"Take what you want, take what you can
Take what you please, don't give a damn
Ask for forgiveness, never permission
Take what you want, take what you can
Take what you please, don't give a damn
It's in the blood and this is tradition

The Tradition - Halsey

🗻

There is darkness. I only know darkness.

My chest is bleeding, from the dagger, from loss.

Come find me, Ignis come find me.

My love is gone.

Where is he? I cannot find him. Where is-

Taehyung.

Leila's eyes fly open, grasping through darkness. Her whimpers mix with cries as she clings onto the warm body next to her. Feeling for wounds, and finding only the smooth expanse of unmarked chest. Sobs wrack through the air as the prince, alive, rustles out of his sleep.

Thank the gods.

The prince is all blue lines, barely visible to her as the moon outside was shaded by cloud. She gripped onto him tightly, her hands gnarled though they were unbroken. Sorina. Another wave of nausea rolled through her stomach as she clung to him tighter. Taehyung cooed to her, rocking her body with his and holding the back of her head as he attempted to calm her. He held out his hand, lighting a few candles above her bed. Leila tried to slow her breaths, even as she hiccupped through them. Blood, so much blood.

She felt Sorina's heartbreak. Over and over again.

Maybe not enough.

The prince held her tighter to his chest, lifting the satin comforter over them. Trying his best to get her to stop shaking. But she could not stop, her teeth chattering so harshly she was sure they would crack. When her sobs began to quiet the prince pulled back, just enough to brush away the hair stuck to her wet cheeks.

His face drew tight with concern, "Tell me what is wrong. Are you alright Ignis? Are you hurt?"

"I had a vision Taehyung, another one. I saw the night of the massacre. I saw everything." More sobs tore her body apart, and to the prince's credit, he kept his expression light. Though she saw the twinge of emotion even in the night.

The prince lifted a brow, acting as if she saw was not the key to ending his torment after two years of agony, "Ah, and to think you were waking me up because you couldn't wait to have me again."

The suggestive remark reminded her where she was, who she was. Whom was right next to her, safe and sound.

I am not in the throne room.

She let out a shuddering breath, her lips cracking with the smallest amusement, "You made your princess very happy already."

Taehyung eyed her carefully, breathing slowly with his chest so that she would follow his pattern. Taking in the drowned silver of her eyes, "My Queen. I think we can both agree I have to be a King if I am to be your equal."

How did he manage to make her swoon through sadness? She held onto his gaze tightly, locking herself into reality. Flattered and shocked that he was willing to break his vow in order to show that he was ready to fight this curse alongside her. It was enough to slow her beating heart, to loosen the knot in her throat that imprisoned her words.

She started again, slowly, "What I saw last night is not all. I did not get to tell you the rest of what I witnessed after I saw you with Sorina. Since we were...distracted."

Her blush burned through the night. Taehyung continued to pretend with his playful arrogance, like the world was not tilting beneath his feet. He needed to stay steady, grounded when Leila was not, "A mere distraction? That's all that was to you?"

"Stop deflecting."

Taehyung's smile was brilliant at the biting, subdued edge to her tone.

"As you command."

It was a simple agreement and it already made Leila want to take up his offer of acting now, and talking later.

But her heart still pumped furiously at the new truths that played in her mind. Secrets that would change everything. A story that could ruin him all again, but give him some semblance of peace to know what truly happened that night.

What it meant for them.

"The vision I had, that showed me what Ignis meant," The man nodded, mouth set in a straight line, still a little bruised that she had caught right by the throat with Sorina's omnipresent aid, "I can explain why your memory is so different than the truth." She waited until his eyes held her own steadily, the next words proving his worst nightmare, "When you were younger. She manipulated your thoughts Taehyung, as easily as molding dough under her hands. She brought you to witness things you should never see." Recognition colored the man's face, as he swallowed harshly. His eyes glittering as he waited for her to say it wasn't real. "I am so, so sorry."

"Tell me everything."

Leila explained the entirety of her dream. Of his conversation with Sorina, his little nickname he had bestowed upon the woman. His promise to stay a prince. How he had caught their hidden confession and understood what the names had meant, even at that age. How he had been sent to bed, but the Queen had pulled him from his sleep. Shown him the act of the King torturing Sorina, without the context of their shared agreement to enact pain that could only count as pleasure. Things the King's son, a young boy, should have never seen. How is mother whispered into his ear her lies, over and over and trickled her power into his mind until he believed it. How Sorina tried her best to take the terrible memory from him when he noticed.

