ELVEN | K.TH

3

His brows furrow. "It's cold."

"Don't do it next time."

But I wanted to thank you.

"Thank me," He says, "By telling me your name."

But you already know it.

I spell out my name.

"Rinei?"

He speaks it as if he'd spoken it a thousand times before. I didn't think my name had ever sounded so beautiful on anyone's tongue as his.

I nod.

What's yours?

"You can call me Tae." He murmurs. And then he notices my eyes shift to the longbow on his back.

"You wish to try?"

He'd let me? Seriously?

I nod furiously. I'd honestly do anything to spend more time with him.

"We don't have much time, then. Your mother will awake soon." He whispers, leading me towards the forest border. He unstraps the bow in one smooth motion, along with a feathered arrow.

"Be careful, love."

I take the bow. It's almost as tall as I am, and I nock the arrow into the thick string.

It all goes well, until I try to pull the string back.

A surprised gasp bursts out of me. I can barely pull it back for even an inch or two. The arrow falls uselessly to the forest floor.

How did he even manage to shoot with this?

"A recurve might be better for you." He says, and I see the ripple of his lean muscles as he nocks the fallen arrow to the string in one swift motion. It doesn't even take him a half-second to aim and shoot.

The arrow slams headfirst into the trunk of a tree, a hundred feet away.

Tae.

"Yes?"

Are all elves nice as you are?

He suddenly tenses. Then he shakes his head. "Elves are not kind, Rinei. And that includes me. Anyone that we find in the forest, we will kill."

But you didn't kill me.

"That's because—" He stops himself. And I can't help but make a disappointed expression when he gets to his feet.

"I need to leave. It's nearly sunrise."

It's okay. Mother doesn't usually wake up until the sun has completely risen.

I didn't want him to leave.

"Your mother isn't the problem. It's my father." He says with a bittersweet smile. Then he kisses the back of my hand.

"I will see you again."

"Stay safe."

________________________________

TAEHYUNG

The sun rises just as I slip in through the window of my room. I quickly change out of my clothes, dressing into a uniform of black and gold instead.

Jimin cracks an eye open from the corner of the room. His arms are crossed over his chest.

"Your Highness. It's not going to sit well with your father if he finds out about these outings."

I turn to my guard.

"You're going to tell him?"

He groans, sweeping his blonde hair over his ear. "Of course not. What choice do I even have? You'd just kill me if I did, and the King would kill you for going against his orders."

"It's not a win-win situation for anyone."

I give him a smile. Jimin had been my guard and friend for the past fifteen years. He'd grown up with me, trained with me. I knew he wouldn't betray me for his own life.

But he did hate outsiders, which was why I never told him that all these times I went out was to see Rinei.

Rinei.

I hang my bow on the wall. My mind is full with the thought of her— her beauty, her voice of silence. I'd been telling her that we'd never met before, but I could tell that she didn't believe me.

Which meant that the binds I'd put on her memory were slowly breaking.

How would she react if she found out that I'd been the one to teach her the elven sign language? If she found out that I'd done this to her memory.

If she found out that it was because of me that she would never speak again.

Guilt slashes through my chest.

She would hate me.

"Hey." Jimin calls when I sway. He's by my side in an instant, his grip tight on my arm. "Taehyung. You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"I told you that you still need to sleep." He says, blue eyes narrow. "These night trips, I swear. Where are you even going off to? Is it someplace dangerous I don't know about?"

I shake my head.

"It's nothing like that."

Then the Palace bell signals the break of morning. And Jimin makes a protesting noise, loosening his hand from my arm.

"I hate these morning sessions. And I hate your brother, Tae."

My teeth grind together. My brother, the Elven Crown Prince and the one who was next in line for my father's throne. I could honestly care less about the lineage, but he'd always been so angry about how I outmatched him in every subject.

And father just made it worse by always floating the idea how I could potentially overtake my own brother as the next heir.

But I didn't want to be heir. I didn't want the throne.

I just wanted Rinei.

A smile tints my lips.

How would father react, if he ever found out that I'd been secretly visiting the girl he'd forbidden me from for the past seven years? How would he react if he knew that I still loved her, and that he'd failed in breaking it out of me that day?

My smile deepens.

He would go out of his mind with the fury.