***

“we made it”

Panting hard, we barely stepped on the solid ground when the gravity welcomed us and we fall flat onto our face, unceremoniously kissing the dirt,

I coughed hard as I take my surrounding with a fuzzy mind and frowned at the unfamiliar scenery in front of me. Where were we?, I panicked instantly and grabbed the nearest person beside me as he still in the midst of catching his own breath. The looks of relief almost immediately replaced by concern as he stared back at my disoriented state,

“what’s wrong, baby? You okay?” Jimin asked softly, cradling the side of my face as he checked on me and I just shake my head hard at his question, mouth opening and closing by wordless questions,

“baby?” he called again and my brows furrowed at the term he called me as an image of one of my brother who likes to call me with the same term flashed through my mind. We left them behind and don't even know what would befallen them,

I left them to their doom

The thought and realization struck me hard and suffocated to no ends as I start to have problem breathing,

“JooYeon!” Jimin panicked when he sees me and that finally grabbed the attention of the other boys as they turn their eyes on us,

JongIn quickly come to my side and grab a hold of my trembling shoulders, grimacing slightly “she’s having a panic attack”, I could practically pictured the frowns on his forehead despite of my chaotic state of minds,

Pulling my hands off of my head, JongIn wordlessly loosening the fists gently as he stared at me “shh, we’re okay, you’re okay, you’re safe, everything will be just fine JooYeon-ahh, I promise” he coaxed me, smiling a little bit when my trembling lessened and I looked around every each one of my mates faces then to my brothers,

They’re safe

Breathe and sounds

“... I haven’t lost… everything?”,

And without being able to get my answer, the world blacken out.

***

The cold is unbearable, a layer of frost start to covering the wall slowly and cloud formed every time with every breath but the mighty Empress just looking ahead motionlessly not paying attention to her surrounding as she lazily played with a smoke-like shadows in her palm, watching it gliding slowly in between her slim fingers. She looked bored despite of the whole dire situation that her castle experienced still. Her subordinates has reported the damage of the castle and been running around checking every corner of the citadel in hope to find any perpetrator but no avail, the got nothing, no one. They even lost sight of their only Princess, the sole heiress of the throne but albeit of the urgency, the Empress just laughed out loud when Yuri bring back the news, much to the thaumaturge’s confusion,

“this is Kim JongIn who we’ve talking about,” she said out of the blue as if she know the question that running through her thaumaturge’s mind, smirking slyly before adding “I know I should’ve kill him when I have the chance”, her shadows acted out with every words, darkened the surrounding more and more as if mirroring it’s mistress cold burning rage even if the woman herself didn’t show it at all, Kwon Yuri couldn't help but shivered under the Empress overpowering shadow,

“should I head out too, your Majesty?” Yuri asked after a long pause and the Empress lift an eyebrow as she look at her most trusted subordinate from the corner of her eyes before tilted her head aside to rest on her right shoulder as she jutted her lips out in a childlike manner and drawled lazily “no need, I’ve sent JoonMyeon after them”, Yuri nodded in understanding and keep quiet,

No more conversation shared afterwards as they stood in deafening silence before the front door opened and JoonMyeon strutting inside, his two brothers tailed behind. The three of them having stoic expressions on their faces and Yuri frowned in confusion at the lack of members in his pack whilst the Empress just casually smirked at them as she propped her chin on top of her open palm, waiting for the report,

“seeing how my granddaughter isn't here with you, I could say that you've failed your task” it’s a statement, not a question and JoonMyeon felt a sudden chill run through his spine at the seemingly light -almost mocking- comment, he could tell his two brothers stiffened behind him as they bowed their heads,

“they reached the forest even before we could spot them and with Sehun help, it’s even more impossible to catch up in time” he answered finally, voice sounds calm and sure as he stared back at the Empress when he smoothly lied to her face,

The Empress hummed “hmm, too bad, I though you'll be more competent than this, child” she said casually, catching Yuri, JoonMyeon, BaekHyun and ChanYeol off guard at how lightly she reacted, not even sounds angry or disappointed, she's just sounding like she's merely testing something out and didn't get a good result for them and instead of pushing the matter, she just crossed her legs and changed the topic,

“speaking of Sehun, I believe you have lost your Beta again, yes?”, JoonMyeon said nothing in return, still flabbergasted and confused beyond words, same thing with BaekHyun and ChanYeol as they listened to their brother’s and the Empress all along, with the later speaking in a light tone as if they’re conversing nothing but a weather outside,

