Starve This Sin

{ Chapter Twenty One }

A swooping darkness, the overcast of doom. There was a knock on Ben's flooded heart.

It filled Ben's unconcious mind as his body rest peaceful beside Eva in bed. Their bodies exhausted, minds floating in their dream realms.

He stood in his castle, in his throne room. His crown draped over the end pillar of the king's chair. The room felt empty but Ben was uneasy, confused as to why he was here.

He took a step forward, boot crunching. Looking down, Ben saw them. Skeletons, bones, scattered across the floor of the throne room. Shocked, he crumbles back, stepping onto more snapping brittle bones.

"Ben," a coarse whisper floats around his mind. "You escaped me."

Solanyn.

Ben straightened up, back now rigid with aggression as his head whipped around the room. He searched for Solanyn's presence, watching as blood begins to drip from the ceiling and down the walls. Slow trickels of invasion into his peace. Ben had learned this from Solanyn. He should have assumed Solanyn would persue his dreams soon.

"What do you want?" He calls out, dark strength in his voice.

"Your return."

Solanyn now sat in the king's throne, slouching casually in Ben's seat. His voice real, present and angry.

Ben turned around to face the voice, eyeing him. Solanyn looked aged, older, his skin crinkling in his displeasurable tone.

"I refuse you." Ben gives this answer simply. The breakaway from Solanyn was dangerous but necessary. Ben was going to have to see his mother but that was a painful detail he could get through if it meant saving Eva and his people.

Rage splashed across Solanyn's features. "You think you have the choice to deny me, boy?" The voice was an echo, bouncing behind Ben's eyes. "I know where you are, I know what you plan. I am no fool, you stubborn child!" Solanyn was poking a daggered finger at Ben across the room. Ben could feel it poke into his chest.

"I will not come back to you," Ben shakes his head again, calling his bluff. Fists tightened at his side, Ben desperately wanted to awake. The walls now soaked in dark blood and pieces of skin.

"Do you think I would not be able to trace your steps? From borrowing a commoners horse, to riding through town in front of bystanders? To give away your position so easily, so obviously. As if your naive girl had any other place to go but her doddling buffoon family." Solanyn's eyes were piercing, hands lowering to grasp tightly to the arm rests of the throne.

Ben was silent, feeling bleak and drained. It had been idiotic. They were still awakening, coming to their senses. They had made bad decisions.

"I still choose her." He pushes back. "You cannot make me choose otherwise."

"Your choice will be her undoing. I will, simply, kill her. Her family, her animals, will all be burned in a fire storm easily. With a snap of my fingers, she and her loved ones are ash. Is that what you want, my King? To watch her become nothing before your eyes?"

"You cannot," Ben pushes again. Despite his knowledge of Solanyn's abilities, he could tell without Ben's presence he was getting weaker. Just not weak enough to make idle threats.

"I can and I will. You must come home to me or she pays the price for your misdeeds."

A shrill of pain to his brain, making Ben grunt in his sleep, twitching. Eva hummed against him, turning over from his movement.

In his dream he fell to his knees, pulling at his hair.

"You will complete your promises. You will remove all the pieces of your soul, lose your magic, as was planned after your coronation. You will fulfill your promise to me, your majesty." The look in his eyes was ruefull, determined. He knew Ben could not deny him this when he threatened his twin flame.