The prince sat back, blinking in disbelief, "How do I know what is real and what is not?"

Leila placed her hand on his bare shoulder, running over the sinew and straight lines, "I think, I mean I know, that Sorina left that poem for you. he poem from beginning to end shares your father's first true vow to her, which I saw in full through a vision. To prove that the vision were indeed true. Cryptic enough so that if someone else found it, they might discard it. You saw her spending so much time on it, losing her mind because it needed to convey all they knew about the curse while detailing their love. She allowed it to be accepted by anyone who was cursed, since maybe she believed you would find the next daughter of the moon. So I read it all, and the blood magic transferred to me. But she saved those memories, her own and some of your father's because they knew of the tampering to your mind. And they believed in you, believed in your ability, your decision to break the curse or not."

Taehyung's sigh was strained, his chest caved, "I'm grateful it's with you. I am not even sure if I would've believed my own mind if I had been the one to receive them. I don't trust myself."

Leila's heart surrendered to the helpless look on the usually self-assured prince. His entire life as he knew it was in upheaval. All conclusions he had reached ripped from him like an empty nest. A ruler, an heir to the legacy of this kingdom and he had thought he knew everything. Raised to be confident, logical, and impervious to sway. Just to truly know nothing at all.

Leila knew that feeling, that spiral of thoughts and hopes. She felt it the night she had been told her family lied in order for her to walk willingly into her own execution. So she pulled him by a single tether, lifting his palm to her bare chest. His face contorted as he spread the warmth of it, feeling it's steady unsteadiness under his touch.

Silver eyes. Like birch. Like the moon. Like snow falling onto the ocean. Like the oval pearls he sometimes wondered were fallen stars.

"You remembered their names for each other. Even after everything, you held onto that memory from when you were little. You didn't let her rip it away from you. You were so stubborn, even then." Leila breathed out a laugh, "Especially now."

The prince lifted his lips, but his head stayed bowed.

"Do you have any suspicions as to why the Queen was able to get into your mind?"

From the way he bit his lip, to the way he looked slowly up through narrowed eyes, Leila knew he was doing his best to hide his anger. She could only imagine the feeling of betrayal coursing in his veins. Leila had never had a connection to either of her parents, and even their lies felt like suffocation. She could only imagine the cluster of emotions that Taehyung was experiencing.

"I've been suspecting it for a while now. Those blessed or descended from the deity of the moon can have powers of the mind. Clairvoyance, visions. Images. Dreams. It has something to do with the water content of our bodies, and I cannot pretend to understand the concept in it's entirety. That is why I attempted to teach you lessons within water, to see if your light powers extended to water. I was right, and I had you hide this purposefully from all others. And that, would have made sense if the Queen flashed images I had thought I witnessed to my head, right? No, she she used words, shadows to cloud my mind while spewing nonsense, shading the physical memory itself. She is not from the line of the deity Lunaith. Mah." The prince amended for Leila. The prince laughed without humor his fangs lengthening as his eyes flashed like tree hollows, "My mother, the queen is a descendent of Nox. That is the only viable explanation. Dimidium to be exact, which could explain the sheer breadth of her power. They are the only beings with magic able to alter time, to manipulate memories. And now I am certain of this."

Nox. The deity of night. Leila remembered the name, from when Taehyung had tutored her on Eastern beliefs. It felt so long ago, and he never gave any specifics aside from Solis and Lunaith.

It was strange, now that she thought about it, that beings who were sheltered and kept alive by night did not worship this deity. But instead, the sun. The one thing that could turn them to ash other than time. And apparently a cursed, stone dagger. Leila kept her questions to herself, a chill running down her spine. Whatever the reason, it could not be good.

"She's not the only one." Leila said, her tone lined with peril.

Jeongguk himself was a known direct descendent. Her dream from Sorina had proved that.

As well as Taehyung, who sat before her, both with shadow and light. But they already knew his place in the curse.

The prince reflected her own thoughts, his back straightening with regality. "Tell me everything you witnessed of the massacre. I need to hear it, what truly happened."

He let his palm drop from her chest, only to fold his hands over her own. Dragging her from her pained silence. "I am ready. I can handle it, and I will be here with you."

Leila told him every detail, her eyes closed as she relayed Sorina's chaotic thoughts. How they learned more about the curse, and planned to leave what they knew behind for him for the next cycle of the curse. How she waited for her father, and he did not come because Bianca had been working with the Queen to thwart their escape.

