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Chapter eleven: freedom

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Taehyung

A chorus of overlapping voices flooded his ears, but he heard none of what the people around him said. Their words bubbled and dissolved, impossible to focus on, much less understand.

Luna. Her name was all he thought, felt, heard.

Taehyung's body strung itself as tight as his bow. His bow, which he swiped off the ground, along with his arrows. His bow, which he choked with his fist as he strode across the camp, passing the voices, then launching into a run, legs cutting across the ground, arms pumping until he reached his horse.

Unknotting the reigns, he leapt onto the animal's back, steered the creature around, and dug his heels into its sides, sending them catapulting through the trees.

The voices calling his name, shouting for him, trailed behind. His name, which didn't matter anymore, which faded from his memory.

He wasn't Taehyung. He wasn't Kim. He was her. All of her. Every part of him was her.

The wind whipped his hood against his back, but he wasn't going fast enough, not enough, not enough.

When he reached the main road, he leaned forward, bringing his chest closer to the horse, and snapped the reigns, increasing momentum.

The steed plowed down the path, kicking up leaves and puffing thickly. A vision of Seokjin face and hair poisoned Taehyung's mind, and he pursued that image.

I will kill you.

Crashing out of the forest, Taehyung eased up, slowing the horse from a gallop to a cantor along the boundary of the woods.

The castle's battlements rose over the hills in the distance, their grated edges reminding him of teeth.

He trained his gaze on the single red flag slapping the current above the keep, announcing to the whole of the kingdom a public execution scheduled for the following morning. Red as a rose. Red as blood.

Taehyung jumped off the animal, tethered it to a tree, and set out across the high grasses.

Something jerked on his hood and sent him flying back and landing on the ground.

Hoseok's dark eyes stared down at him, followed by a number of other frantic, angry, heavily-breathing faces. Their horses huffed in the background, secured next to his own.

It took Hoseok, Jungkook, and Jimin to hold Taehyung down.

Jimin clamped a hand over Taehyung's mouth to silence him. "Tae, this isn't you. See to reason. Don't let Seokjin hijack your sense."

"Damn right it isn't him. This is what's left of him," Jieun said. "As if allowing that wench to bewitch him hasn't done enough, now we have to exorcise him from his stupidity and temper-both of which he never had before meeting her. I want my dark haired, brown-eyed, stocky idol back, and I want him back now."

Jungkook didn't care for that comment. "I thought I was your idol."

"You're my lover. That's more important. I don't suppose we can talk him out of saving her?"

Taehyung growled into Jimin's hand.

"No," Jisoo cried. "Lady Luna is going to be hanged. Don't any of you care?"

"I care about Taehyung, not that wench. She broke his heart. All I want to do is break her face."

"Hellfire, Jieun, she doesn't deserve to die," Jungkook hissed. "Don't push me on this. We're helping."

"Don't let the lad go until his eyes have ceased dilating," the older man called sheriff Jung said. He and Jisoo must have hitched a ride with Taehyung's friends in their pursuit of him.

Just then, a small hand touched Taehyung's, commanding his attention. Jisoo smiled sadly at him and placed a strip of leather into his palm. Luna's bracelet.

"I took it from her room," Jisoo said. "I thought you'd want it."

He closed his fingers around the bracelet. It's soft, woven texture-so much like her hair-beat the mania out of him.

His head fell against the ground. They were right. This wasn't him. What had he been doing? What was he expecting to accomplish on his own? He needed his friends.

He had to calm down. This was not the way leaders behaved. They didn't let fury cloud their vision. They didn't leave their most trusted companions behind. Taehyung Kim had never done that, and he wouldn't now.

"Take care, Tae," Jimin said. "It's clear what Seokjin's planning."

Yes, it was. Seokjin knew that Taehyung was going to find out about the execution.

The king expected him to show up and try to save Luna.

If Taehyung stormed the palace too soon, or did anything until His Majesty stopped believing he was coming, Taehyung would lose the upper hand.

He would have to wait until it appeared as though he wasn't taking the bait.

