The King's Possession ✔️

FORTY FIVE

Word Count: 2229

The panic is unbearable.

Crawling on my hands and knees, my body is so numb I hardly notice the painful jabs of sharp rocks against my limbs, my clothing dampening as I fall against Tai's body. His limbs are weighted as I shake him, grabbing a hold of his face with both my hands to try catch a glimpse of the life he had only moments ago.

The clatter of Marek's weapons close by make me flinch, as he approaches, grabbing at Tai with the same intensity as I do. The King's usually immaculate skin is marred with dirt and grime, a sight that doesn't belong to him.

"No...No, you idiot," Marek curses frantically.

Looking up at him, I see pure, unfiltered fear spill into his usually impassive eyes as he looks over Tai, seeing the limpness, the increasing coldness. I'm unsure of whether he distraught over Tai's apparent death, or the reality that his one chance to remove his powers is gone.

"No!" I can't tell if I'm screaming, the heat of my tears leaving a burning trail down my cheeks, tasting salty on my lips. "Tai, please no...don't tell me he's dead."

The pain is so raw, so real it hurts. There is no blood, no wounds, just a perfectly still, untouched body. He shouldn't be dead, not when I spoke to him only moments ago. My mind seems suspended outside my body, looking down upon this appalling sight. The way Tai's dark curls bend so perfectly from being damp, scattered across his forehead in a haphazard fashion makes my heart ache, my throat hurting as I try not to allow my tears to best me, although it's an unreasonable attempt.

"Akara..." Marek murmurs, voice broken and weak. He pulls himself to his feet, stalking around Tai's body to bend down next to me, resting a comforting hand on my shoulder. The warmth does nothing to quell the chills, they icy pain streaking beneath my skin.

Looking up at him, I can hardly decipher his features through the blur of tears in my eyes. "I was ready to die...It was my Tani, I should have died."

"We need to get out of here," he breathes, trying to grab my hand to pull me up, but I'm so weak and distraught I don't follow suit. "We need to alert his guards so they can come collect his body."

No. That's accepting he's gone.

Ignoring Marek's persistent hands, I run my own across Tai, feeling for something, anything like a sign of life. His skin is turning cold, as I pull the sleeves of his tunic up, trying to search for a pulse. Strangely, the silver band he had only recently fixed after his father destroyed it is broken again, cracked right through to the point it's barely clinging to his skin. I tug it off, wincing as it lightly burns the surface of my skin.

Both Marek and I exchange wary glances. Regardless, I check for a pulse, to find nothing. Leaning forward, I let the curls that have come loose from their ties to fall against his face as I align my ear with his mouth. The more I search, the harder my heart plummets in my chest, unable to comprehend what is happening.

Until I feel it. The slightest exhale, and then the pull of an inhale.

"No Marek. He's still breathing, I can feel it," I exclaim, pulling back. I'm not sure what I should do, where I should touch.

"He doesn't have power, right?" Marek questions again, even though he knows Tai does no possess magic. He kneels down beside me, pulling the same move as I did to the same results. He sits up, staring at me with wild eyes. "That it should have killed him."

"No, he's not dead. We need to help him."

Jumping up, we attempt to pull Tai's lip body into a sitting position, Marek bearing most of his weight. With Tai's tall, yet slender built, it's awkward trying to get him into a semblance of a standing position, draping his arms over our shoulders. Thankfully he isn't heavy, although his feet dragging along the ground, getting caught around rocks as he walk isn't helpful.