The Unknown Truth |Dreamwastaken|

Chapter 20 ~ Free of all cost.

~Layken's POV~

I allowed myself to stay seated in the dining hall, alone, wondering to myself what I could've done. What I should've done. The scene replayed itself over and over in my head. I should've been shot. Why wasn't I shot?

The second matter at hand is standing right by my side.

"For the meantime, please keep the castle on lockdown. I saw something last night and I can't risk anything happening to her." My eyes shot up from my plate. The sound of Dream's voice, bouncing off the walls.

I look over to the entrance and there he stands with Foolish, talking about a matter I don't quite understand. "Yes, sir." As soon as Foolish walks out the room, I immediately allow for my head to fall. I can't look at him in the eye anymore. The man who I thought was bad turned to be evil.

"Why aren't you eating?"

"Why did you kill him?"

I hear a sigh. "I was trying to protect you."

"From your own soldiers?" I'm burning with indignation. "At the expense of a man's life-" He sits across from me. And suddenly, I'm nervous. "Yes." His gaze is locked into mine, his eyes flashing a dangerous green. One word.

It takes me a moment to find my voice. "Yes, what?" He narrows his eyes and leans in closer. If it weren't for the table between us, we'd be touching. "Yes, from my own soldiers. Yes, at the expense of one man's life." He tenses his jaw. Speaks through his teeth.

"There is very little you understand about my world, Layken."

"I'm trying to understand-"

"No, you're not." He snaps. His eyelashes are like individual threads of spun gold lit on fire. "You don't understand that power and control can slip from your grasp at any moment and even when you think you're most prepared." I try to speak and he cuts me off.

"You think I don't know how many of own soldiers hate me? You think I don't know that they'd like to see me fall? You think there aren't others who would love to have the position I work so hard to have-"

"Don't flatter yourself-"

He closes the last few inches between us with just his gaze and my words fall to the floor. I can't breathe. The tension in his body is so intense it's nearly palpable and I think my muscles have begun to freeze. "You are naive." He says to me.

"You don't realize how much of a threat you are to everyone in this palace. They have every reason to harm you. You don't see that I am trying to protect you-" The rage only grew stronger. I was going to send this devil back to hell.

"Protect me from what, Dream?" I stood from my seat. "Who am I a threat to? I'm not the murderer-"

"Well, then maybe threat was the wrong term!" He snaps back. "What are you talking about, Dream?" If I wasn't so mad, I would've been crying. Slowly lifting himself off his chair, he walks over to my side of the table.

"Promise me you won't leave again if I tell you." His presence was choking me. "I promise." I say without hesitation. I just want to know. "The man I just killed." He inhales deeply and I finally dared to turn and look at him. "He was present during our engagement photoshoot."

He saw what happen. That panic attack. The cameras. Lights. "The whole kingdom-"

"I get it, Dream." Tears welled up in my eyes. "Everyone thinks you're marrying a disabled freak." I sucked in a shaky breath and wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hands. "You're not a freak." Dream's words sliced through the air like lethal blades of ice.