Keres, and Malachi's ghostly father, Marcus, and his mother, Felicia.

"O-Oh, you're all here!" Sei beamed. "Welcome, welcome! I was just-"

"Where is brother? I come bearing a gift as I am told it is customary."

Keres loomed over Sei with a domineering and intense aura.

Granted that was pretty standard for the demon-winged goddess, but somehow this felt a bit more over the top than normal.

Sei was going to surmise that the reason for her overexcitement had a lot to do with the equally oversized gift she was holding.

Keres was genuinely pretty hard to read if one only focused on her appearance, but most of the family were getting better at getting the hang of it with Malachi's instruction.

"You got him something good, huh?" Sei smiled knowingly.

Keres nodded.

"Stygian and Krysos armor forged in the depths of the river Styx and imbued with the howling cry of wailing souls… and a card."

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Sei smiled wryly. She didn't know how to tell Keres that Malachi didn't like armor. He barely liked wearing shirts in general. (Lucky for her)

"I'm sure he's going to love it." Sei smiled. "It was very kind of you to get him something so considerate."

Keres didn't exactly smile, but her aura did become just a bit less intense and edgy and instead was warm and fuzzy.

Felicia came and hovered over Sei's head with a surprised expression.

"This is certainly a new look."

Sei's face paled. "I promise you that this is an occurrence beyond my control and not an attempt to look younger for your son!"

Everyone in the kitchen seemed shocked to hear Sei blurt something like that out so blatantly. Except for Keres who was still trying to wrap her head around the meaning behind breakfast for dinner.

"You don't need to worry about that. With my boy, I'm sure something like that would be counterproductive." Felicia comforted.

Sei couldn't deny that even if she wanted to. In fact, she was now wondering if Malachi had become slightly less attracted to her now that she had started to look a bit younger again.

...But a single reminder of the night before had thoroughly dispelled any notion of it.

*Ding!*

The elevator dinged for the first time and a chorus of more rowdy voices streamed into the house.

Bianca's father Ali, Morgan and his wives, Aisha's parents, and of course, Anna and Luna returning with the cake.

"Oh. Seems like everyone's here." Bianca grinned as she came out of the room.

However, there was one more person who was waiting to make an entrance.

A portal opened up in the living room above the sofa, and two women dropped down in spectacular fashion.

Both were beautifully eye-catching, but only one of them was familiar with her bright pink hair and incredibly luxurious outfit.

"Where's my Cam-Cam!? Somebody tell her that her rich big sister is here!"

-

Beneath the shadows, Malachi was trying to stop Nadine from trembling.

He held her in his arms as she sobbed from recalling the most shameful moment of her life.

Mal knew just how hard Nadine was on herself about that incident. She never really learned how to just shrug it off, and even now, on an entirely different planet and three hundred years later, she still thought about it from time to time.

What happened with Cyrulle was her closest guarded secret. She hadn't even told the other women they shared their life with.

Malachi wanted her to tell them, but he couldn't force her to share things like that before she was ready. He considered himself lucky enough that she even told him.

Any time that the girls attempted to ask her about it, she simply changed the subject.

Malachi knew that it hurt them, because Nadine was usually an open book who NEVER stopped talking.

He didn't want this wedge to continue to stand between their family any longer. But he didn't know exactly how to bring her out of it either.

And then he realized… she had already shown him the way.

"Nadine, look at me."

Malachi suddenly grabbed Nadine by the face and stared deeply into her eyes.

Even as she wept silently, Nadine stared back at her fiance without breaking eye contact.

"You are a good woman. A good mother. And the best friend and partner than I could've ever found in the middle of a dungeon."

Nadine sniffled. "That sounds like a low bar…"

"It's not." Malachi pressed his forehead against her own.

"You were like our family's gift from the gods. You broke down any barriers that we might've held against you and made us love you. You made me love you.

And because I love you I can't just sit by and watch you punish yourself like this anymore."

Malachi brushed his warm lips against Nadine's ears, making them turn beet red.

"You were young. You made a mistake. It doesn't define you, and you don't have to keep living with the guilt of something that you did when you were basically a kid. You deserve to be healthy again. I won't let you try to convince me that you don't."

Nadine felt every word hit her core and make her tremble.

It was a convincing argument. And one that she truly wanted to believe in.

But she just wasn't there yet. And she might never be.

Everytime she closed her eyes, she saw the innocent, mangled body of a dragon child lying limply in her grasp.

Nadine shook her head as he spoke, proving to be unwilling to forgive herself even at the behest of the only man she'd ever loved.

"I can't…" she lowered her head against his shoulder. "Please, can we just go home now..?"

Nadine had never sounded so small before. So brittle.

He held her instinctively so that she wouldn't fall apart.

Malachi didn't just want to let this go. It was one of the hardest things he'd had to do in recent memory.

But pushing too hard here would be detrimental to not just her, but maybe even their relationship as well.

Malachi wasn't willing to compromise that.

"…Alright, love, yeah. We can go home."