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So was Hemdale. “I’ve known corpses all my life.”
“Not this kind. They’ll drag ye back to him each time ye try to run. Did ye reckon I never tried?”
There had to be a way… “How long have you been here?”
“Decades. Centuries. It’s all—”
“The same to you,” I said, my shoulders slouching as hope wanted to fade away.
Orlaigh’s pat against my head told me there might be an ally in the woman or, at the very least, a friend. Would she help me? Perhaps distract the corpses so I could escape the King’s punishment?
Harlot.
The word still echoed.
Would he employ me as such? If he looked like a man, did he have a man’s needs?
My chest tightened at the premise.
John had once threatened to sell me to the whorehouse—as was his right as a husband when a wife proved barren. I’d slapped him in the face. He’d slapped me back harder, twice, but he’d never threatened it again. I’d avoided this fate then, and I wouldn’t accept it now.
Not without a fight.
I scratched a nail over the material of the tub, pearls of water running down the digit, collecting in the notch forming there. Not stone. Who built all this if his throne room had been such an empty—
“She woke.” The King’s voice snapped my spine straight, amplified with each slowthudof a boot as he approached. “Leave us.”
Behind me, Orlaigh turned unnaturally still, even for a corpse. “But—”
“Now.”
The weight of the woman’s hand on my shoulder turned heavier, colder, and in no way comforting. Worse was how it disappeared as she rose and walked off. “As me Master commands…”
Even after her footfalls faded behind doors long shut, the King didn’t move, didn’t speak—and neither did I. My heart did the talking for me, each beat sending a vibration whispering over the surface of the otherwise still water.
His long exhale cooled the surrounding air further, but his sharp command froze the blood in my veins. “Stand.”
Breathing as shallow as I could to hide my fear, I rose to the deafening drips of water. Arm hugging my breasts tighter, I lowered my other hand to cover my crotch.
“I never meant to set foot into your ki-ingdom.” My chattering teeth bit down on the words. “But thank you for mending my f-fl-lesh.”
His silence was nothing but an extension of his disdain as the warmth of his body crept against my spine. If he resented us mortals so much, then why keep me? Everyone heard the stories of how lunatics tied virgins to the trees in the Blighted Fields to appease him. Most died strapped to the trunk. Why not ignore me? Send me back? Heavens, why not kill me?
“My court is so… cold.” Gentle fingers brushed wet hair over my shoulder before they trailed down my back, making me arch away. “Shh… never evade my touch, mortal, or deny me your warmth.”
His touch made heat creep underneath my skin, planting itself in the marrow of my bones, warming me from the inside. “What do you want with me?”
“You tell me. What could I want with the soft skin of a woman, her flesh warm and yielding?”
I shook my head.
“No?” His faint chuckle tingled down along my shoulder blade. “I’m tempted to tell you just how I will use this body, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with a simpler question. What’s your name, little mortal?”
Mortal.
Was he… undying?
I swallowed hard. “Ada.”
