Page 8 of The Death King

“You think we’ll ever find one?” she asked.

I turned toward her.

“I’ve been digging with this crew a long time. Never found a black diamond.”

A black diamond was a crystal only found in the Arid Sands. They were rare, so rare we were lucky to find one once a year. I’d never seen one with my own eyes, so I wasn’t sure what to look for. Was it small like a pebble or more obvious like a rock? I’d probably never know. But I was motivated to find one because whoever did was granted freedom.

They were granted passage back to the valley, where they could begin a new life in one of the kingdoms. They were given a sack of coins to get started—payment for their contribution to the Death King.

I’d worked in that camp the last seven years, and not once had I come close to finding one. The odds were much greater that I would work in the pits until I died of old age than find one of those diamonds.

Amelia gave a long sigh. “What a life wasted. To live and die in the pits.”

“We can try to escape…like I’ve already suggested.”

“You know we would never make it across the desert. We’d either die out there, or they would catch us. Either way, we end up dead.”

“Maybe we don’t try to escape,” I said. “We take over the compound instead.”

Amelia was about to drink her water when she turned to me instead, her eyes narrowed in interest.

“There’s more of us than them.”

“But they have armor and weapons.”

“Not in the middle of the night. And we have shovels. It’d be easy to kill a man with one of those.”

She continued to stare at me like she was actually considering it. “We’d have to convince everyone, and I’m not sure they’re all trustworthy. Some are snitches. They sleep with the guards to get kickbacks. That’s how I’m getting you your medicine.”

She referred to Germanium, the plant used as a contraceptive. Without it, I’d be pregnant with that monster’s baby. Sometimes, I wondered if that was what he wanted because he never seemed concerned with that outcome. Maybe he thought if I had his baby, that would make me like him more…which wasn’t possible. “It’s fun to fantasize.”

“Yeah, it is.”

We needed the numbers to be successful, and if some of them weren’t trustworthy, then that meant the mission would fail. By not staying in the barracks with everyone, I couldn’t distinguish who was right for the mission. I’d been with General Titan for a year now. The second he was stationed here, he set his eye on me. At first, he offered me gifts in exchange for sex, but I denied all his advances. When it was clear there was nothing he could offer me to get me on my back, he forced me instead—and he seemed to enjoy that more anyway. I’d been his prisoner ever since.

The horn sounded, ending everyone’s break.

“Back to work.” Amelia capped her canteen then got to her feet before she extended her hand to me.

“Yep.” I took it and let her pull me up. “Back at it.”

I lay there in the tub of the bathroom. The warm water was up to my shoulders, soothing against my dry skin. It was quiet in the bedchambers because General Titan had left to play poker with the other soldiers stationed in the Arid Sands.

I was all alone.

I loved being alone, but it also brought out the worst in me.

Those dark thoughts I tried to defeat always floated back to the surface, whispering for me to end a life not worth living. At that moment, I was in a body of water. All I had to do was slip underneath and never come back up.

It would be over.

When I’d stepped into my father’s study and discovered he’d chosen to take his own life rather than take up his sword to fight the Death King with his men, I felt raw disappointment in my chest. In those final moments when he’d said goodbye to me, I’d thought he was the bravest man I’d ever known.

But he was only brave because he knew it would all be over in a few minutes.

He wasn’t brave at all…but a coward.

But now, I viewed his past with new eyes. It was a path I refused to take after feeling such a horrible loss.

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