Day slowly drifts into night as Reine sits inside the wendigo's cave. Jimin now has a fire blazing, a hearty dinner cooking over its flames as she watches the bronze lining of the box glittering in the light.

Taehyung hasn't returned since he walked away from her in the woods, and Reine wonders if he is okay. She knows that whatever he feels when he is around her is something he isn't used to, so she figures he needs time to understand and process what is happening within himself.

"Always lost in that pretty head of yours," Jimin says through a groan as he slides down the wall of the cave to sit next to her. "What's on your mind?"

"The future," Reine says, messing with the frayed end of her cloak. "The past. The present. Everything, I suppose."

"That's a lot to be thinking about when you're supposed to be relaxing and healing," Yoongi chimes from his makeshift bed in the back corner of the cave.

"No one asked you," Jimin grumbles, rolling his eyes as he takes Reine's chin between his fingers to make her look at him instead of the box. "That is tomorrow's worry. For now, you need to not worry about anything except getting a fulfilling meal in your stomach."

"We should wait until Taehyung comes back," she says, her gaze shifting to the tunnel that leads to the entrance as she pulls away from Jimin's gentle grasp. "He needs to get his strength back too."

"I have plenty of strength," Taehyung's voice sounds, the echoes of his low tone bouncing off the rock walls as he comes into view. His hood is pulled over his head, the light dusting of snow on the fabric slowly melting as he moves to sit in front of the fire, across from Jimin and Reine. "You need the food more than we do."

Reine tries to make eye contact with Taehyung, but his gaze remains hidden in the shadows of his hood as he pulls the meat from the fire.

"I could go for some replenishment," Yoongi says, waving his hand weakly in his brother's direction.

"I'm okay," Jimin says, holding his hands up before gesturing for Reine to take the food from Taehyung. "You and Yoongi should eat. Taehyung and I will catch something later."

"We should all eat. We were all injured," Reine argues, shaking her head when Taehyung extends his arm to hold the food out for her to take.

Reine makes out the eye-rolling of Taehyung as his dark eyes shine in the embers of the fire. He stands, taking half of the meat over to Yoongi, who purses his lips to hide his groan of pain as he sits to take it.

"Are you okay?" Reine asks as Yoongi takes a bite of the meat. She watches as he moves to try to get more comfortable, and she doesn't miss the winces of pain crossing his features.

"Never better," he exclaims, grinning through a mouthful of food. "I could take on both of these asses with one hand tied behind my back."

Jimin scoffs and Taehyung ignores the comment as he moves to hand the rest of the food to Reine.

"Eat," he says as she takes the meat in her hands, glancing as Taehyung walks away from her to sit in the darkest corner of the cave. He takes the white dagger from its holster and twirls it around his fingers, his facial features lost in the shadows.

"Something's off," Jimin says, his eyes narrowing as his gaze shifts between Taehyung and Reine.

"Your brain is off," Yoongi says, "though to be fair, it was never on."

"Says the guy who needed a human girl to nearly get herself killed so you could get off your ass and do something useful," Jimin snaps back and Yoongi laughs.

"You are an idiot," he says, throwing the bones from the meat at Jimin, who swats them away. "You did the same thing with the dragon. You put her in harm's way so you could get your precious bow and arrows."

Jimin purses his lips. "Fair enough."

Yoongi smirks at his brother, another victory under his belt as he lays himself back on the floor of the cave.

"As I was saying," Jimin continues, sending Yoongi a quick glare before turning his attention back to the other two, "something between you two is off. What did the two of you talk about earlier?"

"Everything is fine," Reine says, shrugging as she continues to eat her food. "What we talked about is none of your business, Jimin. Do not be rude and insert yourself."

Jimin laughs, his eyes crinkling as he nudges his shoulder into hers. "It's been a while since you've been a hard ass, Reine. I forgot how entertaining it is."

Reine sighs. "He was telling me more about your last brother. That's all."

"That's all?" Yoongi asks, his eyebrow raised as he stares at her. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," she says, frowning at him. "Why would I not be sure?"

Yoongi shrugs. "I've never seen Taehyung seem so flustered before, and I doubt a conversation about our uptight brother could make him feel that way."

"I am not flustered," Taehyung mumbles from his dark corner.

"You blush when she gets into your head and you send sneaky little glances her way like you're some schoolboy with a crush," Yoongi says, shrugging as he lays his arm over his eyes to block out the light of the fire.

"Yoongi, stop teasing your brother," Reine says, sighing as she rests her chin in her hand. Her eyes travel to the box again, and she swears it is glowing more brightly than it was before. It's almost... alive.

"Not teasing," Yoongi says, holding his hands in defeat as he glances over to smirk at Reine. "Pointing out my observations. Taehyung likes to analyze. Why can't I?"

