King of Me (The King Trilogy #3)(33)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“No.”

I took a hollow breath.

“I have killed Hagne,” he said.

My head whipped toward him. “What?”

He lifted his chin. “I killed her.”

My spit stuck in my throat, but there were no words.

“I went to her home, and she told me that she killed you. Admitted it in front of her entire family. Out of anger, I drew my sword and executed her on the spot.”

“Oh no. No…”

“Even though she defied my orders not to harm you and my actions were justified, her family demands justice or there will be a civil war,” he said.

I cupped my hands over my mouth. I couldn’t believe this.

He continued, “Callias will fight in her honor to settle the dispute.”

“But…but…why?”

“Because I will ask him to,” he replied. “He will understand that if there is no justice, many more lives will be lost.”

“Then kill him with the dagger.” That way he’d be brought back.

“No.” King’s head hung low. “There must be a beheading. The dagger will not work for that.”

I stood, and King’s eyes focused on my na**d br**sts. I grabbed a cloth and covered myself, not wanting to feel like I did. So…angry. “What the hell are you saying?”

He looked at the floor. “That nothing has changed. I will die.”

I shoved my nails into my palms. “Like f**king hell you will.”

“Silence, Mia.” He held up his palm. “This is the only way. My people, those women and children, are more important than us.”

I knew that. I really did. “I would never ask you to give up. Never. You’re loyal to them, and there is nothing in the world more important than that. I’m asking you to consider other options.” For Christ’s sake, I’d just found him. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him now. It was just too painful.

“There are none.” He looked away.

“There are always other options, King. We can leave—”

“No. I have reviewed every angle many times over, and this is the only solution that will maintain the peace. There must be blood. My blood.”

Fucking Hagne! Why did it seem like this situation was on a path we couldn’t change?

Then another thought struck me. “But Hagne hasn’t cursed you. You’ll die. Really die.” I’d never see him again.

He nodded, clearly thinking about what that really meant.

Shit. Shit. Shit. I tightened the piece of cloth around my body and tucked the ends into my cle**age.

“Where, by gods, are you going, woman?”

“I can’t be here right now. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.” A life without him. Really, truly without him. After making love, a glimmer of hope in the back of my mind had begun to spark—that we might find a way through all this and come out the other side as two, whole, living people. But it just wasn’t going to happen.

My body halfway out the door, he spoke. “Wait.”

I stopped in my tracks.

“You. Are. A. Seer,” he said.

I looked at him. “I-I don’t understand.” But what I really meant was: “Are you out of your mind?”

He stepped forward, his skin and hair still dripping with bathwater. “You will curse me to roam this earth, Mia, for however long it takes. And then you will be the one to free me.”

I walked over to his bed and fell on my ass. Not sat, but fell.

“This is the solution.” King sat beside me and brushed the wet strands from my face, tucking them behind my ear. “Callias will end me. You will bring me back.”

I stared into the depths of his luminescent blue eyes. “You are asking me to sentence you to years of horrible pain. I can’t do that.” So many things could go wrong. I had no clue how to do a curse. And even if someone told me how, I could get the curse wrong, and he’d end up dead. Dead dead. Or I could be snapped back to my time before freeing him, and he’d be left to suffer for about three thousand years.

“I see no other solution, Mia.”

I hissed out a breath. “I promise that in the future you would rather die than live like you do. The pain is…a living hell.”

He looked at his hands for several moments. “It will be my burden to bear. Not yours.”

“You have no idea what you’re asking—”

“It is my decision and mine alone. You will not deprive me of my last wish.” He sliced through me with those blue eyes. “I want to do this, Mia. For us.”

His words made my stomach do sick little twists—joy mixed with a sense of deep guilt. It meant I’d see him again, but he really, really didn’t understand what he was asking. And to condemn someone to this sort of agony, a torture so cruel and horrid that even in my darkest moment, even when I despised the man, I’d still felt sorry for him…I couldn’t do it. Not if I really loved him.

“No,” I said sharply. “We have to find another way. I don’t know how to curse you. And how will I bring you back? What if you’re wrong and—”

He pressed his lips to mine, silencing me for several long moments. My body immediately reacted to him—calm, hot, crazy.

He pulled away. “Has anyone ever told you that you ask too many questions?”

I nodded. “It’s a sign of intelligence.”

“I thought it meant the opposite.” He grinned.

I smiled. “Funny, King.”

“Yes. I do have my moments; however, today I believe it is because I am in love.”

Once again, I resisted the tears. He’d said a word I couldn’t have ever imagined coming from his lips: love. But there it was, the truth. I loved him, and he loved me. How it had happened, I didn’t know. But it had. Despite the absolute impossibility, we’d found each other. Which is why he needed to fight for us instead of fighting his brother.

“Cursing you,” I said, “means…it could mean…” I couldn’t begin to comprehend. “If, for whatever reason, I can’t bring you back right away and things play out like they did originally, you’re going to do terrible things. Horrid, ugly, heinous things. You are not a good man, King.” King had murdered off the bloodline of the Seers, except for me. Then there was his role with the 10 Club, heads in f**king jars, and God only knew what else. The man had been alive—or dead—for three thousand something years.