A King's Seduction ✔️

FORTY NINE

Word Count: 1915

~Akara

The sound of wheels grating along a gravelled surface roused me from sleep.

Jolting up, my heart patters violently in my chest as I look around at my surroundings, memories struggling to come back to me. I'm in a carriage that sways back and forth, moving quickly, and sitting opposite me is Marek, with a solemn expression on his face.

My mind tumbles back into a dark memory. Almost a year ago, when Marek first kidnapped me from the Inn, and I woke in a carriage just like this one, as confused as I am now with a man in front of me who was basically a stranger.

"What's going on?" I gasp. "Where am I?"

"Somewhere between Jade Province and Emerald Province," Marek responds quietly.

My eyes widen as I rip the curtain open, looking out across unfamiliar lands. We are travelling through rolling hills, the grass so green it almost hurts to look at. This is Emerald Province, meaning we must be hours away from home.

"What?" My mind, still in a haze from unconsciousness, can hardly grasp the reality of what is going on right now. "No...No, you need to take me back."

Marek shakes his head slowly. "I'm not going to take you back."

He looks the exact same as the time he kidnapped me. He wears all black, a hood pulled over his head partially, hands that rest on his legs covered in gloves. His marking is gone, no sight of it to be seen, meaning he used his powers recently, although part of me already knows that, and is not willing to admit it just yet.

"They have Tai, I need to get back. You can't just drive me away like that." I exclaim. Tai could be dead by now, and I've left him hours behind us with no one else to get him out. Evolet is dead, apparently, and who knows what happened to Zavian.

"Vaia isn't going to kill Tai. He will be tormented by her, I imagine, but safe," Marek assures me, his voice gentle, although I hear the lingering sternness there.

He isn't taking me back. But that doesn't mean I'm going to just sit here and let him make that decision for me...

"Marek, I'm being serious. Take me back."

His eyes, deepened by the shadows of his hood, hold my gaze. "I'm being serious too. I'm not taking you back."

"This is kidnapping."

I'm near frantic at this point. Tai is left behind, Zavian is probably dead and so is Evolet...I could be sick.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Marek murmurs. I gape at him, the way a subtle smirk traces his lips.

"This isn't funny. Take me back."

"I have somewhere we can go where we will be safe. From there, we consider our next options," Marek states, looking out the window. I continue to stare at him, mouth hanging open as I scramble to make sense of what is happening. Marek has always been eerily calm and capable of handling his emotions with ease, but this is unreasonable.

And to think, I thought I would never see him again.

I blink. "Zavian..."

"I got him out, but he didn't want to join us, so I left him at the border," Marek explains with a casual shrug, as if it's nearly a bore to bring Zavian up. "He has a lot of connections, he will be fine."

"I don't want to be here...You should have left me with him." I'm hardly aware of what I'm saying anymore. Marek is meant to be the bad guy, the one working with Vaia. Even if he isn't anymore, him taking me away from Tai is likely another one of his calculated moves to make us all suffer.

"You wouldn't have stood a chance."

"I'm not staying with you. I mean, do you really think I trust you?" I growl. Has he forgotten what has transpired these past few months?

He leans back in the seat, stretching his long legs in front of him. "I figured it would be better than Vaia getting a hold of you and killing you."

"You could kill me."

"Have I not proven to you that I have no intention of hurting you?" He holds his hands out, tilting his head at me. I grit my teeth, considering punching that smug gleam from his eyes.  "I'm not exactly doing myself a favour here."

"The moment you betrayed me, was the moment I swore to never trust you again," I mutter.

It's been months and I've still hardly recovered from that. To go from loving him one moment, regardless of his secrets, or who he was, to being faced with the reality that he would rather Vaia over what was happening between us. Despite moving on with Tai, the large chasm dug into my chest hasn't been filled.

Marek's silent for a long moment, looking down at his feet. I watch him. His unkempt bronze hair tumbles down his forehead, covering his eyes from my view. He looks almost normal, without his mark, but to me, it's uncanny. I know him as the Summoner, the hunter...and now, he just looks tired.

"I never betrayed you," he breathes.

I frown. "Marek..."

"The day the rebel came into your family home and tried to kill you was the day I decided to turn over to their side," he admits, raising his gaze to look at me. A chill settles over me, reaching my bones.

I roll my eyes. "Of course you did."

