The King's Obsession ✔️

FIFTEEN

Word Count: 1503

~Akara

Marek and I promptly set up on the floor, with not much to sleep on other than the couch cushions.

But I'll take anything over climbing back into bed with Tai right now.

"How do you feel?" Marek asks, turning his head to face me. I stare up at the ceiling, trying not to think too much about Marek's proximity. We don't touch, but our sleeping area's are set up right next to each other's. Somehow, it makes me feel safer, even if I'm not sure what from.

"Sick, honestly," I murmur, clutching my stomach. It twists painfully, the anxiety of the entire situation having taken me in it's ruthless clutches. "I have to kill to survive."

"There will be another way, I'm certain of it," Marek mutters, although I hear the uncertainty in his voice. Neither of us have dealt with something like this before, and neither have many other people. It leaves us with nowhere to turn to for answers, and I'm terrified of that.

I roll onto my side, propping my head up with my arm. "Who else would be able to help us?"

"Some people indebt their life to that river, trying to figure out it's magical capabilities. I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone out there that knows what to do," he reassures me. I sigh through my nose, not convinced anybody other than Tai has had experience with this.

But I refuse to believe that he said...Because that would mean I'm going to become a Snow Demon.

"But Tai made the cure that has done this to me. It's unnatural," I exclaim. What he made may not be as violotile as what Vaia fed into me, which has killed many others from her own camp, but it's given me a life I don't want to live. Now I'm frightened of what I'm going to become.

Marek frowns, looking as if he's tempted to reach out to pull me closer to him, but hesitates. "Akara, don't worry yourself over this. Tai is likely just trying to worry you. We don't even know if it's real."

At this point, Tai has no reason to lie to me. But can I really trust him?

"What about the Snow Demon? What if that was enough for me to become a Tani?" I ask. It feels wrong to voice it, as if I'm willing it to happen, but I need another opinion, otherwise I'm going to think the worst.

"I doubt what Tai is saying is true. If you were turning into the Snow Demon, we would know by now," he says, anger simmering in his eyes at the mention of what Tai has been telling me.

I look down at my hands, imagining what a transformation into the Snow Demon looks like, or even what it would feel like. I feel as though I'm already losing my mind, trying to scrape together my lost memories, and the nightmares that plague me suggest that something abnormal is happening to my body.

I close my eyes, trying not to panic. "Should I tell him?"

Marek shakes his head, his marking glistening under the moonlight streaming through the far window. "No, in case he is lying."

"I don't think he would lie about this. It doesn't serve him," I admit. All I've witnessed Tai lie a lot now, but he is more prone to keeping things from me. Tai seems on the edge of reason after everything has happened, and he has been left with nothing. If he is going to start being honest, it would be now.

Marek's eyes are stern. "I don't trust him."

"I know, neither do I," I sigh, torn. "We are leaving here tomorrow, okay? I don't want to be around him anymore."

I don't know where we could go, or what we can scrape together for the rest of our lives, I just know I need to get away from Tai, to think, and to find answers for what's going on inside me.