Page 102 of Where Shadows Bloom

There was a moment of silence.

Ofelia glanced back at me, her round face pleasantly pink with a blush. “We kissed, Your Majesty. It’s how we show affection to the person we love most in the world. And you see, this girl... she’s the girl I love most.”

Her fingers wove with mine. I felt as if my heart might fly out of my chest and back to the world above.

“Ah,” said the monster, understanding something. “You love each other very much, then.”

“Yes,” we said in one voice. We smiled. For a moment or two, I forgot that I was in another world, a world without light. I had everything I needed, with her hand in mine.

Almost.

“I’ve come here to make a deal with you,” I told the Shadow King. “I want to take Ofelia and her mother back above.” I glanced over his shoulder, spying Eglantine’s mother as she and Ofelia’s mother both descended the stairs. “I intend to take Sagesse with me, too.”

“One can be more easily arranged than the other,” said the Shadow King, slow and thoughtful. He pointed a long finger at Sagesse. “I have preserved all the king’s sacrifices. Timedoes not march forward here. But should Sagesse return to the world above, all the years gone from her time would return to her. She would be, I believe, eighty-three years old.”

Sagesse’s face remained stony; undeterred.

“On the other hand,” said the king, “Ofelia and Marisol would age only by a few days. Nothing noticeable at all.” His long fingers curled into a fist. “Even so, you would have to offer me a rare prize indeed in exchange for such a treasure.”

“What kind of prize?” I asked.

“For a chance at immortality, for an everlasting throne, King Léo was willing to trade away the people he loved most in this world.”

“I have no one left,” I said. “You already possess the one I love more than anything.”

Ofelia wrapped her arms around my middle and pressed her cheek against my heart. Like when we used to rest against each other in the manor’s gardens. Like things were normal, even just a little bit.

“I gave you my power to fight so that I could come here,” I told him. “What more do you want from me?”

Ofelia lurched in my grip, looking up at me with wide eyes. “What?!”

I nodded and brushed a curl from her forehead. “I gave him my sword and my ability to wield it. But for you I’d give anything. Do anything. Don’t you see? I’ve reached into the Underworld for you.”

“I know.” She blinked, tears sparkling against her lashes. “But the world is dangerous, Lope, and now you must live in it defenseless?”

“I do not live in it at all if you’re not there,” I whispered. My hand cupped against her cheek. “Soon we’ll be together, back in the daylight, and we’ll find a place where we no longer have to fear monsters or men. I won’t need a sword anymore.”

She nodded, chewing on her lip. She didn’t quite believe me.

“What, then, will you give me?” asked the Shadow King. “It must be a treasure equal to three souls.”

Before, he’d asked for lives. And King Léo happily provided, but...

The king.

My eyes widened. “I’ll give you King Léo. The prideful man who thinks he can use you like some servant.”

Sagesse grinned wickedly. Ofelia’s mother gasped.

The Shadow King cocked his head at me, and though I couldn’t read the white flames of his eyes, there was something satisfied in them at my offering. Something vindictively pleased.

“That seems a suitable trade.” He extended his hand. “If you bring me King Léo alive, I will in turn allow you to take three sacrifices to the world above. Are we agreed?”

Ofelia tugged on my sleeve. Worry wrinkled her brow.

“How will you do it?” she whispered. “He’s aking. He’s surrounded by guards. He’s untouchable.”

I wished to look at her forever.

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