The End of Never

by DarkPoisonousLove

Even trapped in her cell, Griffin is still in Valtor's way of getting what he wants like she's been ever since she left him. Once Darcy accidentally undoes the illusion Griffin crafted after she left him, that becomes even more true. She is in his way, on his path and tangled in his life even more than he could have suspected. And so is Darcy who'd never known her real parents.

A/N: I've been writing this for a year and three weeks and I am so happy I have finally finished it! It certainly took a lot out of me and I hope I have managed to do it justice. Let me know! :)

Darcy's anxiousness peaked along with the rising urge in Valtor to blast every shelf around them to pieces. She'd been nervous from the very beginning even if she'd thrown that arrogant smirk at her sisters when he'd asked only her to join him.

He'd thought he could use her powers while going through the spells of Cloud Tower. Griffin had certainly put together a defense system to protect the knowledge stored at the school and knowing her meticulous and pedantic nature, he'd been positive it was a good one. She'd always been innovative when it came to magic–it had been what had made working with her so intoxicating and fighting against her leaving his blood boiling–and while he himself was good at seeing through illusions–he hadn't had any other choice if he'd wanted to survive Lysslis' training–it wouldn't have hurt to have a witch whose specialty was illusions in particular. He'd never admit it but Darcy could spot them even easier than he could. Yet, it didn't leave him on edge like it had when he'd been under his mother's thumb. It was him who was in control now.

So far Darcy had been useless, though, as there were no illusions at play. Just blood magic that Griffin had used to seal away the key to the most powerful spells the school held. One simple box closed with a drop of her blood was getting in his way even with all the power he had currently. If his control of his flames slipped even for a second, they would engulf the whole castle and incinerate everything until there was no trace of her new life left.

He could, of course, get blood from Griffin but he'd be damned if he admitted he was helpless against her magic, helpless against her. She'd already tricked him once. He would find a way to break through her blood on his own even if it took too much time and effort. He wouldn't-

His train of thought derailed at the sound of a quiet click. He whirled around to find Darcy standing over the box that was now open. A frown on her face made her emotional state far too close to his own for comfort.

"What did you do?" Valtor strode over to her to make sure it was true.

It was. The box was open and the key inside was shining–much like that necklace Griffin wore on her neck now to charge her with the power of the monad symbol–unprotected and ready for the taking. As long as it wouldn't burn him with another one of her tricks. He could already hear his mothers cackling at his foolishness to fall in a trap of hers again.

Darcy took a step back, pushed away by the power pulsating off of him like a burning shield there to melt anything that could try to touch him, be it magic or memory. "I just touched it and it opened," she said and for her talent at magical illusions, she was really failing at keeping up a collected facade. Her eyes were wide and uncertain and her skin paled as if she expected his wrath to befall her and churn it to black.

She looked so much like Griffin. With her golden gaze and fair skin, and sharp enough mind to know what his temper would do to her if she had the misfortune to make herself the victim of it. His fingers were fidgeting of their own accord with the impulse to touch her to make sure but he balled his hands into fists. He couldn't be the one to fall victim to Griffin's tricks again. It wouldn't be past her to craft a deception quite so grand. Hopefully, it wasn't. Because if what he was seeing was the truth, it was far more cruel than what she'd already done to him in the past. It was positively vicious to make him hope there'd been even more lies than he'd originally known, yet that was the response of his heart to the obvious resemblance. How had he not noticed sooner? Time was always of the essence.

"How old are you?" Valtor barked. He'd never really cared about their age, hadn't asked any of them about it. They were quite young but eager enough for his liking and evil enough to be sent to Omega. It had been all that had mattered. And now there was so much more because of Griffin.

There was always more to her, more than met the eye and more than he could handle. He was just waiting for another blow from her even now that she was trapped in a cell like he'd never managed to get her after she'd left him. She'd been too clever. She'd been too cunning and had always escaped him like he'd never had the luck to have been able to do when it came to her and the wicked spell she'd had on him, much worse than his mothers' magic.

"Twenty," Darcy gave her curt answer as her face twisted in confusion. "Why? What's going on?" She quickly threw caution to the wind, the answer she didn't have too tempting. It was so familiar it felt like he'd been stricken by that ball of magic Griffin had never managed to throw at him when he'd shown up to take everything she held dear. All he could hope for was some oxygen to fill his lungs as it became clear that the revenge he'd wanted would never be enough to make up for what she'd done to him. She'd led him to believe he had the upper hand while she'd been playing him all along.

"That's exactly what I want to know."

He stormed out, Darcy's heels clicking hastily against the floor as she followed him, trying to keep up. He didn't slow down, couldn't as he was bubbling with excess energy raging around his system. He would have teleported if she could have followed him to a location she didn't know. He couldn't let her out of his reach, though, which gave him pause for a moment when the sound of her shoes disappeared as she employed her magic to fly in the only way for her to match his angry stride.

The signature of her magic hit him hard. It was a clear mix the two parts of which were painfully familiar to him but he'd never paid any attention to it. He might have even ignored it subconsciously, hating to revisit the feeling of his magic flowing so well with another's. It reminded him of their partnership. And that, in turn, always brought on the memories of her betrayal with which she'd sullied everything good he'd ever had.

He stopped in front of Griffin's cell to find her sitting on her cot as still as he'd never seen her before as she'd always had magic at her fingertips or letters that her eyes were caressing as they moved over the pages of a good book. She was as still as he'd never wanted to see her. She didn't deserve a second's peace.

