"I used to float, now I just fall down
I used to know, but I'm not sure now
What I was made for
What was I made for?"

What Was I Made For? - Billie Eilish

Spice -O- Meter:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️💕💕💕💕💕

🌞

Death is warm.

Leila thought to herself that she made it to the heavens. Because it felt like she was back in Taehyung's bed, surrounded by that golden glow in his chest when he was happy. She embraced the feeling, letting her final sacrifice give her some of that feeling back.

She knows she is dead because if she were alive the man would not be holding her. He would probably strike her down, and make it true. All the love he had felt for her was gone as she broke her one and only promise to him.

Maybe this is hell.

The heat that trailed along her arms, her nose, and the small hairs all over her body. It was only the comfort before the torment. A final sigh before a plunging blow. She would endure it, for him. She deserved to be punished for making him suffer like that. The idea of retribution flaying her to the bone made her almost feel less reprehensible.

One day he would forget the sound of her laugh or the way her hair curled around her arm. He would forget the exact shade of her eyes, and only reminisce at night when the sky was clear and revealed a full moon. He would remember their passion, their flame, and try to find it with someone new.

A heated tear trailed down her cheek at the thought, and she wondered why hell hadn't taken her melancholy away. Because at least he was alive. At least he would be okay. No matter how much he denied it, he would live on. He would have to like she had to let go.

As she stared into nothingness, she missed him. She missed them all. She had not been given a chance to say goodbye to her sister, or Jeongguk. The man who had threatened his way into her heart. Nor all the noblemen who had given her a chance despite the massacre. Not Jimin, who could one day be a friend again. Only Lily knew, and if things went awry, she was meant to find Taehyung. To prevent any crazy thoughts he had of joining her.

I died so you could live.

I died, so the world could see the sun once again.

Leila had not been ready until that moment. It had always been her duty, but she never felt it so achingly that she needed to do it. If Taehyung would have done what he was told, and she died the first night they met, she would have gone gladly.

The more she knew of love, the more she wished to stay.

But it was funny, that in her will to live, she found her reason to die.

It was what she was made for. To love, and to leave it behind.

The heat was scorching now, burning with its intensity. She thought of Taehyung until she knew the memory of him would be stolen from her, a greater torment than she could ever know. She imagined his kiss upon her lips, soft and stolen.

She imagined him playing in her hair. He liked to spread her locks out across his sheets, always commenting it looked like seaweed. The thought made her groan with longing instead now.

In her mind, their stroll by the sea continued. As it would for eternity. They would walk along the beach, holding hands in the dry Summer night. Salt-kissed and silver-footed as they traced along the beach. Taehyung would collect more shells, and Leila would collect more reasons she loved him. They would crash into the waves, becoming one with the dip and pull of the tide. They would kiss until they were sick of it.

They were never sick of it.

He would not cry.

He would not scream.

delam bi gharâre (my heart is restless)

He would just say her name, as he always did. With all the ardor one could possess.

"Leila."

The woman's ear twitched. It felt so real. His voice called to her, a myth.

This, this was hell. This was her punishment. To hear him, but not to see. To feel him, but not to touch. It was fitting.

I deserve it.

Because even if the sun awoke, even if he lived...

I broke his promise. I made him murder me, with his own hands.

I am the bringer of light. I am a monster.

"Life brings no greater grief than happiness remembered in a time of sorrow." His voice sounded closer, the words strange and unfamiliar. She had not heard them before. Her memory was marred by the last remnants of his grief, his shaky delivery adorned with it.

He did not stop. Leila was flooded by his voice, the soft and low timbre. Accompanied by a crashing of waves. Like she was back on the beach.

Water tickled at her feet, scraping the edges of her bare skin. Her hell might have been having to relive her drowning, over and over again. But his voice carried on, saying more and more words she had not heard in that particular sequence. The darkness started to lift. From the horizon to dawn. The veil over her eyes lifted, orange coating black with a citrus sweetness. She did not only feel the water. She smelled it. Its tangy ripeness, the spray of wind and foam. Then she smelled him, his presence. His inviting and heady scent was right beside the length of her body. Hovered over and near. His voice is more in focus than before.

Open your eyes, Leila.

She was just as much of a coward when she died. She could not even look upon her love's suffering, even as she was the cause. She could not face what she had done.

Now, she was too afraid to know that it was true. Not just a nightmare she had brought to reality.

Face your decision.

Jae and Sorina found each other one day. Maybe until then, her mind would give her Taehyung to spend her lonely afterlife with. A small piece of the person she so dearly loved.

Open your eyes.

Leila looked directly into the sun.

Her hands lifted immediately to her eyes, covering them.

"Oh fuck!" She exclaimed, her throat feeling as if sand eroded the lining of her flesh. Her tongue was heavy, and swollen in her mouth. It was strange, how she had never seen the sun, only its impression. And the afterlife decided to conjure it for her. She opened her eyes again, slowly doing so. Angling her line of sight down so that she did not stare straight into its rays.

Light.

So much light.

It was wonderful, glorious. The heat, despite her tousled body. The world was so bright, so bright and she could see the turquoise of the water and the beige and white of the sand-and—and the golden dew of her skin never seemed so vivid, like the outer shell of an almond—and the world was just doused in endless color and light and the world sparkled within its fiery abyss—
It is like the world before had been leached of color, coated in grays, blues, silvers, and violet. Now there was so much more. It was an open flame, the color of her dyed dresses. The amber of Setareh's eyes, the shock of Jeongguk's ruby jewelry. The shocking light of Jimin's hair.

The bronze of Taehyung's skin under candlelight.

Oh, my gods.

Oh my gods.

It was beautiful, and Leila could not even comprehend it. She could see everything. Everything. The light of a million candles bursting through the sky. The sky, once midnight, is now a bright blue. Blue as a robin's egg, blue as Lily's eyes.

Just like the books describe.

That is how her mind saw it now because this could not be real. The sun could not bring the world this much beauty. Whereas the moon kissed the ocean, the sun raked its claws across it. Bright beams of flaking gold, brilliant white, and succulent orange. The ocean stretched its hands, each wave lapping at the edge either translucent or the greenest of blues. The sand sparkled like diamonds, each grain visible and ornate. She didn't even get to look at the castle yet.

The man stopped reading, his voice fading like an ember.

Leila froze.

She was afraid, afraid to look at Taehyung and shatter her vision. If anything was off, she would know. If her vision of him had one less eyelash, one missing freckle, her dream world would scatter beneath the waves.

But it was time. She could not let herself be suspended without him. She would rather plunge back into darkness than have someone that was not perfect. Not her prince of the eclipse.

Her gaze drifted slowly to her side, her breath catching. Still painful.

Please, let it be close.

There Taehyung was, shrouded in a halo of light. He held a tattered leather book between his palms, and he was staring straight at her with an expression full of haunted anguish.

