Chapter 668: The Ones Who Deserve The Apology

Chapter 667: The Ones Who Deserve The Apology

Selene didn’t answer immediately.

The room remained still in that strange way it had been since she arrived, as though even the air had learned to hold itself differently in her presence. The candle still burned without flicker. The snow outside continued to fall in heavy, quiet sheets against the window, but none of it felt like it belonged to the same world as what was happening inside.

Orion’s gaze stayed fixed on her until she finally spoke.

"I did not have the opportunity to do so," she said simply.

Orion’s brow tightened slightly.

"But you spoke to me," he replied.

She nodded.

"Then explain better, how did you not have the opportunity to do so when you could speak with me?" he asked her.

Selene’s expression remained as steady as ever.

"You assume I could have," she continued. "But I could not."

Her eyes stayed on him now.

"And even if I had been able to, it would not have changed anything at that time."

Orion’s jaw tightened faintly, but he didn’t interrupt again.

Selene’s voice stayed even.

"You do not particularly care for me," she said. "You still do not care for me."

She did not say it like she was offended; Orion noticed that. Instead, she spoke like it was a fact.

Orion’s expression didn’t shift, but something in his gaze sharpened at that.

Selene continued anyway.

"When I was able to speak to you that day, it was because of Sophia’s condition and the circumstances surrounding what happened," she said. "That was the only reason I was able to reach you at all."

A pause followed.

"And even then," she added, "only one sentence could be spoken without disruption."

Orion exhaled slowly through his nose.

Selene’s gaze didn’t waver.

"If you had cared for me," she said quietly, "perhaps things would have been different."

That landed differently.

Orion tilted his head slightly at that, as though turning the words over in his mind before deciding where they belonged.

"So that’s what this is?" he asked finally. "You’re annoyed that I don’t believe in you?"

Selene didn’t respond immediately.

Instead, she turned her gaze away from him, toward the window.

The snow outside continued to fall in silence, thick and endless, as though the world beyond the room had no intention of acknowledging what was being said inside it.

"I have always known not everyone believes in me," she said at last.

Her voice softened slightly as she spoke.

"There has always been a faction among our kind who do not worship me," she continued. "Who question me. Who refuse me entirely."

"And recently," she added after a faint pause, "that faction has grown."

Her gaze remained on the falling snow.

"Especially with what Victoria is doing in the west," she said. "And what the other rulers are doing in the east and the south."

Then she turned back to Orion.

"But it is not that you do not believe in me," she said. "It is something else."

Orion didn’t speak.

Selene continued anyway.

"It is that you are annoyed with me," she said. "For the decisions I have made. For the choices I have failed to correct. For the fact that I did not intervene when your people needed me most."

Her head tilted slightly.

"And now," she added, "you no longer care for my reasons."

She paused again before speaking.

"You do not care whether I exist at all," she said, "because I did not help when I should have... I did not help your people even before the Enclave attack."

Orion’s gaze hardened slightly at that, but he didn’t deny it.

Instead, he spoke quietly.

"At least now I know it was intentional," he said.

Selene blinked once.

Orion’s voice stayed level.

"You planned to wipe my people out," he continued. "That much is clear now, and that’s the reason you did not answer anyone’s prayers, those devout to you who believe you could do no wrong."

The words hung in the space between them.

Selene turned fully toward him again.

And for the first time since she had appeared, something shifted faintly in her expression. Something close to acknowledgment.

"I am sorry," she said to him. "I am especially sorry for the pain it must have caused you."

"Do you think I am the one you should be apologising to?" Orion asked her.

Selene’s head tilted slightly.

"I do not understand what you mean," she admitted.

Orion’s gaze sharpened.

"The person you offended," he said, "is not just me. It is my pack, everyone in it, including Sophia."

"They are the ones who lived through the pain you caused us. They are the ones who would have been erased if things had gone the way you intended. Yes, I am included, but you should not be focused on me alone but everyone at large."

Selene remained silent.

Orion tilted his head slightly.

"So tell me," he said. "Are you going to apologise to all of them?"

"Perhaps you will appear to them one by one as well, like you did with me and Sophia?"

Selene didn’t answer him though. Instead, she studied him for a moment longer, then spoke.

"Would you like to know more about Noctis?" she asked.

The shift was immediate.

Orion didn’t react outwardly, but the atmosphere between them tightened subtly, like something had been pulled in a direction neither of them had fully agreed to.

He stared at her for a moment.

Then let out a short, humourless laugh.

"I will get my answer from him," he said. "I’m certain the restriction on Noctis has been lifted now, hasn’t it?"

Selene nodded once.

Orion exhaled slowly.

"Then I don’t need you for that," he said.

A pause followed.

Then his expression shifted slightly.

"But there is one thing I need to know though," he said.

Selene watched him.

Orion’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"What did Noctis do," he asked quietly, "to warrant this punishment you gave him?"