⊰ chapter sixteen ⊱

Dara took heavy steps against the snow as she walked towards the back yard of the house, the forest she was walking into was covered with snow. It had snowed like a blizzard last night, and Dara guessed Jungkook's anger had the similar phase but he did not speak about her recent actions much. She did know there would be an aftermath, and she did try to cover it up.

"Archery," Dara said upon approaching the topless man in the middle of the forest, smiling at his big arms which were aimed at the red marked wooden plates hung in the bark infront of him, "I have never been good at archery. Still question why Arver never advised me to learn archery. Do you think it is an outdated craft?"

Jungkook did not reply. He took another arrow and pulled it against the bow before letting it go.

It hit the red spot perfectly.

Dara raised an eyebrow, looking back at Jungkook with her funny eyes, "Remember we had the deal. If I could teach you how to read and write—which you lied about of course, then you would teach me archery?"

The Prince paused, letting his shoulders loose as she looked over his shoulder until he was completely facing Dara, "Archery is a skill that takes respect and loyalty to portray. You think you can respect people?"

Dara grinned, "I respected Arver. And then I let him die—,"

"You have no respect for my family, Koveski," Jungkook frowned, "You know you had sinned when you kidnapped mother—kidnapped her, what were you thinking?"

"Jungkook," Dara stepped forward, "There was no other way the Winters could be taken down in such a short period of time. No one was comfortable in that small house! The kids were suffocating, Wineri had to cook all the meals a day, all the services were shunned and most importantly, the power she had was taken away because of some mere people with hatred—,"

"I am saying, it wasn't the best way," Jungkook interrupted, "I hate these inconviniences with you but you could have told me. You could have told me what you were going to do, the safety would have been ensured—,"

"It was!" Dara yelled, "My best soldiers did the kidnap, of course they would keep her safe. They did not leave the Winter's residence for one glimpse, and they brought her back safe. As for Sam, she had been helping me with this...sorry about that. Sorry. Okay, I am sorryy—,"

"It's okay," Jungkook nodded, frustration visible on his face, "You can go back to the residence, it's getting cold. Ask someone to make ginger tea for me."

"I already did," Dara's cheeks flushed red when she blurted the words, "You should...come back with me. The tea is getting cold."

After an odd moment of silence, Jungkook leaned in with an eyebrow raised and a tilted head, "What are you trying to do, Koveski? Lately, you have been doing more house chores than your evil arse trying to set fire to the world."

"What do you mean?" Dara swallowed.

"I don't know," Jungkook pouted slightly before whispering, "Where is my little satan?"

Suddenly, despite of wearing the velvet, full sleeved robe, Dara felt her body shivering more than it should have. Clearly, she was never ready for Jungkook's little baits, his little questions and sudden outbursts. A part of her was convinced Jungkook was becoming her other half, but he had better control with his anger and was a man of good patience. She declared herself out of the house today when she was coming to confront Jungkook about Wineri's kidnap.

"Does it still hurt you bad?" asked Jungkook, "Does it hurt you bad that I don't call you by your name, no more?"

"It hurts as much as my short hair hurts you," Dara looked down at Jungkook's lips for a slight second before averting back to his brown eyes, "The satan in my will never die. I was born for bad things...stealing another's place to sit on the throne, living someone else's fame and royalty, forcing a the good human to be my groom for life, tying his hands with the problems that I was responsible for and killing her own brother, letting innocents die...the satan in me is alive. It will live."

"You don't realize that...all that does not let you sleep at night, right?" Jungkook asked, "Stop trying to act tough. You are broken, screwed and our lives are falling apart. I would have let you go if the realms werent falling apart."

Dara's heart dropped.

"I wouldn't let you be burdened with the problems I have," Jungkook sighed, "A war is approaching me. And I cannot let you be a part of it, you are too shrewd to attend a war...after all that—,"

"So are you,"

"I have been preparing for this war, for twenty five years," Jungkook looked at Dara, stepping away to find his shirt, "The day I was born, was the day Wineri left her royalty to protect me. She protected me so I could avenge her husband's death, and to seize what's always been mine. That throne, that you never sat on, is mine. And I will do anything to get what I deserve."

Dara smiled, "Am I allowed into your palace after that?"

Jungkook gave Dara a sneaky smile, pretending to think hard before smiling openly, "If you plan to stay as my wife, I might let you stay in the Queen's room. But hey, no complains if I order a hundred concubines"

"No complains," Dara grinned, "I could spend my time with Skov—,"

"You are not allowed in my palace. Go back to your dead South," and soon, both Jungkook and Dara's smiles were washed away, "I am sorry."

"It's okay," but Dara was thinking otherwise, "How...do you know the South has been dead?"

"Dreams," Jungkook slipped into his faint white shirt, his body still sweaty, "I have been sleeping right, but the nightmares are just...Jimin never existed, did he?"

Dara wanted to scream, this had been nothing but traumatizing for her, "No."