Of how Sorina awoke, disoriented in the ballroom to find the entire court and the King tied with some kind of poison. How her iron chains kept her from using her powers, or retrieving him. It was perfectly planned. Perfectly executed. Like their opposition had known about their plan for the Summer solstice before they had even conjured it. She explained gravelly that Bianca was the Queen's niece, also descended from night. That it was she, their shared friend, who plunged the dark dagger into the King's chest at the Queen's request. With no hesitance at all as she betrayed the lovers both.

Watched his eyes flair with curiosity and anger, when she told him that the King had mentioned balance and four corners. Day, night, dawn, and dusk. The lovers had known of the first part of the curse, the anti-curse that had taken Taehyung and Sorina months to contend on. It had meant something to Sorina, that made her realize the dire need for her to live until it was time. That Sorina could not fall to the Queen's hand, or else the balance would be destroyed.

How the rest of the court jeered and swelled with excitement as they watched treason occur. That the Queen stabbing the King again made Sorina break her hands in order to get out of her chains to save him, though it was too late.

She watched him flinch, his face paling as she told him of what took place after. Leila saw every movement, heard every cry of pain and horror once again from the long dead court. How when it was over, Sorina crawled to his father's body, holding him close. Killing herself, and ending the second cycle of the curse before the Queen could make it to her. How his mother's blood sprayed black from her neck before dissipating like fog.

The only comfort she could give him, was that Sorina had been next to his father when she finally passed. And that she had been able to see the prince once last time. She explained that her last words were a clue to the prince, that even after one hundred years in captivity, forever for mortals, it hadn't been enough time to love his father. To not miss him.

The prince's face was fractured. Consolation, for knowing that it was not Sorina who killed his father. That maybe everyone in that room deserved to lay in the grave they had dug themselves out of cruelty, prejudice, and paranoia. Anger, at the deep betrayal of Bianca. Rage, at the Queen who enacted horrific acts against them.

Realization, that it was not the curse that killed Sorina directly. It was herself. Their connection was not what would kill them. The curse would not make Leila go mad.

No, the daughter of the moon sacrificed herself to save them all. Even when she knew not what she saved them from.

Taehyung held Leila's hands close to him, his jaw steeled as he gritted out the words, "She suffered. She suffered so greatly, just not in the way I believed. Her greatest sorrow was losing my father. She knew I would be unaware, that I would think the worst of him. That he would die knowing his son hated him. That she would be painted as a murderess. My evil mother a martyr. And he—"

The prince's voice broke, his shoulders folded like that of a sparrow's. Remorse bled him dry as he looked at Leila. She saw ignominy take over, the little boy sitting outside of a dungeon cell once again. His entire life, he spent shunning a man he thought to be a monster. Evil. Even if he had loved Sorina, he hadn't thought him to be gentle, or kind. But as more memories surfaced, as the fog cleared, he began to remember.

"Leila, I was horrible to him. I-I don't know I let myself forget. After every lesson, I had went to the Queen to work on my powers. He dealt with political delegation, and she handled anything supernatural. When I would see him, I wouldn't even look at him when he spoke to me Leila. Like he was nothing, as invisible as the air around me." The prince's hands trembled fiercely, "I would go to her right after. I think that is why I think of him as cruel. Because she put into my head that he called me weak. That brutality was the only way to rule. That Sorina wanted every moment of his touch, his torture. That the curse commanded the daughter of the moon's torture, and her imprisonment. That he never spoke a loving word to me in my life."

Leila held fast to him as the trembling moved from his hands, to his lips. To his jaw. He let out a deep sigh, as he rushed the words out, "But I remember now. He only spoke of history. Of ruling. Of our family history. Every time he tried to ask me something personal I would ignore him. When he asked me if I would like to hunt with him, or spar, I would laugh in his face. When he attempted to touch me, I would rip away from him. He in turn was nothing but patient. Even when I would go further, and accuse him of all the things the Queen had planted in my mind. He never denied them. He just looked at me with only eyes that showed his age, his withering morose. He would tell me he loved me. Every time I accused him of taking Sorina forcefully. Of using the curse's pull to his advantage. Of being a terrible husband, and of being a worse father. He would tell me that he was proud. And that he loved me. I remember, I remember. I don't even know who he truly was. I wouldn't allow myself to, and it is all my fault."

Leila shook her head, moving closer to him. But his eyes were frenzied, like he could not see what was right before him.

