Hex

Jongdae was standing in a throne room, with two guards standing on both his sides, the queen and the king sitting in front of him and Junmyeon, Yixing and Baekhyun standing on the side. A few hours passed since the incident and he started to feel guilty. With his head low, facing the floor, he was cursing himself. He did not want to face the king and the queen. He did not want to see the disappointment on Jack’s face or the winner’s smile on Elsa’s lips, as if screaming “I told you so.” He was also not brave enough to look at Junmyeon, as just a thought of what he had done to him or his friend, made him sick. That was not who he wanted to be. But that was exactly who he was.

“What you have done, prince Jongdae, is unforgivable,” the queen spoke in a cold voice, “you have put in danger not only the library, but also people in there and my son!,” she hissed the last words, and it turned Jongdae’s blood into ice. “You make it really hard, prince, to settle agreements with your kingdom for us. I should just put you in prison or kill you on spot,” she confessed and Jongdae’s heart stopped, “but I cannot. You are young and careless, but you are a prince as well, and even though every age has its rights, you do not have them. As an heir to the throne you must act in a certain way and I am sure you have been taught that.” There was a silence in the room before she started speaking again. “You have dark and dirty blood running in your veins, prince of the West,” she whispered and upon hearing that, Jongdae’s head flew up and he looked the queen in the eyes, “There is no good in you nor there every will be. All you are, is a storm bringer. And storms are never a good thing.”

“Elsa,” the king said, raising his hand, “enough.” The queen let out a breath and sat down, his eyes never leaving the boy, “Jongdae,” the man spoke again, this time directing him, “your parents have already been informed about the incident. A bird was sent to them with a message. We shall wait for their response, before taking any actions, but you should know that you will be met with consequences of your actions.”

Jongdae’s eyes grew bigger with fear when he heard that his parents already knew what had happened. He paled, when he saw a shadow flying through a room. A moment later the massive door of the room opened and a tall, slim woman came in.

She had a long, black hair reaching the floor, her head decorated with a magnetic crown. She was wearing a long, black robe with violet endings and patterns. Her posture was straight and was emitting pride and confidence. Her face was pulled, expression neutral, but eyes, big and dark, focused on the royal couple.

“Hyuna,” the queen whispered, obviously shocked, “we did not expect you here,” she admitted.

“You are sending me a message, saying that my son almost ruined the most valued collection of papers, books and other sources of knowledge of the whole world and civilizations we possess, and you do not expect me to show up?,” she asked, pretending to sound surprised, and laughed a bit. The sound sent chills down Jongdae’s spine. He started sweating and shaking lightly, afraid of what was to come.

“Forgive me, my dear,” Else got up and bowed a bit, “what I meant was, we only sent the message a few hours ago. If whenever, we would expect you in a few days.”

“Oh, Elsa, Elsa,” she mocked, “you, Queen of the Ice, have your powers and I, have my own tricks. But enough of this,” her voice suddenly changed. There was no more pretended humor or politeness in it, only seriousness and threat, “Jongdae,” she turned to face her child, and the boy only looked down at the floor, stepping back a bit, which got Junmyeon frown upon seeing this. The woman came closer to him and putting an arm around her son’s shoulder, she hid something in the pocket of his coat.

“No, please, I beg you,” Jongdae started whispering, very quietly, so that no one but his mother would hear, but in an almost empty room the sound carried easily, and everyone heard it anyway. Junmyeon, Yixing and Baekhyun looked at each other confused, and the Prince of the North suddenly felt a slight fear appear in his chest, as a thought that something bad was going to happen appeared in his mind. And he was right.

Suddenly, a loud and bloodcurdling scream cut through the room and Jongdae fell to the floor, one of his hand on the floor, supporting him, the other over his chest. It seemed as if the prince had problems breathing, or “as if someone was suffocating him,” Jumnyeon thought the moment he saw how the other started grasping his neck, as if trying to get rid of something. A gasp left the three boy’s lips when they saw that the prince started coughing blood.

“What do you think you are doing! Cannot you do anything properly?! Must you always let us down and bring us embarrassment?!,” Jongdae heard his mother’s voice in his mind while trying desperately to catch a breath, “What were you thinking destroying that tree! There are things in this world much greater than you, you dumb child! One thing! You were asked to do only one thing! I always knew that you would be to no use,” the accusations were loud in his head, as tears started filling his eyes.

“Sto…stop it,” he struggled to whisper in between coughing, “I… am so…sorry,” he cried, but was only laughed at.

“You are so pathetic. How come you are to be the king?! Even now you act like a child in the darkness. Darkness should be your friend, why are you acting as if it was not, storm bringer? I do not understand why people seem to be so scared of you. You are pathetic, son. Grow up. Grow up and be the pride of the Western Kingdom! Live up to your name! It’s time you started bringing these storms of yours instead of dishonor to our family! What a shame, it was not you who was blinded that night…,” and with that, the whole pain Jongdae felt went away, air came back to his lungs, but his hand gave up and he felt to the ground, loosing consciousness.

