Just Always be Waiting for Me; Book 5 In The "Love is Weakness" Series

Forgiveness Isn't Real

🎶"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties, yo ho." 🎶

"Would you please stop singing that? It got old an hour ago, and now it's worming it's way into my brain!" Mal complained.

"Nothing wrong with a wee little road song, love." Harry chuckled, happy as always to be irritating Mal.

"Urgh!" Mal groaned, in irritation. "We're not getting anywhere! I really wish we had something of Raven's. This is useless!"

Harry shrugged, before a thought struck him.

"I don't have anything that belonged to Shayla, but I do have something that she gave to me..." Harry began.

"I've never tried that before. It might work, maybe some of her energy is still in it?" Mal suggested.

Harry pulled a large ring from his finger. It was gold with a black border around a cameo of a white skull surrounded by green leaves. Raven had given it to him as a gift, in the days when they were a couple.

Mal took the ring, and annointed it with oil from a small bottle she had tucked in her pocket. A vital ingredient per her mother's spell book.

"This search has gone on to turn bleak. Help us find the one we seek." Mal recited.

The ring glowed gold with an orange tint, and it immediately flew to Harry. His energy was attracting it.

"Damn! It's just going to keep finding you." Mal muttered, in defeat.

"Isn't there like a shield or something ye' could conjure to block me energy?" Harry suggested, in an irritated tone.

"I can do my best, but there's always a risk with magic on-the-fly." Mal warned.

"I'll take the risk." Harry grimaced.

"Wow. You really take your debts to heart, don't you?" Mal expressed.

"I may be a scoundrel and a villain, but I still believe in honor. And, what I did to Shayla...Well, there was no honor could be found in it." Harry stated, with a hint of shame.

Mal looked thoughtfully at Harry and nodded in understanding.

"Okay, here goes." Mal began, "To find a pixie's luminescence, I cast a shield to block your essence."

A cloud of sparks began to form around Harry's body. He instantly felt weak. He was alive, but felt as if his life force had been depleted. His body slouched forward losing strength.

"Hey, Harry? Are you okay?" Mal asked in concern, as she rushed to help the pirate keep upright, "Shit! Your skin looks....gray."

"I suppose this is what a zombie would feel like." Harry joked, darkly.

The ring began to glow gold, the orange light now dissipating.

"I think it worked!" Mal exclaimed.

"Fabulous." Harry croaked in sarcasm, his voice strained, "Well, go ahead, follow it."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Right!" Mal replied, as she tore her eyes away from Harry who looked like he was dying...or dead.

Mal chased the floating ring. It flew with ease through the air around corners of paths and through tree branches. She struggled to keep up as it gained speed. Abruptly, it stopped in mid-air, and Mal dug her feet into the Earth to halt herself. The ring was hovering in front of the face of a pale girl, whose own essence beamed with darkness and evil.

"Still, so sentimental, isn't he?" Raven mused, plucking the ring from the air. "So, you found me. Now what?"

"I just want to help you. We all do." Mal began, carefully.

"Oh, sweet. Funny, how no one was around to help before." Raven shrugged.

"I didn't know." Mal began to argue.

"You didn't care to know. But, I understand, I do." Raven drawled, in feigned acceptance. "You're about to be a bride, about to become Queen. No time for us peasants, down here on the ground."

"You know that's not true!" Mal defended.

"Face it, Mal. Carlos is your family, while I'm...well, I'm something else, aren't I? No need to feel guilty. I never cared about any of you, anymore than you did me." Raven spoke callously.

"Raven, you know we love you. We're your family!" Mal pressed.

"No." Raven began, raising her hand in front of her. "No, family, doesn't neglect each other's pain. No. Family, would try to help their sister before she had a fucking break down." Raven countered, with evil in her eyes. "You all thought you were doing me some cosmic favor by letting me into your weird, dysfunctional group. But, the joke's on you. Everyone thinks I'm so good at the balance thing, when the truth is, I loved being a villain. I just wanted to be left alone in my hate and my anger. Carlos was never supposed to happen. Love was never a part of the plan."

"It has a way of finding us. I get it, okay? I just wanted to make my mother proud. Evil was the greatest feeling in the world. Like, a drug. Until, I found Ben. And, love took it's place. You can't tell me you don't remember what that feels like." Mal empathized with the pixie.

"Yes. I remember what it feels like. You know what else I remember? How weak I became because of it, and how vulnerable. Just a pathetic little girl who was so easily left behind by the one person she trusted." Raven countered, "Always abandoned and forever left wondering."

"I never abandoned ye'." Said a strained voice, from behind them.

The powerful young women turned toward the voice, and saw a very frail Harry Hook, trudging towards them.

Raven scoffed.

"No. You didn't. You just tried to control me, tried to rape me, and eventually you left me scarred forever!" Raven spat, rubbing the long faded gash on her arm. "At least this scar is visible, the others are buried deep."

"What can I do, Shayla? I've tried everything I could possibly think to. Ye'll never forgive me, will ye'?" Harry entreated, with a vulnerability he never showed.

"Don't you get it? Forgiveness isn't real! No one ever really forgives anyone. And, no one really deserves it." Raven laughed, darkly.

"Ben did." Mal stated, plainly.

"That's because he's naive. He doesn't understand what being a villain is! He can't even fathom the terrible things we've done, he doesn't even know the real you. He sees what he wants to see. He doesn't know that you're not really capable of loving anyone. None of us are!" Raven exclaimed.

"Don't you ever think that you know what I feel!" Mal exploded at Raven, her eyes now glowing green with anger, "You'll never know how hard it was for me to choose love over my own mother! I'm sorry you were too broken to do the same."

"There she is!" Raven taunted, in triumph, "There's the real you peaking through. C'mon, Junior Mistress of Evil, let it out. Show us what you got!"

"Shayla, stop! Mal, calm down, lass. She's trying to mark ye', don't let her." Harry warned.

"And --look at that, I didn't even need to sing a single note." Raven bragged." I guess your goodness was just a mask, afterall. Can you sense the evil just begging to come out? It's so much closer to the surface than we ever knew."

Mal's anger was consuming her, her eyes flashing a brighter and brighter emerald, her breaths becoming harsh as she struggled to maintain control.

Raven shot a bolt of lightning straight at Mal, laughing evilly as she pushed her over the edge.

Mal instantly transformed into her dragon form, losing all semblance of control as Raven manipulated the evil within her.

⭐A/N
What do you all think about forgiveness?

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