// Chapter 25 \\

"Why is it you that he wants to talk to?" Yeosang posed the question, much to Leeyon's dismay who folded her arms and tapped her foot, impatience that could snap out at any moment.

But Yeosang didn't pay attention to her. His eyes glittered in slight curiosity as he shared a glance with me. One that was quick to break as I looked to the door of the cell Como was being kept in and then to my feet. Feet that kept me on the ground but it felt like they didn't even walk me down here.

"I have no idea." I quietly responded with a somber manner.

My mind was still blurring images in front of my head at the mention of what I had to do to Como. However, these images were different. I reacted to these images.

I saw Bomi. I saw her talking with Yunho in a soft and kind, chipper manner. I saw her stand in her petite stature with shoulders straight and arms full of folded sheets. I saw her giving me a questioning look when I'd asked how to navigate the halls to the breakfast hall. I saw her giving a polite beam when I returned to the guest suite. I saw that face fall into terror when I seethed in pure jealousy at that lovely, peaceful face— like she'd never, for an ounce of her life, had suffered. I saw the face of pure nervousness when she sat down across the table from me in that unnaturally chilling interrogation room. I saw that peaceful aura crack and sensed that magical terror when I'd claimed her to be the traitor. Then I saw the face of pure, paling fear as Wooyoung held her by the throat in the air. The whites of her eyes had been a chaotic storm of purity and blue. They'd tried to convey some form of truth and clarity through their evident fear. And then he'd thrown her into the air and slashed with his sword. And there had been so much blood.

Bloody. Bloody. Bloody.

And it was all my fault because I'd been wrong. My solution— accusation— had been a mistake. And that lovely, pure, peaceful, perfect human being was gone, like she'd never been here to begin with.

No one else seemed to think of mentioning the occurrence at Dawn Court where I'd been wrong. They followed— Hongjoong, Yeosang, and Leeyon— relying on my abilities. Why my abilities? Why me?

What was stopping it from happening again?

Hongjoong had said it was just like Dawn Court and that made my blood run cold.

"We're wasting time with questions we don't have answers to." Leeyon spoke up, the tap of her feet stopping as she glared towards me, "So why don't we get the answers?"

I swallowed at her comment, slightly rasping, "Okay."

With that, Leeyon stepped forward, uncrossing her arms and approaching the door in a few steps before a glistening crystalline water formed from her hands, wrapping around itself until it formed a shape. A delicate fluid and flowing key made of water. She tilted her hand to make the key levitate towards the sliver in the door. The slight sound of water swashing its way through the lock came before there was a click. Then that golden door began to creak open.

There, in the center of that room, chained to a chair that was attached to the floor, was Como. His head sagged but he made no move to turn it upwards to us. The only acknowledgement to our presence was the slight shift in chains.

In front of him was another chair attached to the floor, one which we all stopped behind after our quiet footsteps made their way into the room.

I glanced over to my right at Yeosang and Hongjoong. Yeosang kept his eyes ahead on Como, almost a silent regret in the manner of him pressing his lips tightly together. Hongjoong's eyes had become dull again, gaze turning down to his right arm and rubbing the wrist of it tenderly.

I glanced around to my left to find her glaring at me once more, emerald slits beckoning me to step forward without another gesture, just as how they'd urged me into this entire scenario.

I bristled, more than uncomfortable with the pulse in my back beating on it's own adrenaline. More chills ran down my spine. Cold, unnatural chills that practically had taken me back to the dungeons of Dawn Court there and then. I should've done the world a favor and locked myself in one of those cells.

Instead, I walked forward, hesitantly stepping around the chair, looking down to the black locks of hair that covered the traitor's face. Como still didn't move a muscle. I awkwardly stood there for a moment as a result, as I knew I needed to have eye contact with him if I was going to read his mind. But I'd read minds before without eye contact and it now seemed odd how natural that logical thought had come to me...

I sat down in the chair, keeping my gaze on Como as I found the roots of hair weaving another route into his mind. Multiple chills thrummed to me in enticing excitement, my heart, pulse, and head thundering as I swam into blackness. Wild and stubborn blackness that latched at my arms and legs and tried to force me in the opposite direction. It took a measure of effort to strategically weave out of them and out of their way, swimming into the black as it started to become hues of gold and blue. But even those latched onto me and tried to stop my cold plummet, even more desperate this time. I heard the shifting sound of chains in front of me.