Her move was to give him a look that had him wishing for the stillness to fall over her again. He had to hate her for manipulating his heart so easily still after she'd ripped herself out of it to leave it emptier than ever before. Instead, he only watched as her gaze shifted to Darcy, anticipation filling him at the face of her reaction. He needed her once again and he would never forgive her for doing that to him.

The young witch was back on the ground and had taken a few hesitant steps before stopping a good distance away from him and the bars. She stayed in her place even though he could feel the impulse to run away rising in her, that determination so familiar it hurt.

"Where's the rest of your company?" Griffin turned to him, the words she chose to spit at him digging deep into his brain to make it bleed memories on his vulnerable lungs and drown him. Unlike Darcy, she wasn't as good at illusions but she knew how to play a role so well. He'd believed she'd loved him until the very last moment before she'd betrayed him. Sometimes even after that, too, but that was not something he'd admit even in the face of the threat of his worst nightmare.

She was his worst nightmare. She and her hold on him, so much stronger than that of his mothers who had controlled his body. But she had his heart and she wouldn't let go even after she was no longer at his side. Even the distance that Omega had put between them hadn't been enough to overpower her grip on him.

"She's mine, isn't she?" Valtor didn't have the patience for games. Twenty years. Twenty years she'd kept her charade. That had been more than enough. Far more than he could bear.

She knitted her eyebrows. "What?"

She was good. He'd always given her that. But he saw the way she glanced at Darcy out of the corner of her eye. So briefly that even he would have missed it if he weren't staring at her so intently. But he'd learned his lesson the hard way, like his mothers had always insisted on teaching him, yet he'd never expected anything like that from Griffin. She was even worse than them as she needed only a second to fool you in a way so clever you'd never be able to tell. And that was proving to be more true than even he'd known it to be despite him being her only victim. Or at least so he'd hoped.

"She's my daughter, isn't she?" It all made perfect sense. Why Griffin had left out of the blue like that. Why she'd stayed at Alfea so long. Why he hadn't seen her for months after she'd betrayed him. She'd been pregnant and in hiding. She'd been busy keeping another secret from him, keeping his daughter from him.

Griffin held his gaze, her face not betraying nothing–to differ from the gasp that came from Darcy–as she considered her next move. Always calculating. Even when there was nothing for her to do except admit defeat and tell the truth.

"Yes," she said finally, the word barely escaping her gritted teeth before they could grind it to dust she could throw in his eyes to blind him. Her gaze left him as if his reaction was of no consequence as she turned to Darcy and let him know that it should have dawned on him how big of an impact his words would have on her.

He turned to look at his daughter, too. Griffin's lie and his rage could wait. Darcy, on the other, had waited far too long to know her real parents.

Her gaze jumped from him to Griffin and then back again as she tried to process it and he couldn't blame her. He, at least, was right there with her like he would have been all along if Griffin hadn't kept it all to herself. All but Darcy. Her she'd given away. It'd stolen both their families. How had she been capable of doing that? How had he fallen for someone with so much cruelty in her heart? How could she still look so human to him when she was so evil, worse than his mothers even?

"No," Darcy shook her head as if that would be enough to chase away the tears gleaming all over her eyes but never taking a physical form much like the family neither of them had had. "No, this can't be." She took a step back as if to escape the same questions he had and it was like his soul was being sucked out of him. He'd had enough stolen from him.

"Darcy," Valtor only got a step closer to her before she disappeared, denying him the chance to even reach her. Like mother, like daughter.

"Take me with you," Griffin spoke, robbing him of his focus after she hadn't wanted it all those years it had been on her. And she'd used to say he was the selfish one. She wouldn't even let him think in peace when he had no clue where to find Darcy. He didn't know anything about her. Least of all that she was his daughter.

"Why?" he whipped around to glower at her. He didn't even know what exactly he was asking her, what explanation he was looking for. She'd made it crystal clear he couldn't get anything from her. And she'd subjected Darcy to the same. He could understand hating him. But her own daughter?

"I know where she's going," Griffin made him hate her with the reminder of how deeply they'd always been entangled. He hated the fact that she had a good reason to take up his time. But if her words were true, she could save him a lot of time and effort. If.

"I'm just supposed to free you?" He wasn't falling for that, as alluring as her offer was. He'd fallen for her too many times. And he'd let her take too much from him – his life, his daughter, herself. He couldn't let her out. He was only safe if she remained in her cell. It had taken too much strain to put her there when all he'd wanted had been to feel her at his side again as he'd never been more secure than with her having his back. Even when that had allowed her to plunge a knife in it like no one else had ever managed because he hadn't let them. He'd let her. And he would do it again if there was nothing to physically keep her away.

"You really think I care about anything else other than my daughter?" she snapped at him, her outrage so genuine it had him believing her. How did she dare? After everything she'd caused him, how did she dare do that to him?

"You abandoned her," he growled at her, the hurt crossing her face doing nothing to soothe his own burning wounds just like he'd known it wouldn't. Nothing could heal him, not even her own pain, otherwise, he would have her spilling all of it to make an ointment for his soul. He'd spent seventeen years in an ice block not even knowing that he had a daughter. And after taking Darcy away from him, Griffin hadn't even kept her. She hadn't even taken care of her. Did she really hate him so much that she'd abandon their daughter?

"I didn't," Griffin held his gaze as her voice carved the words in his head determined to convince him, and he believed her. He wanted to. He wanted to believe that there was another reason for her to have given away their daughter. Not just because Darcy was his.

He believed her and she was out of her cell leading him through the castle. His pulse quickened but his heart wasn't thumping that loudly in his ears anymore after she didn't try to run away. She was headed for their daughter and some of his love for her was coursing back through his veins without his attempts to counteract it with the hate he had to force on himself. Maybe even a bit of trust crept back in his being. But that he wasn't so appreciative of so he pushed it away like he couldn't do with her.

