King for a Day (The King Trilogy #2)(37)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Scratch your beard when I challenge you or make you have to think something over.

“Do I?”

I shouldn’t have told you I noticed. It’s how I know something is up with you.

“Something is up. I cannot go inside you without sharing the pain of my curse. However, if I do not show you the truth, you will die with doubt in your heart. The ring will not function.”

What do you want me to see?

“My memories.”

Can’t you just tell me what you want me to know?

“Words can be faked. Memories cannot.”

Not everyone remembers things the way they really happened anyway.

“True. Everyone sees their own version of the truth; nevertheless, it is the only truth I know.”

I can’t, King. It was too…

“Horrifying.”

I nodded.

“It felt wonderful to me.”

I looked at him and wondered…Why?

“Because.” He straightened his spine. Suddenly, I saw a look in his eyes. It was a look I knew well. The angry look. The look he flashed when he was about to lose his temper. He grabbed my shoulders firmly and locked eyes with me. “I’m sorry, Mia, but there is no other way.”

~~

When King filled my entire body, it felt like having razor blades coursing through my limbs. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry out for him to stop, but I couldn’t move. Was this what it felt like to be possessed? Or did it hurt so badly because he was cursed?

And Lord, there I was again, feeling sorry for him somewhere in the back of my mind. How could anyone live with such agony? Just a few moments of this was enough to drive any person insane. I wanted to claw at my own heart just to make it stop. And when I distinctly felt King trying to calm me, I wanted to claw at his back as Hagne had done. I hated him a thousand times more than I had ever hated anyone.

How can you do this to me? I thought.

Because I must, he replied.

And as I mentally writhed in pain, I felt King’s energy penetrate the deepest corners of my soul. I tasted his pain. I saw nothing but purple light. When I felt him vibrate and rub against every cell of my body, I sensed the intense pleasure he experienced from being so intimate with me. It was better than sex for him. How I knew that was a bigger mystery than King himself, but I knew. He was in ecstasy.

I growled at him inside my mind. How dare he enjoy this? How dare he!

I felt a tingling sensation, as if King were petting the inside of my skin, trying to soothe me, trying to get me to simply accept the agony and move past it.

Not helping! Lord, I hoped he could hear me. Petting the inside of my skin was quite possibly the most unsettling sensation I’d ever experienced. Apart from being possessed by a wealthy, seductive, deceased king, of course.

The stroking ceased, and then I felt him moving around, digging inside my head. Was this really why he wanted to do this? He had done the same thing last time when we were in Edinburgh. He’d been looking for something inside me.

I couldn’t tell how long the treasure hunt lasted or if he stopped because my mental screaming got to be too much, but he finally did.

King? What are you doing?

Try to relax, he said. His voice was more of a faint echo, rather than King’s voice.

Then I felt a warm blanket of peace wrapping around my mind. Was I already dead?

No. You’re not dead. Just be still, he commanded.

Oh Lord. This was so horrifyingly weird.

King seemed to settle down and relax into me.

What’s happening? I asked.

This…

I stood in a small coliseum. The hot sun was high in the sky, beating down on my bare back, and the air was thick with the smell of sweat, ocean, and dirt. The roar of a crowd, sitting in tiered benches all around, deafened my ears. Men with swords waved them high in the air and screamed my name. “Draco. Draco. Draco!”

“Please lay down your weapon, brother,” I begged. I knew that someone had poisoned Callias’s mind. There was no other reason he would challenge me for the throne. Because Callias was my blood. My twin. My most loyal friend. But someone had gotten to him, though I knew not who. Perhaps the gods despise you.

But I had tried to be good to our people, to be fair and kind. I valiantly hid my true nature—vengeful, angry, and uncaring—because that was what my father showed me a good king did. Before he died, he taught me humility and discipline. He taught me how to be patient and gracious. But most importantly, he showed me how to leash my darker side and to exercise brutality and strength only when necessary.

The crowd chanted my name over and over again. I knew that anyone who remained silent did so because they cheered for Callias. Fools. They had no idea. If it were not for my loyalty to my people, I would gladly have let Callias take my head because killing him would be the moment my life turned into a living hell of torment. Still, I had put all that aside. For them. I could not allow Callias to rule. Whatever wickedness had possessed him would make him a cruel, vindictive, tyrant of a king. I place duty first. I place my people first.

“Callias, I plead with you one last time. Stop this foolishness.”

A raised sword was his response.

“So be it,” I whispered. “May the gods have mercy on my soul.”

With every swing of my sword, my heart grew blacker, more outraged. I released my darkness, my anger, my ferocity, which I reserved for my greatest enemies. Callias fell quickly, and it was then that I realized who had poisoned my brother’s soul. The woman to whom I had given my heart, whom I’d loved and adored since we were children. And in that moment, I realized I would never be able to cage my fury. The monster had been released from its cage.

I swung and watched my brother’s head fall to the dirt. When Hagne ran to Callias’s body and screamed in horror, the rage overtook me completely. This was her doing, and she dare cry?

I curse you to taste Callias’s blood for eternity, Hagne. I scooped up the dirt as I said these words and made her eat from the destruction she created. You are darkness’s companion for all time, Hagne. You shall never know happiness; only death shall live within you. Hagne had destroyed the two people I cherished most in this world in one day.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The pain fled my body, and I drew a sobering breath. Then another. And another. I winced as I tried to move and became myself again. Yes, I was me. Mia.

I rolled my head from side to side, searching. King? Are you there?

No reply.

Slowly, I managed to move my feet to the floor. My muscles were sore, and my head ached like a son of a bitch, only this time, I imagined it was because I had had someone digging around inside it.