Word Count: 2067

~Kiva

I draw in a sharp breath, training my eyes on Caspian.

Is he dead?

Ark stalks behind my husband, who shudders once, then starts to blink his eyes open. If I weren't bound to the chair by coarse rope, I think I would have collapsed onto the floor with relief.

"What's going on?" He groans, focusing first on me as he winces.

My eyes trace a line of blood that travels down from behind Caspian's ear, down his neck to pool at his collarbone. He's been hit.

He takes in the scene around him. His guards lay dead in pools of blood on the floor, which is a fate he may share with them very shortly.

I know my mate. He is going to taunt him first.

"It's Ark. He's here," I hiss, nodding my head at Caspian. He tenses, unable to turn around to face the man who is about to put him through hell.

"I apologise Kiva. I'll release you soon," Ark assures me, coming back around to stand within both Caspian and I's eyeline.

"If you hurt him..." I warn.

Ark holds a single finger up, showing off those cold leather gloves that usually indicate that he is working. "Shh. Why don't we talk before we get to that?"

"Who are you?" Caspian questions, glaring up at Ark with furious ire.

He knows that Ark was my guard, but he's wondering who Ark truly is. That's not something Ark is going to divulge so simply.

Ark doesn't respond. He just stares him down with the slightest curve to his lips.

"He works for the rebels. He commands them," I tell Caspian.

I tried to warn him. I knew this would happen, and Caspian made me feel as though I was going insane, that I was just being paranoid. And now, our lives are on the line as we wait for this dangerous man to decide what he wants to do to us.

"My guards will have you arrested and you will be charged," Caspian says, as if most of them aren't lying dead around us. "Or I'll kill you."

"Are you both forgetting I'm the one with the knife?" Ark pulls back his jacket slightly, drawing out a knife. It's stained with blood, making my stomach turn.

"Let him go, Ark. You've made your point."

He shakes his head, pacing between the two chairs, hands seated in his pockets.

"I don't think I have," he muses. "See, this isn't just about your marriage to Kiva. And you know that, don't you?"

Caspian frowns, tugging at the rope. The whole left side of his neck is covered in blood that seeps from whatever wound Ark has caused to the back of his head.

"Rebels hate royalty," the Prince mumbles.

Ark isn't smiling anymore. "There's more though, isn't there."

I look between the two of them, trying to decipher what Ark is insinuating. Caspian looks petrified, and not just because of the knife Ark has slid back into his jacket.

There is something he is hiding.

"I don't know anything," Caspian insists.

"Liar," Ark growls. "You know about Kiva's father's business, don't you?"

Caspian's eyes widen, matching my startled expression. He swallows thickly, looking at me. He doesn't respond to my questioning look, as my mind reels.

My father doesn't have a business...he's a King.

"I know nothing," he says carefully.

"There isn't a single royal family that hasn't profited from it, who hasn't partaken in it." Ark sounds angry, but not in an explosive way.

No...His anger is calm and deadly. This goes far deeper than Ark's resentment for me marrying Caspian, and how the Prince has treated me. There is a deeper history that connects the two in a way that is far beyond me.

"My father may have, but I never!" Caspian raises his voice so loud it makes me wince. He's desperate.

Ark circles Caspian. There's a flare of panic in the Prince's eyes as Ark disappears from his eye line.

"Your father will pay." He adjusts his jacket, reminding me of the knife hidden from my view. "You, Caspian, are young and stupid. The money you received to marry Kiva was blood money and you knew that. Yet you married her anyway."

"My father deals with that...I don't-"

Caspian is cut off as Ark grabs him by the collar of his shirt and punches him.

I cry out as blood splatters against the marble floor from the sheer force of Ark's punch. He pulls away, Caspian's head bowed as he spits out more blood, groaning.

Ark grabs the light coloured hair on the back of Caspian's head, pulling it back so he is forced to look into his eyes.

"Who died for that money?" He demands harshly.

Caspian starts desperately pulling at his binds, although it's not use. "I don't know!"

"Tell me!" Ark growls.

He removes his hand from Caspian's hair, pulling out the knife. Horror paints itself over Caspian's face as Ark moves behind him again, pressing the knife to his neck.

"I don't know! I never knew their names," Caspian insists, squeezing his eyes shut.

It's obvious to everyone in this room that Caspian knows what is being demanded out of him. I am utterly speechless, watching this painful exchange.

Something terrible is happening, and has been happening, and I'm completely in the dark.

"But you knew of them. How young they were, where they came from," Ark seethes.

"I just knew they were girls. Women. That's it."

Ark presses the knife closer to Caspian's neck. "They were taken from small villages, from families who couldn't fight back. They were lured in and then killed for the pleasure and amusement of royals like you."

A cold feeling of dread begins to culminate in the pit of my stomach.

"I swear to you, I never participated. I knew only what I heard and I never asked questions. If I did, I would be killed."

Caspian sounds beyond desperate now. He sounds guilty, and practically on the verge of tears. This is no light subject to be discussing when a knife is being pressed against his neck, ready to enact Ark's revenge.

