The King's Obsession ✔️

TWENTY SIX

Word Count: 1688

~Akara

I'm so stunned, there is a moment where the man's lips are pressed against mine, before I push at his chest, sending him hurtling back cross the room.

"Get off me!" I yelp, stumbling backward.

The man stares at me, like I'm the crazy one. I've never seen him in my life. He has striking dark eyes, and slightly too long black hair, looking like a Scarlet Province native. He's nice to look at, but there is no way I'm okay with a stranger coming in here to kiss me. And now he's acting like I'm acting out of order.

"Akara? What's going on?" he questions, looking as bewildered as I feel.

"Who are you, and why did you kiss me?" I demand. Were he not acting like he's genuinely convinced he was doing the right thing, I may have attacked him, but I'm curious to know what he is thinking. And I know I haven't accidently taken up the appearance of his past lover, considering he has said my name.

He frowns, digging his hands back through his hair. "Akara, it's me, Grey."

"I've never heard that name in my life," I exclaim.

"How can you say that after what we had? I know it was brief, but I can't forget it." He approaches me, but when I take a wary step away from him, he pauses, knowing I'm not faking my reaction to him.

"You must be insane. I wouldn't just forget someone..." I tell him. As much as I try to look back into my past, maybe to before I ever left my home village, there is no memory of the man before me. Perhaps I knew him when I was younger, and his appearance has changed. But why would he kiss me?

He looks hurt, like I've physically struck him in the chest. "Then why don't you remember me?"

I blink. And then it hits me.

My lost memories.

"Oh no..." I mutter hopelessly, beginning to pace. Those few weeks of lost memories...that must be from where Grey knows me, but now, I have no recollection of who he is, and why we came into contact.

"What?" he asks worriedly.

"When did you meet me?"

He shrugs. "Like, a couple months ago."

"And you're from..."

"The Jade Province."

Strange. I expected him to say the Scarlet Province, but it's not uncommon for people to move Province's. Maybe that's what drew me to him when we first met. But that means if I met this man, I could have met others, or could have done anything, because I was clearly not unconscious during that time.

"How did we meet?" I ask softly, concerned about the answer. He may be the only person who knows where I have been during that time, what I did and who I saw. He could be exactly what I need to unlock the answers.

"We met in a bar in a town near the edge of Tai's, or Vaia's at the times, territory. You asked me to take you to the border of the Azure Province," he tells me, still sounding confused about me not being able to recall this.

"And you did?" At least this explains how I made it to the Azure Province border.

"Yes...That's how we got to know each other over that week and a half," he explains, shaking his head hopelessly. He probably thinks I've lost my mind, or that I'm pretending not to remember him.

I turn around, squeezing my eyes shut. "What have I done?"

"Don't you remember?"

I whirl back around to face him, knowing there is nothing I can do to make him feel better about this. "No. I have no memory of any of that time. I woke up near the border of the Azure Province and had no idea how I got there."