Leila thought he was beautiful before? No.

He was devastating.

His raven hair was so deep, the sun shined it to a sapphire hew. Every stray hair catches the light and becomes tourmaline. His clothes had dried, sticking to his well-framed body with the stiffness of seawater. But the sun, the sun, he was made for it.

Or he forged from its flames.

His bronze skin was alight, glittering jasper. A smooth canvas of flesh, only peaked by the shadows of raised veins. She could see every hair, new freckles, the flicker of his muscles under his skin. She followed from his hands which bound tightly to the leather, sailing to the column of his throat. Sunlight painted crystals across his face, reflected from the sea. His face was set like the sphere in the sky, his jaw a tight line. His darkly lined lashes, the color of conch shells, were rimmed with moisture. The light illuminated the raw pink of his eyes, his blood-red swollen lips. The glittering gold pith that sparkled along his face, because she had wounded him so deeply before he cried.

His eyes. She inhaled briskly, taken aback by the things she had missed in the darkness.

The eyes she had always seen as onyx lined with gold were living fire. The sun caught them, turning them to melted caramel. The color of turned leaves in the fall. The roaming of a fox along the edge of a forest. The sand below the sinking waves. The only color she ever wished to see again.

They were narrowed, staring through her. Scorching her as they cherished the bottom of her feet, all the way to her face.

He looks so real.

"Leila?" The man questioned, his voice croaking as it raised. A helpless cry. A break of sanity. He prayed to her, begging to know if he had simply died with her. The book he had been holding fell from his shaking hands and into the sand.

He rose to his knees, his hands lifting from his sides. Leila felt every bit of his heat as he neared, even though he blocked out parts of the sun from touching her body. Bathing her torso in a black shadow. But he looked down, his face slack in awe. He hovered above her, his hands waving over her body without making contact as if his touch would make her dissipate.

"Am I dead?" She lifted herself to her elbows, something falling from her deep brown tresses. She looked down, seeing how in the light her hair glistened shades of gold, red, and chocolate. The light. She beamed at the prince, "It's fucking warm." He did not smile back at her. Her vision of the prince looking at her with an intensity she hadn't even experienced when she was alive. At least hell produces his everlasting brooding. She looked down at her sides, seeing that it was shells that fell from her hair. She picked one up, taking in the stripe of blue along its ribbed surface. Colors she had not even noticed before. The prince eyed her carefully, his breath coming out in hurried puffs.

"They let me take these with me." She said aloud, a smile breaking across her warmed face. The heat settled along her cheeks, her nose the most. The shell felt like his kiss in her palm, "They let me keep the memory of you."

Taehyung shuddered, his eyes closing shut tightly as he grabbed at his chest. The man, the figment moved closer to her his knees scraping against the sand. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she sighed into it. It feels exactly the same. She turned her head inward, nuzzling her nose into his wrist. Inhaling his scent, taking it with her.

"You did not take anything, Leila you are here."

"No, I am not. I am gone."

He grabbed her hand, prying open her palm. She did not want to look. She did not want all her hopes to be crushed when she realized she was still dead.

"Look, Leila." His face was so close to hers. Her cries were without sound, but they reached the bottom of her chin. Dropping onto her sun-embraced skin. Taking some of the rising temperature away.

She only listened because his large hands were callused in all the ways she had felt brushed along her skin on the darkest of nights.

More shells littered her palms. Peony pinks, and lavender hues. Black and gray.

And a shell, that if held in a certain way, was the shape of a heart. They were the ones he had picked for her before she drowned.

She shook her head, closing her eyes once more.

"I—"

Her words cut off as she began to vomit up seawater. She felt the scrape of his blunted nails across her back, as she hurled herself over on her hands and knees into the sand. The man held her shoulders softly as she ejected all the contents from her body. Her ribs threatened to crack from the force of it.

If I am dead, why would my body be rejecting the water? More seawater barreled from her chest, until her eyes watered and her hands borrowed themselves into the soft sand. If I am dead, why is Taehyung still with me? Why did the heart shaped shell follow me?

It could only mean- "It worked. Oh my gods it worked! It's the sun Taehyung! The sun!" Her voice was raspy from her sick, her hands catching his stiff collar. She could not stop her smile from seeping onto her face, and she wanted nothing more than to pepper the man with kisses.

She could not speak she was bursting with sheer titillation.

"I am still here. I am still with you." Leila whimpered, but her joy won out. A disbelieving laugh left her lips, Taehyung following after the sound with wide eyes. His body mimicked her movements easily, also on his knees. His head angled down due to his height, his chest facing her own. She lifted her hands, tracing along the sharp and glistening angle of his cheekbone. Indebted to fate that she could once again feel his skin underneath her palm, "I thought I would never see you again." She bit her lip, tears of beholden jubilation coming forth, "I brought you the sun."

"Ignis." Her name broke forth from him, a low grumble. It sent goosebumps scattering all along her skin.

He was not looking at the sun.

No, he was staring at her with a look he only reserved for their enemies. Edged with a dark hunger that she had only witnessed while he was feeding. The combination of homicidal devotion, lust, and revelation was a toxin that she could hardly endure.

"Taehyung?"

He did not answer her. His gorgeous face twisted by pure unadulterated wrath.

Fuck.

The warmth of the sun slipped away.

She knew he was going to be angry, heart broken, deranged, and upset but she needed a chance to explain everything. Leila hated herself more than he ever could.

Her hands fell slowly to her sides. He did not break eye contact, his scowl deepening.

If he hated her now—
If he hated her. She would understand.

"Taehyung, I-" I said I would die your enemy. I knew the lasting implications of what I had done. Anyone who hurt me was your enemy. But I could not risk your life. "I know you must abhor me—"

Her Immortui prince silenced her with his teeth.

The prince threw himself at her, quicker than her eyes could track. And he bit her—He bit her bottom lip, making her suffocate on the rest of the words. The action unforgiving as he brought her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked the silver he conjured.

She opened her eyes out of blatant uncertainty, nearly moaning at the sensation. I thought I lost this forever. His expression shifted from ire to drunken craving. His lightly veined lids were heavy, irises shielded as they glanced up at her with disastrous need.

"Taehyung."

Taehyung removed his fangs from her bottom lip at the sound of his name on her tongue once again, his mouth drenched in her silver blood. He licked his lips, taking in her face, before he kissed her. The man was rabid, and Leila could barely keep up with his desperation. No restraint found left in the once stoic man.

The man groaned into her throat, roughly persuading her lips with her own.  He left behind his version of Leila that was always dangled off the side of a ledge, one more finger left to slip. He left his fears behind the she could not handle him as he was. She refused to break. It only made his kisses deeper, his tongue tracing along hers and teasing back. He offered her no air, no respite. Ingesting her than savoring.

