The King's Possession ✔️

TWENTY THREE

Now, after wandering around the edge of the forest for awhile, putting off my return, I've decided it's time to go back and face Tai. He has a lot to explain.

Suddenly someone grabs my shoulder, the grip firm enough to startle me.

Whirling around, I see dark hair, blue eyes and a silvery marking, and a very confused expression.

"Marek!" I startle, my hand falling to my chest as my heart races wildly beneath. "You could have killed me."

He looks like he could be apart of the woods himself. He wears a dark brown leather coat, beaded with droplets from previous rainfall. A black cloth bandana that must have been covering his nose and mouth, has been pulled down to his neck, his breath fogging before him. And more frightening, is the bow he handles and the wood shafted arrows stuffed into a quiver on his back.

His gaze sweeps over me with careful precision, examining me with unrestrained confusion. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was going for a walk," I say breathlessly. We are both confused to see each other out here, beyond the King's initial walls. I don't want to tell him that I've been preaching, not wanting to hear the delusional lecture about my Tani, the Beast, being a children killing creature.

"If you're caught out here..." he warns, not having to finish his sentence as he steps forward, grabbing my forearm. Despite the cool grasp of his wind-chilled fingertips, the touch feels burning hot, my skin alighting in quivers with the sensation.

He doesn't seem notice my short gasp at his touch, his brows furrowed beneath his fringe of hair. He must have been in the rain, as his once bronze hair has turned dark, the strands plastered against his forehead, hiding part of his marking. I wouldn't have thought me leaving me would be so troubling to him.

"There are no guards in this town, I'll be fine," I remind him, motioning around me, letting his grip slip from me. Having me lost in thought, I didn't realise I had wandered so deep into the forest. A choking mist seems to have followed me, noosed around trees and floating down depressions in the land.

"How did you get past the first perimeter?" he questions.

"I could ask you the same thing," I pry. Marek's eyes narrow slightly, sooty, thick eyelashes layered with rain droplets.

"I'm working," he murmurs deeply, motioning over himself. His attire and weapon would be enough to suggest that, but it's confirmed by the slight sheen of blood on the left side of his coat. I swallow uncomfortably at the thought of the fresh kill that is being sent back to the manor now at the hand of Marek.

"I'm...going for a walk. Clearing my head," I tell him, inhaling the crisp, fragrant air as if to prove it to him.

When he doesn't respond for a moment, I begin walking away, weaving through the trees in what I hope is the direction where I will find the cart to return back to the manor. Marek falls into step beside me, his hair a mosaic of colour under the dappled light that struggles it's way through the coven of leaves above us.

"You're getting married." Both his tone and expression are unreadable, however there is an unmissable darkness lingering there, glazing over his eyes to leave them with a glacial chill.

I eye him uncomfortably. "Allegedly."

Marek appears to be dealing with an entirely different emotional turmoil to me. My feelings are still rattled, struggling to find a place within me to finally slot into and begin to make sense. I know I'm frightened, confused, angry. I know I'm going to demand answers at the soonest point, and not relent until I'm allowed out of this engagement.