Page 15 of King of Liars

“No way.” He glanced my body over and slid his middle finger from my navel to my chest.

“But if you keep playing with us, there won’t be anything I won’t give you, Boss. I don’t ask for much. Just bow to me. Call me your King. Let me rule over you, and I’ll let you rule over me.”

Although, I had a feeling no one could really ever rule over Sy.

This was all wrong.

Going down this path with Sy would be a mistake—and yet I knew damn well that was the only possible outcome.

But as resistant as I’d been all along, the fact that I was lying in bed with the King and his knights left me feeling like I was about to be in more over my head than I could ever conceive.

Part II

5

Nick

“Your mom told me you’ve been having nightmares recently,” Katherine says.

She looks like a princess from a movie…Rapunzel, with her long blond hair and her light-blue dress.

I tremble in front of her. Mom said I have to be careful what I say so I don’t embarrass her in front of our Queen.

No, I won’t embarrass Mom.

But now I don’t want to say anything.

She rises from the vanity in the corner of her room and approaches. “Aren’t you a quiet thing?”

I’m still at the doorway, too scared to enter without permission.

“Come on in, Nicholas.” She ushers me inside and closes the door behind me. She squats until she’s eye-level with me, smiling brightly, her gaze shifting over my face. “Aren’t you a pretty boy? A special boy…”

The Queen thinks I’m special?

“How old are you?” she asks. “Wait. You’re ten, right?”

I nod.

“Don’t be shy now, my little prince. I need you to tell me what you need, if I’m to help you.”

She helps everyone here. Mom says she can make all her dreams come true…that she can make all the pain and hurt go away.

Katherine’s going to take away all the bad in the world.

“Mom says you can make my nightmares go away.”

She smiles. Why is she looking at me like that? Strangely. What is she thinking?

“Did I say something wrong?” I ask.

“Oh, no, no, Little Prince. Nothing wrong at all. I’m just getting a read on you. Do you mind if I place my hands on your head? I need to commune with my knights before I can help you.”

Mom says Katherine has superpowers like Superman. She can do anything with ghosts—no, not ghosts—Mom always corrects me. Guides? Spirits? All the words are so different here. Feels like I’m having to learn everything all over again.

Katherine places her hands on either side of my face and closes her eyes, taking in a breath, the way she does before our daily meetings, when she speaks for the dead.

No, not dead. They never lived.

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