// Chapter 40 \\

There was a scream. An all too familiar sounding scream. I'd never heard the scream from its timid owner, but I knew the owner of that voice. That scream was a mourn a loss. A cry to a now dead brother.

I shuttered— cringed as I looked down to where I heard the voice. On the stairs not too far below, I saw Jongho. His blond hair was caked and his body covered with crimson. I almost didn't recognize him. But I recognized those wide obsidian eyes, where shock, horror, and revenge bored into mine. He'd seen what I'd done. He knew what I did and I could only imagine what he thought. San was standing behind me in Taker garbs and I'd deliberately intended to push Bongju back, but I didn't know who he was till it was too late. Jongho didn't know it was a mistake. I had to look like a traitor.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" He cried over the screams so loud it echoed off the walls of the entire courtyard.

I shuttered once more as I heard a bit of a cry leave my lips. 'I didn't mean to' I wanted to say, but what help were those words? I'd committed murder that was far from repent or forgiveness. The weight of guilt settled in farther with that realization: I can't be forgiven.

Spikes of ice formed around the young Monarch of Northern Court, aiming straight for where I sat. I'd gone numb them, not being able to believe any of this was happening. This wasn't happening. I didn't just commit a treason that would tarnish everything that I was. It was some sort of sick twisted illusion. Those ice spikes hurtled towards me in deadly spins with a cry from the Monarch. They almost reached me as well, the cold wind before their cold needles caressing my skin— but I was yanked back.

San cursed as he lifted me from my feet and, suddenly, the pillar where I'd committed a disastrous crime faded from my view. So did the now crimson sky, being replaced with eerie purple light in a black and blue room San had entered from the podium. I looked through the skylight to see the serpent rise up into the vivid crimson sky once more before it plummeted towards the ground, jaws open in attack, and shaking the earth among impact. The entire structure I was in shook. Leeyon was still fighting— she was fighting Mingi— and I wasn't doing anything.

My nostrils flared and I used the strength and ability I had and thrusted against San's chest. He grunted in surprise and held strong for a moment but the force was enough for me to be free. I fell from his arms to the ground with a bark of pain as my stiff wings sent a shock of pain through me, falling over my head. I winced as I rose on my hands with a shake. I could see a shuffle of black boots from the corner of my eyes and I knew it was San there to help me. I shot out a hand towards him and he hesitated.

"I don't want your help." I spat.

"You always want my help," San spoke with a grimace before he kneeled down, taking my shoulders and standing me upright. I protested but I couldn't fight it with how numb I felt.

I could barely stand, my legs were shaking so much from the weight of my wings and what I had done. There was another shake of the ground and I had to step forward to balance myself, less I would be tumbling to the ground again.

San looked over his shoulder, his body going rigid as he whispered another curse, looking back towards me, "Okay, now leave."

"I am not leaving."

"Damnit, M-" San cut himself short as he plummeted his face into his hands before he pulled back his hair. He bit out his next words with urgent annoyance, "I will carry you out of here if I have to."

I furiously shook my head, "Then I'll fight you."

San laughed, hysteria in his eyes, "First save a man, then fight him?"

"You're not a man. You're a Taker." I clarified, glaring with harsh golden eyes.

San merely hummed with a nod of his head, murmuring, "Oblivious."

I flared my nostrils. I wanted to smack that sure look off of his face, lash at him with my powers. But my body was so numb, I couldn't move. "I shouldn't have saved you." The regret strongly came out in my voice.

"But you did." San deadpanned before adding in a more imperative tone, "I'm more important than him."

"No you aren't!" I yelled, "He was a High Monarch with a Court!"

"Not the strongest. Not important."

I gritted my teeth in fury and I didn't even think as I glared at San and ticking echoed within my head. Suddenly, San began to move backwards very slowly. The movements almost looked natural, but they weren't. The walk became a slow backwards run and San merely lifted his brows with pleasing surprise as he smiled at me.

I furrowed my brows, continuing to glare but shock and confusion filled my gaze.

San laughed, "Don't act so shocked about using part of the cervus's power."

Yeosang's power.

I was straining to concentrate on San that I barely heard his words until the ticking echoing in my head slowed and stopped, dropping San and myself to the ground. I heaved in a breath, air suddenly becoming hard to find as my body ached.

"Impressive how you're able to use the powers of time I'd given you." San spoke.

"What?" I said, but it came out more as a gasp with how breathless I was.

"I may be a wielder, but I couldn't hold onto those powers forever. They were never my own. I had to give you those powers at Eastern Court before they faded away."

My mind was spinning, retaining nothing he said. My head was fuzzy and all I could feel was pain. If anything, he was truly speaking nonsense now.

There was a shriek of a creature of sea off in the distance before another rumble sounded and a familiar shock filled me as my wings rendered to nothing. There was a hollowness then as I didn't sense the silver owl within me. I had time to glance up into the skylight, just in time to see the figure of a woman falling to the ground from within the sky. It was Leeyon.

San cursed once more, "We don't have time for this. She'll only get closer, it's time to leave."

"N-No." I grunted out with the pain that over-bared me. The numbness was beginning to fade, but it wasn't entirely gone as I felt myself being yanked up and I was back in San's arms.

