Page 117 of Foul Days

“Her parents must be worried sick, Kosara,” Asen said.

“All right!” Kosara shouted over both of them. “Fine. Once I get my shadow back, we’ll figure it out. I’ll try talking to her. We can bring her to her parents, but don’t blame me if she makes her way back here. Now, could we concentrate on the problem at hand, please?”

Asen looked up at the Zmey again and wrinkled his nose, as if he’d smelled something rotten. “How come you know so much about him?”

Kosara took another deep breath. There was no avoiding the question. She had to tell him, sooner or later. She waved a hand, completely casual. “Oh, we used to date.”

Saying it out loud made her stomach turn. They hadn’t dated. He’d tricked her, played her, taken advantage of her. There had been nothing mutual about it. There had never been “we,” only him.

“I’m sorry, you what?” Asen said.

“I was exactly his type when I was sixteen. Young and stupid.”

Asen looked at her as if she’d just uncovered the source of the rotten smell, and had presented it to him, proclaiming it a great delicacy. “What happened?”

“My mum forbade me from seeing him.”

“And you listened to her?”

“Of course not. Not at first, anyway. But then the Zmey started letting his mask slip. At the start, he’d been the perfect fiancé. He pretended he was human. But soon, I began catching glimpses of the monster beneath. I realised I had to walk on eggshells around him or else risk his anger. He was sweet as honey when I obeyed him, but when I dared to speak my mind…” She shook her head. “And then after he’d hurt me, he’d apologise, and shower me with affection. It was a constant, exhausting cycle, until finally, I realised I needed to get out or he might kill me. Trouble was, by that time, I was trapped here in the palace. With him.”

“But you managed to run away in the end?”

“Only because Vila found me. My mum got desperate and went to her for help. Vila showed up and snuck me out.”

“Thank God,” Asen muttered.

Kosara avoided meeting his eyes, too scared to see the pity in them. Instead, she watched the monsters dancing around her, occasionally pushing against her with their bodies. “Thank God. He didn’t like it, though. He’s never forgiven me.”

“What, did he expect you to wait around to die?”

“I suppose. He’s the Tsar of Monsters. He’s not used to being denied.” She finally looked at Asen and saw no pity. Instead, there was something that seemed a lot like anger. Please, please don’t try to arrest the Tsar of Monsters!

She cleared her throat. “We’d better find someone to give us a lift.”

They were surrounded by monsters, but none of them appeared as if they belonged on the Zmey’s platform. A few kitchen spirits held hands and spun in a circle, kicking up clouds of flour. A fireplace spirit stomped, flames bursting beneath his feet. A bathroom spirit grabbed a water spirit of some sort—of a river or a lake—and the two of them drifted through the hall, leaving puddles behind them.

The drummer finished a particularly complex solo, then stumbled and fell on the stage. Kosara automatically took a step towards him before she remembered: she was a household spirit. She didn’t care about mere humans. The other guests didn’t even look at the exhausted musician. The flautist kneeled next to him and helped him to a drink of water.

In the silence, Kosara heard two familiar words. “All in.”

She followed the voice and saw three of the yudas from the platform, sitting on one of the bone benches and playing cards with a moustached fireplace spirit. The spirit swore loudly, threw a handful of tokens in the face of the tallest yuda, and marched away.

They must have come down for a game of Kral. And Asen claimed Kosara never had good luck.

“Look,” she whispered.

Asen followed her eyes. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I thought you got into this whole mess because of a game of Kral.”

“I got into this mess because I trusted people I shouldn’t have.”

“But maybe if you just stop for a second and think, instead of throwing yourself into danger—”

“I’m not throwing myself into danger. In fact, I was considering throwing you into danger.”

Asen’s mouth hung open for a second, before a sound came out. “What?”

“Well, I’ve seen you dance. You’re pretty good.”

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