"I don't even know how I let this happen. How I was so blinded to the truth that was right before me. It is unforgiveable." The prince broke down, his chest heaving, "I could have saved them. I could have saved them if I had been better. If I had prepared my mind. If I had heeded my father's words instead of my mother's. What have I done?"

The princess grabbed both sides of his face, bringing his irises to the protection of her own. Leila felt pure wrath fill her mind. And she wondered the ramifications of bringing a soul back from the dead, just to kill them again. Because that is what this Queen deserved, for the countless people she had killed in her envious pursuit, and whatever darker intentions hid underneath.

"Don't you dare blame yourself for one second. Your mind was attacked for a decade Taehyung, even the two most powerful beings could not protect your mind against her manipulations." She spoke harshly. Then softened as he held onto her to stay above water, "He was going to wait for you, to come to the realization yourself. He never blamed you, or hated you for how you treated him. Your father just thought he had enough time to make it right. Sorina died in peace knowing that you would live, and be a good ruler to your kingdom. That you would be kind to the next daughter of the moon, no matter what the Queen attempted to poison your mind with."

The prince's eyes snapped open with a new, golden light. His tears abruptly stopping, and she felt all was right once again. What she didn't expect, was the prince to pull her into a fiery embrace. Leila moaned into the kiss, with both pleasure and confusion as he devoured her. When they pulled away breathless, Leila cocked a brow at the prince's pith stained enthusiasm.

"You're brilliant Leila, don't you see? Sorina wrote the poem before the massacre. But even then, you could see they suspected another player, due to the duality of the first part of the curse. They suspected a third, an opposition, as we revealed." The prince persisted, "A backstab, an impale. Blade against blood. It is you, it is her, it is him. Three cursed within the poem, right? But like my father said, think of the first part of the curse."

Leila gasped, "We will always see light. We will never see light."

Taehyung sieged forth, "Four corners. Dawn and dusk. Night and day." The prince paused, a smile appearing, "If it takes two people to bring the sun back, it would take two people to keep the sun away. Balance."

Leila's body chilled, realizing the poem was for anyone who had been cursed, and that Sorina had seen visions. That is why she rewrote the poem so many times, as she had seen many versions of the future. That she had placed her last memory of it in the poem, and that the King had only unlocked the memory of the truth from her mind, "It is you. Your mother. It is her. Bianca the betrayer. It is him. Your father didn't want the queen to kill Sorina because he knew..."

"That if she did, we would never see the light again."

Cold. It was as cold as the dungeons. Cold as the visions that haunted her, saved her. Everywhere. Ice splintered in her veins. Snow melted on her tongue.

The curse, and what they were up against, had become a plague. More sinister than the cursed born could've ever fathomed.

Leila worked through it softly, her fears breaching her lips, "The King was day, the harbinger of the sun. Sorina, the daughter of the moon. The Queen, who would bring forth endless night...she was the Dusk. The night that swallowed the last of the evening sun. And Bianca, the dawn. The light as it breaks the horizon. The light that breaks relieves the darkness." Taehyung nodded, solemn. This was beyond their powers, their lives. This was the fate of the world as they knew it. Leila quaked, "You are the sun. I am the moon. Who are dawn and dusk? Who wishes to banish the sun forever?"

They stilled into their silence, only remaining sane from the touch of their skin onto one another's.

The prince broke the silence first, his voice abrasive to her thinning self-possession.

"Leila. I think we have to break the curse."

The princess let out a croaking sound, one that made his face falter from stoic resolve to frayed protection.

"Taehyung." She said his name. No. He could not be saying this. This was not a solution, not even an option.

The prince pulled her into his chest, her cheek settled into the curve of his neck and his shoulder. Pine and mahogany and sea salt flooded her senses, and for once it was not enough. Not enough because with what he suggested, he would be gone. She mourned him as he held onto her limp body, trying to warm life back into her.

"Listen to me first Ignis, please." The man beseeched, pressing his lips into the crown of her head. His voice was low, his chest rumbling onto her face, "There is the cycle every 100 years that denotes a new daughter of the moon being born. It will not end, this will never end. Until the scales tip to one side, in order to right themselves slowly again. There will just be more deaths, more people pulled into this scheme that the deities created for their sick pleasure." She felt his chin rest onto her, disgust flushing his tone, "If we leave this unfinished, we will never know safety. We will never know comfort. We will not know what it is like to live without the threat of looming doom. Even if we somehow find who is also connected to the curse and eliminate them, the cycle resets. There will be countless others. And then what?"

