Chapter 2
King of Disappointment [Echos]
Reen Kyong
I’ve never liked the Kingdom of Flesh. Decayed and charcoal coloured walls struggle to sustain life. Burnt homes with their gloomy smoke envelop the city of fire, and it doesn’t appeal to me. But it’s the only place I can genuinely call home.
I sit on the ledge with my leg propped up and my arm resting on my knee while I look over the kingdom.
Everyone calls it Flesh. Perhaps it’s the spikes adorning the mass of stone walls encircling the kingdom, and on those spikes are none other than the heads of traitors that give the kingdom its name.
Every night, I walk past them and remember their deaths, mainly caused by my knights or myself.
A sudden, high-pitched, wailing cry echoes through the castle grounds, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Lowering my gaze to two men cowering on the ground, I watch them clutch their wrists and writhe in pain.
Soon enough, they will stop seizing up and gaze at each other with newfound love for someone they never knew existed.
A tether, as their hearts become bound as one.
What a sad and fucking pitiful sight to witness on this smoke-filled night.
Soulmate? No, it’s more like collateral. Tethering is nothing but a death sentence. A liability. A way to realise that your life isn’t the most valuable. You cherish that other life, or else yours will fall without understanding how.
But it benefits me nearly all the time.
With an exhaled breath, I run my fingers through my red hair. A shadow moves beside me, and Astin drops, his hands on the ledge, looking like a frog ready to leap. His silver eyes cast out, overlooking the scorched gardens, and a grave expression tightens on his face.
He is wearing what he often wears when on duty: a long grey coat, a button-up black shirt, and dark grey denim jeans.
My time here overlooking the kingdom has ended.
“We’ve got orders,” Astin says as he rises. “King Ragan wants us to move out. Alad has given me the coordinates of where he wants us to head.”
“Who are we after?” I persist, already disinterested in the idea of orders without details.
“A fire elemny snuck his tethered elemny into the Kingdom of Flesh.” Astin eyes me as he says, “They’re a water elemny.”
As I rise, an irritable sigh escapes me. “It’s not as if they can forget. Everyone who enters the Kingdom of Flesh signs in at the gates to keep the king and queen protected from a sudden assassination.”
“Very well. Let’s get this over and done with,” I say.
Astin grimaces. “King Ragan wants to create a spectacle out of this. He aims to put on a show this weekend to warn any elemny of Flesh that if they break the rules, they will face the death penalty.”
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. He wants this televised. Perhaps he will even broadcast it to all of Eraminia. There’s nothing the king wouldn’t do to display how powerful and in command he is. If he wanted to, he would order me to burn an entire kingdom.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Only us,” I declare. “Let’s leave the other knights on their vacation. There’s no reason to call them back soon for something so trivial.”
“You’re right.” Astin stares at the darkened streets and says, “Besides, I don’t want those lovebirds around so soon. It’s been peaceful in our quarters without them.”
I grunt my response before stepping off the castle. The black overcoat I wear flaps in the decaying wind.
It doesn’t take long to get where we need to go. Astin is an amazing tracker, and it’s likely the reason I have kept him alive—and the fact that he fucking kills any elemny deemed better than he is at his job.
A tracker this good is a rarity.
He is also the only one I can tolerate being around. Astin doesn’t annoy the fuck out of me.
In the outer reaches of the kingdom, near the entrance to Flesh, homes boast large acres of land. My nostrils flare at the smell of shit. From the corner of my eye, cows graze what little grass there is. They look starved compared to the livestock in other kingdoms.
Flesh lacks the lush grass found in the other kingdoms. Burnt, barren ground as far as the eye can see because fire elemny are hot-headed, uncaring of property, belching smoke from their arses and erupting in fits of roaring flames.
Astin pays attention to the wall. A trickle from our water source flows through the metal bars. We exchange glances before Astin lifts the bars off the wall. They’re loose.
Huh. They must be around here. Close enough to use one of these houses for cover.
Astin scans the inside of the tunnel while I check my surroundings.
I wander down the street, focusing on each dried-out lawn until I spot something unfamiliar within Flesh.