Leila fell back against the sand, her body arching as he bowed with her. His body the branches of a willow tree as he let his body smother her own. His skin was burning, burning against her own that had been frozen by the sea. His shirt brushed harshly against the aching peaks of her breasts, reminding her that she was indeed alive. Leila fought her mouth against him, losing sense as she felt his pulse through their aching mouths. There was no end. Her vision growing hazy they refused oxygen, their lips only molding closer together. His hips moved into her, rolling against her leg, her pelvis.

His hands grabbing her wrists, her throat, her breast. Her legs, her heart. He even brushed over the shell of her ear. In between their biting kisses, he ran his thumb where their lips and flesh fused. Making sure every part of her was truly here before him. Alive. His fingers dug into every part of her skin, kneading. Honoring.

Leila pulled away for a second, just to breathe. The man barely acknowledged the movement, using one hand to slide between her waist and the sand. He place the other arm by her head, and used the leverage to pull her body into his. He sucked harshly on her bottom lip, making her cry out before he consumed her little sound of pleasure. His lips slotted over her top, a relentless storm as she was fused into him by the strength of his grip around her. He had never held her so tightly, afraid she would crack. Now, he just wanted to feel her.

I am breaking apart, I am in exaltation.

Her prince finally gave her mouth freedom, just long enough to stare into her eyes. The rays of the sun traced along her eyes, taking over his place at her lips. He eyed her hungrily, but not entirely of lust. Like a man who wished she could be one with him if they tried hard enough. Like a man who had died, and risen along with her. More. They needed more.

The prince let go of her waist, letting her drop into the sand. Leila yet out a yelp, but she was more focused on the man that prowled above her. He moved, on his hands and knees. Crawling, so that his face was directly over her own.

The sun enveloped him from behind, making him an amber cast. His dark hair that hand now reached the end of his jawline fell forward in loose waves. His dark eyes perfused her, invaded her with their veneration. Their intelligent, battling inquiry.

Leila could do little but ache, her body lifting without her permission towards him. She lifted her hands, ready to pull him by his collar and onto her body.

He snapped, grabbing her reaching wrists and placing them over her head with one ringed hand. Leila swallowed harshly, her center aching. She needed him more than anything. Now that she had almost lost him, she wanted little else. She would die once again without his touch.

The man licked his cherried-lips leaning so close, their noses brushed, "I was ready to incinerate the world for you."

Leila gulped, her thighs pressing together. She should be terrified by that statement. It should have warned her of every bit of torment that she caused in him, and how he would choose to repay her for causing it. "Please." Is all she could say. She wanted him everywhere, anywhere it did not matter. Just knowing that he would destroy for her was enough to send her soul spiraling.

"Please?" The man growled out, the words scraping along her skin as he breathed along her neck. Her collar bones. Leila's wrists ached between his fingers, and she wouldn't want it any other way. He pulled back, darkly scoffing as he let his free hand trail under her skirts and up her inner thigh, "I begged, and you did not listen."

Leila felt a lump in her throat, fighting against the desire. She was about to get onto her knees, plead at his feet for an apology.

But the man now held her own knife above her chest.

Time froze between them, as the tip of the blade hovered just above her heart. The man eyed that spot easily, watching as the sharpness never broke the skin. He looked up at her, his eyes now onyx as they were in shadow, "I do not want you to beg. I want you to scream," The knife moved closer to her cleavage, and her stomach dropped, her chest heaving, "I want my name to carry from your lips for miles. I want to know you are alive." Taehyung kept eye contact, as he dipped to her chest. Kissing where the knife met her skin, "Leila, Leila, Leila."

Maybe I broke him.

The man lifted himself, just enough to bring the blade to the top of her night dress. And began to cut away the fabric with her own weapon, all the way down to her navel. He ripped it off the rest of the way, letting it hang by her side in the sand. He discarded the knife to the side, standing up on his knees so he could see all that he uncovered, his eyes almost a shade of red.

Maybe I like him unhinged.

Taehyung took her in gently, but wholly. Devouring every bit of skin that now prickled with heat from the sweltering light above them. He brought night with him, eclipsing the sun as he became enamored once again with her face. His fingers grazing over the brow of her bone, shaking but somehow sure. Slowly moving down to her soft chin, to the valley of her breasts. Eyeing passionately the path of his fingers, making her arch as he traveled all the way to her navel, circling to her hip bones. Down to the soft rounded curves of her thighs.

"Fucking cinnamon." He mumbled lowly under his breath, looking frustrated, before he placed both of his thumbs onto the bones of her hips.

He lowered himself, looking through his lashes up at Leila. She felt fucking sure she was alive, as her whole body reacted as he pressed a single kiss to the center of his stomach. Which felt pure enough, until he let his tongue start to swirl along the flesh.

He licked across her skin, watching the way sunlight caught in the seawater that trickled off of her body, turned it into honey.

"Taehyung." She whimpered out his name, biting her lip.

"Yes Ignis." He called back to her, the word distorted by his attentive mouth. He wanted more. He wanted her louder. He wanted her thighs squeezing around his head.

But neither could wait. Leila wriggled from his grip, using her powers to rip all the buttons off of his shirt. He barely noticed, feasting on her body as she did so. She bent into his mouth as he moved over her breast, trying to take as much flesh into his mouth as possible. The soft ring of his lips contrasting against the olive sheen of her own. His hand massaged around the other mound, taking the entirety of it into his palm.

Leila stuttered, her words becoming nonsense, "M-my Prince-"

He looked up at her, sucking on the skin and letting go. "No, your enemy. Isn't that what you made of me?" He then used his blunt teeth to bite at her peak, making her nerves electrify.

(A/N: ngl, that line had me clenching.)

He swallowed her protests to his accusation, breathing them in and swallowing. Leila once again moaned ceaselessly against his lips, a wave without break. She was lifting her hips into the air, into nothing, needing his flesh upon her pounding center. His large hands fitted themselves to the smallest width of her wait, his relentless mouth pushing her head further into the sand.

Their mouths hovered over one another, panting. Taehyung had his eyes clothes, his forehead resting on hers. His trousers low on his hips as both of his thighs caged her own nakedness. They had not even touched each other in all the ways they liked, but neither could hold out any longer. "Let me feel you." Taehyung begged, trembling against her unsheathed body. His straight nose brushed along her cheek, feline as he refused to part from her skin all the way. She knew what he needed.

Leila let her hand sink his his pants, unbuttoning the iron lock. The man groaned, and Leila felt the evidence of his desire. Pulsing and hotter than the air around them as it nearly burst at the brush of her hand.

Taehyung quickly crushed her into the sand with his hips, his hand wrapping around the front of her neck with a gentle grasp. Not squeezing, just possessing. Showing she could lay herself bare, and he would never take more than she asked. His groan sent heat throughout her, as he placed his hardness into the curves of her skin.