Jungkook nodded, jaws clenched, "He was a memory. Your father...late Zurien, he died during the civil war between East and South. Ever since then, nothing has been alive at South. Then why did you go there? I saw you in my dreams, you were pacing up and down in a dark room, there was no light. You were crying...but nothing was infront of you."

So Jungkook couldn't see the memories of the past that Dara witnessed through the Eastern Odyssey in the hollows of the South. Dara shivered, "What else do you see?"

"I saw this...," Jungkook frowned, "Your hair was long, red. You were in concubine's silk. You were serving in...this—I don't know. Serving another man. You smelled like lavenders. Or at least, that's what the man said. I dont know what it was."

But Jungkook remembered waking up furious. And that made his throat dry before he shook his head, "Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the compass. Do you still hear anything or is it just your intuition?"

"The Southern spirit generated my powers back," Dara looked at her palms, "I can read the maps of people's heart, their minds, their sorrows. My father left the fox spirit for me. The falcon seems like a loyal soldier. And then, I have your spirit. Makes me feel strong, brave and...betrayed. How enthralling it is. The Northern spirit holder has been holding my body like no other yet I couldn't recognize it any sooner. I feel like I have failed my own heart."

"You are not the only one who's good at hide and seek," Jungkook made a bold statement but it brought smile to both their lips, "I never betrayed you. I betrayed my people. I did not let them know who their real ruler was. I will forever be in debt to them."

Dara nodded, "You must war and rebuild what is yours. Everything I built is into ashes, so you must remake your country. But the Easterns are after the Curve. There is a summoner—the one has been responsible for all the Eastern attacks in the kingdom at my reign, your dreams I believe are the course of their spells. The wall they tried to break by the spirit shields, was knocking it off through your dreams."

"So the summoner knew who I was all the way," Jungkook whispered, "Or else no one except you knew about how my dreams foreshadowed things."

"Not all your dreams foreshaodw, Jungkook," Dara whispered, "The nightmares you have, are tricks by the Easterns. The happy dreams you have, may or may not be foreshadows. I don't understand how the summoner must know so much to even attack us at the perfect times."

"You are right," Jungkook whispered, "Oh Lord. When you were away at South, the Eastern bat attack. The attack's prey was me. It wanted to kill me. Because it knows I am the blood heir. And because you weren't there, it knew I wasn't half as safe to fight a magical creature. So it also knows, that I cannot perform maximum magic as a Northern."

"No wonder," Dara was frustrated now, "It's watching us."

"What?"

"As long as it lives in your dreams," Dara translated her intuition, "It's watching us. It has it's eyes on everywhere we go, it's ears too."

"Can't you block it?" Jungkook asked, "I see something new everyday. I feel fragile everyday. The night before the attack here, I never felt so fragile enough to fight after whatever dream I had."

"It is weakening you," Dara said, "But why would it want to get you off the grid when the Curve is what it wants. It should come after me."

"It considers me as one of your weaknesses," Jungkook looked at her eyes.

Dara stopped breathing, "But you are not."

"I am," he bit his lower lip, "It knows I am."

The woman looked away, "I need to fight it. The summoner."

"You dont have to," Jungkook looked down at his feet, "The summoner is unbeatable."

"I have to train myself for it, then," Dara sighed heavily, "Come on, let's go inside. Your ginger tea needs to be heated again—,"

"Koveski," Jungkook grabbed Dara's arm before she walked away ahead of him, the woman stumbled back to look at him with expectant eyes, "I know what the Coitus was for."

Dara's throat closed. Jungkook's grip loosened as her glance against his eyes withered and she looked at the ground.

Her agreement to the Coitus was for nothing but to create a distraction from the kidnap and the ognoing havoc she had created across the Western government. But Dara kept on forgetting.

It was not just Jungkook who married a politician. She herself married a hurricane of a man with more than just revenge knotted in his heart but also the endurer of the throne she sat on for a decade.

"You used to rule me once," Jungkook let go off her arm, "You taught me bad, bad things."

Dara felt like a fool as she walked away from Jungkook and inside the residence with a blazing hot face.

When night slithered into the West, Dara heard Jungkook close the door behind him before getting ready for the bed. She wondered if he questioned who heated up the night robes for him, and the hot water at the desk with cut peaches before he came to bed. She shut her eyes under the blankes on the other side, the candles blown out at her side of the bed.

She smiled under her breath when she heard him bite on the peaches and sing a distant 'mhm' before his footsteps ascended towards the bed. The bed shifted, the blankets moved as he slipped his toes inside, his back brushing against Dara's. Moments of silence, before Dara felt Jungkook turn to peek at her to see if she had passed out already or not. Dara stopped breathing when he landed himself on her hair, his wide arms sliding around her waist before being pulled into his broad wide chest. Jungkook breathed against the back of her neck, making her toe curl.

But Jungkook passed out before she expected him to.

He had been sleeping a lot these days, as he mentioned in the morning. And as she feared, when Dara opened her eyes in the middle of the night, Jungkook's breathing technique was heavier, faster and more reluctant than usual. She got off his loosened grip and turned to face his sweaty face, his parted lips and his shivering body. Dara sat up instantly, grabbing Jungkook's shoulder in her hands before touching his face, "Jungkook?"

