⊰ chapter ten ⊱

Jungkook buttoned up his coat, fixed his hair and grabbed his sword. He slid it across the waist band and slid his feet into the boots at the door step when he was finally down the stairs. The family had breakfast early this morning, he again, found Adona sipping on her tea with Theodore in her arms. Jungkook wanted to ignore her presence and walk out but Adona stopped him with her soothing, morning voice, "Escaping as usual or visiting the borders to find her traces?"

The man stopped at the door, his hand on the door handle.

Wineri and Sam stopped their conversation in the kitchen upon Adona's rare raise in voice. It had been two days and Adona had been at her best behavior, it felt as if she almost did not live with them. She would take care of Theodore and herself in her given chambers and not complain. Wineri looked at her son, the man turning to face Adona slowly.

Adona raised one of her brows, "I must wonder why you go to the borders every five to six hours. Are you planning to kill her the moment she enters the capital of West?"

"Cousin," Jungkook whispered, "Dont make me raise my voice. We are looking forward to a special day. If you wish to witness the Winter Caucus to plan the execution of war at North with me, you may come."

Adona snickered, "What war?"

Jungkook swallowed hard.

"Sam," Adona stood up. Sam walked out to grab Theodore from her arms as Adona let the baby in her arms quietly before walking to Jungkook, "Look at you, brother. Look at your eyes. Do you think an ounce of your blood is ready for any war when you yourself are in the middle of a war with nobody but yourself? Jeon Jungkook, you are nothing without Deborah Koveski. The woman you despise is the woman behind your victory if you ever go on any war."

"Are you telling me I am not worthy of ruling?" Jungkook's jaws clenched as he stared at the floor.

Adona felt her goosebumps when she gulped, "Yes."

"Then I am not worthy of love either," Jungkook's lips twitched at once upon hearing the words, "Do not expect love from a man who you cannot trust your blood with. So shouldn't Dara."

"You will upset yourself and Dara herself—," Wineri was cut from entering the conversation.

"She left me," Jungkook glared at Wineri, "She left me and she took my hopes with her. I do not care anymore. She comes to no use of me here, anyway—,"

"You knew that since the time she confessed that day, that she was infertile and powerless," Adona raised her voice louder, "Then why do you go to the borders every now and then? Why do you expect her to come back?"

Jungkook's fists clenched.

The blonde princess walked closer, her eyes painful as she held his hands into hers, "Why does your heartburn, and why is it so visible in your eyes? You think we dont know the discomfort when you go to bed alone, you think we don't see how you toss and turn with the dreams you suffer with?"

The heir was speechless.

"You look terrible, Jungkook," Wineri sighed, "Your face is pale, you have become thin. You do not eat, or sleep and you suffer alone. I dread to see you like this—,"

"What the heck do you want me to do?" Jungkook did not look at Wineri when he screamed out, removing his hands from Adona's hands, "She is gone, alright? She left because, yes, fairly, she does not trust or believe me anymore. I am not her soldier anymore to dwell about her anymore—something she always wanted and now she has it!"

"Do you hear yourself?" Adona questioned.

"I OWE HER NOTHING!" Jungkook screamed, ears blood shot and eyes raged with redness, "YES, MY HEARTBURNS. IT BURNS BECAUSE I AM NOT USED TO HER AWAY BUT THAT IS FAR GONE."

Sam watched the silence in horror. She had never seen Jungkook so angry.

"That dream is far gone," Jungkook said, this time, quiter, "I swallowed all of my pride and begged to be her soldier—God, I was so indulged with her and guess what, I was forgetting who I was. She put me in my place as if I was a low-life. And I accepted it, I protected her with my life, I was ready to drown myself for her. But that dream stays a dream, in the back of my fucking head. I have my Kingdom to save, my people need me and if Dara does not wish to accompany me in getting back to the throne. Then fuck it, I will do it myself."

Adona was silent.

"At least I am not running away from the ones I love," Jungkook whispered, eyes glaring every single person in the house before storming out into the snow.