She led him to the library. It was empty but before he could open his mouth to attack her, her magic flooded his senses and undid the illusion that kept Darcy concealed between its threads like it was a blanket he'd never gotten the chance to wrap around her while putting her to bed. His distrust was unfounded but even that miracle hardly mattered at the moment.

Darcy was sitting on the ground cross-legged and completely immersed in a book about familiars. He could see a four-eyed cat staring back at her from the page. But she didn't see them. Or she was simply ignoring them. However, the lack of an alarm system that would warn her about their arrival suggested that she was too upset to think clearly and had lost herself in the book to escape reality. To forget the two of them had ever existed, and it was like coals in his brain when he knew that was exactly what Griffin had done with the memories of him while he'd been trapped in Omega.

"Darcy," he spoke softly since Griffin didn't seem to have any intention of doing anything even though she was the more qualified person for that job. She'd known she was a mother at least.

She was just observing and he couldn't tell what was going on in her head like he'd once been able to do when her wishes had been his own. He couldn't know if she was studying Darcy and trying to figure out her own approach to the situation–though, she'd had far longer to do that than he had–or if she was just taking in the sight of her daughter now that the truth was out. She was no longer the woman he'd shared his whole soul with and was instead the betrayer that had kept his daughter from him. Either way, he had no patience to wait for her to do something. She'd already taken so much of his life. And of Darcy's.

His voice burst Darcy's bubble to have her glare at them now that they'd dragged her back into reality where she had to face them and the truth of who they were to her. "Go away," she flipped the book closed and tossed it in their direction far too weakly for it to pose any real threat to them. "I don't want anything to do with either one of you," her voice was so quiet. He'd seen her angry and that wasn't it. She was afraid. Afraid that they'd abandon her so she was tossing them away first. He had a hard time deciding whether she'd taken that from him or from Griffin. Probably from both. Which meant they had a lot to get through if they wanted to reach her but he did. He would do whatever it took to convince her that he was there for her like he would have been from the very beginning if he'd been given the chance.

"Darcy, let me explain," Griffin spoke, drawing Darcy's attention away from him and to herself before he could figure out what to say next. He'd hate her for getting between him and his daughter–again–but at least she was keeping her from running away once more.

"Explain?" Darcy rose to her feet unsteadily but found new strength in the anger that was now pulsing through the hurt as if trying to burn it away like it'd never been there. "How can you explain leaving me?" Her voice betrayed her, nearly breaking at the end of her sentence but it only seemed to feed her resolve to push the tears back into her eyes and keep them from falling even if it killed her. And it would. It'd been killing him ever since Griffin had left him, too.

"That's not what happened," Griffin took a step forward and to his dismay, Darcy didn't try to move away from her. It was because Griffin was her mother, he was certain. She was the only one who had the entire story to tell. Provided it was the truth. "As you know, I was working with Valtor for the Ancestral Witches," she started, her voice wavering like he was sure the memories weren't when they were as fresh and raw as reality in his own mind. "I fell in love with him," he tried not to flinch at the words, as painful and true as they were, "and I found myself pregnant, which only prompted me to make the decision I'd been putting off for so long and leave."

"You didn't even tell me you were pregnant," he snarled, startling them both into looking at him when they were busy figuring out their own relationship. So much for containing his anger. But Griffin seemed hellbent on not acknowledging him and his feelings whenever it came to their daughter. Being trapped in Omega was nothing compared to her cruelty. Sure, it'd left him waking up in cold sweat, but he doubted he'd ever be able to sleep again and risk missing another moment of Darcy's life. He'd already lost so much time with her.

"I was scared," Griffin spoke evenly, coldly, her eyes devoid of emotions. But the words... The words were more than enough to pierce all the way into his soul even if they were barely a few letters at length.

Had she been scared of him? Of his reaction to learning that she'd been carrying his child? What could have been running through her head to have made her afraid of that? Had he truly made himself a monster in her eyes to the point where she'd felt the need to protect his own daughter from him?

"I didn't want your mothers anywhere near my child," Griffin said, the echoes of a cry sneaking into her tone before he could reassure her that he wouldn't have wanted anything more than to be a father to their daughter. "They tried to kill me," her voice was shaking and her eyes were filling with tears as if to accuse him of not being there when she'd needed him. And how did she dare?

"Because you ran away," Valtor hissed, his insides burning but it wasn't the restless fury of his flames. It was the feverish heat of hurt. It hurt to remember how she'd left him. Especially now that he knew everything she'd taken from him. "You betrayed me," his voice was quiet for he wasn't angry. He had been when she'd joined his enemies. He had been when she'd fought against him. He had been when she'd played a part in him ending up in his frozen prison. But it was his own fires burning at his lungs and filling them with heavy ashes to know that he'd had a daughter all along. A daughter she'd taken from him along with herself. He had every right to hate her for that.

"They knew I was pregnant." Griffin's eyes were cold again. Like steel. Like a blade piercing his skin and leaving his heart bleeding and it still wasn't enough to extinguish the flames in him. All the warmth of the golden irises had drained away as she slapped him in the face with the truth, yet it only made him hate her less. Even as she was colder than Omega and he would forever be trapped in the words, in their meaning.

"What?" He had to make sure his brain wasn't playing tricks on him, that it wasn't just an illusion, even though he knew it to be true. His mothers were capable of that and so much more that he'd believe it in a heartbeat even without proof. Even when it came from her. He wanted to believe her, wished for there to be a reason behind her choice that would somehow soften the blow, for him and for his daughter. Ultimately, he still ran to her for comfort, for she was the only one that could give it to him.

