A King's Seduction ✔️

THIRTY TWO

Word Count: 1758

The moment the morning sun hits my skin, I feel immediately better.

Tai and I walk hand in hand through the formal lawn, and into the forest. The silence between us is comfortable, even if I can sense that Tai has a lot to say to me. We continue our walk through an unfamiliar part of the woods, before we emerge from the thickness of the trees and into a field, a stream running right through the centre of it. I nearly have to pause to look around, surprised a place like this exists out here, in the Jade Province.

"You know all the most beautiful places around here," I whisper, the suns gentle rays warming my cheeks, the slight breeze that weaves through the trees and into the clearing touched with a sweet scent from the wildflowers that scatter around the bank of the stream.

"I did grow up here, remember." He sounds nostalgic, a glazed look in his emerald eyes as he casts his gaze over the space. "My brother and I used to take pretty girls here to try woo them. It never worked."

"What was your brother's name?" I ask, realising I don't know much about his family beyond Kailor. The last thing I want is for that poisonous man to stain my view of Tai's loved ones.

Tai holds my hand as we stalk through the grass toward the stream. "Tarik."

"Taius and Tarik, huh?" I note with an amused smile. It's not the first hint that they were compared since the beginning of their lives. There's a reason why Kailor won't allow Tai to go through his life without a constant reminder that he is the lesser child in Kailor's eyes. "What was he like?"

"Kind, gentle and calm. We never fought, even if I provoked him often," he remembers. "He always saw when I let my anger get the best of me, knowing how best to calm me down."

I've never seen Tai let his anger get the best of him, but even him mentioning that has a sense of anxiety stirring within me. Regardless, I concentrate on the stream that we now stand before, the heat of the sun on my back. Tai stoops down, plucking a flower from the side of the stream, handing it to me. Smiling up at him, I admire the way the delicate violet petals bend in the soft breeze, the sweet scent that comes from it tingling at my senses.

"And he got sick?" I ask softly. I'm trying to remember the vague details that he has mentioned to me in the past, but his brother, or even his mother haven't been something he is willing to speak up about willingly. I've tried not to pry, knowing things like that are sensitive.

"Yes. It was all very sudden." He looks tense, jaw clenching and unclenching as he looks vacantly our across the field.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to push," I stutter, not wanting to push him too far and make him uncomfortable. "I'm sure he would be proud of how you're dealing with this Vaia situation."

Tai sighs, sitting down amongst the grass. I join him, letting my feet hang down so they are almost within the water.

"I can confidently say my brother would not be proud of me if he were standing before me today to say it," he admits, sounding dejected, his eyes suggesting his mind is in a distant place. Just hearing that breaks my heart. I've only recently felt that, knowing my mother can't stand me because I decided I no longer wanted to participate in our faith. Yet I can't imagine losing my mother and knowing she felt that about me, even in death.

I open my mouth to console him, but the words are hard to find. "You don't-"

"You look radiant today, Akara," he cuts me off, suddenly snapping himself out of whatever solemn place he delved into.

He now looks at me with contentment, like he means what he is saying, and not that he is trying to distract me. Even if I want to keep pushing him to tell me more about his family, to not run from whatever demons he is hiding, I stop myself. He will tell me eventually, when he feels like it. Right now, I want to enjoy my time in the sun, with a man I care so much about.