The moment Jongdae hit the ground, Junmyeon could no longer stay in place and he ran down the few stairs and knelt next to the boy. He held him up and his back. He sighed when he saw how pale the unconscious boy was, and the strings of red blood running though the corners of his lips.

“Could you not blind this one?,” the Queen of the West voiced, looking at the royal couple and everyone’s eyes grew in shock, upon hearing that, “or kill, for that matter, since that was probably the purpose of sending that soldier.”

“We…we never sent anyone to hurt your children, Hyuna!,” the Queen said, putting a hand on her chest.

“Spare it,” Hyuna waved the answer, looking at her son again, “when it comes to him, I apologize for what he has done. For the troubles he caused and damages he made. I only hope that the actions of my irresponsible child will not affect the agreements,” she looked up at the queen, “I assure you, he will not try anything from now on, you do not have to worry. You have my word.”

Elsa only nodded, swallowing, as she still could not believe both, what she had just seen and what had just heard. As a mother who had lost her child, he was doing her best to keep Junmyeon safe and sound, sometimes maybe even to the extreme. And just then she had witness the other woman, who had not lost a child but had been through a tragedy herself, bring pain and suffering to her child, and wish him death. Maybe, just maybe, Jongdae was not such a bad person after all. Maybe, just maybe, he just did not know any other way.

Jongdae groaned, the memory of the pain coming back to his mind – the breath-taking pain of his insides being torn into pieces, the stinginess on his throat from feeling as if he was suffocated, the loud banging in his head, and the harsh words of his mother that were like knives pushed right into his heart. Even though he heard them many times and each time he would tell himself that he got used to them, that was a lie. The words always hurt him, the pain of them never fading.

“Prince?,” he heard a soft whisper somewhere close and slowly opened his eyes, just to close them again the moment light hit them. “Prince Jongdae, do you hear me?”

“Yixing,” he took a guess, trying to adjust his eyes to the brightness of the room. He looked around and frowned. He did not remember going back to his chamber, “what am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

“Do you not understand, prince?,” the other boy asked, sounding concern. Jongdae only shook his head which was still filled with nothing but the memory of the pain. “Do you know what it is?,” Yixing brought something to his eyes and after a moment Jongdae recognized the object. He took a sharp breath and looked at the healer.

“Where did you take it from?,” he questioned, looking back at the small package bound with a dark rose. His mother’s favorites.

“From your pocket, prince,” Yixing simply answered, his eyes never leaving the other. “Prince Jongdae, is that how your mother hurt you? By using this hex?”

“How would you know it was my mother?,” he whispered.

“Dark rose. Everyone knows they are Queen of the West’s favorites. And everyone knows rumors and stories about your mother’s interest in dark magic. Prince, am I right? Was it your mother you did this to you?,” he asked, gesturing at the boy in bed, “And was it how she did that?.” Jongdae never answered but he nodded, and Yixing sighed, “you lost your consciousness, prince. It had been three days…”

“What?!,” Jongdae suddenly raised his voice, jumping in place a little, “three days?! Too long, this is way too long,” he started muttering to himself, trying to get out of bed.

“Prince! Calm down! You should not be out of bed! You must rest!,” Yixing started pushing the younger one back down on bed but to no avail.

“I do not have time to rest, Yixing. Do not worry about me, I have been through worse,” Jongdae whispered, “also, I do not deserve your worries. All I deserve from you is death wishes.”

Yixing was shocked upon hearing that and he instantly stopped fighting with the prince. He frowned, wondering why would the prince say such words. He looked down at the package and sighed. “I have been through worse.” The other’s words sounded in his ears. “What worse do you mean exactly, prince?” Yixing asked himself, wondering how many times had the younger been tortured like that before. He heard many stories about the Western upbringing in the royal family, but never could he believe any of them. There were many rumors being whispered in the shadows about how the king and the queen torture their son, threat him like he was nothing, like he was never good enough. But Yixing had never believed in them. “But what, if they were all true?,” he wondered, looking up at the prince. “Should I tell him?”

And just when Yixing opened his mouth to tell the prince what bothered him so much, the younger started speaking as well.

“Yixing, no words can express how sorry I am for what I have done. I know and I understand that you do not trust me, but Suho once said that you are worth to be trusted. Can I cross the line once again, and ask you for a favor?” Jongdae almost cried, pain and desperation audible in his voice.

Yixing gulped, not expecting that. Yes, he did not trust Jongdae one bit but he still wanted to help him. But was he allowed to do favors for the Prince of the West? For the storm bringer? “Suho once said that you are worth to be trusted,” he thought of the other words and remembered when Junmyeon had asked him to help both princes with finding any accounts on the black arrow. Junmyeon trusted Jongdae enough to work with him. “And where did it take him?,” another thought popped in his mind, but Yixing quickly shook it off. If Suho trusted him, he shall trust him as well.

“What do you need, prince?”

A/N

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