The Empress tapped her chin lightly before continuing while glancing slightly from the corner of her eyes at her thaumaturge, speaking both to her and the -still- frozen Alpha in front of her “release KyungSoo from the dungeon, we’ll need him as the Beta this time”, Yuri simply nod her head before turned to left the throne room leaving JoonMyeon’s pack behind with the Empress. The loud sounds of her metal boots echoed through the hallway and snapping JoonMyeon back from his trance-like state,

As JoonMyeon finally recollected his composure back and start to open his mouth to ask but the reaper Queen beat him at it while smirking widely, sly glints flashed through her eyes “I’ve seen what I wanted to see anyway and everything just lined accordingly” she mused slowly, more to herself than to anyone particularly and JoonMyeon felt the inside of his stomach twisted uncomfortably at the riddlish statement and couldn't help his loose mouth as he look up to the throne, glaring straight to the Empress eyes,

“the reason why you let them go, it have something to do with JooYeon’s power, isn't it?” he blurted out and the audience gawked their eyes at the Alpha boldness, yet the heartless Queen remained her composure as she keep on smirking even if she looked amused at her oldest grandson reaction this time,

“I will always get what I wanted, JoonMyeon, and the awakening of JooYeon’s power is one of the things that I wanted the most, she’s strong, that young one, she remained unbent no matter how much I pushed her around, stubbornly holding onto the love inside that fragile little heart of hers, yet in the end, it’s that exact thing that get the job done for me,” she paused briefly, tracing the tip of her nails on the surface of her throne’s arm, drawing a single circle of frost on the smooth crystal as she let her words sink in before continuing. Oh how she loves to be dramatic

“now that my pandora box has been finally opened, I’ll just have to wait and see the chaos unfolded by itself,”, JoonMyeon eyes widened in horror when the realization dawned upon him. The looks on the Empress’ face was indicating that she felt so satisfied like if JoonMyeon doesnt know better he’ll easily said that the woman has won somekind of lottery, but he know that wasnt the case,

An evil grin slowly splitted the Empress’ flawless face but that grin didn’t make her beautiful face even more beautiful, instead, with eyes glinted psychotically, lips grinned so wide that it looked like she could teared her face apart if she ever stretched her grins even for an inch wider. She definitely looked horrifyingly scary. Just like how people always described a driven mad Reaper looked like in their tales of the old

“I’ll be waiting for the day that power eat her alive and drive her into madness, that’s when our long awaited massacre will began” she looked so satisfied that JoonMyeon have to balled his fists so tight in order to prevent himself pounce on her and tore the smirks off of her face with his bare hands,

He felt sick to his guts, he sent JooYeon back with Sehun and JongIn to the Vampire realm with the Princes for everyone’s safety. He did witnessed the huge amount of shadows JooYeon released despite of her lack of stamina back in the forest and the fact that she manage to knock the Empress off of her feet just a few moment before that is another thing to be considered too but he never expected it to be this crucial. The Empress’ planned this, that’s why she let them have her despite all the efforts she made to have JooYeon brought into the realm and imprisoned her,

They just free falling right into her games.

***

White and warm

Everything’s so warm and I feel like curling in here forever, not to be awaken again but I tend to have my wish gone to the opposite way too much for my liking. My throat felt like it’s being shoved by a hot iron and albeit my brain telling me to keep sleeping -and ignored my burning throat- I couldn’t help but tore my eyes open forcefully as the result of unbearable pain in my throat. My mouth felt as dry as a desert,

I jolt up from the comfortable pillow and immediately regretted the decision. I should’ve just sit up slowly, dammit

The world seems to spinning around me as I tried hard to focus my sight,

“wa-water…” I croaked, left hand reached out towards the side table despite of the lack of vision before the sounds of door opening heard and someone entered the room, quickly advancing towards me as soon as he saw me molesting the table half-blindly,

“dear Lord, you could have just call us” he frowned, handing over the water to me and I emptied the content in an heartbeat,

I sighed out loud, setting down the cup as I turn my head and look at him, identifying the man almost instantly as soon as he stepped inside the room. What can I say, I’m extremely sensitive at the moment and he smelt deliciously amazing. Don't judge me, I’ve been missing this scent for weeks

NamJoon lift an eyebrow when he saw the animalistic glints that flashed through my eyes and recognized the looks at once -that, or the glowing red orbs that gives it away- he merely chuckled at this then secured the tray of food that he brought on top of the side table before kneeling down to level our heads as he put his chin on top of an open palm, staring back at me,

“not in the mood for solid foods, eh? Thought so” he grinned playfully at me as I frowned wordlessly eyeing the v