Word Count: 2237

I only slept for a few hours, waking just as dusk bled into night.

I know why I couldn't sleep. Being wrapped up in blankets that smell like my old life, seeing books on Tani and the Beast pressed tightly into my sagging bookshelf and knowing my mother is in the next room, pretending I'm not here...it's maddening.

Tugging my hair back into a braid behind my shoulders, I examine myself in my old mirror, the frame still chipping off white paint how I remember, stickers from childhood having peeled back, stained by the sun. I haven't changed, aside from slightly fuller cheeks from the decadent food at court and minor scratches and bruises that litter my skin from yesterdays ordeal.

My eyes track down to my chest, painfully bare. My throat tightens as tears rise to my eyes, flooding out despite my protest.

Who am I?

Who am I without a Tani to believe in, a guardian to guide my through life? My entire identity has been stripped away, leaving me just a shell of a person, with nothing to look up to, to gain faith from. Despite knowing the Beast had no real power, I still wonder if my life is doomed, if my future is bleak. Is it up to nature to determine how my life will go?

"I've missed you."

Through the mirror, I look over my shoulder, meeting my father's muted blue eyes, soft and warm. As I turn around, I wipe my tears away, summoning a sense of calm over myself. You killed the Beast...You must live with that.

"I've missed you too. More than you could ever imagine," I admit.

"I'm assuming you're the reason I'm home right now," he notes with a raised eyebrow, motioning around himself. "An executive order for me to be returned home and disallowed from ever coming back? I can't imagine that happens randomly. Then I come home to find your mother fretting over money being sent to her daily."

The sigh that escapes me shudders, one of pure relief. My room has remained untouched, but I did notice that the flooring had been replaced by thick, warm carpet, the walls donned with a fresh set of paint. I haven't spent much time gawking at their furnishings, but I imagine mother had no trouble replacing them too.

"Tai and I have made a deal, yes."

"It's a gross amount of money, Akara," father mutters, shaking his head. "More money in a day than I've ever made in my life from being at war."

My father has always been a proud man, shrugging off compliments for his fine form and the charisma that he offers to this bland village. He always helped out neighbours with work, and when the General and his posse wandered into our village that day, so many years ago, he didn't hesitate in agreeing to fight for the Jade Province in the war that we know so little about.

I step forward, clasping his large hands in mine. "Promise me you're using it."

He motions for me to follow him from the room, which I do so, stalking down the hallway and to the spare room, where Tai is. "Your mother was reluctant at first, but she seems to be warming up to the idea of free money. Especially with my infliction."

"Wait, what?" I frown, startled.

"I was shot. Whatever technology they were using has ensured it isn't healing. The money will be used to fund the treatment," he explains as we walk into the room. I'm not sure what is harder to face; Tai still being unconscious on the bed, or hearing my father has been shot.

He faces me, drawing up his short slightly to show me the wound. My stomach turns uneasily. There is nothing there by a large bandage, but my imagination sears what I assume it looks like into my mind. Seeing my father injured is startling, an uncomfortable feeling settling over me that I know won't go away for awhile.

"I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry I've let you down so much," I breathe, choking on the words.

Grimly, father pulls one of the chairs out, gesturing for me to sit down. I do so, watching him collapse into another. It's at this moment that I notice the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, the way he winces, clearly exhausted from carrying himself around all day. I was so busy concentrating on everything else that I forgot to realise he wasn't acting like himself, carrying around and injury of war.

"Never Akara, don't be silly."

Just as the words slip past his lips, Tai's body shudders, his limp arm sliding off the bed, dangling down loosely. Both father and I jump, watching him anxiously as he shakes again, his finger tips quivering, his knees shuddering.

"Tai...Dad, what's happening?" I question frantically, getting up grab Tai's hand, feeling a cold clamminess. In my palm, his hand balls up into a fist, still shaking ever-so-slightly, like something is possessing him. I want to be grateful at the first signs of life in awhile, but I can't bring myself to rejoice.

"It's like he's having a nightmare," father mutters, unsure of how to react.

Tai then jots up, his entire body dragging up from the bed as his torso straightens. He gasps with the movement, green eyes flinging open. We meet gazes for a brief moment, sharing a equal sense of confusion, his dazed eyes meeting my frightened ones.

"Are you okay?" I gasp, running my hands along his cold skin, reaching up to hold his face, forcing his gaze to remain pinned to mind, fearful that if he looks away, I'll realise this moment isn't real and he will be dead. "Everything is going to be alright, you're alive and okay."

"I saw death," he chokes out, voice dry and hoarse as he looks around the room, visibly confused at his surroundings.

"You're okay. You're in my home in the Jade Province," I explain to him slowly.

His knuckles are pale as he fists the sheets, damp curls clinging to his sweaty forehead, dry lips parted as he pants. One moment I was sure he was dead, and the next he is breathing air, looking at me and speaking. Relief crushes me to the point I want to breakdown and cry, but I simply force it to elevate me, to ensure I can do all I can to care for him.

