𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐈

~Caskets & Chains~

-"A lot of people struggle with sleep because sleep requires peace."

_______________________________

(Play song now)

He tossed and turned. Sighed and yelled.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't stand it.

His head hurt every time he thought about it. The thoughts about the possibilities. The memories and all the things he looked over. The hints.

When he first came to New York to make the deal, that first night, a woman came into the conference room and poured his drink. Poured all of their drinks. Later, he realized that woman was the right hand.

She had hidden in plain sight and it worked. He hadn't even given her a second glance. The way she hid made him think of things that night and the nights after.

The right hand had hidden in plain sight and poured his drink. What was stopping the King from doing the same thing? All those months ago, when he first came to New York and met Midnight, he had been thinking of one possibility. And that possibility was that the King was the right hand.

But after Midnight and he had gotten close, he had abandoned that theory.

The theory that the King was her. That the right hand and the King were the same.

The theory is that only a woman would have the power to achieve world peace. Midnight had fooled everyone into thinking that she was a man so what if she was fooling everyone again by being the King and being her own right hand?

And now...after what has happened in the past few weeks, it all made sense.

Aria King had slit her throat and killed herself.

The King is rumored to have a throat slit where "Momento Mori" is tattooed over it.

After Aria King "died", Midnight and the King showed up. No records of Midnight ever existed but Aria King's birthday was the same as Midnight's.

Aria was trafficked. So was Midnight. Alexei trafficked Aria. Alexei trafficked Midnight.

Aria took the pill and slit her throat, making the scar and making the King. She took on a new persona as Midnight and then Alexei stabbed her.

Aria is Midnight and Midnight is the King.

He knew it from the moment he had heard that tape the day of her funeral. He had known it from the moment they had found the triplets and saw Milo's dimples.

He had known it since he had met Midnight all those months ago. He had known it from the beginning that the King was a woman.

He just didn't come to terms with it. He couldn't.

After being shown her past and how she overcame hell, he finally realized that she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

And when she heard that the sex traffickers wanted revenge, she had to do something to stop them permanently. She had to do fix the problem for the last time.

Thinking and thinking, Luca finally thought the words he had been denying the past few weeks.

Midnight took the pill.

He got up, catching his reflection in the mirror and seeing the crescent moon tattoo on his torso.

She had faked her death. She had fooled the sex traffickers into thinking she was dead so that they would be caught off guard. She had fooled him and everyone else.