Page 319 of Kingdoms of Night

I want to argue, but I’m not quite sure how. “Animals don’t talk.”

“Not in ways you can understand.” He leans in and whispers, as if to share a secret. “That just makes you dumber than them, pet.”

I flush again, this time in anger. “It’s just not right! What if we stormed into your lands and demanded your firstborns! Would you like that?”

He shrugs. “I mean, anyone’s welcome to try.” He leans back against the brushed metal, insouciant as ever. “I wouldn’t recommend it. I am the highest thing on the food chain. Weareall animals, Lena, but that doesn’t make us equals.”

My eyes narrow.

“Anger suits you well, pet. You look like a fierce kitten when you stare at me so.”

His approval should mean nothing at all to me, yet I find that I like the compliment. I seldom receive any.

“For the record, we never demanded firstborns. Any child would have done, really.”

I can feel my mouth fall open in shock.

He can’t mean that. My father expressively said that the demons wanted the firstborns! “That can’t be right,” I hear myself whisper.

But of course it is.

I’ve always known that given a choice, King Lotar would favor his son. I knew I was being groomed to be a noble's wife and he, a king, despite what the laws of the land demand. But hearing that I was cast aside when there was a clear choice is no less devastating. I suppose my father did me a kindness by at least pretending he had no say in the matter.

“Why?” My voice is breaking. It’s not the first time I've asked him this question, but he’d just said they were low on mortals—that’s not an actual answer. “Why did you take us?”

He stares at me for a long while before replying. “Before I was born, before my father even walked the land, a war broke out between the north and the south. Don’t ask me what they were fighting over, exactly. Wars can start over the silliest things—a smile, a gift ill received, the advances of the wrong woman. After a while, no one remembers. It lasted hundreds of years, and devastated the lands, until the erlking put a stop to it. But the south would not bow to his power. The king created a border dividing our kingdoms in two, and declared that the blessings of the folks wouldn’t reach the south. Additionally, it was agreed that the south would provide the north with five hundred servants every five hundred years until they atoned for their offense. Years, then centuries passed. Your kind, disconnected from the powers of nature, and grew weaker, shorter lived. But though you don’t remember, the north has a long memory, and your tithe is still owed.”

I could scream. I’m enslaved because of some long-forgotten slight thousands of years ago? “That’s so unfair.”

Now, Dryan smirks. “And you thought life was supposed to be? Aren’t you adorable.”

CHAPTERNINE

What Dryan claimed is a lot to digest. If he hasn’t lied to me, then my kind and his are kin. It’s hard to imagine that he could be anything like me—he is to mortals what a tiger is to a house cat. Yet the more I think on it, the more certain I grow that his tale has to be at least partially true. Why otherwise would we have the same shape and limbs, communicate the same way? I blush, thinking of other compatibilities.

“You’re taking us because a long-dead king declared that you could a hundred generation ago,” I summarize.

Dryan rises out of the water to his full splendor, and I stare for one beat too long before having the sense to blush and look away. A tiger indeed, all smooth, hard muscles under golden skin.

I wonder at the words etched on his flesh. Their meaning, their provenance. I daren’t ask, as that would be admitting to staring.

“We take you because we want to, and because you cannot stop us.” He’s arrogance personified.

I think of the war my father has attempted to wage, only to be defeated in mere days.

King Lotar and the others must have known that the folk were coming. So why have I never heard of them until now?

Because they wanted you docile and ignorant, idiot!

I should have read more. There are many ancient books in the royal library, and I never bothered to open anything that wasn’t required by my tutors, or commanded by the Church of the Sun.

“Why would you want us, if we’re so weak and useless?” I push, sounding quite petulant.

I hear him walk out of the water and move around the room, though I still look anywhere but in his direction. The dogs’ soft paws join his footfalls as he walks farther away.

“Evolution,” he replies, confusing me enough that I glance his way.

He’s drinking dark wine close to the fireplace—still naked, so I quickly redirect my gaze.

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