17. SACRIFICE

With a slam on the door, chaos breaks into a thunderous eruption.

Kai was the first one to burst out of the room. Out of utter desperation, he dropped the titles and called for the King’s name.

“Taemin!” He darted towards the hallway and barely managed to catch the shadows of his friend’s silhouette. His friend has always been like this — showing his reckless side when everything goes out of his control. With a sharpened jaw and gritted teeth, he sprinted back to the room and gathered his troops with a wave of his hand.

“It’s our duty to protect our King and Queen!” He shouts as his handful of men climbs onto their horses.

His horse kicked up splatters of soil and sand as it raced across the grass. When he bursted into the forest, it was shrouded in mist with creaks of extended limbs stretching above his head, blocking all source of light.

His blood turned cold.

Normally, he wouldn’t be worried for the military prodigy.

But he was not only just a prodigy. He was his best friend, his lifelong companion, and of course, he was the King.

The new King.

And not to mention that the new King has now gone out of his mind.

He saw the way Taemin’s eyes sank into darkness when the King lost his breath. He couldn’t imagine what would happen to him if anything happens to Lady Son.

Everything has collapsed in his friend’s world has collapsed, he knew that all hell will break loose, and his best friend will become impulsive.

Kai knows, his best friend will do anything to save his lady.

Even if that was to sacrifice his own life.

Kai tried to calm his racing heart down, as the horse continued its wild gallop into the land of the unknown.

…….

Krystal kept her head hanging low on the floor, as the lords and counts erupted into an explosion of shouts and screams.

They haven’t dealt with her yet - since they’re all engaged in a fierce debate on how to keep the King safe, how the Yoos sent their assassins, what they’ll need to do next…

It was that moment when she knew that her childhood friend had became the King.

Then that means… his father has passed away.

Silently, Krystal mourned for the loyal, affectionate King who was a great uncle, mentor and leader of hers. 

Suddenly, everything made sense. How the way she only heard the King’s return but never heard of the Prince. How the lords still shot her looks of disapproval when she hasn’t called his title properly.

She couldn’t imagine what Taemin felt like when she broke the news to him.

The lords were still in immense discussion and Krystal heard a few lords mutter voices of disapproval, hinting on how their new King is far too reckless.

But Krystal knew that the King wasn’t his father, he was just a young man placed onto the throne.

He had already lost his father, and now the woman he loves had vanished.

She herself couldn’t imagine losing two dearest people in her life in a blink of an eye.

It was her fault. If she knew that the assassins were there, if she spotted them early on, if she could defeat those two guys quicker, then Naeun wouldn’t have been captured, and Taemin wouldn’t have lost everything all at once.

If she was Taemin or Kai, she would’ve defeated the men and saved Naeun right away.

If she wasn’t a woman - a weak, inexperienced, stupid woman, then this wouldn’t happen at all.

She knew she shouldn’t be kneeling here, sunk in guilt and blaming everything about herself, but she couldn’t do anything to help. Taemin flew out, and Kai already bursted out of the room with his troops.

She only hoped that Naeun would hang on, and all three of them will come back safely.

The King, the Queen, and the man she loves.

…….

The forest grew ever darker, the trees seeming to wither into skeletal husks. The familiar sharp pain radiated from the soles of her feet to her numb legs. She felt like she was running through a tunnel of darkness, with no exit and no light at its end.

She was back to the times when she was a child, when she dashed through the tree bunks and rustling leaves with a cold, drenched back and dried up tear streaks on her face.

She didn’t know where she was, or what she was doing anymore.

All she knew was she had to keep on running.

It was different from before. In the past, she would’ve took shorter strides, she would’ve lost her strength a long way back, and she would’ve had more tears streaming down her cheeks.

But somethings remain the same.

The looming shadows and their clawed fangs rose up towards her, and she felt its black eyes leeching and leering at her, wondering when they’ll skin her and gobble her up.

She told herself to ignore it. She told herself that its fake. She told herself that it’s not what she should be worried about. She should be worried about the assassins that are chasing her down, not the shadows of the forest.

Yet after miles of sprinting, her legs slowed, and no matter how much she forced, moved and cursed her own body, they decelerated into a weak bundle twigs, and Naeun found herself in the middle of darkness.

She dragged herself across the floor, but she clashed into a block of wood.

Her forehead screamed while distant shouts rumbled across the darkness.

The piercing sensation from her legs was quickly replaced with a scream sharp stab on her head. The ground was trembling and her vision was fading into a fuzzy blur. She bit her lip, telling herself to hang on, to stay alive, and to stay sane. But her own commands faded and they were replaced by a sharp ringing in her ears.

“The girl is there!” They say.

“She went that way!” They say.

“Kill her!” They say.

She knew those were the voices from her nightmares, her trauma, her attack and her agony 7 years ago.

Yet those voices only repeated louder and louder, their pitches raised, tones grew, amplified and expanded with each second, and all Naeun could do was to slam her palms against her ears.

Her knees already dropped to a crouch as she shook her head frantically. “It’s in the past…” She commanded herself in a low mutter. “It’s in the past… that’s not now…” Her own voice was drowned out by the chaos in her skull.

She snapped her eyes shut but the enormous shadows crept through the slit of her eyes as they rose into looming creatures and opened their mouths.

Reality disintegrated. The world was a thousand cumbersome pixels tearing apart, leaving black spaces in between, then smashing back together in blinding sparks.

She was engulfed in the voices, screams and snickers.

Her own shaking arms made for a protective shield around her body and her feet were pulled in tight. 

Within the misty fog, four shadows crossed the beams, their steps soundless and their features masked.

They faced the back of the huddled lady and drew out their swords with a glint in their eyes.

A silver blade sliced through the air.

Everything happened all at once.

In a split second, the King crashed into the lady and wrapped her into a tight embrace. The crash sent both of them on the forest floor, rustling leaves in the process as they rolled miles away from the enemies.

He stifled a grunt as he felt a shot of pain down his back.

The slash that was meant for the her landed on him, sending rippling waves of pain through his spine.

The men froze for just a millisecond, but the millisecond was what Taemin needed.

He scrambled up, ignoring the dripping scarlet fluid down his back, as he drew his sword in an instant.

His sword clashed with one, while he dodged another. The third one lunged at his face, but he vaulted back, easily avoiding the shot, before he got inside his next and stabbed him right through the chest.

With deadly resolve, he shoved aside the corpse and charged at the remaining two assassins.

The low hum in the air spiked to a feverish pitch.

He just had one purpose — and that is to protect his Queen till death does them apart. He will protect the only lingering bit of what’s left in his universe. He will protect the future that he shared with her. He will protect the curl on her lips, the gleam in her eyes and the loud beating of her heart.

And so Taemin became a blur of movement, striking out at anything he could see, his sword swinging in perfect circles.

The piercing pain on his back only drove his s to be faster, swifter and