Star Blood |✔|

25| VISION

I don't know if it's pain or relief I hear from Jonaus's tone.

"Hurt him?"

"Your light. Your hands when you touched him- it was a delayed effect. He started to throw up your blood. He had consumed too much. You have too much power within your blood. Small dosages. Small amounts. Not like this though. He should not have done it like this."

I slowly reach for my neck and close my eyes at the feel of two hole wounds upon it.

I pull my hand back and flinch.

Black liquid dripped down and between my fingers. .

The sight has me crying out in a small whimper.

"Where is he?"

There is a long silence. I raise my head, wondering if Jonaus had left.

But he had been waiting. Waiting because he knew the answer would eventually come to me.

I hear a soft moan from the other room. A snarl. A scream.

It comes all at once.

Which girl. Which girl.

"Yes! Yes please. Oh. Oh. Yes. Yes."

Saint.

My answer is revealed as I listen to the voice.

Apparently the King had found a new favorite.

I did not care. So long as his attention was away from me.

"He is healing," Jonaus says. If that's what he called healing.

But I realize then, that he really was.

Drinking fresh blood and taking it in. Using it to heal himself.

Now he knew.

Now he knew that he could not have me all at once.

Small amounts.

Jonaus's words ring back to me.

"Jonaus. Jonaus you saw her."

I hear a gasp from outside the door.

"I...I did."

"She gave me a vision Jonaus."

"A vision."

A sense of longing fills his voice.

I ignore it though and slowly crawl closer to the door.

"Is there a collection of books within this Palace?"

"There is."

"I need a book. Please Jonaus."

"What book?"

I hesitate before I whisper, "The Sweven."

There is a bang upon the door. Jonaus jolting against it in surprise. I nervously look at the other door.

The moans could still be heard.

Good. Let Saint occupy his mind.

"I can't get that," Jonaus hisses from the other side.

I crawl closer, "Jonaus."

His name is hard and fierce upon my lips.

"You think a book of the Light would be within these walls?"

He sounds mad. Livid. But he had not run away yet. And there was no one else I could ask.

"Please Jonaus."

"I can't. I can't. What you want is impossible. That book would not be within-"

"Then go outside," I hiss.

There is a pause. "I...he will act against me- take over me even more...if he knows...."

The raw fear in Jonaus's words have me pushing up, leaning against the door.

"No, he won't."

Jonaus had done so much already, in defiance to him. But the King never acted out. Never hurt him. His words flash back to me.

He was my best friend.

I don't know what man Jonaus spoke of when he told me those words. Best friend. Maybe once upon a time when the darkness had not consumed his mind. If there ever was such a time.

But I could feel the truth within his words.

He kept Jonaus close to him.

Trusted only Jonaus to receive me from my room.

Jonaus received no punishment that I knew of, for sitting in front of my room and talking to me.

Not even when he blessed me with his Moon Stone.

Only Jonaus.

"You mean too much to him. It will be me he kills. This is my life in his hands. Not yours."

My words offer him little comfort. I can hear shallow breathing on the other side. Small pants of fear. 

"I couldn't stop him..."

I know what he is referring to.

"You can."

The boldness of the words have me staring intently at the crack under the door. Watching his shadow.

"Arishia....You don't know...the power that comes with it. And you're asking me to aid you in...in taking it away."

My whole body snaps in anger.

"Are you serious?"

His silence tells me so.

"You saw her Jonaus! You saw her- and I saw your tears. I know you felt something."

I wait for him to respond.

Nothing.

"Jonaus?"

Still nothing.

I look under the crack of the door and realize there is no shadow.

He was gone.