A King's Seduction ✔️

THIRTY SIX

Word Count: 1818

~Akara

Silence consumes the room, the attention in the room focused on the glowing hot steel bar in Tai's hand.

Slowly, I drag my gaze to Marek, whose expression is flat, but there is no fear to be seen in his demeanor. He watches Tai keenly, aware of the King's quivering arm, the tight grasp on the rod, and how he stares me down, his intention to inflict world-ending pain on me with that single item.

"Do it. I dare you," Marek puurs.

Tai tilts his head slightly, hesitating. I stare down the tip of that metal bar, terrified. Tai is just doing this to break Marek, to prove a point...But why do I have to be on this end of this? I take an uneasy step backward, pleading with my eyes for Tai to realise how absurd this is, to realise that nothing is worth this.

Tai swallows, motioning at me with his other hand. "Come here."

"No, you're not going to permanently scar my skin to make a point," I breathe quietly, as if negotiating with a true maniac.

I'm aware that I could be ruining Tai's entire plan, but I'm not so sure he even has one. Marek is just standing behind the cell bars, watching us with growing interest. He has to believe Tai's performance, because I'm starting to believe that Tai is willing to hurt me, to scar my body to get information out of Tai.

Tai shrugs, callous and unbothered. "You can be healed."

My heart jumps into my throat, pulse throbbing against my skin. He doesn't mean that, does he? Him and I are both aware that he can heal me, but if he does, there is a possibility that the issue will arise again in a few months. Yet by him saying that he can heal me, it is him considering doing this, that the consequence can't be too high, so it's worth the risk. Suddenly I want to throw up.

I back up some more, until the rough concrete wall behind me grates against my fingers. "Tai, please don't."

He approaches me, one cool, calm step at a time. His rings glitter on his fingers, signifying who he is, a King, a powerful leader who would do anything for his Province. His back is straight, muscles tense as he holds the steel bar in front of him, cold eyes gliding over me, as if he is looking for any space on my skin to burn me.

"Alright Tai, give it up," Marek chokes from within the cell. "I'll talk."

Tai pauses in his step, and an overwhelming amount of relief crushes down upon me, nearly having me sinking to the floor. I'm not sure what made Marek decide to end it. Did he truly think Tai was going to hurt me, and he couldn't bear to watch it? Or did he see it for the lie that it likely is, and thought to preserve Tai and I's relationship - that I doubt.

Or maybe he just didn't want to see the fear that encapsulated me. That everyone in this room was witnessing.

Tai drops the steel bar onto the ground, the sound clattering through me, the last thing I can handle, as he looks into Marek's cell. "Figures. You really are pathetic."

I can no longer hold back the urge to throw up. Bending at the waist, I'm sick all over the ground at my feet, at the foot of the cell. To my horror, it's blood, scarlet red and spreading across the dark grey of the floor. I feel it hot against my lips, dribbling down my chin and into my cupped hands.

Tai jumps back as blood splatters at his feet and up his pants. "Fuck."

"What the hell have you done to her?" Marek growls, stepping forward to grip the bars, looking down at me with a horrified expression, at the blood I've just thrown up all over the floor.