The Forsaken King

“No.”

“But you care about him?”

“Of course. You don’t care about the women you take to bed?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

“Damn, that’s cold.”

“Most of them are whores.”

“Wow…you’re a dick.”

He gave an irritated sigh. “I mean that literally.”

“Oh…”

We fell into a long bout of silence, my ass frozen on the ground of the cave. My stomach was rumbling, and I eyed the storage containers in the cave. Since we were stuck there, I decided to help myself, finding a container of assorted dried fruit and meat, along with some nuts. I returned to my seat and stuffed my mouth, feeling the satisfaction of food in my stomach almost instantly. “How do you want me to help you?”

He ignored me.

“I thought we were past this—”

He pressed his forefinger to his lips, signaling me to shut my mouth.

My eyes shifted to the crevasse, but I didn’t see anything.

Was there actually something there, or did he just want me to shut up? I reached my hand inside, shoved the food into my mouth, and dropped a couple pieces to the ground. It was enough to make an echo, and the look Huntley gave me was vicious.

Then I heard it—the heavy breaths.

Heavy breaths that weren’t coming from either one of us.

My eyes looked through the crack, and then I saw it, the movement.

White fur moved past my vision, looking like snow except that it was in motion. It took seconds for it to leave the crevasse—and that was when I knew how big it was.

Massive.

Hours had passed since the yeti made its subtle appearance in the crack, and we didn’t exchange a single word of conversation in that time. The sun came and went, and now it was getting dark.

Once the sun was gone, the shivers set in. “Are we going to stay here all night?”

“It’d be stupid to head back in the dark.”

“Won’t your brother worry? Will he come search for you?”

“The only reason I wouldn’t return is because I’m dead, so there’s no point.” His eyes remained on the crevasse. “The yeti could be waiting for us to make our move. We should wait overnight, to make sure he’s moved on.”

“This place…is a wasteland.” My life on top of the cliffs was different, and not just because I lived in the castle as one of the royals. There were no monsters that swept across our kingdom, no Teeth, Runes, or yetis.

He regarded me with the coldest look I’d ever seen.

“I don’t mean that offensively…”

“It is a wasteland—and it’s home to a lot of unfortunate people.” He returned the stool to the wall and grabbed a bedroll from the crate. He rolled it out and tossed a pillow where his head would go.

With chattering teeth, I grabbed my own and rolled it out beside him.

His weapons were placed on the ground beside him—as if he could trust that I wouldn’t slit his throat in the middle of the night.

I did the same and tried to get comfortable under the thin blanket. I wasn’t warm like I was when I slept next to his hot, naked body, but at least I wouldn’t die overnight from hypothermia. “If he’s not watching the cave, can’t we light a fire?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You never know who’s watching.” He lay beside me, on his back with his face to the ceiling.

“There could be people out there? In the middle of the night?”

“People. Things.” My chattering teeth must have annoyed him because he took his cloak and tossed it on top of me. It was thick and heavy, and immediately trapped my body heat in place so it couldn’t go anywhere.

“Thanks.”

He stayed quiet.

I could hear the wind blowing outside, listen to it shriek as the temperature dropped. “Does it always snow here?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“The climate.”

“Who else lives down here?”

“Lots of people. There are different kingdoms, all independent of one another.”

“Really? Why aren’t you under one sovereign?”

“Because we choose not to be.”

“Are there wars? Does one kingdom try to conquer another?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because if we’re fighting one another, we can’t fight Necrosis.”

“Necrosis?”

He gave a quiet sigh. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

“Know anything about what?”

“Necrosis is the kingdom at the southernmost tip of this continent. They’re people like you and me. Or at least they were. Their immortality is conditional. Unless they feed, they’ll fade to dust. Blood used to be enough, but when that stopped working, they had to find an alternate fuel source.”

“Blood… Are they like the Teeth?”

“Necrosis are the originals. The Teeth are hybrids, part Necrosis and part human.”

I tried to reconcile all that information but couldn’t. “What’s the alternate food source?”

“Souls.”

My blood ran cold because that was worse than being sucked dry. You didn’t just forfeit your life, but the afterlife as well. I turned my head and regarded him beside me, seeing the way he lay there with his calm breathing and indifferent expression.