"Because you're generally a moron," Jimin says, and Yoongi turns to look at his brother, but groans in pain and grips his chest when he moves too quickly.

"Stop moving, Yoongi," Reine exclaims as she stands and moves to where Yoongi is laying. "Look. You've ripped open the hole in your chest again. You're never going to heal if you don't let your body rest."

"Yeah, yeah," Yoongi says, moving to lay on his back as Reine helps him get comfortable. "I'm not used to being so broken."

Reine smiles at him, her hand resting against his cheek. "You're not broken forever, Yoongi. You need time to rest so you can heal properly."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Yoongi says, rolling his eyes as he rests his hand over hers. Reine hears a shuffling behind her and she glances to see Taehyung walking out of the cave. Her eyebrows furrow as she watches his retreating back, and when she turns back to Yoongi, she sees him watching her with a curious look on his face.

"Go check on him," he says, his hand falling away from hers. "Jimin can keep me company."

"Do I have to?" he grumbles.

"I am not being left alone in this hole with the ass of a brother above my head," Yoongi says, his voice rising in pitch. "What if he makes the box come out of the wall and fall on my head?"

"I'll be back," Reine says, sending the two bickering brothers a quick smile before she jogs toward the entrance.

Reine shivers as soon as she comes in contact with the chilly night air, the breeze unforgiving as it whips against her skin and leaves chills in its wake. The moon isn't visible behind the clouds sprinkling snow onto the area, so she can barely see around her as she wraps her cloak closer to her body.

"Taehyung?" Reine asks, squinting into the darkness as she turns around in a slow circle to see if she can spot any sort of movement near her.

"Taehyung, please," Reine says, her teeth chattering as she lets out a shaky breath. "Come back inside."

She hears the rustling of branches, and her ears perk as she turns toward the direction of the noise. She can't tell if the wind rustled the branches of a smaller tree or if it could possibly be Taehyung returning from wherever he ran off to.

"Taehyung?" she calls out into the darkness, and only a moment later, Reine is laying on her back in the snow as a large body hovers over her, a blade pressed against her throat.

Before she can scream, a hand moves to clamp over her mouth, cutting off any significant noise she could make that could reach the two men still inside the cave.

"You would be dead right now if I was your enemy," a familiar deep voice says, and Reine sighs in relief before reaching her leg and kicking Taehyung's leg as hard as she can so he falls to the side.

She stands, brushing the snow from her cloak before turning in the direction of where Taehyung fell. "Are you crazy? You could have hurt me!"

When he doesn't respond, Reine feels around her blindly but doesn't find any sign that Taehyung is there anymore.

"This is not funny," she calls out into the shadows. "If this is your idea of fun, you are much more barbaric than I originally thought."

"What are you going to do if my brother comes out of that box ready to spill your blood?" a voice sounds from right behind Reine, his mouth so close to her left ear that she can hear his steady breathing escaping his lips. "Do you think you could take him on? I don't think you can."

"You're trying to give me a training lesson right now?" Reine asks, turning around only to find empty space where Taehyung was once standing. "In the middle of the night in freezing temperatures when I was told earlier that we all needed today to rest?"

"Enemies don't wait for your convenience, Reine," Taehyung's voice sounds from somewhere in the distance. "They strike at your weakest moment, like right now, when you can't see a thing."

Reine's head whips around in the direction his voice is coming from, but she sees nothing but silhouettes of trees and shadows all merging together into the darkness.

"You can't even hear my footsteps because of the fresh snow," his voice continues from the opposite direction she's now facing. "Do you think your enemy waits until the fight is fair? Whoever killed your parents used the coronation as the perfect moment to strike: everyone they needed dead was in the same place at the same time. They didn't care about that day being meaningful to you. They didn't care that your servant had nothing to do with the ruling of the kingdom. They chose their opportune time and struck. You need to learn how to make every moment your own opportune time to strike back."

Reine stops moving, angry tears filling her eyes as she wipes them away with numb fingers. "Claire was not my servant. She was my friend."

"A detail no one cared about in the moment they bled her dry," Taehyung snaps as he comes out of the shadows and pins Reine's hands behind her back with one of his own hands while his other presses the dagger onto her throat again.

His breath is slightly heavier as he stands behind her, and Reine's muscles are tense as she fights back her tears.

"You are the ruler, but not everyone is willing to show you courtesy," he whispers in her ear. "Not everyone will bow to you. What are you willing to do about that?"

Reine stomps on one of Taehyung's feet, and as soon as his grip on her loosens, she pulls her hands free and uses one of them to grip onto the wrist near her throat, and uses her other to pull the dagger from his fingers.

In an instant, she turns around and presses the tip of the blade to Taehyung's throat as he looms over her, his silhouette barely visible in the darkness.