"Como Cairior," I started, but couldn't continue as I was cut off by my own choke.

Suddenly the gold and blue latched hold of me in a searing, wild fit of rage. And I was thrown, or my head was. I physically recoiled back and the world spun. And the headache. A skin-rumbling, aching beat that was coming from my head. I cried out in a pitiful pain as I gripped my head with my hands.

Yeosang's voice barely made it through the ringing of pain, "Star—"

Then Leeyon's however it was a bit more clear, "What in the seas—"

"Witch!" Como snarled. The ringing was almost gone and my vision had focused on him. His head was now tilted up, his ocean blue eyes becoming a storm as he glared at me, "You are not reading my mind."

"Like you have a say in that!" Leeyon spat the last syllable as she brought her disgusted look to his.

Como, however, didn't back down, "Like you cared that I had any right in the first place."

Leeyon straightened a bit, her voice becoming calmer, cooler, and almost too cruel and vicious with the comment gesturing her true thoughts of the lower ranks, "I guess I didn't, but that doesn't matter here, does it?"

Como's nose curled but he tried to maintain her same cool collectiveness, "I only wanted the witch, not the snake."

"How dare you speak to your High Monarch that way!" Leeyon stepped forward, water forming in her hands and becoming spikes. Spikes intended to do so much more than threaten, they glimmered green waters that reflected her eyes.

Bloody. Bloody. Bloody.

"No," I barely murmured as my mouth quivered, shoulders slumping.

"Leeyon." Yeosang spoke.

The entire room froze as Leeyon did, the water immediately evaporating from her hands as she went still. Her words were slow after some silence, "What did you just say, Lupine of Spring Court?"

Yeosang ignored the question, "Leeyon, we're in the middle of an interrogation."

Leeyon spun, her slits now thinner, wild, and even more dangerous, "You called me by my birth name."

"Because you looked to have the intention of killing our one source of information," Yeosang held his chin high, "And I value that more than the simple vengeance of an insult."

Those reptilian slits expanded, but only by a bit. She stepped away from Como, folding her arms as she directed her next comment to me, "Read his mind again."

"I'm not sure I should do that." I spoke weakly.

"I won't let her." Como's glare was evident in his words.

Leeyon glared his way before looking back to me, speaking through her teeth, "Read. It."

"You can't just force another High Monarch into something," Hongjoong finally spoke up, his stare mostly neutral as he looked to Leeyon.

Her nostrils flared at him and silence fell for a moment.

"I was originally going to tell Star." Como spoke my name in such a way that I froze. San had said my name like that.

I swiveled my head towards him, chills enveloping me as my face paled.

Como was staring right at me, but his expression was cold. His eyes narrowed, "Weird how that Taker says your name like that. Like it's out of place."

It was my turn to speak through my teeth, "Start talking."

Surprisingly, he didn't argue. Como leaned back in the chair, as if he was getting in a relaxed position to tell a story, "Alright. Let me be clear though," his ocean blue eyes glared right into my gold ones, "I don't like you. In fact, I despise you. I hate you."

The room rustled and shifted from the words that were directly launched at me. My mouth was dry and I had no words, which was quite different from the frustrated sigh I heard from Yeosang and the under-breath snarl from Leeyon.

"But this is my story to tell to you," Como's glare remained finite as he spoke in the proper, polite tone of a guard— Captain of the Guard. "I grew up in Night Court. The place of a million stars and a million marshes. I loved the place." His eyes twinkled like stars, in evident memory of what the past memory of a Court he'd been a part of was like, but it was replaced with something dull, "I'd always play in the shallow waters with my friend. We were close. He loved the stars more than I did and I loved the marshes more than him. We shared anything and everything. My family was practically a family to him and I can't... I can't say I accepted him as my brother— but he was my best friend."

"Why are you saying this?" Leeyon insisted in a harsh tone, throwing herself from where she leaned on the wall to stalk forward a bit. She'd grown impatient.

Como gave her an annoyed glance, "Because my friend is Jeong Yunho." He looked back to me with the same burning glare, "And he's alive."

REMEMBER:​​​​​​

1. Smack dat butiful star

2. Leave a comment talkin abt dis tea

3. Share dis tea induced book with yo fwends

WHY? Because I appreciate it 🥺

\\ See u in the next chapter! \\