⊰ chapter three ⊱

It's over. Your reign has ended. You failed yourself.

You have lost.

Your love was a lie.

Lost in the mist. Dara could feel herself kicking her covers until she realized it wasn't her regular northern sewed royal white covers but the cotton Western blankets. Dara's eyes bulged open before her body ran into Jasmine scented arms, her legs finally kicking the covers off the bed before she found herself sweating from head to toe. Her breaths were heavy when she pulled back and looked at who she ran into, sitting upright with hands knotted with the bedsheets.

Adona was holding Dara, her hands shaking as she looked back at Dara's terrified eyes. Dara breathed loudly, as if her voice was lost. Was she screaming? She couldn't tell. Her voice was no more. It was gone. Her hair was all over her face. And all she knew was she was in the chambers. Not having her blood boiled and her soul being sucked at the States of West's. The scene was visible behind her head. She had every moment of her torture captured, every moment of the blood that was beneath her thighs. Since she was not the one shedding the blood, Dara might have felt a bit better about it. But she remembered. She remembered all of it. The feeling of being helpless and full of guilt yet unjustified because she knew she hadn't done wrong.

The chamber she was in was full of audience. Jungkook's cousins at the door, trying to peek into the situation with big eyes after hearing Dara's screeches, Wineri standing there at the corner of the king sized bed with her mouth palmed. Skovier was holding Theodore in his arms—it seemed like Adona must have ran out of her given chambers with Theodore upon hearing Dara's demise. And Jungkook.

He stood there. Like an ice cube. His hands into fists. And his eyes trying to hide the concern as he looked away when Dara's eyes met with his. Nevertheless, he couldn't keep them away—he knew he couldn't—he looked back at Dara, mouth parting, "Are you okay—,"

Dara closed her eyes and tears fell. She was not okay. She will never be okay after this.

"I assumed." Jungkook's lashes lowered before he found Adona's disappointed eyes glare him down as she held onto Dara's shivering shoulders, the red hair was so pale. Her face was pale too. It did not feel like herself anymore. Jungkook gulped hard at Adona's gaze, "I have broken an immensely important rule in my home. The last thing I want to do now is hurt your family more, Adona—,"

"Hurt my family?" Adona's purple eyes shimmered, "My family? Are you saying you do not consider us your family anymore? Your hometown has shamed a Queen, put her to her knees and abused her in a Court full of ministers and men, tried to seize her powers and injured her...would you not at least feel sympathy for her?"

Jungkook's lips pursed. His fists tightened. The urge to run his fist against unbreakable things was real. He had no control of his anger but he liked it eating him up alone.

"You are standing there," Adona said, her voice lowered, "You are standing there like a fool after you have betrayed Dara, lied to her and made her dream of the things she was never born for. And you stand there without a mouth to apologize—,"

"I will not apologize for the things that I have not sinned," Jungkook looked past Adona and at Dara, "This woman was and is my father's murderer's ward either way. And I am an heir with the right to plan whatever trap I have in mind to sit on my throne, and if Koveski has a problem with that, she shall stand with my enemies—,"

"Then why did you save her?" Adona whispered, "Why did you slaughter the man who was going to seize her power? I am sure her powers will get you nowhere, you do not want the curve Jungkook. All you want is to fulfill your father's dreams and sit on that damn blood throne. You do not want Dara's powers invading your journey then why did you save her?"

The room fell silent.

Winery looked at her son. His jaws clenched. His body is stiff. As if he had been trapped. His mouth was so tight, a word was impossible to stretch out of the tip of his tongue. Jungkook stood there rigid, staring at Dara.

But he did, "A king never says."

"Then throw us out."

"I won't." Jungkook whispered, "Forgive me, Adona. But you, and I, deserve better. Our parents died for nothing. Dara Koveski has never been one of us. May she be someone from the same realm as you, but she was never royalty, she was never—,"

"That is enough," Adona said, voice cracking, "You have proved yourself. You let us leave any moment—,"

"You can leave if you wish to," Jungkook's eyes fell upon Dara, cold but real; Dara realized how his gaze was so real—this was Jeon Jungkook. The true Jeon Jungkook, the heir to the blood throne and her spouse, said, "But I will keep the red hair here. She is too weak to be my opponent anyway."