"I had heard rumours earlier, whispers from other hunters, from those who worked for Tai. They all knew you were being targeted for being with him, but I couldn't convince you to leave." His eyes are frosty, his tone strained with guilt and sorrow.

"So you didn't even warn me?"

"How could I? You were tied to him, and if you knew, I feared it would put you in more danger. Instead, I foolishly went to Tai to beg him to allow me to get you away from it all, but he claimed he had it covered." He shakes his head. "Turns out that meant killing local Tani, which did nothing but anger locals, strengthening Vaia's influence over them."

I swallow. "This isn't Tai's fault."

"The rebel told me what they planned. They had people in places to kill you that I could never compete against. The moment you knew, the moment you were dead, so I had to be quiet."

The day I fought that intruder broke into my family home and tried to kill me is imprinted in my mind in striking detail. It was the day Tai woke up when I thought he was dead. I remember looking out the window on that day, the lousy weather a backdrop as I watched Marek intently speak to the rebel, engaged in what he had to say.

If only I know...

"You knew they wanted to kill me?" I ask tentatively, although I'm already aware of the answer.

He nods grimly. "I knew for sure then that it was too late for me to help you. The only way I could ensure your safety was to make a deal with Vaia. I would get you out of the way, in exchange for my loyalty to her. I told the rebel that day I would work with them, if they spared you."

"The message he is sending back to the rebel group is a firm one. I don't think he will be a threat to Akara anymore."

I hadn't even thought twice about the words he spoke to me that day. Somewhere deep within me knew Marek changed from that moment, keeping secrets and convening with Vaia and Jessa and private. Thinking back, it makes sense.

"You what?" I'm so still, in contrast to my thundering heart.

"Tai was meant to die, but it was worth it to save you," he insists, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his thighs. "I planned to have you sent far away from all of this, but Tai got in the way."

"Tai saved my life." I motion down to my stomach. Had he not used his powers that day, I would be dead.

"But he's now made you sick, hasn't he?"

I narrow my eyes. "I don't trust you, Marek."

I know he is right. That he did that, for me. When I look at him, I don't see a liar, a manipulator that is using this as a chance to betray me again. Instead, I see a broken man who has spent the last few months living a lie that has unravelled, and I'm at the end of it. But my mind can't process it. Not with Tai being tortured by Vaia so far away.

"I know," he sighs, chewing on his bottom lip. "But I'm not lying. Vaia was onto me for awhile, but she took too much pleasure telling me what to do to get rid of me. She liked knowing I was in love with you, then telling me that if I didn't behave, she would torture you in front of me."

"This is insane," I mutter, my head knocking back against the hard wood of the carriage as I rake my hands through my hair.

"It's been a hard few months." Defeat traces his words. "Watching you move on with Tai and all."

Suddenly, I can't look at his eyes, feeling close to being sick all across the carriage floor. The disturbing part is, I'm not sure I ever fell out of love with Marek, even though I love Tai. It's made me make irrational, foolish decisions that make me wish that I had followed my heart and dug more into Marek's betrayal.

"I thought you were a rebel. So what, you did all this to save me?"

"Everything I have done is to protect you. I even had your family moved to the safe place we are going, to protect them from Vaia," he explains. Relief drenches me. So what Evolet told me is true, he has been caring for them. All these months of worry all to realise they are away from this mess.

"They are okay?"

He smiles, but only slightly. "Perfectly healthy."

"I don't know what to say," my mind whirls, so much information trying to find space in my mind, to wipe away everything I had once known, only to replace it with this.

"You don't have to say anything, you don't even have to thank me," he assures me. "I just ask that you let me help you."

I close my eyes for a long moment, and when I open them, I know what I need to do. "Okay. But I want you to repeat all of that again."

🖤••🖤

For the COMPLETED version of this novel, feel free to head over to Good Novel (app available on App Store and Play Store) where it is finished!!

For more of my work, you can find my novel, HIS SIN on Wattpad, Radish and Good Novel (:

'One day, the Immortal Sin named Cian admitted himself into a mental care facility. Six years before Amolet started working there.

With hope to finally have independence, Amolet took the job without thinking much of it. That is until she meets the self-admitted patient, with unspeakable powers, shrouded in darkness and mystery.'

Thank you all for the support!!

~Midika 💜🐼