Chapter 57: Please don’t leave me behind dante

"I told you at the feast. The floor is secured. I’m going to the spatial shaft, and I’m going alone, and we have already made a decision."

"I heard you." She looked at the floor. "I said ’yes, my King.’"

"And then you followed me."

"I said yes to the part where you were going. I didn’t say yes to the part where I stay."

Dante pinched the bridge of his nose. Gideon coughed into his sleeve to hide a laugh.

"You can’t come," Dante said, flatly. "You’re the Queen of this place. You hold the core. If you leave, the clans will tear the Basin apart in a week."

" Yeah you are right."

"Then go back."

"No."

" What?."

"No." She lifted her head, and her gold eyes were steady. "Dante, listen. I already thought about it. I thought about it while I was eating and listening to you."

"You were staring at me while you were eating."

"I can do both." She took a breath. "I’m not asking you to take me with you. I’m telling you what I’ve already decided."

She clapped her hands once then a moment later, footsteps came from both ends of the hall, and a dozen armored demons marched in and dropped to one knee. At the front was the old captain with the half-melted armor. Beside him knelt the young soldier whose brother had died at the door.

"Captain Orrin," Esabella said.

"Great Queen." The old captain bowed so low that his forehead touched the stone.

"You carried that boy out of a collapsing mountain. You talked sense to soldiers who were ready to run. You asked me for nothing." She turned her head to the young soldier. "And you. What’s your name?"

"K-Kerro, Your Majesty."

"Kerro. You will serve under Captain Orrin as his second." She turned back to the captain. "From this moment, the Black Basin belongs to you. The southern halls, the northern fortress, and every soldier in both."

The corridor went completely silent.

"Great Queen!" Orrin’s voice shook. "I can’t! I’m only a captain! I’m not a ruler!"

"You are the only one I trust not to rule badly." She took a golden ring from her finger and pressed it into his hand. "Hold the seal. Keep the peace. Anyone who breaks it answers to me."

"But the core..."

"It stays with me. It will travel where I go." She smiled, a little sadly. "You don’t need it to keep order. You only need to be fair."

Orrin was crying openly now. He didn’t wipe his face. "I will guard this land with my life."

"I know you will."

She turned back to Dante. The soldiers stayed on one knee, heads down, pretending not to listen.

"You gave up your kingdom," Dante said slowly.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I have nothing to hold me here, Dante." Her voice dropped to something quieter. "My father is gone. My clan is tired. Balor is dead. For three hundred years, I’ve sat on that throne and watched people bow, and I never once felt like I was alive. Then a human fell out of the sky, put his hands on my wrists, and looked at me like a someone ordinary person, he didn’t care about my status"

Dante’s face didn’t change, but his hand tightened in his pocket.

"I want to climb the tower too," she went on. "I want to see what’s up there. I want to fight things I’ve never seen, and be afraid, and win." She took a step forward, then stopped and went back to exactly three steps. "And without you, what would I even do here? Sit on a chair and be called Great Queen for another three hundred years?"

"That’s not my problem." Dante said .

"I know." Her eyes dramaticly wet. "But please don’t leave me behind dante."

For a long time, Dante didn’t answer.

"Come," he finally said, and started walking again. "We’re wasting time."

Esabella blinked. "Is that a yes?"

Then they start walking. The spatial shaft was at the bottom of the fortress, past three locked doors and a hall full of broken statues.

The last room was round and empty, with a black hole in the middle of the floor. Dante stopped at the edge and looked back.

Esabella wings were folded small against her back. She stood exactly three steps away, with her hands clasped in front of her like a student waiting for a grade.

"You still haven’t said yes," she said quietly.

"I am not—" before Dante said anything.

"Kid." Gideon’s voice cut across the room. The old pioneer leaned on his bone staff, and he looked older in the blue light.

"Not now, Gideon," Dante said.

"Yes, now." Gideon’s voice was rough but steady. "I was thirty-eight when they threw me into this pit. I had a squad, a name, and a plan. I decided right then I’d never rely on another living soul. I told myself that made me smart."

Dante said nothing.

"Ten years," Gideon went on. "I survived, sure. I talked to rocks and ate bugs. I told myself I was strong. And all i think was revenge,Then you walked into that canyon, and I felt something I’d forgotten about." He tapped his chest. "It was hope, and it scared me more than the volcano did."

"I’m not going to listen to a speech." Dante said

"It’s not a speech. It’s a warning." Gideon met his eyes. "You can’t climb the whole tower alone. Nobody can. The ones who try end up like me, or they just die. You’ve got a girl who gave up a kingdom for you and a bad habit of burning everyone who gets close. Don’t let the bad habit win."

Dante turned his head away. His hand had closed into a fist inside his pocket.

’The 55th floor,’ he thought. ’The locked door. Marcus’s face.’

Then he thought about the vault. Esabella, bleeding from the shoulder, holding Balor’s claw off with her own tail while he cut the threads. She hadn’t looked back once. He let out a long breath.