"I cannot expect all to bow," she says through gritted teeth as she holds back the anger raging in her chest. "I am no fool, Taehyung. I know there are some things out of my control, but at least I am willing to admit that. You? You can't even come to terms with the fact that you have feelings like a human and you're finding it difficult to hold control over them. Is this your way of gaining control? By trying to turn off the humanity you're so terrified of?"

Taehyung's features slowly come into view as the clouds shift away and the light of the moon shines on them. She glances to see which blade is in her hands: the white healing dagger.

Seeing the blade glistening in her hand beneath the moonlight brings Reine back to her senses, realizing that Taehyung has no intention of hurting her since he was using the healing blade against her. Slowly, Reine lets her hand fall away from his throat, her fingers loosely holding onto the weapon as her arm falls limply at her side. Taehyung moves to take the weapon from her hand, placing it in its respective holster as he stares at her.

"I'm terrified," he says, his voice breaking the silence wrapping around them. "I see you and I feel anger at your hands caressing my brothers' faces. I see you and I feel warmth in my chest when you smile. I told you that I don't get cold, Reine. But when you are hurt or you are crying in your sleep, I feel cold. I don't understand. I can't analyze this. I can't control this. But when I see you, I don't want to analyze it. I want to feel."

Reine sighs, her numb fingers moving to rest against Taehyung's cheeks. "Do you feel that?"

She sees the subtle nod of his head.

"Taehyung, you care about me as I care about you. You are feeling jealousy, contentment and worry. You aren't human, but it doesn't mean you can't open yourself to the possibility of feeling like one."

Taehyung leans, his lips pressing against Reine's forehead before stepping back out of her reach. "I do care about you."

With those words still lingering in the air, Taehyung moves around Reine as he walks back into the cave, leaving her alone in the cool night air with the ghost of a smile on her face.

~

Morning comes too soon for Reine, her pounding heart causing her to lay on the floor of the cave unable to sleep for most of the night.

Today is the day that she will free the last of the Horsemen, and today is the day she will take another step closer to getting justice for the death of her parents, best friend and peers.

Breakfast is cooked and the four eat in silence. Reine is glad that Taehyung and Jimin are joining in the meal, knowing they must be exhausted from all of the energy they've used the past few days in this unforgiving terrain.

"We're going to take turns digging the box out," Jimin explains as they sit around the small fire crackling around them. Yoongi is able to sit pain-free now, but Reine can't help but watch his every move for any sign of residual pain from his injuries.

"It's pretty deep in the wall, so it may take a while," Yoongi says, wiping his mouth as he throws the animal bones into the fire. "Though I bet I'll be the one who gets it out."

"Yeah right," Jimin says, standing and squaring his shoulders. "I'll show you how it's done right now."

"Yeah, your skinny ass arrows will blast that box right out of there," Yoongi says, raising his eyebrow as he stands alongside him.

"Don't patronize me," Jimin says, crossing his arms over his chest. "Those arrows have saved your ass a few times over the centuries."

Yoongi gestures to the box. "Show me your ways, Great One."

"How have you dealt with their bickering for so long?" Reine asks Taehyung as the two watch Yoongi and Jimin fighting to see who can get the box out first.

"I've learned to tune them out," he shrugs as he leans back on his hands. He sends a small smile over to Reine, who smiles back at him before leaning her head on his shoulder.

She feels him tense under her touch, but this time, she doesn't move away. She enjoys showing him the positive sides to human emotions, and if she can prove that there is decency in them, maybe he can understand them better.

"At this rate, I won't have to lift a finger," Taehyung says, tilting his chin at his brothers who already have the box halfway out of the cave's wall.

"They have a knack for getting things done in the name of outdoing each other," Reine shrugs, letting out a nervous laugh as the box becomes more and more visible.

"Positivity is not my strong suit," Taehyung says, and Reine lifts her head to look over at him as he watches his brothers, "but I can feel your unease radiating from you and I feel like I am supposed to say something reassuring right now."

Reine laughs as Taehyung's eyes shift to look at her for a moment before turning to look back at his brothers as the two pull the box from the wall.

"You're trying," Reine says, standing as the two men fall in a heap with the box in their hands, both loudly arguing about who exactly got the box free. "That's all that matters."

She slowly walks to the box as Jimin and Yoongi stand, wiping the dirt from their hands as she kneels in front of it.

The bronze box is nearly vibrating with the power locked within it, Reine's hands shaking as her fingertips trace over the designs on the top.

A hooded man with a scythe in his hand stands in a field, and around him in every direction lay dead bodies at his feet as he looms over them. She swears that from some angles, the man's face looks like a skull, and at others, it seems human.

The words across the top cause a chill to run down Reine's spine as she whispers them aloud.

"The Horseman of Death."

With one final deep breath, Reine opens the box and watches as gray smoke billows from its confines.

She stands and moves back, her eyes widening as the ground beneath her trembles.