The King's Possession ✔️

TWENTY TWO

Word Count: 2911

Marek and I sit under a glistening beam of moonlight, enjoying the cool grasp of the night.

Meeting out here, at the back of this manor, has been keeping me sane, and honestly, I believe Marek shares the sentiment. We come out here to practice my skills, to continue to develop my ability to fight, to defend myself. But tonight, we just sit, eating pastries I wrapped in a cloth and stole from the kitchen.

"I don't know whether it was brave or stupid for you do to that," I murmur, wiping crumbs from my lower lip.

"Maybe both," Marek admits, accompanying his remark with a shrug. "But I knew he wouldn't retaliate. Not when he wants to win your affection so desperately."

I can't help but roll my eyes, hearing the narrative Marek has put together, but not truly believing it. Tai has been kind to me, yes, perhaps too kind. But I feel as though he is doing this to keep me from ruining the façade, from exposing him to his people for what he has done. Surely they would be more disgusted by him holding me against my will in his own home than throwing me into a prison.

Ignoring his blatant nudge for me to talk about Tai, I set my food down and stand up. "When you're out of here, are you going to go back to hunting my Tani?"

"Now I have learnt what I have about it, I don't think I can avoid it," he admits, getting to his feet to join me.

He eyes the knife in my hand, not joining me in bringing out his own. We have been working with knives because they are easy to conceal, and there are plenty in the manor to use in short notice. Marek is frightfully adept with it, just the sight of him with one spiralling me back to a few nights ago, at dinner with the Nobles.

"My people will be sad," I exclaim.

"I'm not doing this because I want to hurt anyone. Especially not you," he comments, motioning for me to get into a fighting stance. I do so begrudgingly, even if I'm excited to get a few jabs in.

At this point I'm not angry at Marek for wanting to kill my Tani. Part of the reason is likely attributed to the fact that I'm becoming increasingly more pessimistic about us escaping. Everyday we learn about more adversities we would have to overcome to get past the exterior border. Apparently it's swarmed with armed guards, all the way around.

"Well, I would like you to know that you are," I comment sourly.

The knife nearly slips from my fingers, which I quickly correct. Marek watches me, hardly flinching at the mistake. Thankfully he doesn't act as though I'm completely useless, treating me as though a little more practice will make me as efficient  as he is with a knife.

"Careful with that, I don't want you to go hurting yourself," he murmurs, his wonderfully blue eyes supplying me with a generous amount of heart flutters and stomach flips. Thankfully that strange tension from the other night has since faded, even if my mind does often times betray me. "What if I told you, I've done a lot of research, and I don't think your Tani is as perfect as you think."

I make a lunge toward him, brandishing the knife in a manoeuvre he taught me for whenever I'm in a position to make the first attack.

I would hate to think of the position I would have to be in to use a knife.

He doesn't even flinch, his defense so gentle and unbothered it makes me question whether I will ever stand a chance against him. Stumbling away I right myself, refusing to let my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Those rumours aren't true," I hiss.

"Feeding from children in local villages. Bleeding them, leaving them in holes, trees...right at the edge of villages," he mentions, raising a skeptical brow. I flinch at the harshness of his words, his visceral tone. The Beast has always taken the blame for those incidents, as the amount of lost children growing in local villages. Mother always soothed me at night, reminding me that the Beast protects us, and as long as we put our complete faith in him, nothing bad could fall upon us.