King of Me (The King Trilogy #3)(45)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Tattoo? You mean the collar?”

“Yes. Meketre has been working on it for quite some time. A few minutes each day for several years.”

“Who’s Meketre?” I asked.

“He is an acquisition from Egypt.”

“You acquired him?”

“One might say that I am a collector of sorts—of objects and of people with rare gifts that might prove useful.”

I knew this story all too well. King’s obsession became collecting “power.” So this is how it all started. I had to wonder if this was the beginning of the 10 Club, too.

He added. “Meketre has helped many to dispel or control their demons.”

“So the collar tattoo…” I twisted around a bit. “You’re trying to tell me that the collar will help you control the curse?”

“Not the curse, but the violent urges it produces—the curse feeds off of them.” He paused. “However, nothing is certain. Meketre has never performed such magic on someone such as myself. I will not know until it is complete, but I do feel at peace. For the moment, anyway.”

Holy crap. So when Vaughn took King prisoner and removed his tattoos, he removed King’s ability to control his violent side. This was the reason King flipped out and took me to that island. It had to be.

“Can you make me a promise?” I said.

“This depends.”

“Do you remember our conversation before you died?”

“How could I forget?”

He said he’d rather die than continue on as a ghost who might one day come back to do something so heinous to me.

“Once the tattoo is done, don’t let anyone remove it. Not ever.”

“Why would you ask that?” he questioned.

“I think losing it is the reason you attack me.”

He was quiet for a very long time, which is when I noticed the eerie silence all around us, the clopping of the horse’s feet the only noise to be heard. No cars, no planes, no people. Just us.

“Have you ever considered, Mia, that had I not hurt you, you would have not traveled from the future?”

My mind did a lap, following his logic. He was right. Had he not brought me to that island, I would never have met him as a man. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here right now.

“No. You would not,” he responded to my thoughts. “Which poses an interesting question.”

“What?”

“If you could undo the past, would you?” he said without emotion.

I had to think about that. When I’d first arrived to Minoa, I would have given anything to alter the events. But now I knew it would mean never getting the chance to meet King. Now I loved him. So would I do it all over again—go through the pain of Justin’s disappearance, which led me to King, and go through that horrible night on the island so that I’d be thrown back in time?

The answer wasn’t clear. I could say “yes” to sacrificing myself and reliving my own pain. But if that meant sacrificing the happiness of my family? No. I would only choose to do it all over again if I knew I could bring back Justin, I supposed. In any case, it felt like events were going to play out a certain way, regardless of how I felt.

“Do you think it’s possible,” I wondered aloud, “that you and I are living a story that’s already been written?”

He took a moment to respond. “Yes.”

How does it all end?

“I do not know; however, we have little choice but to continue moving forward on the path chosen for us.”

Maybe he was right. I didn’t know.

“And, as you do not know,” he said, “then your only course of action is to make the most of the present.”

He certainly was right about that.

“Rest, Mia. We have a long ride back.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?” With you, I added in my mind.

“For the moment.”

I felt too frazzled and hungry to question it. Most of all, I needed sleep.

I allowed my body to relax against him. King was like an indestructible war machine from ancient times that no one could touch. Not now. Not in the future. Still, there was that part of him who remained…

Him. The king.

“I still love you,” I murmured before drifting off.

King didn’t speak but squeezed his thighs tightly around me.

When I woke, we were back in that cold, dark palace. No, I did not recognize the giant bed I was on, or the soft white furs blanketing my body, but the harrowing vibe was unmistakable.

“Mistress Mia, you are awake,” said a timid feminine voice.

I glanced over at a young woman dressed in a long flowing black dress, wearing a black headscarf. She stood next to a small table filled with bread and cheese. My mouth instantly watered.

“I am Ypirétria.” She dipped her head. “I am here to see that you eat and to help you bathe.”

Some things never changed. “That’s really kind, but I’m okay. So you are free to go.”

Her eyes filled with horror.

“What?” I asked.

“The master will be very displeased if I do not carry out his wishes.”

I rolled my eyes. “The ‘master’ can be displeased with me, then. And—”

“No. You don’t understand. Please, do not send me away.” She sounded as if she genuinely feared for her life.

Oh Lord. I really needed to talk to King about all this. After you eat. After. I couldn’t remember the last time I tasted food.

A thousand years ago?

Yes, I really did need something in my stomach. I took a whiff of myself. And a bath.

“Okay,” I said, “but I am going to speak to him.” I would include the topic of, “What the hell are you doing to your people?”

After attacking the food and having a luxurious bath in a stone tub filled with drops of a flowery-smelling oil and warm water that piped in through the wall—dang, the Greeks really had everything—I felt like a new woman. Well, almost. I was dying for a Lady Bic. But Ypirétria did give me a little stick to chew on to clean my teeth, so that was nice.

“Now you are to go to the master’s chamber,” she said with an accomplished sigh.

“His…chamber?” I questioned.

“It is down the end of this passage, to the right. He said he will be waiting for you.”

An uncomfortable glob formed in my throat. There was no point in denying that I wanted him, but the way he’d taken me when I arrived had been pretty rough. What if he wanted it that way again? What if he wanted it rougher?