"They thought a child might steer you off course and make you soften," Griffin spat out the words as if they were poison and he sympathized with the impulse. They had been. Poison to their relationship. Of course, his mothers would deem universal domination more important than his one love and his daughter. "It's why they never told you." And that was the ultimate proof of her words.

They'd stopped him from going after her for his revenge. They hadn't been nearly as adamant about her punishment as they should have. They'd known he'd choose his family over their plans.

"I never thought I'd be grateful to Faragonda for opening that portal that saved your life." He'd almost burned down the Coven's base of operations, Belladonna's frost the only thing that had stopped the flames from swallowing all of it and melting everything in their way like he'd wanted to melt not just the pixie's wings but also the skin off her face. Now he'd go get her out of the tree he'd trapped her in if he didn't already have somewhere to be. She'd saved everything he'd ever held dear instead of taking it away from him like he'd thought initially.

The cold fell away from Griffin's expression. She wasn't insulted. She seemed somewhat relieved, maybe even hopeful. Like she'd never thought he could feel but he'd just changed that belief.

It was insulting to him for she knew just how deep his feelings ran. So he paid no mind to it and focused on what was important. And, thankfully, that wasn't her anymore. There was someone more important now that he could love without hating her for it. Even if she was a part of Griffin.

"It saved Darcy's life," Valtor turned to look at his daughter.

She was stunned as she was trying to process the madness of what little part of her backstory she'd just learned and he cursed his mothers, wherever they were. It was all their fault that his life had been so complicated. And what was worse was that they'd passed that same curse upon her when they'd only cared about his power. But he'd wanted more. He'd wanted the woman that he'd loved. And he most certainly wanted to have been there for his daughter. He would have loved to raise her better than he had been with Griffin there to help him with everything he didn't know about children. And that was a lot. But he would have learned if he'd been given the chance to ever hold Darcy in his arms.

He stepped forward, drawing her attention. She didn't try to escape this this time as he approached her. Maybe it was something that she could see in him now or maybe it was the curiosity about her past but he didn't care. As long as she stayed where he could reach her.

He opened his arms to hug her but she pulled back and held up hers between them to keep him away, perhaps having sensed the selfish impulse behind the gesture. He wasn't doing it to comfort her but to get back what had been stolen from him.

"Less hugging," she stated firmly, probably not in an attempt to hurt him but that was the effect it had anyway. "More talking," she looked over his shoulder to Griffin.

Valtor turned to look at her as well.

"Faragonda had arranged for me to stay at Alfea until you were born," Griffin said, her eyes on Darcy as if trying to see how she'd grown up from the small baby she'd given birth to into the young woman she was now. As if she was seeing her for the first time even though she'd actually gotten to watch her grow and develop her magic. "I was safe from the Coven there," Griffin glanced at him for a moment before her gaze returned to Darcy. "She also helped me find a good family that would take care of you."

Valtor balled his hands into fists to hold in the desire to attack her, just blast her to stop her from pouring all the incomprehension on him like she was trying to drown him. He still couldn't understand how she could've done it. He hadn't even known he'd had a daughter up until a few minutes ago and he still felt like he'd been robbed, like a part of his soul had been torn away when he'd learned what had been taken from them. Griffin had held her in her arms–something he'd never gotten the privilege and happiness to experience–and she'd let her go. She'd given her away. How had she ever thought of doing that?

"How did you know it was good?" Darcy asked and there was something, a tremor in her voice, that wounded him worse than any magic ever could have. It sounded somehow too familiar but he couldn't place it yet. He barely knew anything about her and finding the similarities between them was hard and daunting. He wasn't even sure he wanted to see any when he'd been through so much pain. He didn't want the same for her. He wanted her life to be better, wanted to have been there to have made sure it was.

"Faragonda assured me that she'd checked them up thoroughly," Griffin said, tears glistening in her eyes again but she forced herself to dig out her voice from under the memories that were trying to suffocate it and continue. "She'd used fairy godmother magic. I... I don't know. I didn't want to," Griffin shook her head as if she was trying to keep the tears from falling, a perfect reflection of what Darcy had done earlier.

"You used fairy magic to find me a home?" Darcy's voice jumped much in the same way her body recoiled as if to escape. "You've always despised fairy magic," the look she gave Griffin was just as full of puzzlement as his heart was of bitterness that he was an outsider even to the two of them. They knew things about each other, maybe not much but certainly far more than he did because he hadn't been bothered to pay attention to Darcy while he hadn't been aware of who she was to him and he didn't know Griffin anymore. The woman standing in front of him was someone that he was seeing for the first time now that they were both parents and yet neither one of them really was since they hadn't been there for their daughter. "How could you trust it with such a thing?" Darcy hissed like a little snake that was only trying to look intimidating to ward off a threat.

Valtor had wanted to ask the same thing but now that Darcy had beat him to it, he was just staring at her in awe. He could see that she was his daughter. Just like he could see that she was Griffin's. She was all theirs even after Griffin had done everything to make it be otherwise.

"Not always," Griffin looked at Darcy and the tears had retreated to leave her eyes clear of any shame. There wasn't any of that in the gold that had always shined so proudly. No, of course not. She and Faragonda had been like sisters. "Faragonda was my best friend," she said as if on cue, as if to prove to him that he still knew her and she knew what she was doing even though she seemed to have lost her mind. "She was the only one I had, the only help I had." There was that look she always had while submerged in a captivating novel but it was the past she was lost in. In the past where she'd chosen to trust the fairy instead of him. In the past where she'd used that friendship to separate Darcy from herself. "I wanted a good home for you," Griffin focused on Darcy again. Her gaze was warm with love but there was no plea for forgiveness in it. She hadn't tried to come closer and hug her daughter and he had to know if she believed that doing so would contradict her own words or if she simply didn't want to try. She'd never been a quitter, that will of hers holding him steady when he himself hadn't been able to.

