The Forsaken King

“Can I have a bath first?” I didn’t have a tub in my cabin. Cabin wasn’t even the right word. More like prison cell.

Ian unlocked the door and didn’t answer my question.

“Then how about dinner?” I hadn’t gotten breakfast or lunch.

“I’ll give you some dinner, sweetheart.” One of the queen’s personal guards approached, a man with dark eyes and a smug smile. “Just gonna cost you.” He looked me over, up and down, in the same way that Huntley did, but his stare wasn’t welcome.

Ian waited for me to walk inside. “I’ve got it, Geralt.”

Shit. I walked inside the cabin, wanting the door to close and lock behind me.

“Allow me,” Geralt said. “I’d love the opportunity to get acquainted with our prisoner.”

Fuck.

The door shut and locked. The light was gone. Now it was just me and the darkness.

Ian’s voice came through the crack. “I’m sure the queen needs you, Geralt.” Their footsteps disappeared.

God, I hoped that was the end of that.

Minutes later, the lock clicked and the door opened. Ian carried a tray to my bedside.

I looked at it with disappointment. A small piece of meat and a slice of bread with a cup of water. “Is this a joke?” Huntley had brought me a much different meal last night, with a lot more food and much better variety.

Ian turned to leave.

“You can’t expect me to work all day and be sustained off this.”

He gave a shrug and shut the door. The lock clicked.

I sat up against the bed and ate everything in a couple bites. My back hurt. My legs hurt. Everything hurt. My hair was oily from sweating all day, and I wanted to take another bath in that warm water.

I hoped Huntley came.

I’d given him a very good reason to.

Hours passed, making it so late that I assumed he wasn’t coming at all.

The door opened, and his silhouette was visible, his broad shoulders and narrow hips in the shape of an inverted triangle. I recognized him even as a shadow. Recognized his presence. Could feel it with my eyes closed. “Took you long enough…”

“Come on.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I got off that poor excuse for a bed and joined him in the dirt road. The torches lit the path back to his cabin, and the road was empty except for the two of us. Both silent, we walked, entering his cabin a moment later.

The fire was roaring, and there was a tray of dinner sitting there. A real dinner. With meat, potatoes, gravy, and an entire loaf of bread. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted more, a bath or food.

I walked into the bathroom and shed my clothes before I grabbed the hot stones from above the fire and tossed them inside. Once the water steamed, I got in and washed myself of all the grime I had accumulated that day.

He appeared next to my tub, dressed down in just his breeches.

“Can you bring my dinner?”

“You don’t live here.”

“Can you please bring my dinner?”

He gave a sigh as he walked out, and then I heard the front door open and close.

Did he leave?

I stayed in the tub, all my muscles relaxing from the heat. The back of my neck rested against the edge of the tub, and I closed my eyes, ignoring the pains in my stomach. A moment later, he returned, and a tray of hot food was put on the stool beside me.

“Man, this looks so good…” I sat up and ate everything, dragging the bread through the gravy, cutting into the tender meat, scooping the fluffy potatoes into my mouth and tasting their cloud-like texture.

Huntley returned to the other room.

When my tray was so clean it looked brand-new, I got out of the bath and patted myself dry before I returned to the main room with the roaring fire. Huntley sat at his desk in the corner, looking over a map I hadn’t noticed before. There were little figurines on it, along with a stack of open letters.

I stood over him and examined it, realizing the world was far bigger than I realized. There were cities and kingdoms everywhere, all scattered on one side of a thick black line that marked a border. In bold lettering, it read “Necrosis.”

We were far away from the border, so I guessed that was a good thing.

I turned away, noticing that his tray was empty too, like he’d eaten at his desk. The bed was calling my name, so I dropped the towel and got inside, instantly comfortable once I was surrounded by the sheets. I admired the fire in the stone fireplace and the muscular back of the man beside it.

“I know what you’re doing.” He finished his note with his quill then dropped it on the desk.

My gaze shifted to him.

“Fucking me for food and shelter.”