Word Count: 2493

I'm going to go home.

Hours have passed since I spoke to Marek, since I saw what he was doing under Tai's demands. I've been pacing back in forth in my room since, wondering if I should bother packing the clothing Tai's people have brought from nearby villages. I don't want a reminder of this place once I leave...Even if I don't know where to go yet.

I haven't changed, my clothing and hair still wet when I decide want my plan moving forward is.

I need to get away, but quickly. If I tell Tai I'm leaving, he will surely allow it, although will attempt to convince me out of it. So I'm going to steal his band, the one that can transport a human from place to place with a single thought. I'm assuming he has fixed it, as I've seen him wearing it since. Once I get a hold if it, I will go home, and hopefully convince my family to move away with me, so we cannot be tracked down.

Even by Marek.

My eyes have threatened to spill tears since the moment I came to this decision. I'm acting on a whim, on anger that I've yet to sit down and comprehend. Yet I know this place is so deeply corrupt and not want I desire to be involved in, so I should leave before I no longer can.

Once I leave, Marek will leave, and hopefully I will find him again, once I have calmed down. At least this is what I'm justifying to myself as I pace down the hallway, down the hallway into the main entrance hall, and up another flight of stairs towards Tai's wing.

If my predictions are correctly, he will be having a meeting with some royal advisors like he does most nights. Recently secret meetings and discussions have been taking up a lot of Tai's time, so I'm not concerned about being caught.

No one is near the entrance to his quarters when I arrive, and sure enough, they aren't locked. I've been here before, yet as I slip into the main living area, the sheer decadence of it all catches me off guard.

I don't waste any time, slipping in through his door, stalking straight to his dark wood nightstands.

My hands shake uneasily, flashing images of dead Tani in a pile fuel my anger, pushing down any second thoughts that dare convince me out of this. If Tai is okay with killing innocent creatures like this, knowing the repercussions on nearby populations, then I want nothing more to do with this life.

I open the drawer, I sort through odd pieces of paper and what looks like a diary, avoiding it all. I'm not here to invade his privacy anymore than I already am, even if I despise him.

Nothing. No band.

Pacing around the bed, I check the other drawer, also finding nothing. This late at night he wouldn't be wearing the band. I only know that because whenever we have dinner together, his band is always off, and the hour has ticked way past that.

Sure enough, the silver band sits upon a small wooden block covered in satin. I grin, grabbing a hold of it tightly. Last time I touched it, it had burnt me, but now it's icy cold, heavier in my hand than I imagined. Seeing it makes me realise how intelligent Tai really is, how adept with his skills he is to have created such a thing.

"What are you doing?"

I freeze, just as I was pulling my hands from the drawer.. Tai's warm voice invades my senses, forcing me to turn around and face him, trying to not look meek and embarrassed, even if I feel my cheeks heating. The band remains tucked in my fist, hidden behind my back.

"I was...looking for you," I stutter, inwardly cursing the weakness in my tone.

Tai blinks, looking me over. It's obvious he has been speaking to his royal delegates, those glittering silver rings adorning his fingers, his jacket a deep forest green, hugging his features handsomely. It's jarring, almost intimidating seeing him dressed like this after he's been recovering like any normal citizen.

"In my bedroom?" he questions slowly, deliberately. He gently closes the door behind him, closing me in here with him. His emerald green eyes shift to the raided nightstands. "In my drawers?"

I rub the back of my neck, wondering how I'm going to explain myself out of this one. "I was waiting in here for you to get back."

"You're wet Akara, is everything okay?" he asks, noticing my damp clothes that are finally starting to dry, my hair stuck in thick clumps, still dripping. Another aspect of this that I cannot explain so easily.

"No, not exactly," I say uneasily, looking down at myself. "I was out in the rain."

He steps forward, tilting his head in a concerned manner. Instinctively, knowing I'm hiding something, I step back. He eyes me suspiciously.

"You're freezing," he notes, tone hardening. I am shivering, but less from the cold and more from the fear that he will find out I'm stealing from him, and force me to stay here again to live out yet another sentence. Perhaps I'm being dramatic, yet seeing him dressed the way he is, his curls so effortlessly defined reminds me of his power, or what he is capable of as King.

"You're right, I should probably go shower," I breathe.

Without thinking I go to walk past him, silently wishing I had pockets in these leggings. Just as I go to brush past him, he grabs a hold of my elbow, pulling it out to reveal my hand. Guilty, I meet his gaze before it sees the band, realisation hitting him.

"You're stealing my band," he notes grimly.

"Well not anymore, I suppose," I mutter, wishing I could curse. I turn the band over in my hand, noticing the underside of it is black. I hadn't noticed that detail earlier, but it makes me recoil, wondering if it's seeping magic into my hand as we speak. "Why does it look like that?"

"Well if you must know, it got killed when the Beast nearly, well, killed me," Tai explains, picking it up from my palm. "It doesn't work anymore."

I turn away from him, chewing on the tip of my nail. "Damn."

"And why, are you trying to steal my band?" he asks, not sounding angry, simply curious. In fact, there's a hint of amusement, coming down from his surprise of having found me in his bedroom in the first place. "Planning on selling it?"

"No, obviously not," I shake my head, defeated. There's no way I can get out of here without speaking the truth. "I was planning on getting out of here?"

The amusement vanishes from his face in an instant, his gaze darkening as surprise resumes on his features. Suddenly I feel guilty for my plan, the initial anger ebbing away with every moment I stand in front of Tai. I may not know much about him, but I'm convinced his motives are pure. Yet I stand by my desire to get out of here.

"What, why?" he questions.

"Because I hate you," I blurt out, knowing I don't truly mean it but unable to stop myself. "I hate you for thinking it's okay to kill innocent Tani and get away with it. They may not be human, or even a common animal, but they may have once been. They are lives, and many of them don't do anything to harm people."