"Well, you outdid yourself," Darcy crossed her arms in an armor to protect her from any of their attempts at affection. "They were so good that they couldn't bear the thought of my dark magic," she raised her voice but Griffin didn't flinch away even as Darcy took a step forward lining up with him. "Living with their scrutiny was so unbearable that I ran away and had to take care of myself for a few months before I came to Cloud Tower," Darcy was attempting to push the hurt under the strength of her voice but the steadily increasing volume only spoke louder of it. Something both he and Griffin had become closely familiar with during their arguments.

"I know," Griffin's voice was quiet in contrast as she stayed where she was. Her gaze remained empty as if she wouldn't let any pain or regret enter it, as if she didn't know whether she was allowed to feel them or not. It clashed with the memories of how she'd never asked permission to be her unapologetic and bold self. She wasn't that woman anymore now that she had nothing to lose... she'd already lost it all. "I'm sorry," she said, looking right at Darcy, and it sounded sincere even to him, even after all the lies she'd led him to believe, even with the lack of that bursting emotion that had made her so alive. Probably because of that.

Darcy didn't react for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean you know?" She was catching every word and dissecting them all carefully like he'd never been able to do after he'd had a taste of being in Griffin's heart. But Darcy could see clear without the honey that her mother's love was. "Did you poke around in my head?" There was barely the ghost of outrage in her and Valtor couldn't tell if it was her stiffness infecting him or the other way around. Only that Griffin could kill them both with one word from her lips.

"I would never do that to you," she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye to make sure he was still with them and not buried in the past where his mind had been invaded by hostile magic on a daily basis and it'd been passed off as training.

"Then how could you know anything about me?" Darcy was clutching at herself as if to make sure no part of her would be taken away and it was like claws in his own flesh to find a similarity between them. He'd had monsters for mothers to rip him in the pieces they'd needed but Griffin had never been like that. Then again, she'd never been Darcy's mother either. Not in any real way.

"Through your magic." Griffin swallowed like she'd done so many times while they'd been together to polish off any potential edges her words could cut him with. "I could read the emotional charge powering it." The shine of her eyes went out as sadness finally penetrated them now that it wasn't for her but for their daughter.

"That's not possible," Darcy raised her voice almost like she was a dragon made to roar while her face hardened more than the ice that'd been holding him instead of his family.

"It is." His interference snatched her attention towards himself to let the darkness clouding around them disperse and not snuff out any light the gold of both Griffin and Darcy's eyes held. He hadn't been there to make sure it had burned brightly like his flames for all those years of his imprisonment but he had the power to do that now. He'd be a fool to waste his energy on something else. "We've done it before." He caught Griffin's eye for the support he needed to not let Darcy down. She'd always been better at reassurances even though he'd never trusted words. He'd trusted hers and that was a whole another kind of magic she had. "We would show you but..."

"We're not sure it will work," Griffin didn't leave neither him, nor Darcy hanging. "Considering everything that's happened since then." She didn't look at him now that they had to look after their daughter. Together.

Darcy let her arms drop at her sides slowly, her fingers fidgeting as if she was trying to catch her next words from thin air. Her mouth opened to no sound coming out of it as if she needed to breathe more oxygen. "How come I don't have Dragon Fire then?" she asked finally after no doubt having reconsidered the words at least a couple hundred times while they'd waited for her. They'd waited too long to rush her now. "You have it," she turned to him, her keen gaze reaching his soul instantly. "Why don't I have it if I'm your daughter?"

How did he explain what he was to her without chasing her away? She was a strong witch if she'd been one to command the Army of Decay but she'd already had a major shock stemming from her origins. Griffin had needed time to process the truth about the man she'd loved. And he was a stranger to Darcy. The information could only make her want to have nothing in common with him.

"Valtor's Dragon Fire is different," Griffin saved him from melting into nothing in the light of Darcy's expectation. "He can't pass it down to his children. It doesn't work that way."

"You must have been really happy about that," Darcy's voice was like a shard of darkness aimed at Griffin's heart. Much worse than any of the magic he'd ever thrown at her during their battles on opposite sides. And he'd been aiming to kill, knowing he wouldn't succeed.

"I was relieved." Griffin shook her head as if what was in there was worse than the pain of the present. "You would have been in grave danger if anyone had known you were Valtor's daughter after everything the Coven did. The Council would have probably wanted you dead." It was a miracle they hadn't killed her, only possible thanks to the involvement of Marion and Oritel. There was no telling what they would've attempted to do to a child of his. Making sure no one could connect Darcy to him and even Griffin had been the best way to protect her. "I just wanted the best for you and I thought that wasn't with me," Griffin's hand was covering her heart as if it was breaking in her chest as a tear fell from her eye but her gaze never left Darcy's.

Valtor could almost see the image of her giving up their daughter in the teardrop she shed as it pulled on the ones he'd kept to himself once she'd no longer been there to share them with her. None of that would have been in their pasts and their souls if she'd just told him she'd been pregnant. He wouldn't have let anyone hurt either one of them even if he'd had to burn the whole universe out of existence to keep them safe. He wouldn't have needed anything else anyway.

