Chapter Eighteen #3
King Killian’s voice was clear as a bell in the quiet, all eyes now on her. She stood frozen with a dirty plate in her hand, wishing she could turn and refuse. But who was she to deny a king?
An attendant slipped forward and took her plate, leaving Solana without an excuse. She turned slowly and rubbed her palms over her thighs. The king’s rings glittered on his outstretched hand. Across the room, someone coughed.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Solana finally said, placing her hand in his.
He held her at arm’s length until they were in the center of the room and the music began again, and then he twirled her into his embrace, gentle and swift. Enchanted, the crowd softly clapped and pressed the circle back.
“These are the people that would have celebrated your death. Now they see you as a protector, a savior. How does it feel to rise so high?”
King Killian’s hand settled along her back. She felt the press of his palm and shivered with distaste. “I’m not doing any of this for them,” she said honestly.
“Then for who? Your people?” He said the word with a smile, but Solana could see the contempt in his eyes before he spun her away and back. “Or for yourself?” he added. “Perhaps to atone for the sins of your father.”
Solana’s steps faltered as terror pooled in her belly and burned its way up her throat.
The music and the crowd fell away until it was only the erratic beating of her heart and King Killian, smiling at her victoriously.
“Did you think I wouldn’t remember you? That I wouldn’t recognize his eyes, his smile … his dagger?”
There was no answer she could give him that wouldn’t paint her in a worse light. She chose to say nothing at all, grateful for the death grip the king had on her hand so that he wouldn’t notice it shaking.
“I am not your enemy, Solana. Your father made his choices, and they broke my heart. But I know that you won’t follow in his footsteps.
” He looked directly into her eyes as he spoke, the lines at the corners of his mouth creased softly with a cheap imitation of a soothing smile.
“You were just a child. No one will hold you accountable for his mistakes.”
He pushed her out into a twirl and then pulled her back in, like she was a toy on a string.
The crowd oohed and aahed. The chandeliers sparkled garishly.
Solana wanted to close her eyes and pull away, to gather her thoughts and come up with something clever to say, but the king came closer, his cloying scent crowding her, his tepid breath in her ear as he whispered, “Masimu is alive.”
No.
The only things holding her up were the king’s hands, one firm at her waist and the other clasped in hers at his chest. She was coming undone at his words, ripping at every seam she had sewn into herself to keep the memories and longing at bay.
If what King Killian said was true, then they had left Sonqo for nothing, had lived in squalor for nothing, had died and killed for nothing.
For so many years, she had chosen to believe he was dead and gone rather than accept that he had left them of his own accord. A coward running from his mistakes. A worthless husband and father leaving his family alone to live a life of pain and suffering.
The devastation wouldn’t be his death, but that he still lived.
“Why?” she asked through the burn in her chest. “Where?”
“He’s hiding like a coward in Uku Pacha.
” The king paused, watching Solana carefully as she swallowed the revelation.
“I tried for many years to find him, searched every corner of Supay for sign of him.
With him gone, so was any chance at finding a cure for the curse.
When I heard news of a slayer with a special dagger, I thought he had finally returned to finish what he had started. But it was you that we found.
“For so long, we had feared that all hope was lost. Now that we have you and your blood, there is hope again. Masimu’s fate is no longer of concern to me, and neither should it be to you.”
They turned in another dizzying circle, lights and faces rushing by in a blur. “I’m telling you this so you will know that you can trust me. I want to save our people, Solana. I want to set everyone free.”
Free. It was what she wanted most for herself, and of course, for her people as well. The king was right—her traitor father’s fate was no business of hers. She could solve all his problems and clean up his mess. Reverse the curse and leave Supay for good. She was doing all the right things.
“Stay the course,” she whispered, and the king’s answering smile was brilliant.
Perhaps she had been unfair in her judgments of him.
It must be incredibly difficult to run a kingdom, to protect the people and the land from forces outside of his control.
Masimu deserved to be trapped in the underworld.
“That’s exactly it,” King Killian murmured, his hand tightening around hers.
The song ended and, as if in a trance, Solana stepped away from him. His fingers came up to brush her cheek. “Remember this conversation,” he said, then turned away in a flourish of silver and velvet.
But how could she ever forget?