Gone.

Taeyeon's mind blanked out at Jessica's answer.

Trembling fingers gently lifted the bedsheets, noting in swelling silence the absence of the familiar small bump and the flat plane that was her stomach. The smell of blood assaulted their noses.

"You've started your monthly moon's blood again. It's a good sign." Sooyoung tried to offer some comfort. Taeyeon stared blankly at the reddish stain on the blankets. "We would have to tell the king that you can't be bedded tonight." Her sister bit down harshly on the word king, a cold silence permeating through the room as the eight other girls glanced coldly towards the door.

"Thats another life he has on his head." Hyoyeon muttered lowly. "Added to the hundred and twenty lives of our whole household." Jessica's fists clenched at Hyoyeon's words.

"He didn't even spare Jiwoong oppa and Hayeon." She turned towards Taeyeon. "Don't you feel anything at all? They were our siblings! Your siblings! From the same mother! Shouldn't you feel more bereaved than us? Unlike all eight of us, you are their true blood sibling." Taeyeon closed her eyes in acceptance.

"Even if I loved them and feel for their deaths, what can I do? They're dead. And you know the dead don't come back to life. "

"So you're just going to sit there and let him destroy this country? Taeyeon, if I know him well destroying our Kim family and its branch families are not enough for Kwon Jiyong!" Taeyeon glared angrily at her younger sister, eyes glowing momentarily as they shifted into slits.

"And so what would you want me to do? Kill him? Cripple him? I can't do that. You know how strong the Dragon family is---"

"But you can destroy him." Jessica rose up in her seat. "You Can destroy him emotionally! Because he loves you. And love is a powerful weapon. Do you know why he destroyed our family?" Jessica said bitterly. "He destroyed it because we chose Seunghyun as your husband and not him."

"That is merely his thirst for power and position."

"Is it?" The other girls shifted uncomfortably at the gradually confrontational sisters. "Kim Taeyeon, you are cheating yourself if you believe that sentence you just said! You and Jiyong, both of you were the model couple that everyone looked forward to see. Then of course, it was Father that destroyed that dream because he felt Jiyong was too--"

"Too manipulative, cold, unfeeling." Taeyeon finished her sister's sentence quietly. "I'm sure you agree with that."

"I do! But!"

"Then he isn't the right one for me." Taeyeon said quietly. " It doesn't matter how well we struck off with each other, or that we had advanced to a stage where we thought positively and liked each other." A fringe of dark hair fell across Taeyeon's face."Jiyong's first priority would always and forever be his position and power. Father saw that and didn't want that for me. Or for any of us."

Her eyes glazed over slightly as she gazed out of the window.

"And it wasn't as though I wasn't happy with Seunghyun. He treated me well." Her head dipped. "I was his first priority. And for a long while, that was more than enough for Me." Jessica sighed.

"So you aren't going to take revenge for our family?" Taeyeon shifted her gaze to her sisters.

"Revenge?" Her fingers gently pulled the two youngest down to her side and patted their heads gently as the thirteen and fourteen year old clutched her arms with worried looks. "Oh I'll take revenge alright." Her voice was soft and quiet. "I just need some time."

~~~~
Taeyeon lay quietly in the dark bed, swallowed by the seemingly never-ending darkness that was the bed chambers of the king, Kwon Jiyong. A chill filled her bones, despite the fact that the heater in the chambers were on to full blast. Perhaps it was the devastating things she had experienced in the day, or perhaps it was just her psychological fear of Jiyong manifesting physically.

"Did you wait long for me, my Queen?" Taeyeon shivered as Jiyong's imposing presence drew near. She stilled, her body freezing at Jiyong's touch, and instantly the good mood of the king beside her collapsed into nothingness. "Are you avoiding me? His voice was low and threatening like a growl.

"I..."Taey