"What happened?" he questions weakly as I guide him to rest his back against the wall. His entire body is ridged, even as I attempt to ease him, the tension never releasing from his muscles.

"You killed the Beast. We thought you died, but somehow you're still alive," I croak, hating the way my emotions rise up within my throat to the point it's painful to hold it back. Now is not the time.

He blinks, seeming to gather everything back slowly. "How is that possible?"

"We don't know, but I'm so glad to see you're okay. People from your court are coming to collect you later on tomorrow," I assure him.

Slowly, his gaze softens, understanding starting to flood him as his memories return. I realise in this instance that I'm clutching his hands tightly within my own. When I go to release my hold on him, he grips my hands back, warmth starting to dance their way back into his fingers.

"Where are we?" he asks, to frantic to have heard my clarify earlier.

"My home. This is my father," I inform him, pulling back to gesture at my father, who stands back, giving us space. My father is smart like that, likely having spent great lengths around those effected by the war. He knows not to intrude as a foreigner on such a delicate situation.

"King Taius," father mumbles lowly. "The one who is marrying my daughter."

I shoot him an aggravated look, wanting to hiss at him in disapproval for putting that on Tai so earlier. Of course, my father has probably been itching to talk to me about it, wanting to know how I came to being engaged to a King in only a few short months.

"I apologise about not asking for your blessing, sir," Tai replies smoothly, regaining strength at every moment.

Smiling grateful at him, I'm suddenly glad for the manners bred into him since birth. Being a royal is all about charisma and likeability. Knowing my father and knowing Tai, I have no doubt the will get on well, if the chance arises.

"You're a King. I suppose you don't have to," is all father replies with. I know he is joking, the slightest smile tugging at the corner of Tai's lips. Still, I can see the exhaustion pulling at him.

Right before I can ask father to leave the room, a crash from down the hallway sounds.

Tai flinches, looking ready to sit up, but I hold my hand out, shaking my head at him. He narrows his eyes on me, but relaxes, knowing he would be little help.

"Someone is in here," father warns quietly.

I nod, also motioning for my father to remain in the room. Both Tai and him are injured, and I'm not going to risk their lives, not knowing what this could be. Whatever that sound was, it's sinister, sounding like one of mothers pretty vases falling over. I note Marek telling me before I went to sleep that he was going to patrol through the village and look for a place he could eat without offending my mother, so it can't be him.

Stalking out into the hallway, it takes me only a glance toward the front door to realise the horrific situation I've just walked into.

An unfamiliar man dressed in all black with a hood pulled over his head, cloth up to his eyes has my mother pinned against the wall, forearm pressed to her neck. I gasp in shock, hardly having time to note I'm defenceless, having left my knives in my room. Even worse, I'm dressed in night clothes...

At the sound, he turns to look at me, deep brown eyes meeting mine.

Instantly he lets my mother go, her weeping form sliding to the ground before she crawls away and into the kitchen. He is here for me...and the look of the thick rope in his hand, it may not be to kill me.

I'm not taking my chances. Bracing myself, I run straight at him, not having much of an option, my feet nearly slipping on the polished wood surface. We collide, him far larger and stronger than me, yet I manage to have him stumbling back a few steps, giving me a chance to grab at his hair, his skin, anything to not give him enough space to wrap that rope around my neck.

We tussle, my body protesting from the bashing I received earlier in the cave, and the blow to my stomach he managed to get in before we reached this point.

He manages to slam me against the wall, but not hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

I know I'm strong...strong enough to hold him off. With a hard shove, I use my entire body weight, fuelled by adrenaline, to push him back against the other hallway wall. He swears as his hip nudges mothers mahogany entrance table. One hand is pinning his wrist to his side where he holds the rope, the other scratching at his eyes, down his face in hopes to distract him long enough...

My eyes glimpse my mothers broken vase, sad flowers having toppled to the floor hopelessly. Yet on the table, amongst a pool of water, are a few shards of broken glass. Grabbing the largest one in my hand, I ignore the bite of it as it breaks skin.

He battles me off, taking a slash to the face, right above his eyebrow. Blood splashes down into his eyes, a brilliant scarlet colour...he's not a Tani.

Gritting my teeth, I tug his hair, forcing his hair in one direction before I bring the glass down into his neck, cutting right through.

We both gag; mine out of disgust as I pull away, horrified, him out of fear. The blow isn't enough to kill him, yet he pushes me away, hands coming up to yank the glass from his neck, blood spurting out all over his clothes, making me dizzy.

We meet gazes, right before hands clasp over his shoulders, pulling him back.

Marek. He grabs a hold of the stranger, looking over me for a moment. "Him and I are going to have a little chat."

I don't follow them, as Marek drags the man from the room, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

💛••💛

If you guys want to read ahead, you can read more of KING'S POSSESSION on Radish! It's chapters ahead of Wattpad (:

🍌••🍌

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 💜🐼