he held onto her waist as if she would fall. "yeah?"
        her lips slowly connected with his. he staggered for a moment before holding her head, bringing her closer than she already was. their lips moved in a silent rhythm she felt she secretly knew all along. like she was meant for this moment as the butterflies that exploded in her chest.
        when they pulled away, she wiped the rain off his face that looked like tears. if they were they'd be of happiness ━━ like the ones on elysia's face.
        "━━elles."
        her heart caught in her throat, stammering as she turned around. her father.
        she swallowed, pulling away from vargas, but his hand lingered in comfort. she would be okay.
        "what is it, dad?" she sighed.
        "there's many things i need to apologize for," he put his hand on her shoulder. "i was hard on you ━━ for such a long time. i realize that."
        she looked down at her shoes.
        "when your mother died, i lost a part of myself. during the fight, there were many mistakes i made that i regret. a mistake that potentially cost her life. i took my own anger out on you, and i'm sorry for that, honey."
        she looked up at him, biting her cheek. she knew her mother died in a fight with the vampires, which is why she wanted to go against them so bad, but her father made mistakes? she didn't even think it was possible. he didn't want elysia to be a leader with the amount of mistakes she made because he saw himself in her.
        "i didn't want any mistakes to be made again, but i realize how strong you are, elles. that my mistake is mine i have to own up to. i'd be proud to see you and nova as leaders someday," she smiled.
        with the vampires and daywalkers on good terms, meant no more fights. her mother died during one, but she would live her legacy, making things right for the greater good and to prevent anyone else she loved from getting hurt.
        a smile smile flickered on her face as she watched the eldress talking to vargas. he was smiling too, so it must be a good sign!
        "i'm sorry too, dad ━━ for leaving you. i didn't want to, i just wanted to try and make things right with nova," she admitted but her father brought her in for a tight hug. she sighed and wrapped her arms around him. they still had lingering issues that needed to be sorted with time, but she was glad there weren't any grudges during this day. she was happy. truly happy.

















































━━━━━━ 𝓛𝐈𝐋𝐈 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒
- almost done with act 1!!! i'm going to try to extend on some scenes with vargas and elysia after because i also don't know if i'm going to be writing until z5 comes out but lmk what you guys want to see bc idk what to do once it's done. there's still one more chapter tho.