Page 47 of Kingdom of Rot & Ruin
“You’d have done what, exactly? The same as you always do?” I said bitterly, past the point of caring. This man was the king.If he didn’t have any power, who did?
The queen, obviously.
What was it about her that commanded such power?
The magick.
That had to be it, wasn’t it? Otherwise there was no reason for the king to kowtow to her like that, even if he was a mud boy like me.
The question begged itself though; why had the queen chosen a mud boy to be her consort? It had to do with whatever was going on with this ‘experiment’ of forcing the king and my mother together. It had to do with these demon creatures.
“There’s a curse, isn’t there?” I asked the king numbly. It was always a curse in my mother’s story books, after all.
The king gave me another one of his sad smiles. “Too smart. Try to stick around. I’d love to see what you become.”
His smile was genuine then, reaching up to crinkle the corners of his eyes. He turned and left without another word, leaving me standing in the corridor.
Alone. Again.
I saw Clover once a week. I wouldn’t say she was an addiction, but she was a very nice distraction, and none of the other servants had the courage to speak against me or tattle on how much time I spent in the herb closet with her.I was technically a Noble after all, even if they did eye my hair with suspicion.
I tried to forget about the prince and his dragon half, until he found me one night in the archives.
“There you are. They said you would be here.”
I jerked at his voice and stood automatically, my chair scraping harshly against the stone floor and nearly tipping over in my hurry. My head bowed, and I put a hand to my chest in the customary show of respect.
“Prince—er, my prince,” I ended weakly, not confident in what name to be using.
“It is Zariah,” the boy said calmly.
Though he wasn’t exactly a boy anymore, was he?
I lifted my head to study him. It had only been a year, but he’d grown quite taller. He looked more like his father (and me) now that he’d lost the roundness of childhood around his face.
Zariah frowned. “You haven’t been to visit me like you promised.”
Warily, I met his gaze. Silver eyes tinged with green stared back at me, hurt. It reminded me of M. I shook away such unhelpful thoughts. M had been a traitor. He hung around with one-eyed B and his crew now.
A vicious smirk tilted the corner of my lips. B wore an eyepatch and avoided me like the plague.
“I tried to visit you a long time ago,” I protested, but keeping my voice steady. “You tried to eat me.”
The young prince blinked at me, alarmed.
“That must have been Zion, then. Mother says we have to let him outsometimes. I used to hate being the dragon all the time, but it’s nice to live here sometimes. The food is better.”
A snort left me before I could help it.
Zariah’s lips curled in a mischievous grin and a darkchuckle burst from my lips. In short order, both of us were laughing. How ridiculous and uplifting. Eventually, we quieted, and I even wiped a stray tear from my eye. I’d never laughed hard enough to cause tears!
“How old are you now?” I asked, curious and believing the question not to be impertinent.
“Does it matter?” He shot back, one eyebrow arched.
His ‘Zariah’ personality was definitely more confident than ‘Zion.’
“Just on the cusp of manhood, regardless,” I observed.
