She's not broken like we are, Wynn had told Deidre before she left Hell. She began to see what he meant. The human bore her no ill-will. Deidre didn't understand how that was possible.
"How can I help you?" Darkyn's mate asked.
"I'm pretty sure no one can," Deidre admitted, embarrassed when the last word came out choked. She cleared her throat. "I'm failing miserably. Darkyn stripped my power when I left Hell. I thought it'd be easy. I mean you humans … I guess you make it look simple. You know I couldn't figure out how to turn on the shower? I won't tell you how fascinating I find kitchen appliances."
Darkyn's mate smiled.
"I'm just not getting some things," Deidre said. She paused, sighing. "Like emotions. I never knew there were so many. I don't know how to control them or to make decisions when they're always there just confusing me."
"You're starting from scratch," Darkyn's mate said. "You have to go easier on yourself. Take time to learn the new things and try not be so frustrated with yourself."
Deidre stared at her. "How can you be so … nice?"
Darkyn's mate flushed.
"I mean, you're in Hell maybe even being torn to pieces every day and you're being kind to me. I don't understand any of this."
"I guess I pity you."
Pity. Deidre face grew warm. Wynn was wrong about her being broken. No, she was lost like the souls sitting in the mortal lakes.
"Why did you want to see me now?" Darkyn's mate asked. "You could've checked up on me at any point."
It was a fair question. A brutal one but fair nonetheless. Deidre thought hard about how to respond.
"I'm not sure," she replied. "I guess I was afraid to see what I'd done. I kept hoping things would just go well. I told Gabe about what I did to you yesterday, and he walked out on me."
"That's rough," Darkyn's mate murmured.
"I'm fucking up everything," Deidre continued. "He came back but he's barely speaking to me. Like he's there but I'm not."
"I remember the cold shoulder. He's good at pushing people away."
"I figured I had nothing to lose now. I might as well see what all I'd fucked up," Deidre finished. "I wanted to check on you. If you were alive, I wanted to see if you had any … advice about how to deal with Gabriel."
Turmoil crossed the features of Darkyn's mate. She took a deep breath.
"Well, first, you didn't fuck me over. I thought you did at first and I'll admit, I'm not completely certain things might not break bad, but for now, I'm fine. Darkyn hasn't hurt me and won't. Look." She turned to show her back.