Which meant he'd have to endure to the final second, right before they killed Luna.

"He's making that face. He's thinking," Jungkook said.

Jimin lifted his palm, allowing Taehyung to speak.

"You can let me go now. I won't fight."

They released him, and he sat up, brushing himself off and leveling Jieun with a glare.

"You mean as much to me as anyone in this gang. I want you with us, but I also want your tongue in check or I will grind it into the floor when this is over."

Jieun's expression wavered, then softened petulantly. "I love you. And I hate that she hurt you."

He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to him, pressing their foreheads together, remembering the first time he met her, the first time she made Jungkook laugh.

"Thank you for that, but I can't do this without you."

Jieun swallowed and whispered, "Alright."

They broke apart.

"Well boy," sheriff Jung said. "You better not have another relapse once you get into the palace. I have a right mind not to believe a thing I heard about you. I'm hoping you prove me wrong."

Taehyung nodded. "As am I, sheriff Jung."

"Bah. I'll tell you right now, your sweeting isn't going to be happy you turned out. She doesn't want to put you in danger. If she finds out, she might do something foolish and downright reckless like jump into that noose faster than you can shoot. So keep out of her line of vision. I'm curious, boy. How many lifetimes would you have to lead to deserve her? Or her you?"

"Right now, we only have one."

"Good answer. So make it count and stay alive."

Taehyung had the feeling that if they'd met in different circumstances, sheriff Jung would be providing more than his share of tips regarding Luna. The man understood her well.

"Tell me what you know."

The older man gave them an account of the king's doubts about Luna. It grieved Taehyung to hear how Seokjin had poisoned her in order to have her medically examined. His Majesty might have assumed she was taken advantage of, having initially been a captive. However, Seokjin had already been suspicious about her role in the escape, and she would have never helped a man who'd defiled her. By the time the physician was called in, it was easy for the king to guess she'd been a willing participant in the loss of her virginity. The way she'd conducted herself during his final interview with her solidified it for him. He ordered Luna to be taken to a cell to await punishment, and her family was expected to watch. Seokjin would have his public show, after all.

"They're not revealing the intimacies of Lady Luna's conduct to the world, only that she helped you get away," sheriff Jung said.

"That peacock, Seokjin, is not eager to be labeled a cuckold before he's even been labeled a husband. He'd rather save face. The only reason I know about the scandal is I overheard Lady Lisa telling Jisoo."

Taehyung hated that anyone besides himself and Luna knew of their lovemaking at all.

Their relationship wasn't for public consumption. But he didn't hold it against her that she'd confessed the details to her sister or Jisoo. They'd been there for her when he could not.

"Wait. By the by, how did you find our new camp?" Taehyung asked the small girl.

She blinked. "I'm Jisoo," she answered, as if that explained everything.

"This sprite can find anyone. If Seokjin had employed her, you would all be in the dungeon by now," sheriff Jung said.

Taehyung knew that his old self would have chuckled at this and then said something charming to Jisoo. He missed that part of himself. He wanted it back.

The group returned to their camp and tossed ideas back and forth until they'd fully choreographed a rescue. Halfway through the night, they dressed in the royal guard uniforms from their escape-it had been worth it to keep those-and hustled through the high grasses toward the palace.

Taehyung knelt and strung his bow, aiming up at the men standing post along the battlements.

He would have to accomplish the impossible numerous times over. He'd have to locate the chinks in their armor and hit them quietly, in the dark, once they were close enough to the edge of the walkway but not too close, as he couldn't have soldiers toppling over and splashing into the moat.

But if there was one thing that had never failed him, it was his gift of sight. Since he could remember, he'd always been able to see things from a distance that many had deemed impossible to see. It had scared him as a child, but now he was grateful for it.

A metallic taste infested into Taehyung's mouth. Just as in the escape, he was going to have to kill people. He'd always tried to avoid this, but there was no chance to succeed otherwise. Not against the kingdom's stronghold.

