21. Chapter Twenty-One #2
“Yes, I’ve dealt with a few kelpies before.” I sheathe the sword and pull out my daggers. “The best way to kill them is through the gills.”
“You don’t have a potion you use on them?”
“Yes, I have that drying potion I showed you, but it’s iffy on them. They have a great filtering system, so anything I can throw at them often takes too long to work.”
He nods his chin toward the lake. “Start walking around it, but put your daggers away, so we can have start to finish how you’d fight them.”
“Who’s to say I won’t have my daggers out at all times?”
“That would be unwise. Most of these monsters are highly intelligent, and they don’t need an early look at your power.”
I put the daggers back in their holsters and walk around the lake.
Nothing happens for so long that I almost make it to the other side.
A fish leaps out of the water, and the ripples around it are off.
They spike upward in little triangles that create a ring and linger above the surface for a little too long.
The water goes placid, and I continue my stroll.
Blue fingers wrap around my ankle and drag me from the shore, shoving me under the murky water.
It happens so fast there’s no time to grab air, and my lungs burn.
The creature and I wrestle in the water.
Its primary goal is to keep me under as long as possible.
My head and chest are exploding with pressure, but I wiggle a wrist free from its grasp.
This is a battle I’ve fought more than once in real life, so when I retrieve my blade, I easily locate the gills that I quickly stab five times until the kelpie releases me.
I kick my legs with dying strength and pierce the surface.
The air is sweet but short lived as a second kelpie pulls me under.
I repeat the process, but the lack of oxygen is slowing me down.
It’s harder to push the dagger into the gills.
The throbbing in my skull is difficult to push through.
I subdue the monster and take down a third before fighting my way to oxygen.
I gasp for air, only to be pulled under again.
On the nineth one, I only want to make it to the surface to scream at Zyon.
I’ll murder him if he doesn’t stop the bombardment.
Hooves slam into my head, and I’m knocked to the lake floor where everything goes dark.
I cough and sputter while Zyon beats on my back.
Joyous air expands my lungs, and I wheeze until I learn how to breathe it in properly.
“You ass!” I shove him and jump up. “Kelpies always stay alone. They aren’t social creatures, and you might come across two together if it’s mating season! That was what, eight?”
“Nine, and you did well killing them all.”
I glower and stomp toward the exit of the cave. “That would have killed me if it were real life.”
“Exactly why we need to keep practicing.”
“There will never be a time I need to fight nine at once!”
He fetches my daggers from where I dropped them and brings them over to me. “No, but the point was to practice and see if your skills improve with something familiar. You’re an excellent fighter when you know what to expect.”
“Isn’t everyone?”
“No, it means we need to get through the entire encyclopedia before you need to go up the mountain. You were never in danger. Nothing exists here except us and the cave.”
“I’m tired and need a break.”
“That’s fair. You’ve been working hard,” he says.
“Because you’re relentless.”
“Because I want you to live.” He dives into the water through the portal back to the ice dragon, who is looking at the grey sky as though he has genuine emotions over the view.
We ride back in silence, and I charge into the castle. Zyon hurries to catch up and jumps in front of me. “Hey! I’m sorry if it’s too much, but the mountain will be too much if you can’t make it to the top.”
“Since when do you truly care? You went from wishing for my death to obsession with my survival.”
“Not caring if you live was before I knew you and we shared a bed while baring our souls.”
“We have literally only slept in that bed, so it’s not even like we’ve physically bonded for you to be so possessive of my survival.” I push around him and pick up my pace toward my room.
“Sometimes conversation is more intimate than sex.”
“What is even going on here? I thought you just wanted to sleep with me to warm your bed until better options come along.” I pick up speed again.
“What better options are there than you?”
“You tell me," I say.
“There’s this strange attraction to you I thought sex would soothe, then I could move on to being indifferent. You made it clear you wanted more before you’d have sex with me, so in my attempt to give that to you, I realized I wanted more too. Something deeper.”
I stop rushing away from him and turn around. “After all of this is over, you will go back to being king, and I will go back to my village. That was always our fate at the end of this.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“But it will be. You’ll remember your life, and you can’t tell me there isn’t another woman with how skilled you are without even being inside me.”
“I want to be inside you, but not yet.”
I narrow my eyes and turn my head slightly. “Then when is acceptable for you?”
“When we’ve both fallen hard enough, our souls will never recover.”
I chew on my lip and stare at him a moment more before fleeing to my room. The foolish, stupid king terrifies me, not because of his ability to manipulate the dead or even me. But because I already fear my soul won’t move past him when everything ends.
He wouldn’t be the first man whose pretty words lured me to bed, but his are on another level than any I’ve experienced. It makes me want to give him my heart in ways I suspect will wound me too greatly when the curse breaks.
After stripping off my clothes, I run a bubble bath and sink into the rose water, closing my eyes and attempting to remove the king from my mind, but he stays lodged there like a beautifully terrible parasite. I put on my white nightgown to see if I can escape him in dreams and braid my hair.
He’s waiting in my room when I get out and stands up from the chair by my bed. “I miss you now when I sleep.” He grimaces three times, and I understand the issue.
I sigh and lead him by the hand into my bed.
The potions I made for him are in my nightstand, and over the last few days, I’ve improved them to work even better.
They not only give him total relief but relax him for untroubled sleep.
I pull his head into my lap and massage the ointment into his skin.
He smells lovely in some scent I can’t name but is solely his.
I kiss his forehead to take it in better.
He keeps his eyes shut as I work but grips my wrist when I’m nearly finished.
I complete the task with on hand and weave our fingers together.
His breathing evens until there’s no doubt he’s asleep.
Even as he sleeps, I continue to make sure the relief will be long lasting, and when I’m sure it’ll keep for a while, I slide down next to him and snuggle close.