ELVEN | K.TH

43

RINEI

I did not expect this at all.

Everything I'd actually expected to go wrong had gone really well. The elven people had accepted me as their Queen, even though I was human. And everyone else in the Palace didn't seem to hate me either.

But I had not expected Taehyung to be this busy.

I'd been roaming the Palace for the entire day. He'd spent the night with me and was gone before I even woke up this morning. During lunch I'd shared a quick kiss with him before he had to leave for some meeting.

Jimin had assured me this would get better with time, but had sounded a little doubtful.

I plop down on the top of the staircase with a deep sigh.

It was just the first day, and I already couldn't wait for the day that I could spend as much time as I wanted with Taehyung in the Forest cottage.

Then someone comes to sit next to me.

My brother.

"Jungkook!"

"Come with me." He whispers, eyes glittering excitedly. "I found a secret place!"

"Really?" I hurry up to my feet. "What about Arlen? Weren't you with her this morning?"

"She went to do something." He says, with a roll of his eyes. "I think it's work. She said she'd be back soon, but she's been gone for two hours now."

My voice is bright.

"Let's go then!"

And I feel like we've been returned to when we were kids, always exploring the Western Forest for secret hiding spots. Of course our parents had soon forbidden us to go in there, but we'd spent so much time together.

"Right here." Jungkook murmurs as he runs his hand along the brick wall. "Wait— it was somewhere here. I literally..."

His fingers press into a loose brick. And I gape as the entire wall overturns, revealing a dark twist of staircases leading downwards.

It looks mad scary.

"U-Uh..."

Jungkook swallows. But then he rummages through his pockets, and shows me a box of matches.

I wince.

"Jungkook, you're making this so much more scarier now. Matches? Really?"

He sticks out his tongue.

"You're scared, Rinei? I'm not. And besides, I've been sitting around for hours. I'm bored out of my mind."

I snatch a matchstick from the box with a glare.

"Fine."

It's cold. And dark. The air itself feels wet as we slowly move down the spiral staircase, made completely out of stone. The walls are gray and dull, covered with cobwebs.

And we're holding but two flickering matches in our hands.

This staircase goes down forever.

I hold on tight to Jungkook's arm.

"M-Maybe we should go back?"

"When we've come down this far?" He says, sounding a little bit on edge too. "Aren't you curious to see what's down there?"

"We're going to get ourselves killed. And if we don't, Arlen and Tae are both going to do that themselves."

"They won't know. Trust."