The King's Possession ✔️

FORTY SIX

Word Count: 1982

Rain lashes violently outside, wind carrying it sideways, accompanied by a bitter chill.

Marek and I sit out on the front porch of my family home, the moment strangely nostalgic, reminding me of when him and I would sit in Tai's outdoor area. We managed to escape my fathers incessant questioning on Marek and where he came from, while mother dwells in her room, avoiding us both at all costs.

She isn't taking this well, having a King near dead in her home...and having a daughter who betrayed her under her roof.

I still haven't slept, the morning having shifted into afternoon, bringing with it a brutal storm. Thankfully I was able to shower, still flinching each time I step under the spray, despite it having been weeks since the poison incident.

Despite his protests, Marek was patched up by the healer, forcing him to sit down while she fussed over his shallow wounds. He had one nasty gash on his side from where the Beasts claw struck him, but thankfully she has managed it with some stitching and gauze.

The rain is violent, the thunder accompanying it livid.

"What if he dies?" I whisper, staring blankly out into the village.

My families home is tucked at the edge of the village, right near the forest. It faces the backs of other homes, all made from thick wood logs, the roads travelling between them either made from worn dirt over overused cobblestone.

I can feel Marek looking at me, the intensity of his blue gaze making me shiver, my numb fingers wrapping my coat around me tighter. "He won't."

"He should be dead. Even you can admit that," I remind him uneasily.

If the legends are true - which we had every reason to believe they were - those who kill the Beast, and are human, will die along with it. It's the only reason such a large, vicious creature managed to stay alive for centuries. We even checked to ensure it was dead before we left.

"He should be, but he isn't," Marek says firmly. "If the initial release of power didn't kill him, this won't either."

The healer arrived early this morning, and hasn't left Tai's side since. She knows the importance of her healing to maintain his health until the storm eases and his own personnel arrives. She doesn't have answers, though, and when I tell her not to question what happened to him, she doesn't.

The moment this village finds out what I did, they will want me dead.

"My life is a mess," I exclaim, the rasp of my voice joining the rain and it's loud patter against the roof above us. "You should escape now, while he's not here to restrain you."

"I could have escaped the moment we stepped out of his territory, Akara," Marek murmurs grimly. "I have no intentions of leaving."

I look at him for a long, silent moment. He is right about being able to leave, had he wished. He had the weapons, the skills and the opportunity to kill Tai without any issue, yet he chose not to. Part of me wants to believe he truly mourned for Tai's life when he went down with the Beast, but the other knows better...He mourned for the inability to remove his powers.

"Really? Why not?"

Marek's gaze is uncompromising, icy eyes contrasting against the damp hair of his that reaches his lashes, the bronze colour having turned dark. "As long as you're in that manor with him, I will be to. I care about you, and I'm not about to leave you alone in that place."

My heart flutters. Bracing my hands back behind me, I examine the steely grey clouds, finding it strange how I haven't missed this village as much as I thought I may have.