"My sister is dead because you're a coward," Ark shouts.

My breath catches in my throat. His sister, the one he claimed went missing. He said he didn't know where she was, and now...he knows she is dead, and my father and Caspian are somehow involved.

"I...I didn't know, I'm sorry," Caspian exclaims hysterically.

"You're only sorry because there's a knife to your neck," Ark growls.

He hasn't looked at me once. I feel like a faraway spectator who can do nothing but witness the horror of this moment. I don't want to intervene anyway - I want to hear Ark elaborate on what happened to his sister, and how Caspian and my father are involved.

"What do you want me to do? I'm sorry, I mean it. Please," Caspian begs, his eyes squeezed shut, sweat gathering on his forehead.

The look in Ark's eyes is practically feral. However, instead of ending Caspian's life, he lets him go, tucking the knife away again.

I gape at him. His self control is unbelievable.

"Your part in this will come," he mutters. "First, we should talk about Kiva."

My eyes widen. No...I don't want the attention back on me. Ark just revealed something horrific and I want to know more before he slaughters Caspian.

"Ark..." I breathe, unable to find the words.

Ark looks at me for only a moment before he walks back to where Caspian can meet his eyes. "You want to know what's fucked up? Kiva is mated to me, a rebel."

My husband, who has just been put through hell for the past couple minutes suddenly pales.

"What?"

"It's true, isn't it Kiva?" Ark smirks at me, his anger from before vanished. It frightens me how easily he can settle his emotions and promptly hide them away.

"It doesn't matter, I want nothing to do with you!" I grit out.

Ark drags a chair over from the far wall, sitting down on it between Caspian and I.

"I know you want her in your bed, Caspian. I know you fantasise about fucking my mate, huh?" He tilts his head to the side, daring him to respond.

Caspian shakes his head. "I swear I haven't."

"There's no more lying, Caspian," Ark taunts, bracing his elbows on his thighs. I wish he would look at me so he could see how disgusted I am by him right now.

"She's my wife, okay. I thought about sleeping with her, yes...is that what you want to hear?" Caspian snaps.

Ark smiles. "It's harmless to dream, I suppose."

I roll my eyes. We went from talking about something serious to humiliating Caspian.

"But Kiva is mine. She is not yours, and she never was. And if you want to survive, you'll divorce her," he demands.

"Ark!"

My mind returns to the day of my wedding. Ark was painfully calm about the marriage...he knew all along this threat would be made and that he would get his way.

Divorce.

"I...I can't," Caspian stutters.

If we divorced so soon after the wedding, both him and I will be ruined. I could hardly care about my reputation anymore, since I'm not even sure I'm going to escape from Ark, but I know Caspian cares about his.

And having a kidnapped wife only garners more sympathy for him.

"Yes you can. Unless of course, you want me to fuck my pretty little mate in front of your precious minister and give him a reason to declare this marriage illegitimate."

Ark stretches his long legs out, rolling his shoulders. He looks so casual and relaxed now, and yet somehow more deadly.

A shadow passes over Caspian's face. "You wouldn't."

"Or I could tell him you never consummated your marriage," Ark says with a shrug.

I mutter a curse under my breath. He knows we didn't consummate the marriage because he was the one who interrupted it.

Before Caspian could force me...

"Who would he believe? The rebel or the Prince?"

"I could kill you now and save myself the trouble." Ark brushes some dust from his shoulder tiredly. "Kiva will be sufficiently ruined when the world learns about her father anyways. What good is being married to her?"

"Annulling our marriage to a well liked Princess would ruin me." Of course all Caspian cares about is himself. He has done nothing to get me out of this either.

Ark seems just as unimpressed. "And that's all that matters, doesn't it?"

"I'll divorce her. But you cannot kill me," he eventually concedes. He lowers his gaze, not looking at me. It's a good thing too, because it wouldn't help the situation if saw my relief.

Ark shifts his attention to me. "What do you think, Kiva? Should I kill him?"

My mouth dries. He can't seriously expect me to say I want Caspian dead...Even if he is connected to Ark's sister's death, it's a life I don't want to be involved in taking.

"Spare him. Please," I whisper.

The weight of Ark's gaze carries so many unspoken words. His sisters death is somehow related to Caspian and the wealth he has accumulated, and yet here I am, wanting him alive.

I just...I can't let it be my word that causes Caspian to be killed.

"Burn the place to the ground. Burn the consequence of blood money," I say quickly.

Ark blinks, surprised, while Caspian gapes at me. I'm also surprised, because I don't regret the words as they have come out of my mouth.

Caspian is involved in something terrible. It needs to be brought down.

Ark draws out his knife and cuts Caspian's binds.

"Run Caspian. Run to your minister, then run as far away as possible, or I will track you down and kill you," he warns.

Caspian nods frantically. He has no room to negotiate, and he's lucky he's leaving here with his life, regardless of the fate of his estate.

"And you," Ark says, shifting his attention to me. "Are coming with me."

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I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! and as always it is available 10 chapters ahead on Radish!

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~Midika 💜🐼