And yet. He'd been having nightmares about the last men he'd taken down, their families, their children. He feared these next hours would turn him into someone he wasn't, someone who caused pain without remorse. Another piece in the king's game.

He needed to rise from this intact, recognizable. If not, he would lose everything.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to each man patrolling the wall, watching as they fell under the tips of his arrows, barely registering the narrow, whistling sound.

It took hours to clear the battlements surrounding the castle, but Taehyung was determined that only he would strike the men down.

His gang had never intentionally felled men before, and he wasn't about to force such a burden on his friends.

Once the battlements were cleared, Taehyung was met with silence from his band. He turned to them and discovered shadowy expressions of awe and pity directed at him. No one said a word. Death was nothing to rejoice over.

Dawn was approaching by the time they were able to make their second move. At the drawbridge, sheriff Jung offered himself as a diversion, sauntering up to the guards and picking a fight, stumbling around like he was drunk.

Once he'd gotten their attention, and earned an unfortunate blow to the stomach, Jimin and Hoseok jumped the guards from behind while sheriff Jung took their weapons.

In the entanglement, Hoseok took a slash to his thigh and Jimin to his shoulder. They bandaged the wounds as best they could and didn't complain, even though Taehyung knew they had to be suffering. While being dragged into the gatehouse, the warriors thrashed about, their cries blotted by the cloak material wedged into their mouths.

Again, Taehyung fought down that metallic taste as everyone hiked up the gatehouse stairwell, emerging onto the castle's surrounding wall.

And again, Taehyung apologized to the guards' lifeless faces. His band and the sheriff spread out and positioned themselves along the remaining stretch of the battlements.

At the area above the executioner's block, Taehyung pointed across the way to an open tower stretching high above them into the sky. "What is that?" he asked Jisoo.

"The chapel's bell tower," she said.

When she told him that no one manned the bell at night, he pulled a length of rope from his pack and instructed her to steal into the tower, then wait for his arrow.

"But it's dark," she said. "How will you know when I'm there, or where to shoot? Or if I grabbed the arrow?"

"I'll see," he promised. And he did, and he trusted the girl to tie the slack into the most secure knot possible, enough to hold his weight for when he swung himself onto the platform.

The group took their places at intervals along the wall, pretending to patrol the castle. After spectators began to gather, the plan was for Jungkook and Hoseok to descend into the courtyard and secure a spot near the block, near Luna.

Until then, they waited. Taehyung sunk to his knees, shut his eyes, and lightly beat the tail of an arrow against his forehead, the threads of the feathers caressing his skin. His stomach rolled. When next he fired, he couldn't miss.

He remembered her in the lake, her scowl, her ecstasy, her tears. She'd clung to him as if he had the answers.

Everything that had happened in the water had happened by accident. She'd tried to resist playing with him, the same way she'd tried to resist him by the fire pit on the night he finally took her.

Except for that first attempt to jump on him and kiss him, not once had she ever thrown herself at Taehyung or deliberately attempted to seduce him.

She hadn't been fixing to stab him in the heart. Her emotions had been unplanned but real. And he'd been a fool. He'd been lying to himself. She'd confessed, and all he'd seen was Jennie, and all he'd felt was fear.

When the sun rose and the courtyard filled-peasants in the rear, aristocracy in the front-Taehyung stood. They brought Luna out.

Swollen and purple and bloodied and stumbling. They'd beaten her. She kept her chin high, but Taehyung saw what others couldn't. His eyes narrowed, peering across the block and landing her hands, shackled behind her back. They were shaking.

The sight made Taehyung's chest contract, and he had to grip the stone wall and squeeze.

Seokjin claimed a seat on the platform, evidently wanting to have an unhampered view of his fiancée's death.

He sneered, validated. Seokjin then rose from his chair in a balcony overlooking the scene and called out Taehyung's name, saying things he could not register.

In response to His Majesty's speech, Luna's eyes skipped across the crowd. Relief and devastation marred her features.

She's looking for me.

She stepped onto the wooden block. They secured the noose around her neck. A single cry carved through the air, coming from the blond girl who must be Lady Luna's sister.

