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“You thought you could lock me up and that I was too weak to do anything like before.”
The gold ate the ground as David yelled for someone.
“I’ll gild for myself. Not you.”
David went white as he scrambled up onto a raised flowerbed to avoid the gold creeping closer. His feet slipped on the bricks, and he tore out a handful of peonies as he caught himself. “Wait-”
“Not any brother of mine, and no King will command me again. My life is my own.”
“It’ll be short-” David blustered.
“Oh, no, not quite that short. I’m not perfect, but I’m good enough, and once I have children, I’ll pass on.”
He would. It would. Aurelius’s mind struggled for a second to comprehend that. Wasn’t he still Aurelius, just different? He was both and himself at the time. The King’s chalky face caught his attention again.
“I said you were different because of the key being in you for so long,” David said as he scooted back on his arse among the flowers in a very unkingly manner, and his sagging cheeks lifted as he smiled.
It was so stiff and fake, Aurelius started to giggle. This man had been so calm and sure of himself when he thought he had the upper hand and could make Aurelius do what he wanted. How quickly that had changed.
“I can help you control things so you can use it better. I-I-” David stuttered to a stop as his fake smile dropped, and he floundered for something. “I can give you ideas on what to do.”
Aurelius burst out laughing again. “Is that all you can offer me? I don’t need yourideas. I choose the gold over you.”
David stood, lifted his right fist, and fire appeared. He screamed as his right arm turned to gold, and the fire snuffed out as each finger stiffened, and his sleeve changed too. He stumbled as a leg went too and remained straight with the metal joint unable to bend anymore. Aurelius chuckled as David fell from the raised bed and cried out. In the dirt, he tried to drag himself along with his good arm as the ground turned underneath him.
“Dear Elira, please! I’ll do anything.”
“David, David, David. Where’s that restraint now, hmm? I thought you wanted wealth beyond your wildest dreams while you lived out the rest of your shitty, worthless life. Elira won’t help you now. She’s gone too.”
“Please-no. It was Eurig’s fault-”
“And you had a fifteen-year-old boy tortured for a stupid ability.” Aurelius strolled toward him as the collar around his neck turned to gold, cracked, and fell off. Everyone who betrayed or abandoned him would be broken statues, and they would reap the consequences of their greed.
David rolled onto his side and held up his hand. “I’ll give back Nova and anything else you want-”
“You had things taken from me that you can't give back.”
The six men stormed in with swords drawn. About time. They looked a lot neater than yesterday and wore palace guard uniforms of black with plain, silver armor.
“Oh, it’s the two snakes that infiltrated my pile.” Aurelius eyed Freckles and Tall. They’d be the first of the group to go, and he'd break them all into pieces.
He couldn’t see it, but he knew Freckle’s heart had turned to gold in his chest. Tall was already undoing the buckles on his armor, and his face had grown rather slack.
“Hey!” One lowered his weapon as he stepped back.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Freckles clutched at his chest as his eyes grew wide.
“Nothing to pump the blood must be wreaking havoc in you,” Aurelius said as Tall let his chest armor drop to the ground. “I wish I could see it. You. Stab yourself in the heart.”
Tall took his dagger from his belt and lifted it. His buddies backed away as they started babbling.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Don’t!”
Tall stabbed himself in the heart and didn’t even flinch as he twisted the blade and pulled it out. Blood leaked from the wound as he fell to his knees. Freckles collapsed a second later. David let out a noise as he shook on the gold ground.