His eyes were slitted with need, his lips swollen. Leila felt her heart molting with her ardor for the man. He latched onto her mouth again, this time the kisses more purposeful and skilled as he gently worked on her mouth. Playing with the smoothness of her skin, like he often did between her thighs. And Leila was burning, scorching in all the ways he had promised to do to the world. Obliterated, as his hands slipped from her hips to her inner thighs, and splayed them open so wide her knees hit the sand. He sank between them, the velvet of his skin escaping more and more as he rubbed onto her. Leila was drenched, mad with her desire for him. She let out a moan as he brushed right next to her clit, so close and still too far. She needed him inside.

She needed him to show her that he may forgive her.

Leila sunk her teeth into his lower lip, making him perish. She ran the length of her nails over his back, shredding what was left of his flowing shirt. Her heart pounded in time between her thighs, and she knew only his heartbeat with syncopate with hers. Please. She begged from the inside, knowing it would only slow him down.

And aggression had change to a taunting lethargy. His movements calculated, slow, and hard as if to punish her. She deserved it. She lifted her hips towards him, allowing for his length to slide along her folds. They both whined into their kiss, the sensation wreaking havoc.

"Fuck me." The man panted against her mouth, pupils blown, "I cannot deny you a single fucking thing."

Leila wanted to tell her how much she loved him. How much she respected, and admired him.

She could do nothing, and Taehyung used one hand to spread her apart. And sank himself into her, all the way until their navels kissed. Her mouth hung open, frozen by rapture. Taehyung settled his forehead against her, breathing slowly. His mouth twisted in a harsh line as he willed himself back into control.

Then he moved back, and repeated the motion. Harder, more purposeful. Less chaotic, and with the exact motion Leila liked. Where he would dip in straight, and the elevate his hips in an arc.

It started as a love letter, a promise. He kissed along her neck, his tears bled into her dry skin. Leila felt her heart break as her body renewed. A horrible sinking of guilt as he also brought her to soar.

It quickly dissipated into gluttony. Taking more and more, and torturing them both. Taehyung angled his hips purposefully, sinking into her without break. Over and over he sent he sunk her deeper into the grown. His thrusts rougher, and deeper than she ever felt before. They snapped into her at an unbroken pace, each a new emotion he was letting go of.

He gripped both of her inner thighs, but then let a hand rest upon the bottom of her stomach. Leila cried out, a new sensation forming within her as he pressed down. Like he was helping her clench around him. "You thought you could escape me through death Ignis?" He whispered huskily into her ear. She wanted to protest. She wanted him to know that was not the reason. but he started thrusting harder, the feeling reaching her lungs. He nipped at her ear, heaving, "Let there be no misunderstanding between us. I will follow you wherever you go. Death means nothing to you and I, because it will always be you and I."

"Taehyung!" She screamed his name, unable to hold back any longer. Words no longer made sense. The only thing she felt was the insatiable desire and love for the man before her. Nothing else mattered. Nothing. He smirked darkly at the sound of her voice, calling out his name as if no one else existed. Falling deeper into madness as she lost herself. She began to meet his every thrust, her arm wrapping around his neck so she could lift herself into him.

The man bit his lip harshly, his face screwed up between pain and pleasure. "Ignis, my terrible Ignis." His body fell into hers, and he started to run his face all along her skin. Using his nose, his lips, his tongue to taste and understand her. Her nails dug into his back even harder as the slippery wetness between their bodies increased, making every brush of his hips slide right where her nerves congregated. They kept worshipping and punishing, Taehyung breathing harshly against her as his hips jerked unsteadily.

Leila fractured, her last words the promise of his name. She convulsed against him, almost painfully, the sensation becoming too much. He winced, falling into her completely the weight of his body taking over. Leila saw stars amongst the light blue of the open sky, her back flat against the ground. He remained inside of her as she pulsed around him, running her fingers into the soft raven of his hair. His arms began to lock around her, tightly. So tightly.

The sun was here. And still, she had something more wondrous in her arms.

More wetness appeared on her chest, heated. He was crying once again. She wound her tired arms around his center, letting him nuzzle closer into her neck.

Taehyung did not let them rest for long, and Leila followed his lead. Too afraid to say something that would send him over the edge. He helped her wrap the remnants of her dress around her, kissing each shoulder as he did so. When she began to sob like a mad women, he kissed upon her eyelids, and held her into his chest.

They did not speak as they walked back to the castle. Leila clutched to the broken seams of his shirt as he carried her bridal style.

Their castle shined like sea glass, pearl-like in its luster. Not just a gorgeous crafted tower and sheet of black, but made of deep blues and violets and ambers. The dark, foreboding fortification turned into something of an ethereal beauty. All that had made it dark and sharp softened within the golden light. They could see every cut of jagged rock, every slope of the cliff the structure settled upon. The long spires less sharp, and more like the tipped wing of a bat. Natural, and formidable. The iron decorations were now visible in their intracity, Leila noticing details she had never seen. It was stunning.

]The garden was a bright green. The oak tree, a twin. Its shadow larger as it stretched across the grounds. And the Lunetta that rested underneath, so vibrantly purple it made her jaw pucker. As if she had tasted something sour.

She took one more look at the flower, before sinking further into his chest.

When they walked into the castle, it was just as shocking.

Light, bright and natural cascaded into the main foyer. It's circular prism made of the heavens, as each piece of designed marble now shone the design of the sun across the floor. Light rained from the top of the domed ceiling, from the open windows and slanted into the halls and turned them gray candle lit corridors into small slices of the sky.

Taehyung's steps slowed, as they remained in the center of the main hall. Leila turned to see his reaction, her own completely amazed. It had been hard to imagine what those who the saw the sun spoke of, when they had nothing to compare it to. She never could have imagined this, not in her most sweet of dreams.

But what she found made her smile drop.

Taehyung did not smile. Darkness seeping back into the eyes that were once so full of light. He did not even look at her as they remained unmoving, her body still in his arms.

Leila dreaded this moment. When the initial surprise wore off. And she would be left to answer to the mess she created with him.

"I was going to-"She started, as the man ignored her. Kneeling to the floor.

And then promptly dropped her.

Leila's wet body fell with a harsh slap against the ground, and Taehyung did not look down to his own doing. He stared ahead, getting back up slowly onto his feet as Leila stared at him, open mouthed.

He turned, a hand pressing to his forehead. His back turned towards his love.

And then he walked away without a word. His fists clenching and unclenching as rivers of sunlight made him flash from gold to shadow.

Leila did not run after him, no, she couldn't.

Her body remained weak as she stared up at the ceilings, which she now could see was a sphere of stained glass. She spotted the moon and the stars, a cascade of purple flowers.

She smiled.

The castle had been trying to tell them what to do all along. But they could not understand what they could not see.