Dara looked at her dry palms. Her fingertips pale. She was weak.

She felt nothing.

"Let me speak to her." Jungkook sighed—all he wanted was to not speak to Dara but it was impossible not to.

"I won't allow it." Adona replied bluntly, eyes flooding tears but she did not let them fall, "Stay away from us—,"

"I don't make the rules. She wears my ring. I have my rights." Jungkook said dryly. Wineri watched the first son step towards the redhead sitting silently on the bed with brows arched, cheeks painted red with shame and anger. Adona shared a brief stare with Jungkook before pushing past him. Skovier glanced at Dara's given up posture before following Adona out with Theodore in his arms. Winery exited the room when Jungkook waited in silence.

As if Dara scooted away when Jungkook bent his knee to sit across her, the blankets folding to her side as their knees meet. Dara felt an odd shiver run down her spine. Her dead forest green eyes looked up at Jungkook with an empty soul. His honey brown eyes holding a lot of pride when his lips parted to speak, "Do you really call it betrayal?"

"I say it is treason," Dara replied, her throat throbbing, "But don't worry. It did not break me."

"It shouldnt." Jungkook nodded, his snow kissed eye lids blinked before he neared himself to close the little gap between them, his hands gripping on the blanket sheets to peak into Dara's hesitant eyes, "I was sixteen. Sixteen when Arver pushed your responsibility to my head and threatened my family to death. Do you think a boy, who knows what he is and can be and deserves, would like to let another take his place?"

Dara stared.

She wished she was dreaming.

"No," Jungkook whispered, "I was broken to see you claim my throne knowing you did not deserve it, Koveski. You were never born for it. And I was so sure to kill you and Arver with my own hands. I worked all my life to be your soldier so I could pull your little games down my feet and take my position."

"But then I became obsessed," Jungkook spat, his ears red as his striking eyes dug down graves into Dara's forest eyes, "I became obsessed with the way you reigned, the way you were outrunning every other reigns in history, how you glowed, your wretched games and your way with words—i was so obsessed that I was strayed away from my goal—do you know what could have cost me? It was costing me my throne."

Jungkook grumbled into the silent air, his voice suppressed but so heavy on Dara's shoulders as she glared at him with her wide eyes, lips trembling. Jungkook was mad, "And now, you have done enough damage—killed all my time, made more problems than solutions. You cannot just escape this, Koveski. You cannot leave."

Dara swallowed hard.

"You must pay," Jungkook looked as if he had a hard time saying the words, "You must watch me take the throne. The way your Papa killed my father ... .the heir...the way killed his own brothers for the throne and took you for an excuse to save his name."

"It was never my fault—,"

"You have ruined me in so many ways that you cannot even imply, Dara Koveski," Jungkook's voice was an illusion to her ears, dark and deep, "Every day that you ruled and smiled it away, it skinned me alive. And if I ever feel fragile, you know you are responsible for it."

And it hurt. It hurt to the knees. To the cores.

He was not playing around. There it was, the mad truth in his brown eyes. He was angry. He had always been angry about it. About her reign, throne, crown.

"You have broken me in unexpected ways, so do not expect yourself to leave me so helpless without fixing what you have damaged." Jungkook touched Dara's red hair, wrapping the strands around his fingers before pulling them to his mouth. His lips kissed her hair, "Your hair might be the last thing that I do not despise about yourself."

When Jungkook's finger brushed Dara's jaw as he released the thick strand of hair from his fingers, she shuddered. Before moving away from the redhead and rising from the bed, Jeon Jungkook paused precisely one minute to look into the eyes that he had deceived, leaving Dara inconsolable within. After turning away and closing his eyes, Jungkook sighed inaudibly. He pursed his lips and then turned to gaze at Dara before his left shoulder.

The woman was shattered. He knew. He wasn't fond of it. But he made his best face to seem like he was, "The marriage was fun while it lasted."

Dara looked up, eyes an ocean.

"But the northern laws for marriage don't apply here," Jungkook looked down at his hand, fingers empty, "Our marriage has been called off."

And he did not appear very pleased about it; as he had stated he would when they had just been married.

If fragile was a person, it would be both of them—then, and there. Right there.

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short chapter (:

hope u enjoyed it tho