Page 14 of The Horned King

"Yes."

Another infuriating mhmm. "And whose idea was that? Yours?"

Well, no. But that's none of his fucking business. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, I think perhaps we're making this a little too personal. I'm only here to find a peace and trade alliance that benefits us all."

"Kai," he says between bites of food.

"What?"

"My name. There's no need to keep calling me Your Majesty. Takes too long. Just Kai is fine." He shrugs.

Absolutely not. "I don't think it's appropriate to be addressing you so informally, Your Majesty."

"Elva," he says my name, and I think for a moment my heart stops beating in my chest. "You're a guest in my home. If I have to hear you call me Your Majesty 1,000 times over the duration of your stay, I'm going to kill someone. Not sure who, but someone."

"You cannot be serious," I utter, jaw dropped.

"I am, in fact, dead serious." He smirks. "It will annoy me to the point I will have to kill someone just to take the edge off. And surely, you don't want an innocent servant's death on your hands."

I stutter, looking around the room at the possible victims around me. "That's not- No, I- You-"

"Splendid. So Kai it is. Or I'll allow Kairon."

Through gritted teeth, I concede, "Fine. Kairon."

He smiles at me again, the expression not quite meeting his eyes but being entirely dazzling all the same. His mercurial nature is unsettling, to say the least. One moment, he's insulting me. The next, he's practically inviting me into inappropriate closeness.

"How long will you be here with us, Elva?" he asks as the servers remove the soup and place some fragrant fish I've never seen before in front of us. "I know my itinerary has us scheduled for meetings between now and next week sometime, but what will you do after that?"

"Go home," I say as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, because it is.

He shakes his head. "Oh, that won't do at all."

"Excuse me?"

With a singular brow raised in challenge, he proceeds, "Well, with such a grand occasion, we must throw a party."

"Oh." I try to argue, "No, that won't be necessary. Really."

"It's no trouble at all," he speaks aloud to the room, but his eyes never leave mine. "How long will it take to plan a ball to celebrate having peace at last between all of our neighboring countries? Two weeks? Three?"

A man steps out of the shadows, "I'm certain we could have something appropriate within the timeframe of Ambassador Aistin's visit. Surely, we can plan something in just a few days."

"Nonsense." The king finishes the drink before him, handing the glass to the man for a refill. I can't tell if he's being sarcastic or genuine, and the mystery drives me insane. "For something as momentous as this, we need a party that will surely take weeks to plan. Let's say three. And a half. For a ball the likes of which Oksangui has never seen before."

"The other representatives will be long gone by that point," I tell him emphatically, to which he chuckles.

"You think negotiations will be done within two weeks' time? You clearly have not met the leaders with whom you'll be sharing the stage within the coming days."

"I didn't bring anything suitable to wear to a party," I say as my last, admittedly feeble attempt to sway him from this decision.

"Elva, based on what I've seen thus far, you did not bring anything suitable to wear in Oksangui." My mouth hangs open at the umpteenth insult he's thrown at me in the short span of this dinner. "But it's no matter. I've already remedied that particular issue."

"I'm sorry, what?"

He coughs out a laugh. "Let me speak plainly. Your clothes are fucking hideous. Even if you had brought a ballgown, I would have had it thrown out. Burned, most likely."

I can feel my left eye twitching, the tension in my body coiling and begging me to say something atrocious. The king across from me must see it, the first sign of life finally filling his eyes. There's mild excitement in them, as if he wants me to lose my temper, craves it.

---