Leila hated him. She loved him and hated him. Because he was not evil, or destined for wrongness like he had preached. She heard the resolution in his voice. That he would not leave the world to suffer with no chance at redemption.

If he were as terrible as he thought himself to be, he would not utter the words he spoke aloud next, "I can live with myself if there is a chance of light, if not in our lifetime, for the next. I cannot live with myself if we leave the world with endless night forever."

Leila could not hear. Her screams drowned out the rest of her thoughts. Of his stupid, pretty, righteous truths. She didn't even realize she had begun to hit her fists into his chest until he grabbed them, bringing her red and wrath-wetted face to his once again. She saw his decision in his dark eyes. Saw that her reaction tore him apart.

She bared her teeth, "You're a liar Kim Taehyung. You told me that one could not be a god. That it was no one's responsibility to decide who lived or died. You told me that we would be written into history as the cursed wife and husband that gave way to endless night. You swore to me that the reason you kept me alive, was partly so that your kingdom could continue to thrive. That you kept away from me so long that you would not fail them." Leila heaved, "So what the fuck is all of this martyrdom shit? Had Elder Fareena gotten her knobby hands onto you to? Why was I not allowed to die for the sun, and you are allowed to fall victim to it to save everyone else? Why when all you have said since the beginning is that you want to keep your kingdom safe, and that no one else deserves to see the light again? Where? Where is that prince and bring him back to me at once."

The prince laughed. Actually laughed.

Leila grew more and more enraged as he shook against her, his amusement deep and velvety and soft against her skin. She glared at him until he stopped, a smirk lilting across his curved lips.

"Who said anything about dying?" He answered arrogantly. Avoiding everything else she said, until she snapped her teeth at him. He chuckled more, "Are you sure you're not an Immortui? Anyways, did we not establish I lie to protect you? And that if you knew all of my plans, you would skin me alive and bring me back just to do it again? Yes, I need it to remain night to protect my kingdom. For now. But as your visions with Sorina concur, and the stained glass you so meticulously studied, our Immortui condition is a curse in itself. Intertwined with that of the black sun. I plan on breaking that one first."

Leila felt some of blood return to her face, but her panic did not receded to his barbaric confidence, "I will not if it means your death."

The prince leaned closer, eyes intensely taking her in, "And I will not if it means yours."

"But if the sun comes out now you will die. We've just figured that Nox is involved. That there are four people cursed. We can't make hasty decisions."

Taehyung narrowed his gaze, "For the sun to come out now, you would have to die at my hand. And that will never happen. But we cannot hesitate for much longer, I can feel that something is going to happen. I am not sure how much time we have left. The summer solstice is only several months away."

Leila closed the gap between them, meeting mint and spice as she slotted her lips over his. Stole a single sigh from him. She leaned back just enough to peer into his onyx depths.

"It means nothing. It all means nothing if you aren't here with me. I promised you I would not die, now promise me. Promise me you won't leave me."

Taehyung smiled at her sweetly, though his own trepidation settled into his limbs, "I promise Leila, that we will figure it out together. It will all be alright in the end, I know it will."

Faces flashed between them. Of family. Of friends.

As long as our time is not cut short, by a descendant of night. By one of the people they loved, and cherished.

Leila felt the promise take hold. It grew horns, it sprouted wings. Whatever hesitation or trust she held in others turned from metal to water. Falling beneath the earth and nurturing the roots of merciless conviction.

They will not repeat history.

They will reforge fate in their image. A viper that bites only to their bidding.

"We'll only be stronger together."

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(A/N: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

As you all can see, the plot is PLOTTING! Did I not tell you I was gonna snap with this story??? Like I hope you all can see how this is coming together.

I hope the ancestry of everyone is cleared up. Again, there are still many things unanswered, even though a lot was revealed the past two chapters. So if ur still a little lost, it's not a big deal.

Drop your theories and questions below!!!

Also Leila and Tae *heart eyes* again, don't worry. They only spice up from here. They were never get dull like some of these book couples out here who have sex once and lose all tension. I told you, they will legit burn the world down to keep each other safe. So how far will they go together to save it??? OOOOOO ITS GONNA BE SO GOOOOOODDD

Tae is sooo sneaky! I love him. Like he is like ten steps ahead of everyone. Even Leila is like what the helllllllllllllll.