“How old are you?”
“Eighteen. Maybe nineteen. I remember my eighteenth birthday. I don’t remember the next one, but we might have been running by then…”
That young, and yet she has been ravaged by fate and drones and the machinations of my father’s empire so badly that now I am unable to pick a place where she might be hurt again.
I feel an unwanted sensation in my gut. Something like pity, but more intense. A rush of emotion which surges inside me at the sight of her nude vulnerability. I want to destroy this little human. I also want to protect her.
I step over and flick the cameras on. I don’t know precisely what I intend to do to her, but I want to make sure it hurts. It has to be loud. She has to scream.
“Can you make noise, human?”
“What kind of noise?”
“Sounds of terror.”
I should be terrorizing her myself. I should be hurting her. Why am I inviting her to engage in a play act of the thing? There must be something suitable in this room. It is nothing if not well-equipped.
“I never liked Rath K’zar. He was a favorite of my father,” I say, wandering casually around the room. Every wall panel slides back to reveal a treasure trove of implements of terrible torture. I inspect a few panels, but nothing seems appropriate.
“He almost died with your father,” she says, sitting up cross-legged, or what would be cross-legged if she were not missing a good portion of one leg. Poor little naked human. She has delicate blonde fur covering the slit of her sex, and little else to cover her. I can see her ribs when she breathes, every inhalation sucking skin over those ridges. Her breasts are small. Her eye is delightfully bright.
“Yes. He did. He was always a terrible guard, but my father couldn’t see it. He pinned awards on the dolt’s chest, never understanding that Rath K’zar is, was, and will always be a traitor. In the end, Rath led my father into a trap.”
“Oh, he didn’t know anything about that.”
“He didn’t?”
“No. Lyric was trying to kill him. Your father was collateral damage on a hit against Rath.”
* * *
Jax
Krush stops and looks at me. For a second, I am terrified that I have said the wrong thing and he is going to snap my neck then and there.
Then he bursts out laughing. A deep belly laugh which makes his ultra-sharp teeth snap at the air in a way that should really be terrifying except for the strange fact that he is absolutely, incredibly, completely adorable.
Adorable? No. I have to be thinking of the wrong word for a terrifying king intent on murdering me. Probably. No. He’s cute. Handsome. Sexy. Dominant… and absolutely adorable.
He turns to me, his silver eyes flashing between dark lashes. I feel my stomach perform those contortions of desire again. I can’t help it. I’m naked and I’m on the floor, awaiting his displeasure. This might be the most erotic thing that ever happens to me.
“If that is true, that is the most amusing thing I have ever heard. The king of Megaris. The most honored and revered korabi monarch in generations, killed in a hit against his traitorous, dullard guard.”
Krush does not seem, well, crushed by his father’s death. He is angry about it, but he is not sad. At least, he doesn’t seem sad. Maybe the korabi mourning process is different than the human one. Maybe they just sort of get over it and move on and seem vaguely irritated by the loss of a loved one.
“It is absolutely true. Lyric wanted revenge for the massacre of our family. She blamed Rath. She wanted him dead. We obliged her. It’s what we did. And we avenged our fallen ones. Babies, your majesty. Your father killed babies.”
“Yes,” Krush says. “He did. It was only a matter of time before a serious human rebellion ensued. I tried to warn him that the raids were overly cruel and pointless, but Rath K’zar thought that they were a good idea. He was staking out human hangouts, illicit scum dens, spying for the enforcers. He was always going above and beyond.”
“Wait. He told Lyric that he was forced to tell the king about our home. He claimed that the attack was impossible to prevent.”
“You know a lot, little human.”
“I know everything,” I say, quite proudly. “It was my job.”
I know even more now. I wish I didn’t know it, because it seems to suggest that King Krush is right about one thing: Rath K’zar is a traitor, and not just to the korabi royal house, but to everybody stupid enough to fall in love with him.
I don’t think Lyric knows that Rath was a willing spy. I think I just sent her, and everybody else I love, outside the wall into his grip. I do not know what Rath has in mind for them. I hope he is truly making amends with this savior-of-humanity fascination he is currently indulging. If not, my loved ones may be no better off out there than they were in Megaris.