Word Count: 1564

I can't breathe. I don't want to breathe.

I'm waiting for something, that never comes. I at least expect my skin to start burning, and then for every molecule in my body to dissolve. Instead, nothing comes. The only change I feel is the slightest breeze, wistful and soft, as it playfully flutters along the hem of my dress. Disobeying Taius's request, my eyes open.

My knees nearly give out beneath me. In all honesty, I didn't expect it to work. No, it didn't work. He must have used magic, claiming that odd looking band around his wrist did this as to not expose himself.

I'm not sure why the discretion. I would guess a King would typically enjoy the flaunt of something as rare as magic.

"What game are you trying to play with me?" I question into the air. I'm more focused on Tai, than the world around me, as he has the audacity to act surprised.

"Game?"

"You used magic."

"Not magic. I used my thoughts," he affirms, tapping the band around his wrist. I eye it sceptically, doubting there's much to the science he preaches. Taius has been a strange, elusive man with little answers to my unasked questions. I don't want to push him, as if at any moment he could make me realise his position of power.

Finally I look up, examining the landscape.

I'm surrounded by death.

I'm in a forest, of sorts. Sun rains down in a cascade of dappled beams, touching upon the ground, which is layered is fluffy white snow. It continues to fall, achingly slowly, riding the sweet breeze that drifts through this place. The snow doesn't come from the sky, though, but from the trees, which is caked in it. Not to mention, how warm the air is, where snow should never exist.

Silence, an ethereal predator, stalks through an ancient graveyard of trees, haunting the sparse remainder of life that feed upon death. Some trees still stand tall, others weak, their foundations crumbling.

What is this place?

Glancing toward Tai, I examine his expression, which is eerily peaceful.

"Where are we?" I breathe, my voice echoing across the boughs and fluttering through the leaves, which hang limp on their stems. I kick at my feet, expecting the crunch of frost, instead finding the fluffy, airy touch of unnatural snow, and a strange, dark slate colour that is unearthed.

"Guess," he dares.

"Snow in the Jade Province?" I try warily, unconvinced that this is actually snow.

"Not quite. This place was hit by a plague a few years ago. A weapon of the war spread it, but thankfully I was able to contain it before it spread through the entire forest I rule," he tells me. I flinch, stumbling backward a few steps, as if I'm not surrounded by death with no hope is escape. "Don't worry, it's not toxic."

Looking around, I'm mortified. What I thought was snow, I realise painfully, is ash, stacked up around barren trunks, which lean and sway lazily a strangely sweet breeze. The leaves have been stained white by whatever plague ravished this land, whatever plague was meant for the war.

I shiver. This plague could have been a weapon created many years ago, but yet the thought of it being intended for soldiers like my father have my stomach turning uneasily.

"So if it's not snow, what is it?" I ask, even though I already know.

Tai shifts, his footprints leaving marks on the ground before us. "Dead matter, leaves and so forth. I could have torn it down, but I like it."

"You like a bunch of dead trees?" I question, watching warily as he drags a finger between the rivets of the trunk of a tree, pulling it back to show me the creamy mix of ash. I'm trusting him, believing that this isn't going to kill me. For all I know, he could be immune to this, and in five years, I'll feel the affects of this devastating landscape.

"Well, listen," he breathes, encourage quiet from me.

"For?"

"The silence. It's quiet here, no birds, no wind. Just peace, in this odd world of death brought by one misused weapon of war," he murmurs.

My throat goes dry, my suspicions of Tai increasing with every word from his mouth. He's awfully strange, I realise. Enjoying this death world with weightless ash dancing aimlessly with the gentle exhale of the wind, with trembling white-gold light that struggles through the thick canopy of papery leaves above us. If I wasn't beyond creeped out before, I surely am now.

"I don't think I like it. War is never peaceful, and the consequences of it are devastating," I remind him, my father and his patriotism glowering at me from within my mind.

Tai walks backwards with graceful ease, ash kicking up to land below the knees of his dark pants. "True. But I don't ever get much peace in my role as King. This is all I get.

Sad. His world is sad.

He seems to read my expression. "I don't expect you to feel sorry for me, Akara. That's not why I brought you out here."

Wrapping my arms around myself, I wander after him, down a shallow slope, through a forest that refuses to change no matter how far we walk. The eerie, resonating feeling that hangs low throughout this forest has me shivering.

I watch Tai, the way he walks, with feline grace, the muscles under his shirt shifting as he looks up above the canopy, at the indigo sky beyond. His intentions are still an alluring mystery, with him bringing me out here, where I'm alone and vulnerable. He could kill me, leave me in this hidden graveyard which could be miles away from my home, to never be found.

Yet he keeps walking, unbothered and hardly what I would call intimidating.

"Why did you bring me out here, then?" I try, matching his step beside him. His stare dips to meet mine, flickering with a genuine warmth that surprises me.

"I don't want you to fear me. I don't want you to think I'm going to force you to do anything." How could I not think that? He's keeping me here against my will. Despite his supposed desire to give me the best option he could, I have no doubt it is in his power to have me released without the public becoming aware.

"You're forcing me to be here. To keep you company, or whatever," I mutter. Suddenly, Tai comes to a stop, pulling his arm up. "Woah. What's wrong?"

"Vaia is distressed. She's looking for me back at the manor," he mutters, eyebrows furrowing. Frowning, I look around for the source of this information, and for the reason why a dark shadow has cast itself across his face.

"How can you tell?"

"I have a device. We need to go," he mutters, turning around to grab my wrist. His touch makes me flinch, the heat of his hand burning into my skin.

"Another one? Woah..."

Before I can finish my sentence, my eyes close, and not by my own violation. When I open them again, I'm standing in the main-room of Taius's estate, and Vaia is standing only a few feet away.

Immediately her distraught expression catches my attention, a piece of paper in her hand trembling. From what I've seen of Tai's sister, she has only ever been arrogant and unbothered. I never thought I would see her truly scared.

"Vaia....what's going on?" Tai questions.

Still reeling from the sudden change of location, I nearly miss Tai's concerned tone, another expression of vulnerability that I wasn't expecting from the King.

Vaia thrusts the paper into his grasp. "This letter came. The Nobles are coming."

Upon her words, a glacial coolness settles over the room, the gentle plash of the nearby fountain being the only sound in the room. Tai's expression impassive, although the darkness that threatens beneath is unmistakable. The gentle, doting man who lead me through the forest only moments is gone, replaced by the ruler I've been so frightened of.

No one speaks, so I find myself doing so. "Can I ask what that means?"

"Nobles, my fathers stupid self-titled friends who think they can come here whenever they please, pick apart my entire reign, just to get in my fathers good graces," Tai mutters, the growl laced within chilling my blood.

"I'm leaving...I'm not staying around to be bullied by them," Vaia growls, although the edge of her voice quivers. In a flurry of crimson silk fabric and brunette hair, Vaia rushes off up the sweeping stairwell, leaving me gaping in her wake. If these Noble's are frightening enough to have Vaia packing her bags to make a mistake, I surely don't want to be here. Although it's not like I get much of a choice.

"What do we do?" I ask nervously.

Tai's mouth settles into a grim line. "I'll hold a dinner, we will be nice, and hope they leave with nothing interesting enough to tell my father."

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

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