She could not even turn her head, when she heard much lighter footsteps. And then the panicked quickening of their pace as they realized who lay on the open floor.

Leila heard a gasp, and she immediately knew who it was. Lily. The only other person who would brave the sun, other than the prince at the moment.

"Leila? What happened? Did you attempt-" Lily fussed over her, her blonde hair and blue eyes appearing above her. In the sunlight, she was all cream and snow drop. It made Leila's heart sigh, glad to see her friend once again. "Well I assume you did as planned. Taehyung looked like he might still crack the earth beneath our feet."

The princess let out a cackle. One that made Lily quirk up a brow and check her head for sickness.

"The curse broke. And I am alive for Taehyung to hate me."

Leila continued to laugh hysterically, feeling every drip of golden heat still upon her. Joyous, in that she was still alive to feel his anger. As least she could suffer in his presence.

"Leila!"

She heard her name called once more, a distant memory, before her mind gave way to dreams.

****

"When you touch me there I feel butterflies
I'm gonna love you til the day I die
When you cut me, you cut me like a knife
You don't know it, but you saved my life"

Butterflies - Tom Odell AURORA
(Yes it's like a chapter within a chapter I wanted both songs)
The Curse of Day&Night
🌓

322 years Before

Jae/Solis/Aisulu

There was little magic before the world fell apart...but there were small amounts. Some people who chose spiritual methods over others. Some who were blessed and had no other choice.

There had been a solar flare, one that shocked all technology. The world fell to chaos, as all methods of humanity failed. And in that, ensued the next dark age. Where there were books on disease and illness, with no people to help solve them. There were leftover hospitals, schools, and governments, without enough fed people to run them.

That was only five-hundred years before, and the world was razed in that time.

New gods were erected, new lines and countries created. The humans needed something to latch onto, and the deities had grown bored.

That is what I recall my father explaining to me as a child, when I first felt the light of the sun in my chest.

I was not the only person who had powers. As the world fell into deeper turmoil, more abilities started to appear to fit the needs of the changing atmosphere. Useful, or self-serving, they were revered by all those who had not received any gifts.

I hated my power. I hated everything.

Because I could not help, with all my heart, the one person I loved.

I looked to my side, checking my wife as she slept beside me. Our carriage was well built, but already it was a risk taking her across several countries to travel. I lifted the fur blanket closer to the bottom of her chin, and checked to make sure the curtains were drawn.

We journeyed from the East, from a country in Central Asia. All because of a dream I received from Solis, the god of my bloodline. And I was desperate.

I ran my fingers over the newly formed blisters across my wife's rounded cheek bone, wishing I could cut off my own limbs. Her hair was a pretty red, a mutation, but nonetheless as beautiful as a fox's hide. Her eyes were closed with sleep, but her lashes were thick and long over smooth sockets. Her lips were full, her nose bridge flat and button like. She nuzzled closer into him, and it made the pain in his chest thicken.

They were only thirty years old, and Jae Sokolov's wife was dying.

There was a name for what she had. A name that came from the world before, which he had found while digging through endless medical books.

Porphyria, an extreme form of it. Aisulu had a blood disorder, one she was born with. Whenever she was exposed to the sun, blisters of a painful disposition would sprout along every uncovered part of her skin. Overtime, each instance of exposure would cause organ damage.

I knew the name of her disease. I read countless pages of how they used to treat it. And now because the world fell apart, I could not easily save her.

It brought a man to the brink of insanity.

She was fine, before she met me. She stayed in the house without end, her skin paling more than the rest of them. She would take strolls during the night.

But I was the sun himself. And our marriage arranged, due to our shared noble status in neighboring villages.

We fell in love.

It did not take long for me to realize my presence was killing her. He tried to divorce her. I tried to leave, many times over. But I loved her so dearly. And she was crazy, crazy enough to say that every minute spent with me was still worth it.

Even now, as she slept, I was causing her pain. And she would not want it any other way.

It did not mean I gave up. As Aisulu was blessed by the moon deity Lunaith, they tried to expand her abilities to self-healing. It did not work. We went to every doctor, every witch that resided in their side of the world. No salves, potions, or elixirs helped. Her skin would still crack, bleed, and ooze. Her body would still keel over if she attempted to enjoy the outside during the day.

I carefully laid my gloved hand over the fur. Doing my best to temper down the sun's essence.

Of course, a woman who could not stand the sun would fall for me. I once again wished I could rip my own heart, and all the blessings and blood I received from Solis. I will not give up.

I wanted her to experience life without pain. So I took a band of his closest men, and set out to the West. Led by only a vision of a god, telling me that is where we could find all the answers. It was crazy, and perhaps a fool's errand. But I was willing to cross any ocean, climb any mountain, and forge any desert to help my wife.

The carriage jolted as they came to a stop.

"We are here."

I let out a deep sigh of relief, my chest weighted with the unknown. I looked at Aisulu's sleeping form, too content to be awoken.

Romania. The land to which held the elixir of life. A cure.

***

They waited till night to leave the carriage, and then they set up camp. About thirty men came with them, so it was easy to erect the tents and create a bond fire.

The land was strange, but beautiful. A twinkling light in the darkness, as the moonlight showed a jagged cliff edge. A large oak tree swallowed over their camp, strange little flowers flirting on their roots.

The sea stretched out before them, black and brimming as it met the shore.

But it was Winter, and snow covered most of the high topped mountains. It made the days cloudy and forgiving to Aisulu, and I started to wonder if that is what Solis meant by a cure. She smiled, her blisters healing slightly as the sun refused to reveal itself from the white November sky.

"Are you happy here?" I asked one night, bathing her in our tent. Of course, I still wore gloves lined with a soft metal. It helped reflect my power back into my palm.

"I do."

And with that, they began to settle.

A week became two, two became month. And life started to flourish as they enjoyed the snowy cover of Romania. Men started cutting the pines, speaking of sending letters back to their family so they could travel with them. My wife felt stronger, taking longer walks outside of the tents.

It was everything I could have hoped for.

Everything Aisulu could have wished.

Until one day. When the sky grew more brisk, and the cold of a storm moved in. And along with it, people.

They happened upon their camp, dressed in more furs and layers than they could hope for. A man led them, taller than the rest. His eyes dark, his brows heavy, and his body strong despite his age. He stepped closer to me, unafraid of my stature.

I took in the rest of the group. To his right, were two girls. Both of light hair, though one was pure white and the other golden. They looked young. I did not like the way the one with piercing blue eyes stared back at me. Nor at my wife, who stood proudly beside me. There were two other men, who seemed like they were there only for protection.

"What is it you want?" I asked, in the common tongue. Old latin.

The man's dark eyes widened in delight, understanding. "I was sent here to find you."

My hand found its way to my scabbard. Something is not right. I eye the man warily, "Speak plainly."