The pressure in the market seemed lighter despite of it being full of people and maybe Jungkook wanted to hide between the people. But that wasnt possible. When he decided he was going to be angry and crossed about visiting the borders, Jungkook instantly regretted visiting the market without any disguise. People started to gather around but when Yoongi's arm wrapped around Jungkook's shoulders, his cold eyes eyeing the people back to their seats from reaching Jungkook, the crowd was better to deal with.

Jungkook sighed, "Pleasant surprise. Haven't seen you for some time, brother."

Yoongi shrugged, "Ever since you landed that punch across my nose, i cant decide if you wanted to see my face either."

Jungkook looked at Yoongi's bruised nose, it wasnt fresh anymore but it was blue. Jungkook sighed heavier this time, looking away, "I acted up for the wrong things."

"It's too early to say that," Yoongi raised a brow at him, "Besides, what was so special about her anyway? Clearly, you have to go around sleeping with concubines to give birth to your heir later, right?"

The blood heir gave his cousin a look before shaking his arm off his shoulder.

"Come on," Yoongi caught up, walking by his side anymore, "We have always had one goal, Kook. You don't have it in yourself to open your heart to someone. You know why?"

Jungkook swallowed.

"Because the day she was chosen for your throne, it sealed your heart with hatred. Grace or not, she is a bad witch. So it's just lust. Fuck red heads honestly," Yoongi walked ahead to catch them two a seats at the nearby open bar. Jungkook looked up to see the snow starting fall, the people in the market either admiring the snow or him. He found himself pulled by Yoongi to sit beside him at the bar, Yoongi ordered the shots, "Two beers."

"I don't want to drink." Jungkook urged.

"Looking at your face, you might as well need to visit the ladies at the pub, tonight." Yoongi said and earned a questioning look from Jungkook, "What? They are the most beautiful women in the lands of Zisk. They dance magnificently. They have gorgeous hair—not red, I agree, but they have hair. Long, shiny, tidy—,"

Jungkook kicked back the chair at the open bar and started walking away from Yoongi as he kept on calling after him, his embarrassing shouts came to an awkward laughter before cursing out, "That red headed bitch is stuck up his head for no good reason."

The man found himself walking around the jewlery shops, his mind filled with emptiness. Or maybe, everything just reminded of the forest green eyes, the thick red lips, and the necklaces he was watching from a distant would divine on her magnificent neck. Jungkook wondered how he never had the chance to put a necklace around her neck despite getting ready together in the same room almost every day at North. Perks of having servants in the rooms when their night together ended. He also wondered if he would ever had that chance if they lived ordinary lives.

If they had ordinary plots to their lives at all.

There was no shore to reach for them. It felt like that.

"Your Grace,"

Jungkook looked to his left to find the black haired beauty peering at him in a green gown, the cut of her dress wide around her chest, heavy ear rings and white flowers pinned to her braided hair. She looked very dressed for a normal day at the markets.

"Hello, Era," Jungkook smiled a bit before he couldn't smile anymore. The green reminded him of the Northern flags or her eyes, he couldn't tell. But it made him feel nauseous.

"Buying necklaces for your sisters?" Era smiled widely, her pink lips stretching as she walked closer to Jungkook. She tilted her head at him, her voice changing to a much more soothing tune, like music, "Remember you made me a crown from vines when we were younger?"

Jungkook's eyes followed down at Era's arm that was pressing against his right arm before they found her eyes, "Are you here to buy crowns?"

The smile left Era's lips as she complained with a pout, "No! I am here to force you to come have a cup of tea with me. I saw you leave Yoongi at the bar so I assume he was mean again. Why dont you dedicate the morning to me instead? There is a new place for bagels and great tea. Would you mind?"

Breakfasts at the Northern open fields with Dara were nice. Though he preferred eating in the bedroom or the veranda, sometimes the peace of the world with Dara talking about politics was enough to fill a stomach.

He wouldn't mind Era speaking either. Just like that, Jungkook found himself smiling as Era dragged out all the memories from their childhood as they sat across each other at a nearby glass shop. The place indeed was beautiful, and not for many to afford a meal here so it was empty too. Jungkook shook his head, "No, I don't think I remember that."

