ELVEN | K.TH

18

JUNGKOOK

Please.

The cool wind brushes against my cheeks.

Come to me.

Then there's an uneven shift in the wind, which had been blowing so steadily up until now. My eyes fly open the moment two cold fingertips grip my chin.

Arlen.

"Jungkook, I don't like this look in your eyes."

"H-Hi," I stutter, without meaning to. She gives me a slight nod, fingers gliding across my jaw before pulling away. Every movement she makes is grace itself.

She already knows what I want. I can see it in her.

"I thought I already told you no."

"My sister. I don't know how to explain this," I start, fidgeting with my hands. "But she had dreams. Dreams where she's somehow connected herself to him. She can talk to him— see where he is, through his eyes."

"What?"

"I know." I reply, at her stunned look. "It shouldn't be this way. But it is, and she's going to make some really bad decisions in just a few days because she wants to save him."

"And you are positive it isn't hallucination?"

I nod.

"She's going to leave. Get herself killed, by the elves." Then I look at her pleadingly, and she stares back at me with slanted eyes.

"Jungkook. My answer will have to stay a no."

"Because what will you do?"

She takes a seat across from me, on the porch. Her blonde hair is swept over her shoulders, tucked over her silver-tipped ears.

"I lead your sister to the City. And what will she be able to do? Her ears aren't tipped— and neither does she carry the aura of an Elven."

"that she does make it to the Palace. There are hundreds of guards in a single floor alone. Each one of them trained, and every guard will be able to kill your sister before she can even take her last breath."

Her logic silences me.

"And what of your parents?"

Her glacier eyes slide over to the door behind me, towards where Mother and Father are asleep.

"Can you fathom the pain of a parent, when they wake to find that they have lost both of their precious children?"

My hands turn cold.

I'd been thinking too much with my heart. Seeing Rinei, so distraught and desperate for the first time, had blinded my senses.

Her touch is tender as she traces the line of my face.

"I hope you understand me when I say this."

"I do," I whisper. My head slowly falls forward.

"I do."

But I had less than a few days until my promise with Rinei would end. And I could tell, that she loved the Elven Prince. She loved him more than herself, even if she might not have completely realized that yet.

She would leave without a blink of her eye.

"Thank you, angel."