Let It Slip

Part XVI

Six Months Later

"I think I can find Sabrina." Lilith murmured against Zelda's hair, her arms wrapped around the redheaded witch, her knees curled into the crook of Zelda's legs as they languished lazily in bed. The last six months having been spent in exhausting conversation peppered with moments of unbridled passion as the witch women started from scratch as if they had never met before the moment when Zelda had arrived in Hell.

It was in those months that Zelda learned the depth of Lilith's pain and how she used cruelty and sadism as a healing balm and Lilith learned just how desperate Zelda had been when she decided to call upon Baron Samedi and choose Death over Life. Bonding over their painful experiences in the past, the two had agreed that their lives in Hell would be the new beginning they both needed and from that moment on, they left the past behind them and forged ahead into their future. Growing closer each day, Zelda observed how Lilith ruled Hell, respecting her position as Queen and accepting her position as Queen's Consort - a tentative marriage of sorts, to ensure that the minions of Hell understood Zelda's position of authority over them though she rarely used it.

Zelda spun around in the Queen of Hell's grasp, leaning her weight on her elbow and looking down at Lilith with wide eyes; "How?!"

Lilith looked up at the brilliant glow that always seemed to radiate from the former High Priestess now her Consort, she took a breath to bask in it before reaching up to caress her lover's cheek, "I own her soul just like I own yours, isn't that right?"

Zelda leaned into Lilith's caress but didn't dare breathe a word for fear the cruel Queen might take a pin to the hope that ballooned violently in her chest, making it hard to swallow. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth she tilted her head, a non-verbal gesture encouraging the dark haired witch to continue. Lilith leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to Zelda's lips then rolled over, her feet hitting the floor, a blanket of raven feathers falling from her as she stood to pace naked.

"My relationship with Sabrina has always been complicated and though I mourned both Sabrinas, I never felt compelled to insert myself into your world in that way. After her funeral, I left." Lilith turned to see Zelda holding a fist to her mouth, tears dropping onto her knuckles; "There's no time for regrets or apologies; I was right to take my place in Hell and leave Earth to the rest of you. I'd waited so long, Zelda. This was my life - Sabrina's life....yours... without Lucifer orchestrating his evil plans.... it was none of my business."

Zelda quickly wiped at the tears, ashamed that her emotions were so freely on display, that regardless of how she tried to forget, the past continued to haunt her. Memories that she had paid to have restored in the land of the Living now refused to let her move on, lingering on the shadow's edge, waiting for her mind to wander. Licking the salt of her sorrow from her lips, Zelda nodded and whispered, "I understand, Lily, there's no need to explain. I never expected anything from you then and I certainly don't now...but if there is a way...."

Lilith sauntered to Zelda's side of the bed and sat on the edge, gathering her Consort's hands in her own, "Would that make you happy, darling?" Surprised at her own desire to please Zelda, Lilith felt the sudden urge to deny the request, an automatic response to her brain's assumption that she was in danger and needed to protect herself from a nearby predator. She swallowed that impulse, gnashing it with her sharp canines, choosing a different response and leaning into the love she felt - the love that had been born out of intrigue and fascination.

Zelda's voice broke as she nodded, "Very much so. Baron said Sabrina is in an in-between place - neither living nor dead - and that she chose to be there which is why he had no power over bringing her back."

Lilith sneered and patted Zelda's hands before standing again to fetch a lush velvet robe embroidered with intricate skulls in silver thread; "Baron has no power over Sabrina because I am the one who owns her soul. In the absence of the so-called Dark Lord, I am Mistress and Master of every single witch who has ever signed their name in the Book of the Beast."