"I came to you and you threw me out," Darcy spat out the words easily to differ from the tears she was holding back from turning her into a spitting image of her mother. "You expelled me from your school!" she shouted, her magic leaping violently from inside her at the direction of her emotions. She was so much like him when she was angry. And she'd been as angry as Icy and Stormy before she'd even known who Griffin was to her and he had to bite his tongue since Griffin was the only one who could calm her down. He just had to hold on to hope that she could as hard as he was holding back his words.

"I was trying to keep you off the Council's radar. I thought cutting off your access to the school's resources would discourage you and you'd stop looking for trouble. I never expected you would find the Dragon Fire and raise the Army of Decay. I thought... I thought everyone from Domino was gone." Her care for the royal family of Domino had driven him up the wall on numerous occasions in the past–and the fact that they'd returned it–and they were steering in a dangerous territory. "And Valtor was in Omega." Was it that he was frozen at the mention of his prison or was it that her tone hadn't changed at all between the people she was talking about? Was that even a good thing? He'd been supposed to be her greatest love. But they had Darcy now. "I only realized who Bloom was at the Day of the Royals but it was too late. I'd already pushed you further in your quest for power. I never wanted it to be like that." That he could believe since she'd wanted a different path for him as well. Surely, she'd wanted only good things for their daughter. "I never wanted you to have nothing else but thirst for greatness."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Darcy yelled but it sounded more like a cry of despair. Like the wails of his own heart at his mothers' taunts and punishments. But Griffin was nothing like them. Her mistake had been honest and unintended. Even he could see that through the lenses of rage and hatred she'd forced on him to only ever look at her with.

Griffin closed her mouth and kept her distance as if it was the simplest thing in the universe, the only sign of distress being her arm wrapping around her middle as if to protect the baby Darcy hadn't been in almost two decades. There was not a sound from her sealed lips even if her whole being was thrown in agony as she waited for Darcy to make her choices. She was giving her the courtesy his mothers had never given him and he wished she would have extended it to him as well on that day she'd learned she was carrying his life inside her.

Darcy closed her eyes and breathed in and out to shut the world–the two of them–out as she tried to channel her energy that was tugging harshly at the environment in its attempts to gather the shadows in a shelter she could hide herself in. Her hands were shaking and her forehead wrinkled as she tried to contain the power bursting from inside her but she managed to collect herself. Probably thanks to her own will and Griffin's magical lessons. There was a high chance she'd never taught much of what she'd learned with him to her students but Darcy was certainly taking after her self-control and her command of magic when he was mostly one with his powers in their destructiveness more often than not. It was just another proof she was her mother's daughter.

Her first move after she opened her eyes again–and they shined just like Griffin's, so much brighter than his inner flames–was to take off one of her gloves with swift precision as if not even her life's pain could shake her. She crossed the distance between her and Griffin just as quickly and offered her hand leaving him staggered as if she'd slapped him even though she'd only moved away from him.

Hadn't they ever touched before? Not even once in all the years Griffin had been leading her on her magical journey?

The surprise on Griffin's face brought back the softness of the woman he'd loved as her glove vanished and she took Darcy's hand. She was holding her again after she was the one who'd given her away and her intentions hardly registered in his loneliness like it was the claustrophobic cage of ice again since there was no one touching him.

"You really are my mom," the tears were recognizable in the tremble of Darcy's voice that poked at his own eyes with the disbelief slowly melting away from her.

"I am," Griffin gave a full smile even with the water flowing down her face. It couldn't freeze her muscles when she was radiating so much warmth it almost made even him feel welcome. It almost pushed him to step closer and pull them both in his embrace. It would have but they weren't a family despite his wishful thinking. "Giving you away was the hardest thing I've done in my life," her voice was barely a whisper as she raised her hand to wipe away Darcy's tears. As if she didn't want to give more life to the hurt in the past, to the pain she'd inflicted on both of them. "I did everything I could to make sure you wouldn't get sent to Omega but I only had so much power even with Faragonda and Saladin's support. In the end, you still got the fate I was trying to save you from." Her hand fell away from Darcy's face as if to protect her from her failure, to not let it touch her more than it already had.

"You wanted to protect her from having a father?" Valtor's sudden outburst startled Darcy but not Griffin whose attention redirected to him smoothly as if she'd been ready for the inevitable.

Her jaw tensed briefly before she stepped towards him, her hand jerking out of Darcy's and pulling on both their heartstrings only for the observation to rip through his. But he'd already interrupted. "You couldn't be a father," the words Griffin let drop from her lips and shatter against his ears were the coldest thing that had ever impaled his being. Even Belladonna's powers or his stay at Omega hadn't forced him to struggle so desperately against the impulse of his muscles to shake in a useless attempt to warm him up. "You couldn't even be a husband. How was I supposed to believe that you could raise a child?" She'd been the only one to ever give him a chance. If even she'd refused to do that, then he probably hadn't deserved it. But he was never quite satisfied with what he deserved. He always wanted more.

"You took away from me my right to know that I even had a daughter," he growled, the fires raging inside him, burning everything in their way – so mostly him.

"I was trying to save her from a life like yours," Griffin almost cried at him as if her only goal was to make him understand and she'd never set out to cause him pain, the flashbacks that her words evoked finally getting through to him.

All the merciless lessons and training sessions he'd been subjected to ever since he could remember. The crushing pressure to exceed in everything that had left him sleeping less and less and the traumatizing backlash that had left scars more often than not when he'd failed. The restrictions and punishments he'd had to suffer at his mothers' hands. She'd been thinking of all that when she'd left even if she'd hardly witnessed an ounce of it all. It'd terrified her to the point of nightmares on his behalf that he'd been unable to quell with all the power that'd been in his mothers' hands and not his own.