"You don't?" scoffed Era sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "You pulled my skirt all the time, how could you not remember?"

I remember pulling down Dara's dress to the ground though, Jungkook sighed, "I have been way to occupied to remember any of that."

"Occupied with what?" Era tilted her head once more, leaning in and towards Jungkook a bit with her hands lifting her jaws as she breathed unevenly, "Don't tell me it is your broke love life, Kook."

Kook?

Jungkook raised a brow, shaking his head, "It's not broken. It never started to begin with. But nothing for anyone else to be curious about."

"Then why are you so hesitant to marry me?" Era leaned back, her voice soft. Her eyes softer.

"Because I am married if it isnt clear enough, Era," Jungkook cleared himself, "I am married to a very important person."

"She left you," Era whispered.

"Because she is her own person. It is her wish. Does not change the fact that I still am a married man. And she, a married woman. By the northern laws—,"

"But you are at West—,"

"Are you suggesting I have two wives? One at North, another at West?" Jungkook cut her off at once and Era found herself speechless with that stance as she stared at him with a vivid expression, "I am very sincerely apologetic to break the promise behalf of my mother about marrying you. But as time passed, I realized I needed someone who could carry my head when I am dying, and carry my Kingdom."

"I would never leave you," Era whispered.

"But you could leave my Kingdom," Jungkook replied, "You could leave my people."

"Most importantly, I could leave you," Jungkook said with no hesitation or pain. Era's face fell as Jungkook continued, "I do not want to upset you, Era. I know you dream to be a royal, everyone does. But there are bigger problems Zisk has to worry about right now."

A tear rolled down Era's left eye, "What is so great about her?"

Jungkook's brows arched, "I am no one to compare women—,"

"What is the difference between us, then? If you can't compare then why cant you put my feelings into account?" Era argued, "I never wanted to be the unlucky girl, I wanted to be what they asked and expected me to be. Your wife—,"

"I don't have the answers to your questions, Era," Jungkook replied, "I am a helpless man right now with a war ahead of him. Someone told me I was fighting myself in a war, and maybe that is true. But I do have an advice for you."

Era watched Jungkook stand up and walk to her, lifting her chin. Era's heart drummed like the thunders.

"Stop following what your mother says and follow your heart," his eyes did not dare leave hers, "Stop listening to your mother because the dresses you wear won't seduce me to fall for you. Love does not happen that way, lust does. Lust is not love." he said before leaving the place, "Nor is greed."

Jungkook realized that he was a greater part of lust at first, on his knees for the red hair but nameless to the part he was suffering right now. What was this?

He felt like he was pushed into a pool of blood when he smelt it right at his nose. With every step he took closer to the residence, Jungkook could smell the rotten smell of blood. But it did not smell like human blood.

It smelt like bats. Dead bats.

His steps turned into a hasty run towards the residence when he witnessed people running out of the area, masscaring the place as one toppled over other on the escape run. When he looked up in the sky, he could see seven feet tall bats towering the sky, flying around with people on their beaks, dropping them from heights. Jungkook slid out his sword, cutting off one of the bat's wings before it's blood flew upwards like a heavy rainfall. Jungkook opened his eyes to see his siblings running inside the house, Yoongi coming to the scene from behind, "Oh my God, what the fuck are these?"

"Go grab a sword, blow the whistles!" Jungkook screamed before charging away, "These are Eastern bats."

The pruple blood explained.

Jungkook was going to charge for Yoongi's rescue after slicing two bats into pieces, grabbing another sword from one of the dead Western soldiers hands. His run was cut short when he another flock of bats circling the sky before aiming towards him in a group.

"Adona! Don't go!" Wineri yelled out from the house.

Jungkook, worried, turned to look back at Adona, ready to threaten her to return to shelter but was taken back by the purple glowing Eastern eyes, lighting on the tip of her fingers as she walked out of the residence. Jungkook stared at his sister as she blocked all he bats with the swing of her hand, lighting bolts blasting at them as purple blood spilled all over the place.

