Page 26 of The Krampus' Queen
A chill wafts across the empty room like the last whisper of the long dead. “And then they turned on you,” I say.
“No. Nothing so dramatic. It began slowly. A bad crop one year, people moved back to the village. A summer without a sun, more died off in the elements. A storm without end cutting the food supply in half. Slowly, day by day, the voices grew softer, the bedrooms colder, and the throne room emptied. I didn’t even realize what was happening until only a handful of people remained. Loyal to me. Dedicated to a fault.”
Krampus sighs to his hooves. “That is the problem with you humans. Eventually, regardless of your vows to me or yourself, you leave. One day, I woke to find I was alone in my castle on the mountain and it would be ever so. The chair that’d once invited a warm kinship became cold as ice. I no longer had the strength to sit here.”
I climb up another step, my eyes landing around his legs so I have to tip my head back. It’s hard to see him under his drawn hood, but the shadows aren’t as sharp as before. Almost like cracks of light are showing through.
He was alone for who knows how long. It’s one thing to never know friendship but to revel in it for years, to have a heart filled with love to the point of bursting only for it to be torn away is another cruelty entirely. “What about the women?”
A small chuckle rolls off his tongue. “No, I do not have a room full of brides.” The lightness fades to a deep groan. “I’m sorry.”
I wince, not sure why I told him that. I mean, we were reading Dracula and I just made a passing comment. Fuck, if I’d known about his past, I’d have… I don’t know. How the hell do you help someone who’s been isolated for centuries?
No, not isolated. He’s trapped here, same as me.
Worse than me. I can leave at any time. I’ll lose him, but I’ll be free. All he has are snippets in the world of the living. A single Christmas Eve to linger near the joy of others and remember what he’s lost.
My heart aching, I climb another step. I’m nearly up these damn things when his head falls to his chest.
“I know why I tried to chase you away.”
“It’s what you did to the others you saved? To get them back home?”
“No. Most of them would leave upon waking.”
“Most isn’t all,” I point out, finally reaching the precipice only to realize I’m left standing next to his ten-foot-tall throne. My head comes up to his nipples.
Krampus places his fingers together in thought. “A few would…linger with me in the hot springs.”
Oh, there’s that green-eyed demon armed with chainsaws now.Who? Give me names. I’ll start tearing hair out and—
His red eyes swing down to me, his brow weighted with sorrow. “None of them remained past a day. None save for you, Amaya.”
I don’t know if I should feel special or shameful. “So…you want your peace back? That’s why you yelled at me to leave?”
He sits forward on his throne, his head straining down to my face. “I yelled at you because I want you gone before…” Krampus draws his palm down my arm and I’m frozen in place. Rage, fear, maybe both at once boil through me.
I knew he didn’t want me here. That I’m a burden. Except… I cling to his hand, pressing his claws into my skin. “Before what?” I ask, gritting my teeth as pain burns up my arm.
“Before it breaks my heart when you depart.”
I can hear a pin drop on the other side of the mountain. My face contorts through a dozen expressions until I pull an eyebrow muscle. The scary beast who chased me off now he wants me to stay? Or he wants me gone because he likes me too much?
In all my turmoil, I wind up with my chin nearly pressed to his thighs and a “Bwha?” look on my face.
“At first, it was a nice change to have you around. A disruption to my routine would only make me appreciate the mundanity more once you were gone. But you stayed. One night, then another. I went from counting down the days when I would have the bed to myself to…” His jaw twists and he cups a hand behind my head. “To counting down the moments I could hold you in slumber.”
His claws comb apart my hair, each tug a little massage over my scalp. I close my eyes and lean into his touch only for a warm palm to hold my cheek. Surprised, I stare up to find his nostrils flared, his lips tight to his teeth, and pain…no, grief, carved in his eyes. If I’m not staring at a man with hooves and horns, I would almost think he is about to cry.
“Krampus…”
In a flicker, the wound seals itself shut. His eyes harden, lips drop, and the wild animal returns. “You will leave, and I will do nothing to stop you.”
“Nothing?”
One second he’s all “don’t go, it’ll break my heart” and the next it’s “go and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”Which is it?
He slumps back into the throne. Only a soft gasp erupts from him as he barrels into all of those antlers. The rest of the pain he swallows. “You will walk through that door. Perhaps today, perhaps in a week, or a month. And me… This time will vanish with you.”