Having Darcy be subjected to the same had been only the best case scenario. Provided that his mothers would have even agreed to let them keep the baby. Or–what was even more likely–let him keep the baby in exchange for proving his loyalty by killing Griffin. She'd been trying to protect Darcy from all of that. But she hadn't had to do it on her own. They'd always been more powerful together, doing the impossible over and over again. Like standing in the same room without killing each other for their daughter.

"I wouldn't have let anyone hurt my family," he clenched his fist at his side as he tried to withstand her gaze on him and on his magical aura, no doubt reading into it like she always had. He'd let her practice on him what had become one of her best skills too many times to be able to stop her now.

"Valtor, you couldn't even protect yourself," his name falling from her lips was like a trigger for all the memories they shared, all the love and all the pain flowing together in an endless stream that would wash him away. Away and out of their lives like he'd never existed, which would be the end of them all. They wouldn't be there without him just like he wouldn't be there without them.

He grabbed at Griffin, pulling her closer and squeezing at her arms but not hard enough to hurt her. Just to hold on. "Have I ever let anyone lay a finger on you?" Not even himself. And he'd tried more times than he could have counted.

"No." They were finally on the same page again. After all that time without her that had stretched in his memory to fill it with centuries worth of longing. "You just tried to kill me yourself," her voice was steady as she turned back to the past to pull them apart again. As if once hadn't been more than enough already. As if they could be sure they would find a common ground again and not end up buried in their history like they were old news. "Repeatedly." There was a tremble to the word that he hadn't noticed in her body she'd implicitly let him hold again. Not that he'd asked. Why do that when he was the one still recovering from her betrayal?

"Wouldn't you have?" he asked instead, to take them both out of the timeline of their slow death going on endlessly. "If you were me. Not back then, but now," he held her gaze putting it all on the line just to ensure she wouldn't slip away again. If her gold melted his ice, they would both drown. In fact, they'd already headed to that end once her touch had disappeared leaving only sharp memories behind to poke his flames to life instead of soothing them. "What would you do if you learned you had a twenty-year-old daughter I hadn't told you about?"

Her magic jumped to the offense instantly to give them both his answer. "What will you do now?"

He let go of her like he trusted he'd tamed her doubts in him enough to let her roam free and trust she'd stay in the charred land that their love was now. He believed her magic and that meant believing her heart that powered it as well. He could do that with her love for Darcy in there. "Whatever Darcy wants." And his own heart could be reliable as it harbored the same feelings as well.

Darcy's gaze jumped between the two of them as if she was seeing them for the first time again and he could relate. "I... I want to know more about my origins, where I come from," her eyes were on Griffin now since he couldn't even give her heritage. He had nothing outside that room and she'd already experienced the stuffiness his flames had caused while sucking out all the oxygen to leave none for them. "Do we... have any other family?" Darcy asked and he couldn't tell whether her pause had been due to uncertainty or the exact opposite. He knew even less about Darcy than he did about Griffin whose thought process he could still guess. She'd let him learn the curves of her mind as well as those of her body only to rip out his soul with her winded love taking turns he could have never predicted.

"No," Griffin tried to contain her voice in the word but her eyes were already like the surface of a lake during a downpour with the memories being the raindrops hitting them brutally to make them spill their water. She held it all back as it wouldn't extinguish the pain of her mother's death that the forgery of his rage had set to her soul. His mothers had forced her hand against him with their manipulations to force him to kill every trace to his family like they'd done with hers. "But we have this."

Griffin unwrapped the monad from where it was secured around her neck to protect her life like she protected it with every breath that let her know it was in its place. She took it off and held it out for Darcy to run her fingers over it with the same awe he could only experience through her. He hadn't seen the obviously treasured symbol nor the history locked behind it. All he had were his seventeen years of cold.

"It's a family heirloom," Griffin revealed, putting him right next to Darcy once again even if she'd been the one who'd pulled them all apart. He'd never learned much about her family, had never seen any of them–blood family at least as Faragonda had been in his face far too often for his liking–and Darcy was suffering the same. Thanks to both of them – the family she'd never had. "It's passed down from generation to generation. Usually, it's given to a woman when she becomes a mother to protect her and her baby but tradition's been broken already," Griffin's explanation snapped him back to the present in case Darcy needed them to hold her together now that they were there to do what she had on her own her whole life. "I just hoped wearing it would do its job and protect you even from afar." Griffin's fingers twitched as if they would clasp around the gold and clutch it hard to compensate for not getting to hold Darcy in her embrace. "I haven't worn another one from the first moment I put this on."

Darcy took it with trembling hands as if she could allow weakness now that she was no longer alone and hung it around her neck. She didn't even adjust her hair to fall over the string before she wrapped herself around Griffin in a tangle of more closeness than he'd seen since he'd been left on his own, "Mom." It came as a sob but even sadness couldn't taint the gift that hearing it was to Griffin. And to him as long as it meant Darcy wasn't suffering his fate any longer.

"Darcy," Griffin stroked her hair with the same softness that her voice stroked over his ears caressing him with love he'd never thought he'd receive from her again. Or that he'd accept. "I'm so sorry for everything that happened, Darcy," Griffin pulled back a little as if she was afraid her fervent apology could burn skin but all it did was wash over him like a wave of warmth. Hopefully, it had the same effect on Darcy. "I never wanted you to go through all this pain." He'd felt it as well in the magic Darcy had used alongside him and against the world. And Griffin had had years to study the different nuances of it and the knowledge to pay attention to it in return for the burden that learning more had been. So much pain none of them had needed. "I just wanted you to have a good life."