Tai looks briefly stunned, before he closes his eyes, releasing a slow sigh. If he's hurt, he doesn't show it, although I get the sense that he doesn't take my explosive burst of anger very lightly.

"You want to throw away our agreement?"

"No, I don't know," I grit out. Logic and anger are fighting for a place in my mind. My rational side wants me to make sense of this and realise there's more to this than just the senseless deaths of these Tani. The other half wants to be angry at him, wants to hear him apologise. "I'm just so angry."

He motions for me to sit on the bed, which I do so, only because of exhausted myself with all the pacing and frustration. He kneels in front of me, grabbing my knees with his warm hands, the feeling heating my blood.

"I know it's pointless for me to explain, but I've been doing this to keep control of people in nearby villages," he murmurs, the green of his eyes slipping through the curtain of hair that falls past his eyebrows.

"How so?"

"After the first people drank from the Forbidden River when it was first created, the reactions were mostly negative. Many people died, so the rulers at the time all agreed to ensure no one would drink from the river again. Now, people are so desperate for power, they are starting to challenge that rule," he explains.

I frown. "What does that have to do with Tani?"

"I don't have enough men to guard the river at all times, it's just not possible," he admits, sounding exasperated, likely having dealt with this issue for quite some time. "I'm trying to scare them, as nothing else seems to be working."

"You don't need to scare them. A lot of them aren't aware of the horrors of the river, and the suffering people went through. They just need education," I tell him, surprised at how kind and calm I'm sounding.

Tai almost seems startled at that. "Education...I don't know how to do that."

"Start teaching kids in schools about the dangers, in churches and in meeting places. Have people learn, so they know what to fear," I tell him. I learnt about the river during my schooling, and it frightened me so much I knew I never wanted to step near the river. I have such a higher chance of dying from it than becoming all powerful.

"I suppose I could try that," Tai breathes. I can see him trying to figure out how to make this work in his head, eyes glazing over slightly. I'm surprised he took my idea into consideration...

"Thank you," I sigh. "No more killing."

Suddenly, I feel deflated, weak. Everything make sense now, and all I had to do was speak to Tai for him to figure out an alternative to his initial plan. I'm embarrassed now, having reacted the way I did. I'm usually not an angry person, yet seeing those dead Tani completely over took me.

Tai doesn't seem mad, though. His thumbs brush along my knees, soothing me. I want to thank him for being so receptive, for listening to me, yet I can't bring the words to my lips. He comes to sit next to me, smelling of some expensive scent mixed with some Jade Province fern.

"I'm struggling, Tai," I admit, looking down at my fingers, slightly tipped red from the cold. "My Tani is gone, and I don't know how to handle it. Were I in a normal headspace, I wouldn't have reacted that way.

Tai shakes his head, reaching up to grip my chin. "You have no royal background, and yet you're going to be the best Queen this territory has ever seen. You are fair, honest and kind. I have no doubt that we will make it through this, that you will find another Tani to believe in."

And just like that, leaving no longer sounds tempting...In fact, knowing I even thought about it in the first place makes my stomach turn uneasily.

"That's a lot of pressure," I breathe as his hand falls from my chin. He rests it instead on my thigh. "Especially when I don't want to be a Queen."

"Sometimes I don't want to be King. But I know that if I weren't, Vaia wouldn't have a good life, and my father would forever torment me," he admits, his tone and smile amused, although a painful darkness lingers in his eyes.

I look down at where his hand is, shivering. I can't decide if the weight of his touch is making me uncomfortable, or if I like it. It's making me uncomfortable because the feelings that accompany it - the fluttering of my heart, the heat that courses through my body.

"I should get back to my room," I murmur breathlessly.

He meets my gaze, a fire in his eyes I've never seen before. We are so close, letting me see every sweeping contour of his beautiful face, the curve of his lips. Two thoughts within me fight for dominance...

Kiss him, just once, to see if it is how you imagine.

Or more importantly, run, go back to your room now and remember how you feel about Marek.

He moves his hand from my thigh to my cheek, the gentleness of the touch making me quiver. He watches his own movements, transfixed on them while I stare blankly at him, unmoving, unsure of what to do next. He tucks a stray curl behind my ear, before drawing his fingers down my neck.

"What are you doing?" I murmur, knowing this is wrong but unable to tear myself away. Don't lead him on.

He tilts his head to the side, fingers brushing against my shoulder. My cardigan slips off slightly, revealing my bare shoulder and part of my arm, which he runs his hand down. He's touching nothing inappropriate, yet my entire body feels on fire.

"Touching you," he breathes.

His touch leaves me arm, and the moment it brushes against my side, I gasp, grabbing a hold of his wrist, shaking me head. "No more."

Instantly he pulls his hand away, needing no more encouragement. He simply gets to his feet, holding his hand out to me. "Let me walk you back to your room."

I smile weakly, taking his hand. We walk back wordlessly to my room, not talking about what just transpired. Perhaps Tai isn't so bothered by what happened, yet I cannot wrap my head around it.

Why did I just feel like that? What was that feeling? And more importantly, what am I going to do about it?

💙••💙

So KING'S POSSESSION is now completed on Radish! The sequel, KING'S SEDUCTION is now up and available to view.

Do no, and I cannot stress this enough, read King's Seduction without completing this novel. It will spoil everything!!

🐼••🐼

I'm officially rewriting Alpha Jasper's story now on Radish! It will be following the same storyline with the same characters, but with revised scenes and some new ones!

I love Jasper's story so much that I wanted to go back and rewrite it. I hope you guys will enjoy it, you can find it now on Radish (:

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~Midika 💜🐼