"These are Curve bats but made from Eastern blood," Adona informed, her eyes dimming back low. She was about to say something more when both hers and Jungkook's attention were seized by the bigger screech of a new nemesis. Over the Western skies, covered darkened clouds with bats opening their wings into the black of the sudden appearing night. Adona shook Jungkook off his thoughts and shock, "Get your shit together, Jungkook. You will attack and cut the wings, I will defend with the shields."

Jungkook nodded before swinging his swords on his hands and screamed at the soldiers gathering the residence's front porch, "CUT THE WINGS!"

Adona opened her eyes once more to the Eastern violet colour and reformed herself, saying spells that no one knew of to create swirls of thunders on her palm as she bestowed an unbelievable shield atop the residence, a lighting dom that stopped the bats from coming through.

Jungkook noticed what the bats were aiming for.

Him. They were aiming for them. Those purple eyes were looking through his soul as they tried to enter through the shield. With every shock they felt from Adona's thunder shield, they volted back before attacking into it again, but in groups.

"Fucking hell." Sam murmured from the hiding as the rest of the siblings and Wineri murmured.

"Where is Yoongi?" Wineri suddenly remembered as Namjoon only locked the doors of the residence.

Yoongi ran to the soldier's quarter but the Western military was already charging towards the bats. Jungkook screamed the commands to have no mercy, sending half of the troop to evacuate the area and protect the civilians. Before Yoongi could go back inside to seek safety, he was dragged down to the ground and backwards. He looked back to find an Eastern bat, double his size biting on his leg as it pulled him up in the air before crashing him against the ice cold ground. Yoongi screamed on the top of his lungs, his right leg trying to kick down the bat from him but his trails were drowned in vain.

As if a never-seen golden light flashed through the bat and Yoongi's eyes were almost turned blind. The purple blood splashed over him, the wings divided into two pieces and the head of the bat slaughtered from it's body. Yoongi was breathing for air to look at the blurry reds and gleaming goldens. With a bleeding and possibly infected leg, Yoongi sat on his shoulder to look up to the savior. But it was too fast to catch on who it was as the rescuer bolted towards the purple shield which Adona was holding up with all her force but the bats were invading through in large groups.

Adona screamed, "JUNGKOOK!"

As far as her magic could hold, the bats finally broke into it. Jeon Jungkook, once a leader of the Northern military held his heart tight enough to run for every bat rummaging towards him, slitting mercilessly. The Western soldiers followed behind him. Jungkook's sword did not rest, spilling purple blood across the grounds, staining them. The soldiers shielded Adona once her arms gave up, her bones weak enough to create any further lighting bolts, she fell to her knees at once.

Half the soldiers fell to their death grounds as the bats feasted from them, doubling every time their wings were cut off. One bat rebirthed from one wing cut to a piece.

So Jeon Jungkook fought the doubled number of bats all alone and Adona and the rest of Western watched in horror. His sword never stopped swinging. Every soldier came to their last strike though, and so did Jungkook after restlessly murdering the bats down to the ground and seeing them increase in number every time he did so. And his guard started to come down once he felt poison screaming into his left arm.

Adona screamed from the shield of soldiers who were fighting the bats, "Jungkook, you are bitten! Come back!"

He gave no attention to Adona as he pulled up his sword once more. The soldier in him never was dead, was never going to die either. Jeon Jungkook screamed before trying to slit the predators once more but his poisoned arm wouldn't lift up against the air. He looked down at his arm, black blood and a bat's cut stung down his skin like a piercing blade. He screamed but his arm only felt heavier.

And his head only got dizzier.

Wineri screamed, running out of the residence without any guard, "JUNGKOOK!"

"PROTECT MY BROTHER GODDAMNIT!" Adona screamed to the soldiers. But it was too late to act, the soldiers were unable to break their own shield and run to Jungkook as more bats towered around Adona.

The only prey for today's hunt, a large, feet-tall bat appeared in front of Jungkook and launched itself at him with its wide wings. Its purple eyes, which were like a tornado themselves, were focused on Jungkook.