The man wearing the furs stepped forward, his arched nose like that of the mountains behind them as he opened his arms wide. Addressing the group as a whole. "My name is Beznă. These are my two daughters, Clarisse and Anastasia. And the men behind me are my apprentices." He cleared his throat, his voice booming across the space, "I am a Getae Priest of the old religion. We believe in immortality of the soul."

The way the man bore into me made my hair stand on end. My throat felt dry, and all I wanted to do was hide my wife. I glanced at Aisulu, who looked just as apprehensive.

And as if the Priest could sense my reluctance, he spoke the condemning words, "I am here to cure your wife of her affliction."

"Jae, no." Aisulu whispered by my side, tugging on my arm, "I do not trust him."

I do not either.

But this could not be coincidence. I came hear because Solis told me of a cure. And here a Priest was, offering it to us.

"Prove it."

The daughter closest to him scoffed, but the other stayed silent. His men moved forward, acting more like the guards they were meant to be.

Priest Bezna held up a hand, "Done."

The priest walked over to the oak tree, and Aisulu clung to my hand tightly. I squeezed back, letting her know that everything would be okay.

The man inspected the strange purple flowers that lived at the base. And then picked one. He came back over, and asked if he could borrow our bonfire to which we agreed. We watched the priest carefully, as he begun to brew a potion. "The Getae use a form of psychosomatic medicine based on charms. The purpose is the heal both the soul and the body. And one day, fuse them together. For if our soul lives forever, and is attached to our body, how can we not live longer?" The man spoke nonsense, as the flowers steeped slowly into the tea. "Here my dear."

The man lifted the purple filled cup to Aisulu, and she took a step back.

My heart turned brittle, "Only take it if you want." Then more severely to Bezna, "If anything happens to her, you die."

The Priest smiled widely, "Of course. But watch."

Aisulu was always braver than me. She took the cup, staring the priest down, and drank all the contents. My heart pounded endlessly, my men creeping up from behind to wage war if anything happened.

When she looked up from the drink, the blisters that formed on her face already started to disappear. Her smile turned brilliant, "I feel better Jae. I am not in pain."

I looked at the Priest, in utter awe. The man laughed, clapping his hands together.

"Touch her." I did. Gladly, and without holding back. I pulled off my gloves and let my bare palms hold my wife's face. She did not blister. Her skin did not rip and flake.

"You live, for now." I told the Priest, eyeing my wife she dragged me to our private tent.

Not knowing he had let a poison seep into their lives.

***

The priest, his daughter, and his men were allowed to stay as we built the Kingdom. Aisulu wished to stay, and I wished for the priest to keep making her the magic healing tea.

Lunetta, he had called the flower.

After a year the grounds were built to hold hundreds of people. More Romanians from the Getae village were encouraged to join them, and many of my men brought their families from the East. Combined they had already created a Great hall, and many rooms for them to live in. The used the readily available black stone that resided in the mountains, and pines to make structures inside.

Clarisse, the sweet daughter of the Priest, married one of my younger men. It was a cause for celebration, and further united the two people as one. The young woman even started to teach Aisulu how to heal and work with herbs, which helped her if her nightly tea had not been enough to hold off the sun.

They built mosaics, works, celebrating their union and the worship of the Sun god, Solis. Who had given his wife a new chance at life.

Everything was perfect.

Until the second year of building their new kingdom, when my wife woke up to her skin feeling like it caught aflame.

Her condition plummeted.

I ripped out of our bed, running to find the Priest. He lived in a far corner of the castle, the one closest to the temple that had already existed before their arrival.

"Beznă!" I was sobbing. I fell to my knees at the Priest's feet, "The tea stopped working. I hurt her again. What can I do?"

The man peers down at him, seemingly from the heavens. His eyes darker than they had veer looked before, "There is one thing you can do."

"Anything." I grabbed at the floor, bowing my head.

The priest was mocking in his sympathy, but I had not yet opened my eyes to the truth, "If you offer your soul in servitude to the deity of night, Nox, I can save your wife."

"How?" I stepped up from my bowing position, my stomach churning, "What would that do?"

"Since you hold the blood of Solis, giving your soul to Nox would shade the sun. Or a better word would be to camouflage it."

"Hide the sun? Wouldn't that mean only night would exist, and not day?" I shook my head, "No. We would all be plunged into darkness. That cannot be right."

The Priest sighed, "Wouldn't it be better for your wife if it were always night? She would never have to worry again." He bent to his knees, lifting my chin, "All you have to do is get bitten by a viper on the eclipse, that is your soul offering to Nox. And then it will be night forever."

I did not know what would happen if night was forever.

And yet, for my wife, for love, I would have still gladly done it.

***

"Come back to bed." Aisulu beckoned me, her soft read hair straight down her back. She looked at me with a love that tore skies apart, and without any resentment.

It only furthered my resolve, "I will. I promise I will. But sleep now my love. I must take a walk by the sea."

I did not know if Aisulu saw the guilt, the worry in my eyes. But I still carried myself out into the falling day. I could not look into the eclipse, but I saw its effect on the world. The sky was a blazing red, the moon overlapped. Turning the sun black.

"The day of the black sun." I looked into the sky one more time before laying on my back, just where the Priest told me too.

I closed my eyes, recalling memories of my life in case I died. But even if I did, Aisulu would be better off. Her skin unmarred and tortured by my presence. An hour passed, two.

And that is when I heard a soft slither next to my body. My wife's name on my lips, as the viper sunk it's teeth into my skin.

I twisted in agony, this bite not like any other. My blood froze in my veins, falling backwards. I opened my eyes, watching the onyx black animal latch onto my skin. It's eyes a glowing white. My gums ached, my teeth rearranging. I was pierced through my lip, as my fangs grew to excruciating lengths. My nose twitched with the scent of sky, blood, and earth. My eyes blinked at liquid acid raged through them, clearing all blurriness.

I looked into the sky, the last time I would ever see the sun as it plummeted below the horizon in favor of a tired moon.

The pain stopped.

I sat up, touching at my mouth. I pulled back my finger in pain, as I pierced my own skin.

What have I done?

"Jae." The Priest appeared from burgeoning see, a sick pleasure contorting his features.

"What-" I could barely speak. I began to panic, as every word was met with the pain of my teeth gouging my skin, "What am I? What is this?"

Bezna walked closer, "You did as I asked. You gave your soul to Nox for keeping, and in return, the world will forever be a servant to night. And you are a creature, forged from its greatness.

"Explain."

The Priest eyed him, "There is no give without take. You stole the sun away, so now it mocks you. You have become a gruesome characterization of the disease you wished to rid your wife of. The world once called them vampires. But that, you are not." My heart sank, my vision turning red, "You cannot step into the sun. Your skin will flake until their is nothing left but your bone carcass. You must consume the blood of others for energy, since your own is diseased. You are a predator amongst those who wish there to be light." The Priest smiled wider, "Nox made you just like your wife. Now you can live happily together in darkness. Your children, your children's children, your men's children, will all be whatever monster you've been made."