Taehyung set his arrow, hating that rope, because that rope was the enemy, because that rope was also his lifeline.

Puffing out gust of air, he lifted the bow, focused on the cord hanging from the scaffold.

His palms moistened. His fingers quaked, and he had to pause to steady them.

Then, for no reason at all, the king's voice finally reached Taehyung, gonging loud and clear in his head.

It stayed his hand. His eyes shifted between His Majesty and Luna, understanding dawning on him.

It would never end. After rescuing her, Seokjin would still find a way. He would always find a way. If Taehyung didn't lose her now, he might later. Or after that. Or after that. His home would suffer, and so would he.

Gripping his bow, Taehyung concentrated on his target.

"I love you, Luna," he whispered, and then fired.

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Luna

They'd let Seokjin do it. When they brought me to the dungeon and chained me to the wall, the king had been there, bent on shaping my last day to his liking.

He'd enjoyed every moment of contact between us as he beat me. His knuckles cracking against my face. His boot ramming into my side. His words. "You gave yourself to that filthy little rebel, did you?"

With my hands and ankles bound by hard, cold iron, I'd had only my teeth. I'd bitten him in the cheek but regretted it afterward. Thankfully, I'd fallen unconscious at some point.

Now, he was here, not a few paces from me, as if to assure me in his own pathetic way that he planned on following me to the afterlife.

Worse than that, they were making my sister and father watch. I'd had them promise they would close their eyes. I could not bear them taking this image back to Busan.

At least, Taehyung hadn't come. It wrenched my heart to know that he cared so little, had buried himself in his anger.

However, his absence was also a blessing. Whatever the king did to me now couldn't penetrate as much. I'd gone numb. My fingers shook, but the rest of me had gone numb.

The thick noose scratched my neck. The block beneath my feet rattled, signaling it was about to happen. I closed my eyes and saw his.

And I followed the dark, letting it take me, wondering if I might meet Jimin's loved one wherever I was going, and that made me happy, because we could miss our men together.

"Taehyung Kim!" The king called out, his words echoing through the castle. "We're not fooled by your silence, boy. Show yourself to the world like a good and surrounded criminal. Your lovely friend would like to say goodbye-"

A thin, whistling sound that I recognized flew toward me. Maybe to kill me? Maybe Taehyung had come to put me out of my misery himself? Maybe he'd thought to be generous? But no, it passed me, soared right by. Whizzing. Whizzing. Followed by a grunt from above.

I waited, and waited, and waited. I wondered if it was already over. Was death truly this merciful? I dared open my eyes, trailed the direction of the audience's froze gazes, and craned my head up.

Seokjin had risen to his feet in the balcony, confusion and wonder twisting his features. He leaned forward and offered us all a glimpse of the arrow sticking out of his chest, before plummeting over the side of the balustrade and landing on the platform, rocking the surface.

Silence hit the courtyard like a slap to the face. The guards who'd been chosen to carry out my demise stood rooted to their spots, staring at the king as if they expected him to resurrect himself. It was as though we'd all witnessed a magic trick we failed to comprehend.

Then the mob erupted. I struggled to make sense of it, my vision blurry, unsure if I was dreaming or having a nightmare or something in between.

People shrieked, the upper and lower classes flooding together to create a hysterical mass.

Some rejoiced, shouting and chanting, making for the king's body as if to steal it.

Others, mostly members of the peerage, fought them, pushing back to keep them from reaching His Majesty.

The guards forgot me and jumped into the stampede. Peasants rammed into guards, wrestling them for their weapons. Livestock got loose, emitting their own traumatic noises.

Lisa. Papa.

I gazed wildly around but couldn't find them, fearing they'd gotten sucked into the rushing river of the fray. If I moved, I could lose my balance and fall off the block and hang nonetheless. That's when I noticed a number of bodies attempting to reach me, rich-looking faces aiming to finish the job, poor faces trying to stop them. Clenching my teeth, I struggled to break my own wrist and slip it through the shackles.