But the shivering was thundering his body now, his eyes not budging to open.

Dara panicked, "Jungkook. Do you hear me? Open your eyes!"

Jungkook shook his head from one end of his pillow to the other until his entire body was tossing and turning, shaking himself off Dara's tight grip. Tears engulfed Dara's eyes upon seeing Jungkook's dismissal from human behavior, his lips turning dry. When Jungkook started to kick the covers out of the bed, his fingers cracked before his eyes opened in shinning silver.

Silver.

Before Dara could react, her throat was grabbed by his shredded hand until her knees couldn't feel the bed anymore. Dara choked on his grip while Jungkook dragged the red hair down the bed, his eye balls out of the picture of his glowing eyes. Dara fell to the grounds harshly, her voice was pushed ot the back of her throat as Jungkook lifted her up in the air, her feet unable to touch the ground. The blood in her head clotted as Dara ached to get off the grip, her arms weakly punching his arm.

"Dara Koveski Arveri,"

The voice wasn't Jungkook's. But Dara was too desperate to breath to acknowledge anything.

Dara's eyes closed, her consciousness losing.

"Do you have any idea," said Jungkook, his mouth pitch black, the veins peering out of his face, "who you challenge?"

Dara opened her eyes, her heart pounding slowly, the blood in her body now unsteady. The back of Dara's mind was still alive as she skimmed the room for her only source of escape from this. She closed her eyes one more time, manifesting it in her hands.

"Come with me," said the voice, "You cannot win the Curve alone. Come with me to the parallel realm."

Dara sucked on her last breath.

Before her eyes stared at the ceiling.

Jungkook's brows frowned as he slowly let the woman down, "You foolish woman. You thought you could take the curve over my dead body—,"

The compass flew to Dara's palms from Jungkook's study and rebuttled into a sharp sword as Dara's golden eyes stood against the silver ones, her hair ignited with gold and her skin sharpened with gleam.

Jungkook grasped Dara's arm and pushed it behind her before knocking off the sword from her hands and grabbing it. Dara squeaked when he was down to slide it across her chest, Dara grabbed the tip of the sword with her bare left palm, screaming from pain.

"Show yourself, you coward," Dara screamed, "Fight me with your soul if you fucking dare. Taking a man's body—....his mind to fight me, how will you rule the Curve that way—AH!."

Her hands bled a pool.

Dara looked at the silver eyes.

The brown eyes were trying to break through the shinning silver, electric spark splitting between Jungkook's eyes and the demon's possession.

He was awake.

He was trying to break through.

Jungkook was trying to break through; Dara understood it when the sword was slowly redirecting itself from Dara's throat to his own.

"No," Dara screamed, "Jungkook, stop it!"

But Jungkook, his mind still alive, somewhere between hell and heaven fought the sword off Dara's direction and directed it down his chest. Dara let go off the sword once Jungkook was dragging it down his skin, his arm bleeding as he ran it.

But what alarmed Dara, was the possession in him was not letting him cut himself. It was trying to stop Jungkook from bleeding himself. Dara watched cautiously as the silver demon was sparking off the prince before leaving his body with a blinding light, striking it across the room.

Of course. All these months, the summoner couldn't fight Dara through Jungkook because of the red hair's prophecy. And now that it was broken, it had easy access to the blood heir himself to get to her.

Dara regretted it the most at that moment; cutting her hair because of her distorted ego.

The windows of the chambers opened harshly before Dara physically felt the rigged soul leave the chambers, into the cold winter night. Jungkook was panting, her shoulder bleeding slightly but not as bad as Dara's palm. Jungkook looked up at his wife, his eyes fixed on her bleeding hands before they looked at the mess on her throat.

Red marks printed her throat from the grip of his fingers.

Jungkook was too weak to ask her anything, but he wanted to hold her. He wanted to hold her and ask her if she was okay. But Dara was stronger than him right then, she she volunteered, "Are you okay?"

Breaking a knee, with bleeding palms, Dara sat infront of him as the two settled on the wooden floor. Jungkook shook his head, denying. The red haired woman sighed in distress, "Why did you stab yourself...?"

She looked at his slightly bleeding shoulder, nothing deep.

Jungkook's throat wobbled as his body ached, "I saw a...dream before it—took over me. They said, it was scared of my blood. That my blood...was sacred. A-a promise...p-prayer."

Dara held onto Jungkook's head which fell on her chest, her body resting over hers as she held her bleeding hands away from him, resting her chin over his head as she thought his words over.

Jungkook, the past King, who made the promise to the Curve with the sacrifice of his blood; swearing that the evil would be destroyed once again.

They say his blood still stained the Curve till this day. And no evil was able to able to wash it away.

Dara swallowed, fright on the tip of her tongue as she kissed Jungkook's forehead.

And so she held the King of all for the rest of the night, scared to let him taken by the evils of his nightmares, with a bleeding hand that she couldn't care less about.

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hope u enjoyed the havoc at west had just started..