I crouch low to the weeds sprouting at the edge of someone’s yard.
Their blue petals are delicate against my heat.
Red lily weeds grow in Flesh, not blue. Blue lilies are common in the Kingdom of Storm, where water elementals live.
I open the gate and enter the yard. As I do, I scan the dead grass.
Yet whoever lives here does a respectable job of concealing whomever they’re hiding—but not from me.
Small patches of scorched grass seem tactically flamed out rather than resulting from a fire elemny enjoying the sight of flames on dry grass.
Stepping onto the veranda, I rap my knuckles on the door. Echoes shudder from inside, as if the entryway is hollow. While I wait, Astin roams around the side of the yard.
Sounds of hesitant footsteps reach the entrance. The door opens a crack, and a pale red eye glows. Upon seeing me, the man gasps and slides out of the gap until he presses his back against the door until it closes.
“P-prince Reen,” he says, eyes bulging out of his sockets, and sweat beads down his forehead. “What brings you to my doorstep?”
“Have you noticed any suspicious activity in your neighbourhood?” I shift my focus to scanning the street, but I know this is the place. Still, it’s better to build on trust, easing him into submission by seeing if he’ll blame someone else.
“What kind of suspicious activity?” He maintains eye contact with me but fidgets, rubbing his thumb against his knuckles.
He wants me to bite and bite hard. I know this tactic because I’ve implemented it countless times.
Fuck, I want to get rid of him now, but King Ragan will probably blow a fuse. He wants a fucking spectacle. So, I have to entertain this nervous wreck of a mess instead of sinking my fist into his chest and feeling the rapid, sporadic beat of his heart.
“Word on the street is that someone is smuggling elemny from various nations into Flesh. The loudest voices come from the outskirts of the kingdom. Have you heard anything?”
I need to buy Astin time. He’s probably inside the house, checking every room. It’s easier this way rather than having a scuffle. When fights break out, I get pissed and kill without caring. To avoid that, I’ll play games even if I find them boring.
“Ah…” The man glances behind me and nudges his chin towards a dead-as-a-carcass home across the street. “I often see my neighbour in the middle of the night—”
“What are you doing up so late?” I fold my arms across my chest and give him a pointed look.
“I have insomnia,” he says, eyes shifting to the right and upward.
Lies are easy to detect when viewed without a foggy lens. But let’s entertain this further because I’m bored. “So, your insomnia has you peeking through the blinds to watch your neighbours?”
He bites his bottom lip, and his eyes widen.
I approach the man, my chin lifting as I glare down at him.
The wooden patio flooring creaks with every precise step.
As I grow closer, my presence blocks slivers of moonlight, and my shadow envelops the panicked man.
He grips the door handle as if it were his life force.
I’d like to kill him now, but fucking orders prevent me from satisfying my itch.
Fire wisps out of my mouth, and when I am close enough to taste the idea of his burning flesh, a pitched, wailing cry courses through the home, and the man pales.
Tingling heat radiates across my exposed skin, but before he can gain traction, I grab his arm and yank it behind his back.
A popping sound comes as I twist. He cries out, and a woman’s voice from inside calls to this man—Kol.
I swing the door open and push him into the home. Astin has hold of a water elemental woman by her long, blue hair. Tears streak down her face, rushing out as she’s unable to suppress her fear of being surrounded by the Knights of Eraminia.
I force Kol to his knees and slam my boot down on his head to keep him pinned there. Then, my attention shifts to the woman writhing in Astin’s grip, desperate to reach her lover. She cradles her arm. The break I inflicted on Kol must have caused her a fair bit of pain.
Fucking double-edged sword.
“Another two are unconscious in the basement,” Astin says.
“Does the King specifically want these two alive?” I ask. “I’m itching for some relief.”
Astin casts his sight on the blubbering mess and says, “No.”
I raise my arm, and my skin glows red. My fingernails become longer and claw-like, with flames coiling around them, hungering for flesh.
Astin forces the woman to rise and then shoves her towards me. I grab her by the throat, my claw hand reaching for her heart. “Prince Reen, no!” Kol cries as my hand strikes the woman’s chest.