Another whistling sound-very similar to one of Taehyung's arrows-and I landed on the platform, the rope falling around me like a snake.

But then a guard yanked me to my feet, hissing into my face, "Let's see him try to find you."

Him?

The guard dragged me across to the opposite side of the platform, in the direction of the keep.

Gasps alerted us, and we peered up to see a figure leap off the battlement and swoop through the air, supported by a cord and heading straight toward us.

His shape grew larger and larger, his dark hair highlighted by the sun, a pack of arrows strapped across his back. He landed on the platform on all fours, eyes scanning the crowd before fixing on us. A moment of recognition. He launched himself across the dais.

The guard wretched me away, evading the courtyard mania and hauling me toward the chapel.

An outright rebellion had ensued. I was not about to stand aside and let the rest of the kingdom do the work.

As the guard hustled me down an arched hallway, I used all my weight to smash him into the nearest wall and trip him. We rolled around, my legs flailing to find purchase on any part of him I could damage, but he was too big, overtaking me and hammering my shoulders into the stone floor.

Taehyung's voice burst down the corridor, roaring my name. My mouth split open to answer, but the guard covered it.

"Came back to be a rebel hero, did he? Decided saving his whore meant killing the king? Clever fellow. Let's see how clever he is when-" The guard's head jerked forward, his eyes rolled into his head, and he collapsed on top of me.

Jisoo popped into my line of vision, holding a club that was much bigger than her pixie frame.

"I think he's asleep now." She dropped the club, brandishing my bow and arrows, which hung off her shoulder-she must have retrieved it from my room-and then wiggled a set of keys. I planted kisses all over her face as she began to unlock the restraints on my wrists.

"Luna!"

I glanced up in time to see Taehyung appear around the corner, barreling toward me, then getting cut off by one of the guards.

Despite Taehyung's broad chest and strength, the other man towered over him, no doubt remembering the gang's ambush on his men in the forest and resenting the notorious thief for it.

They collided in a tangle of fists. A sword lifted and swooped downward, and Taehyung crumpled, his blood splattering the ground.

A silent scream worked its way up my throat but lodged itself there, choking me. I surged to my feet, and Jisoo tossed me my bow and arrow. Catching it, I strung my weapon, aware that I had no time to reach Taehyung. But I would not lose him. I refused to lose him.

The guard raised his sword again, and I aimed and shot the blade out of his hand, sending it clanging to the floor.

He stumbled, giving Taehyung the advantage as he plowed head-first into the man's middle, sending him flying backward.

Punching the guard into unconscious, Taehyung rose, swaying, placing one hand on the wall and the other on the gash at his side.

Lifting his head, he saw me, a look of surprise on his face as he registered the bow in my hand.

In the midst of the chaos, we stared. That face so sweet in my memory, those blue eyes that no disguise could possibly conceal, the sight of him familiar and yet new.

And then we sprinted toward each other, our bodies colliding at a halfway point and clinging. He crushed me to him, lifting me slightly off my feet.

I inhaled that cinnamon and leaves smell, and I felt those arms, those arms I'd believed I would never touch again, and he freed me after I'd seen no way out, and I realized how unbreakable hope could be, and he was my hope. And a thousand moments surged through me.

"You're hurt," he panted into my neck.

"You are, too," I said, pulling back and drinking him in.

Taehyung eyed my weapon and smiled weakly. "Not terrible."

If he wasn't injured, I would have laughed at his reference to our first hunting lesson. "I can take you."

He thumbed my cheek, leveling me with a tender expression. "You already have."

For an instant, we remained as we were, then we carried on.

Along with Jisoo, we ran back into the battle and hopped up on the platform. Side-by-side, we strung our arrows and fired on the guards, helping the people win back their kingdom, then watching in the end as every peasant left standing turned to us, and bowed.

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(a/n)
Im sorry this chapter was blahh, but it was essential to the story.
And now that the battle is over and king Seokjin is dead (RIP), the rest of the chapters are going to cute moments between Taehyung and luna and smut ofcourse :)
I'll update very soon xx.