"This isn't a decision that you can make." Then San took off running. And, with probably more emotion than he meant to, said, "You'll die if you stay-"

Then there was a loud crack and burst, dust and debris flying and a rock that hit San straight in the side of the face. Dust and rock flew in my vision as I fell onto the ground with a yelp. I shook as I rose to my knees, finding San to my right, the side of his head bleeding and unconscious. He deserved it, but it still sent my heart pounding in panic. I turned to me left to find part of a wall that was entirely torn off and out from the dust on the other side came collisions of water and silver.

Mingi was first to jump out of the dust, silver liquid rock floating around him. A spike of water quickly shot after him but he merely rose and hand and the spike disappeared into a rip in the air. Then Leeyon emerged, just as another rip appeared at her side and the spike of water shot out towards her. The Serpent didn't even look as she thrusted out a hand and spun, regaining control of that water before she slung it with a wave of spikes towards Mingi.

"You put that glass in my eyes!" Leeyon screamed. "You made me love you!"

Mingi remained calm, flicking his hand forward and a wall of mottled rock became stone just as Leeyon's spikes hit it. The rock was no match for the waves, however, and it broke from the pressure, but it had been just enough that there was no water left to hit its target. The wall crumbled and Mingi smiled at Leeyon who landed on her feet at the other side of it.

"And I can't thank you enough for it." Mingi spoke. "For the sand and the Court."

"You used me!" Leeyon screamed as she sent a blade twisting for him.

Mingi blocked it with a slash of silver, "And you've never used anyone? The wild seas haven't hidden all you've done." He grunted as he thrusted three spikes of magic towards her.

Leeyon blocked the first with the blade of rapids, parried the second, and spun out of the way of the third. Leeyon was strong, there was no doubt about it, but I saw the weariness in her eyes. She was getting tired, but enough rage was filling those jade eyes for the both of us as she looked at Mingi.

"What I've done doesn't begin to match what you've caused." Leeyon snarled.

Mingi chuckled "It doesn't." And their blades danced once more as they collided.

I gritted my teeth— I needed to help. Leeyon might have had the wrath of the seas, but even those waves she thrusted at him seemed too calm for her nature. Those white waters she wielded to sharp perfection were becoming more blue with every ounce of magic she used. My pain was bearable as I rose to my feet, but that was when I saw the golden sword flinging into the air with Leeyon's hand.

Her nose only scrunched as her serpent eyes glared with more ferocity. She arched her arms back in the air, focusing on her powers of waves that built up behind her and would send at her enemy. But that was when she shuttered and her eyes widened and mine did too.

Her arms dropped to her sides and the waves collapsed, revealing a shred in the air behind her. The blade of her's that had been tossed into the air had been discarded by Leeyon and myself. Its trajectory was ignored, and Mingi had taken that to his advantage, as Leeyon's own blade stuck through her from the back of her chest. Blood stained the gold blade of its wrathful wielder and Leeyon fell to her knees as she stared at it in disbelief. Then, she fell completely onto the floor and the weight of what happened hit me harsher than Eastern Court waves. The Serpent had fallen. Leeyon was dead.

I couldn't help the shuttering cry that left my mouth, what almost sounded like a no. Mingi turned towards me then, and there was no remorse or guilt for what he'd done in his eyes. His stare at me was close to indifferent, but something glimmered there. I hated it. I hated what he'd done. I hated him.

"You killed her!" I screamed into the deadly silent room.

Mingi didn't even flinch, simply folding his hands as he turned to me. "Just as you killed Choi Bongju," Mingi uttered the name of the now dead High Monarch without an ounce of respect. "They're just pawns. It doesn't make a difference."

"Just pawns? They were High Monarchs!" I seethed as gold lashes formed in my hands. I shook my head. "It makes all the difference!"

They'd been rulers of Courts. They had friends and family. They had been people, not monsters.

"I'm not going to fight you, Star." Mingi only stared at me with a cold expression. It was hard to believe he wasn't a Taker. He even said my name wrong just as San and Wooyoung had— that particular manner that made me feel unease within my gut.

"Well you should!" I yelled. "I am a High Monarch. I'm one of the most powerful beings in all the Courts! You should kill me and get me out of the way!"

Mingi shook his head, refusing. "You're a High Monarch and more. You're the most powerful being in all the Courts. In Rione's name, I can't kill you."

"You shouldn't even say his name." I shook my head, disgusted at who I looked at. "He actually tried to make a difference. A good difference."

"He was trying to make the same difference as you and me." Mingi spoke, lips drawing into a thin line.

I ignored his words, fuzz blurring them into nothing. There was a long moment where we just stood, staring at each other in silence, my rage towards him ringing in my ears. I should kill him, what's one more High Monarch from this incident? He was the true traitor. But Mingi suddenly stepped forward.

I took a step back, raising the golden seething pulses of lined light in my hands.

"Star, please." Mingi spoke before taking another step forward.

I took a larger step back, aiming my powers, "No."

Mingi clenched his jaw then before he thrusted out his hand and I cringed back before I froze and my powers left my hands.

Suddenly, I felt something from within my eyes. Everything became blurry then, the only thing I could see were blurred fractures in my vision, my mind full of fuzz. Then, the fractures and blurs were peeled away like small sheets of skin I didn't even know had been placed over my eyes. The glass shards were removed then, pulling away from my eyes and transforming into the silver of Mingi's powers. It was like seeing for the first time. But everything immediately became duller and less clear. It began to sting with how long I was staring and so I shuttered my vision into darkness, truly blinking for the first time. I opened from the blink with a new sudden clarity.

I remembered everything.

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! \\