Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

AMIRA

Afew weeks later, the king touched a figurine on the board of the game the two of us were playing. It was a complicated strategy game called Reign and War. The first round we had ever played had taken the king less than ten minutes to win, despite my studying all the rules for hours prior. But as I’d been learning the tricks and nuances of the game, the rounds we played had gotten longer.

This time, I had planned and mounted a defense that had allowed me to deflect the king’s attacks for three days now. He was no closer to winning now than he’d been when we started.

He tapped another game piece on the board but didn’t move it. Jerking his hand away, he cupped his chin in thought instead.

“So, tell me, what has our boy Kyllen been up to lately?” he asked.

My heart squeezed painfully at the sound of that name. I’d regretted revealing it to the king many times since.

Ever since that time in the wardrobe room, I hadn’t seen Kyllen again. Maybe that meant I’d been healing from my loss, and my mind no longer needed to conjure his image to keep me sane. Though, I wasn’t ready to let go of him, either.

Instead of his vivid visits that had been both torture and bliss, his presence in my mind had become more subtle but also more constant somehow. Even without seeing or talking to him, I often felt him with me, day and night. The sensation was warm and comforting, and I desperately hoped it would last.

Maybe his spirit truly couldn’t leave me, as he’d said. Or maybe, I never wanted him to leave me at all, even when I begged him to. As painful as it felt, I’d rather have a part of him than nothing at all.

I swallowed hard, waiting for the stab of grief to subside before asking the king, “You want me to tell you another story?”

“Yes…” He rubbed his chin, his attention on the board. “Or maybe not. I’ve heard plenty of stories about the boy. Tell me about the man.”

“The man?” I breathed faster.

“I know you said Kyllen is dead. But did the boy live long enough to become a man? Or did he die young?” He chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t make it into adulthood, the mischievous rascal that he was.”

I removed my hands from the board and fisted them in my lap, not giving him a chance to see them trembling.

“Kyllen lived until the age of seventy-eight,” I said in a low but firm voice.

“Not long. Do you know how he died?”

I held my head up, staring straight ahead.

“He was killed by one of his family.”

The king nodded unfazed, as if that kind of murder was a common thing.

“What was the reason?” he asked, then shrugged. “Was there a reason?”

I shifted in my seat, unsure of how long I could continue with this conversation. Every question felt like a knife twisted in a wound that wouldn’t heal. Over two months had passed now, but the night of Kyllen’s murder remained as fresh as ever in my memory.

“Succession,” I replied softly. “He was murdered over a title.”

“Ooh.” The king sat back in his chair. “That happens all the time. Did he challenge the rightful title holder and lose? Wouldn’t it be just like that boy to aim for a place that wasn’t his?” He laughed wholeheartedly. “Unfortunately for him, not everyone can pull that off successfully.”

The last words were said with pride. The king obviously referred to how he came into the possession of his crown.

“The title was Kyllen’s to begin with,” I argued.

One of the books I had stored under the pillows in my nest was about succession laws of Lorsan. Though fluid and often bent by crude power, the law was on Kyllen’s side. I knew that for sure, now.

“Kyllen was born the legitimate heir to the High Lord of Ellohi,” I told the king. “He was abducted and held captive in the human world. At home, they thought him dead. His younger brother inherited their father’s throne. By the time Kyllen returned, the brother had a son, his nephew. Kyllen’s plan was to have a peaceful transition. A tournament if it came down to that. He was also going to petition you for support. The nephew must’ve known that Kyllen would win, so he attacked him at night like a coward. And…”

I dropped my head and tried to blink away the tears that threatened to burst again.

This time, my distress didn’t escape the king. “Kyllen was your lover, wasn’t he? Albeit not the best one, obviously, since he left you a virgin.”

I looked him straight in the eye. “Kyllen was my everything. The love of my life. My only one.”

Sorrow seized my heart, swelling thick in my throat. I loved him—I still did—even if it took me a while to recognize the feeling for what it was.

“Did they make you watch him die?” the king asked casually. I wondered if that would be something the king would’ve done or…had done before.

I shook my head.

It hurt, but for the first time in months, I recalled the details of that night. “I saw the blade raised, aimed at his neck. I heard it stab through his flesh…”

There had also been that sound that I tried to block from my memories—the strangled gasp men made before life was ripped out of them. I’d heard the bracks make it when Kyllen had turned them to stone. Rourke and his men had done the same. The sound had been there that night, too. It was the last I’d heard from that room before they had dragged me away.

“So, you didn’t see him die?” the king confirmed.

“No. I was taken away, brought here, and sold.”

“Do you know for sure that he’s dead, then?”

Oh, how tempting that sweet hope was. But I nodded, biting my lip.

“If Kyllen were alive, he would’ve come for me.” Not just in my dreams. He’d be here in flesh and blood, I had no doubt about that. He would’ve never abandoned me. By now, the news of the human woman living in the king’s palace must’ve reached every corner of Lorsan and beyond. If only he were anywhere in this world, he would’ve found me already. “He made me a promise.”