I could not breathe. My insides hollowed out. What have I done? What have I done?

"You tricked me."

The seething man barked out a laugh, "You allowed yourself to be tricked, because you believed that if you loved someone enough you could save them. So human. So stupid. It is a blessing you are no longer one." He sighed, "I am a descendent of Nox, and he promised me immortality in exchange for your soul."

"I will end this now." I got onto my knees, pulling out the knife I had strapped to my knee just in case. I lifted it to my chest, and the Priest just tsked.

"I wouldn't do that. When you die, night will be forever without change. Without any hope of recovering the sun. You have damned yourself, and damned humanity."

No. No, no no. It cannot be true.

The Priest lifted to his full height, leaving me to yield under the fate of the world.

"But at least you have your weak, pathetic wife."

***

"Aisulu." I stirred in my sleep, hoping it was Jae. The bed felt cold without him.

"Aisulu!"

I sat up in bed, groggy. Shocked awake when I realized it was not Jae before me. But a strange man and a woman.

The woman was golden in light, every feature gold. Her eyes, her hair, her hands. I could barely comprehend her beauty, as she bent light before me.

The man was taller, a waterfall of blue and silver. His features were strong and aching, though they also were to infinite for my eyes to take in.

Deities. Fucking Deities.

"Your lover ruined the world for you. And you must stop it." The man brutally threw at me, forcing me to sit up in bed.

Honestly, it sounded like something the man would do. But still, I defended him, "He would never!"

The woman stepped between us, sending a disapproving glare at the man, "Lunaith, this is your descendant. And you must bless her so that she can fulfill her role." Then more gently, "Aisulu, you are the only one that can prevent disaster from occurring. Your husband sold his soul to Nox to bring endless night to the world."

"Why?" Guilt flooded me. This is only my fault. I did not let Jae leave my side.

"To save you." Lunaith commented more kindly, "But in doing so, he tipped the balance of Day and Night. In which only he gains power, glory, and worship while everyone is left to scurry in his wake. Crops will die. People will die. Nightborne sickness will emerge. And-" Lunaith paused, eyeing the woman, "Solis?"

"Your husband was turned into a creature that can only survive the night, in order for him to prevent day from returning. He can turn others into creatures like him, further creating a legion of predators that wish for the sun to remain hidden. As the sun will kill them instantly." The deity paused, "But the Priest knows this. So he plans on killing your husband tonight, and if he does there is no chance the sun can come back."

"No!" I screeched, the covers falling off the bed. Jae, how could he? True sympathy flashes over Lunaith's face.

"There is a way prevent the world from eternally succumbing to darkness."

"How?" I would do anything. If not for the world, for Jae. Who was willing to let chaos take over instead of lose me.

Solis answers, "We make him immortal."

I trip over my own words, "How?"

Solis spoke first, "You have been learning from the Getae witch. Lunetta is the plant that has helped you heal, for the most part. It makes you strong over time, before eventually it's healing and revitalization where off if used too much." They paused, "Unless it is blessed by a god. Then healing turns into full recovery. Life is prolonged for hundreds of years. The body can live as long as the soul exists. And as long as viper venom is kept from any weapon, for it rids the body of all traces of the flower."

Lunaith continued, "Lunetta will be blessed by both Solis and I. If this continues, the sun in hiding will weaken Solis. I cannot be in balance, as I am weak without the sun. The tides, the earth, and every element will fall into plunder."

"That means-" I paused, not wanting to offend either god. But that meant they could cure me. That meant I could also take Lunetta blessed by them, and live without pain.

Solis's overwhelming beauty turned into an ethereal sadness, "Oh Aisulu, we can only bless one flower per century. You could take it, but then your husband would still be left vulnerable."

My heart fractured, "I choose him. I choose the sun." I knew what I must do.

Solis only stared at me, but Lunaith quickly took it as the final decisions.

"Make your husband eat it. It will make him immortal, his soul and blood, so that the curse cannot be sealed with his death, and will live on with each of his generations. But I pray it will not take that long." Lunaith looked out the open window, then turned back to me, "With his children, of the sun, and a blessed descendant of the moon, there is a cycle. Every 100 years on the day of the black sun the curse can be broken."

"Today is a black sun" I remarked, though the world was now plunged into darkness.

"And you are the first daughter of the moon."

Deep down in my soul, I knew that it was not a title I wanted. Solis continued to stare at me as if any moment I would get up and run. But I did not want sympathy. I had been treated like glass all my life.

And I was sick of being protected.

"Tell me."

The moon deity smiled proudly, "After he eats the Lunetta, he needs to pierce through your heart. Only a sacrifice of the greatest paramount can break his soul's servitude to Nox. He has to give up what he loves most, the love in which he made his selfish decision to curse himself and the rest of the world." The deity dropped his smile, "That is the only way to bring the sun back. By your death."

Glass always eventually shatters.

At least I am choosing when.

"I understand."

***

When I see Aisulu instead of the ugly Priest, I cry. I am a man forged of many years of work, of suffering, but I wail like a babe when I see her part in the clearing.

The evil man had left an hour before, and I had yet not the strength to get up and remove his head from his shoulders. My throat ached, my soul hungry for a substance that disgusted me. Which ruled against the morals of my very being.

"Aisulu, my Aisulu." I buried my face into her stomach, her hips, "I have made a grave mistake."

I was afraid to look at her. To see the horror in her eyes as she took in my fangs. I knew little of how much I changed, if my eyes were the same or if they were blood red. Who knew what myths of vampires had been sullied to make me.

But my wife gave me no choice, and I never denied her.

She was beautiful in the moonlight, her expression without pain. She stared deeply into my eyes, even as she ran her hand across my dangerous mouth. More tears ran down my cheeks as I apologized to her, "I am sorry. I am so sorry." I chocked, "I am ugly. I am pathetic. I am too weak and too stupid for you. You have never asked to be saved, and I have always kept you at hope's ledge."

She shook her head, "Have I never been ugly? When I screamed at you for leaving your filthy shoes in the castle foyer. Have I never been pathetic? When you would have to bathe me because I could not move my arms. I have been weak, and stupid, for keeping you by my side instead of giving you the freedom to be with a woman you cannot hurt."

I rebuked her words, "Never. Never, my wife."

She leaned down, kissing me between my sharpened teeth. I almost fell apart. Then, she reached from her pocket, pulling from it the Lunetta I had picked for her the other day.

"Take this Jae."

And because I never denied her anything, I did. I placed the herb in my mouth, the first bite almost the vanilla of a baked good. But then it morphed, to the taste of the soap my wife used. To the pine that crept along the moments. For a moment, tasting like the sea to which I always stared upon for answers.

