This is Emmorta

4 Dancing in the Sky

Rune

If my father walked into Maria's dresses, he would sneer at every gown. His glare would sear the materials and the Horsemen would have fastened the seamstress to a boulder before dropping her off the cliff at the pits for tempting me with these pieces for their ostentatious appearance. Apart from their opulence altogether, the dresses expose more of the body than what he allowed me to wear back home.

I mean Hell. Not home. Or... my childhood home.

But who is he to decide what I wear now? He was my... kidnapper. Yes, that. The one who raised me as his own and lied about it.

Every interaction with him plays on my mind while I lay in bed at night. Every odd look I mistook for him hating Phantom was his disgust for me. He made sure I loved him more than myself and would do anything for him while keeping his secrets.

Rune. It means secret. Mystical and tragic.

He forged an identity that's been ripped out from under me, and the ones who helped me see things outside of Lucifer's vision are all gone.

Orion and Evander left me behind, and Amara left us all. In a twist of it all, I've never felt less like myself. The price of growing attachments, I suppose.

Was it even necessary to take my wings? My grace? Which parts of me reminded Lucifer of the parts that didn't come from Alina? The parts that came from my mother's father? The one Alina loved.

I'm reminded of a time when he beat faith over jealousy into me. Faith over any feeling, actually. Everything would go back to him.

"Pray for them, Rune, and I will bless you and take care of their sins."

Though I have more questions than ever, I'll never have an answer why he did the things he did.

"Oh, Kate," Mom gushes over a blue gown Aunt Kate holds up to her neck. "That would be so beautiful on you. That's the one."

"You think so?"

Aunt Kate has golden hair with bright blue eyes. Is that the goal? A dress that matches the iris?

But I am confused. Kate disappears behind a curtain to try it on. "It's a wedding. Shouldn't we be looking at wedding dresses?"

Not that I've been to one, but isn't that what you're supposed to do?

Mom laughs and shakes her head at me, and the simplicity of it grounds me just a little. The subtle warmth in her voice settles me. "No, that's for the bride. Aurelia has a wedding dress. We just wear something formal. Do you like this one?" She holds the skirt of a dress up for me.

The black gown is nice, but I've never picked one of these before, so I'm going with whatever she thinks. "Yes."

"Let's try it on," she says. "I mean, the colors are black as it is, so we're staying on theme, at least."

Aunt Kate returns in that blue dress and searches through shoes and holds up a pair. "What about these? They would look good on Rune."

Mom grabs them then helps zip me into the dress. We both stare in the mirror with the same turn of our lips. That hope for the first one is nothing more than disappointment.

"It looked better on the hanger," we both say.

She turns her head around, and eyes glitter when she spots something across the store. A smile splits her face.

"Hold on," she holds a finger up to me. "I'll be right back."

She disappears through the curtain of the dressing room while I stare at myself. This isn't as simple as I thought it would be.