"I want to see your realm," Darcy closed the past chapters with swiftness that suspiciously reminded of fleeing. "I want to get to know my real home." He had to follow suit but he'd always seen it like everything he had was in the past and the behavioral pattern was so engraved in his being that it threatened to outweigh even Darcy's life. It was older than his daughter just like the wound Griffin had left in her place.

"Of course," Griffin agreed, saying much more with the words than he should have been able to read. "Anything you want." She'd said that to him as well, had loved him as well and the aftermath of her feelings was echoing loudly through his mind to disintegrate any faith he had left in her. She'd abandoned Darcy just like she'd done with him and there was nothing to stop her from doing it again. He certainly hadn't managed even if he'd been powerful enough to defeat her. "But I can't leave yet."

"Why not?" Darcy's own magic was coating the outlines of her frame as if to whisk her away in the safety of an illusion in case Griffin would cut further into her with her next words and it was sick that that was the only shelter their daughter had.

"My witches are still under Valtor's spell," she turned to him with all of her insolence playing mother to everyone but her actual daughter. And she'd had the audacity to judge his parenting skills. "Free them," she asked, her eyes begging as if he was holding them suspended in his flames to burn, as if he had the power to decide whether Darcy would get a mother at last. "You don't need them." It was true but using them was more appealing than letting her use him, the fact that he was a father that she'd failed to acknowledge before it had been convenient for her. "I was wrong to think you couldn't be a father." It was just the truth and not her reading his mind. She couldn't do that anymore. He hadn't permitted it, hadn't agreed to the vulnerability of it. "I didn't give you a chance to choose me. I was afraid you couldn't love me enough to do it." Tears. There were tears prickling at her vision. For him–for them–and not from him. "I'm sorry."

After all those years. She'd always had reasons and excuses, but never an apology for him. And he'd trusted her too much to assume she wouldn't give him one if she had it. Her regret had never been complete. Not to him. Not after she'd refused to be one whole with him anymore.

"I'll free your witches." He would've reached to wipe away her tears even but there were twenty years of hurting between them and he couldn't trust that she would accept his consolation anymore. He'd have to keep it and suffer being torn apart by it since it didn't belong to him. It was gravitating towards her with enough force to make him crash into her if he relaxed for a second.

"Thank you," Griffin gave even more, her tears spilling down her cheeks to smear her makeup and dye his heart purple like it was bruised from all that pain. She couldn't hold back anymore either, always complementing him in a perfect harmony that only made his soul wail harder.

"Why are you crying now?" he asked. He would trust any answer she gave him. She'd done it again, had reached inside him and plucked any logic right out of him to keep it for herself. And he'd given it–was giving it–freely, knowing it was her treasure. She'd clung to it even at the face of the betrayals she'd had to commit and it had worked out to a degree. They were all alive in the same room. Together.

"I just wish I hadn't taken twenty years from all of our lives," Griffin was going to drown him now in the regret he'd been hellbent on hoarding. She always had a way of making him see things crystal clear. Things like the shards of pain that had cut through her mind with the knowledge of what she'd lost.

"I just wish you'd kept her." Without him it would have been possible. Not as safe as it could have been if they'd been normal people, ordinary, without their magic and all the complexes that had grown out of it. But she'd always been as protective of her love as a mother griffin. She could have protected Darcy.

"Both of you," Griffin's whisper was like a lightning striking him to incinerate the doubt of not being enough for her even as it was swallowed by the water streaming down her face. Every part of her was more powerful than magic and he'd finally seen that in Darcy. "Will you let me tell Ediltrude and Zarathustra?" she probed like she'd never had to do when it came to her friendship with the twins. He'd heard all about that or at least about the parts that had come before he'd initiated Griffin in his mothers' war. "I never told them about Darcy but they've seen enough to be able to believe it easily." She looked to Darcy to catch her hand in a promise it wouldn't take longer to be together.

"Someone has to tell them everything and they won't believe me, that's for sure." They'd recognized him but he probably knew more about them than they did about him. Griffin had kept them close to her heart during her time with the Coven like she couldn't have done with him. He hadn't left her any love to hold in it and she was far too picky with what she let inside to have allowed any of his hatred to touch it.

"I have to tell Icy and Stormy," Darcy took a step back as if the realization had hit her with enough force to pull her out of her mother's grasp. "They don't know anything about this either." Her magic was going haywire again tugging at the world around to stretch the space separating her from that conversation or the time she had to prepare for it. He could have told it was the perfect reflection of her mind even without all his knowledge on magic, the wild look in her eyes spilling it all.

"I'm sure they'll understand," Valtor jumped in to get her out. "They're your sisters." If their attitude towards each other hadn't managed to get between them, some space certainly wouldn't. Even if they were at different realms. He'd spent so long at Omega and the ice had never carved Griffin out of his heart. The two of them hadn't even been a family like Icy and Stormy were to Darcy. They were more family to her than him and Griffin had been and he'd only needed one word to start loving her like he'd always known her. "I can take them with me to come visit," he offered, glancing at Griffin to look for her confirmation that she wouldn't throw him out of the loop this time.

"Just not with intergalactic police on your tail." Griffin demanded from him to meet her eye before she gave a subtle smirk.

"Of course not." There was a sting to accompany the flutter shaking his heart at the return to their banter routine but the pain didn't have time to settle with Darcy drawing his attention to herself.

"Thanks, dad." Griffin let go of her hand and she was wrapping him in a hug to chase away the cold that had invaded his bones even before Omega. The cold of knowing he would never be hugged again that Griffin had left behind. The cold of never having a family again.