Page 43 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
“Five minutes then. You know I can’t abide going to bed without you,” the queen simpered. “I hope my son eats you,” she viciously spat at me as I passed her, before turning on her heel and stalking off down the hallway.
“Which one?” I shot back, unable to help myself.
The queen stopped short, her back muscles tightening, but only for a moment. She shook herself and kept walking, eventually disappearing around the corner and down the hall.
“She’s going to kill you,” the king said nonchalantly, leading me down the hall. All traces of senility were gone from his voice.
I struggled to keep up with his longer strides. He took us to a large stone window that overlooked the city.
“I think she’s trying to kill all of us. I’m just getting special attention,” I wryly shot back.
The king raised a thick, dark eyebrow at me.
“Are you from the mud quarter?” I asked, burning with curiosity to confirm my theory. The king braced his arms against the stone ledge of the window, leaning out into the open air.
“We’re all from the mud quarter deep down,” he grumbled roughly. “I had a sister like you once. She was beautiful. Fierce.”
I didn’t like the sadness in his eyes. “What happened to her?” I asked.
He chuckled darkly, withdrawing a small flask from his hip and taking a large gulp. “The same thing that happens to any flower after it’s plucked, Mari.”
The stone was cold and rough under my hands. I relished the harsh scrape of the edges against my skin. “Why are you telling me this?”
He set the flask on the ledge. “Flowers aren’t the only ones used and discarded. I thought I could save my sister. I thought I could help the mud people. Don’t waste your time and energy like I did.”
The king turned to me, his eyes tired. He looked sooldin this moment. “The queen controls everything. She willalwayscontrol everything. She wants to use you like she used me. There will bemoredragons that she can control if you let her get away with it. The best thing you can do is–”
“That is enough.”
The king jerked so hard he knocked his flask over, sending it clanking and tumbling out the window. The queen appeared with her lips pursed, holding her hand out to the king. He took it wordlessly, his eyes on the ground.
“Goodnight, mud rat.”
The king shot me a compassionate look, and I fled down the hallway toward Zion’s tower. I could see it out one window in the hall, so I felt reasonably confident about finding my way back there.
As I walked, my head was full of questions. How had the queen used the king, and how would she use me in the same way? Shouldn’t the queen be relieved I already knew her sons’ secrets? Did she really expect the two brothers to share a wife in between taking turns as a dragon, and for the poor woman to never notice? It was absurd.
Me. For me to never notice.
I was the poor woman.
A growl rumbled in my chest. I wasn’t a poor woman. I needed to find out what this curse was, and how to stop it. I wouldn’t end up like the king, sad and powerless and full of regrets.
“Zariah told me you’d seek me out. He didn’t say you’d be angry.”Zion stepped out from around the corner, wrapped in an elegant nightgown studded with emeralds. His excess irritated me.Had he been following me this entire time?
“Your place. Now,” I demanded.
“Ooh, eager to get me alone. I see how it is.” He looped an arm through mine and I allowed it. The scent of ash clung to him, and the arm around mine shook slightly.
“Are you alright?” I wondered out loud.
He grimaced. “As you said: my place, now.”
I tried to memorize the twisting passages and how many turns we took. If needed, I wanted to get to his quarters on my own.Just keep going up. That should do that trick,I thought.
Sooner than I expected, we climbed a spiral set of stairs that led to a familiar door at the top of a similar tower. It was hard to explain, but being this close to the edges of the dome made me feel more secure, not less.
Probably because the raging dragon man likes you.