I swallowed.

Strangely, my fangs began to recede. It gave me enough room to speak.

"I cursed the world to endless night."

"I know."

Silence ensued.

"I am now a monster."

"You are not." Aisulu insisted, "But I already know."

Her face. There was something wrong. I knew her more than I knew myself.

"Something is wrong, isn't there?"

She nodded, tears beginning to run down her scorched cheeks, "That flower made you immortal Jae. The Priest planned on killing you very soon, so that the night would remain without contest."

No.

I fell back onto my knees, and my wife joined me. Her hand trembling as she picked up the knife by my side, and held to to her chest.

"No." I shook my head violently, refusing to look.

"Jae," She sighed heavily, "You must do this. You can undo the harm you have done. You can bring the sun back. But you must kill me."

"No."

"Yes." She persisted, her voice growing coarse. "You do not have a choice, but I do. In all our time together, you have loved me more than anyone could. But it is my life. I get to decide when I meet my end." It startled me. I had never heard her be so brash with me before. She wanted this. She wanted me to kill her.

She lifted my hand, wrapping it around the end of the blade. I want to wrench it free, but I am defenseless against her pleas.

"No, no, please I can't. I did this all for you. I cant- I love you. I cant. I cant."

"You have to."

I felt my chest cracking. "I cannot. I cannot hurt you more than I already have." I fell into her shoulder, avoiding the knife. Clutching her body tightly to mine.

"Jae, you have made my life worth living." She kissed the crown of my head, "I'm at peace, love. Because you tried."

"I-"

My words are cut off as her body slumped into mine. The wet crunch of a knife leaving her body, as the Priest stood towering above us. His eyes blazing with disgust.

I sit back, holding Aisulu by her shoulders. A rose blossoms in the middle of her chest. And she is smiling at me, she is always smiling.

"No!" I screamed. Her gray eyes fluttered closed in an endless sleep. I clutched her to my chest, feeling like every bone in my body was left to flame. No. She does not wake. She was gone. In a second. All that life, snuffed out of her.

My wife is dead.

I could not let her go. Not even as Priest disappeared before my very eyes, preventing his sure demise.

I did not care. I wanted her back.

A bright glowing light appeared before us, and I knew it was not the sun.

"Aisulu's death was your first chance to fix the balance Jae. This starts the first cycle of the curse, and after a hundred more years, there will be a new daughter of the moon."

I do not care. I do not care of this deities strange words and terms. I had little clue what any of it meant, as I cradled her head closer to my chest. Her blood did not entice me at all.

"You are now immortal, and you will grow lonely. In a hundred years, your kind will only grow. And then what? Will you ever bring back the sun? Or will you allow the world to fester, and Nox to grow stronger."

I reared my head up, my fangs bursting through my gums, "I will not turn my men!"

The deity was golden, a woman. It could be no other than Solis. But what did it matter to him? When all he had cared about lay dead between his arms.

"You will, out of sheer loneliness." The deity did not judge, it only explained, "Then you'll have a thousand more reasons to keep the world shrouded in darkness. Just like Nox had hoped." The deities light grew stronger, blinding, "Remember what you have done today. Remember what love cost you. Remember this, when you meet the next daughter of the moon."

"Solis, please."I begged, one last time.

They dissipated.

Leaving behind a tiny, scorched piece of parchment. The prophecy that the deity relayed, written and soaked into blood with the moon and sun.

It relayed the curses' bounds, and was accompanied by a poem.

The sun cannot rise, if the moon does not call

Blade against blood, only one will survive the fall.

I crumpled it within my palm, throwing it into the grass. I had done enough to the world. My help was a curse in itself.

I did not think that Anastasia would find the prophecy. I did not believe that she was as evil as her father, and I let both her and her sister stay within the confines of the castle.

With time, I had turned every single one of my subjects. They begged as the years grew shorter, and they older. And like every other person I loved, I could not deny them.

I did not know, that Anastasia began to meet with Nox. I was not aware that he told her to take out the prophecy, and use her blood to add her own verse. I did not yet know one person could rewrite fate. I did not know Nox taught her the ability to warp memories, and to mess with minds.

I did not remember how and why I married her.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
(A/N: HUGE chapter I know I am sorry! In a real book, I would be able to split it up better but I wanted you guys to have the full story. I was tired of teasing :)

Okay so many things to address--

1) Okay so....LEILA IS ALIVEEEEEEE why and how? It will be explained more in the next chapter if you guys did not figure it out yet.

THAT SPICY SCENE THO HAHAHAHHAH! YOU ARE WELCOME!

I know I say this every time...but that one was my actual favorite. IDK what it is about it (actually yes I do cuZ I live and breathe my characters) but that was the most like THEM scene of all the spice. It is poetic, it is captivating, but it is also a show of their love for eachother and their deep *eh hem* competition they always have going on. Who is the wisest, who can out smart the other, and how they will make up afterwards. AHHHH IM OBSESSED WITH THEM BYE!!!!

2) It is sooooo hard to describe the sun as people who have never seen it before? I hope you guys like how I explained it. Cuz Taehyung did not give two fucks, he was worried about Leila. But I wanted her to notice, I wanted you all to see the "new" world for the first time through her eyes. But Taehyung has been "her sun" so of course those descriptions are inexplicably intertwined.

Like how would a person react? What would they see? As a biology person myself, I thought of the implications that YEARS without sun would do to people's eyes. Would they be able to see during the day? Would they have better developed night vision? My answer right now is that the sun had not been away long enough for them to evolve physically.

3) TAEHYUNG AHHAHAH. Again, such a character moment for him. Yes, what he did may have been cold, but it is sooooo him. Leila put him through THE most traumatic moment in his life. I am sorry, it tops the massacre. He pleaded for her to stop, even as she struggle beneath his hands. He watched himself KILL her...and could not do anything about it. And now she is alive and smiling and all like THE SUN?!!? Yes, she needed to do what she needed to do. But he has no clue why. He loves her so much...but that was indeed a lot.

4) THE ORIGIN OF THE CURSE...

The secret of the stained glass, the book, and the curse is out of the bag!

I thought of "vampires" very early, but I knew I did not want to do what we have already seen. The world already was in its "dark age" again by the time this occurred. But I wanted it to have realistic elements, which then transferred to paranormal.

I personally love how it came out, considering I planned for so long and kept tweaking it as I wrote. I wanted it to be perfect and to explain how one decision made from the goodness of someone's heart can spiral into something so chaotic. And that things are not always as they seem. It is a dilemma I often brought up using Taehyung's character, and also Jimin's, that one can intend good and ultimately bring harm (and vice versa)

5) PLEASE if you have any questions, ask now. I will answer them in full if they will not be answered by the 2 upcoming chapters.