Things were simpler in the forest. Too bad we couldn’t stay there. Maybe I could just escape… go elsewhere, somehow. Find a way to get to one of the other humans.
The thought of leaving Hunter is like a dagger to my belly but I push the pain aside. He'd get over it. Sometimes it seems like he only wants me for my body.
“My queen?” Sian sits with her hands folded in her lap, waiting for me to pay attention again. “Why would you think we would appease that awful king?”
“You heard the advisors—”
“But, forgive me, I saw the king’s face.” She gives a little laugh. “You were beside him. I was in the crowd—perhaps more able to see his expression?” She asks it as if she’s worried about offending me. After her accusatory questions in our last conversation, she settled down and we talked normally for the remainder. Maybe she just grilled me because she feels somehow protective over King McGreeny. “I saw his face,” she continues gently. “In the beginning, he was forcing himself to remain calm because all he wanted to do was kill the Stone King for even suggesting such a thing.”
“You think so?” I press three fingers to my chest, where an aching throb has hooked itself behind my breastbone.
“The king will never let you go,” Sian says.
“I don't know what I'm doing here,” I tell her. “I have no one to talk to besides you. Hunter—he won’t talk to me, or communicate in any way. I know it’s hard for him but…” I close my eyes. “I didn’t ask for this. Maybe I should leave, and everything will be fine.”
Sian sits up straighter. “The king would never allow that.”
I rub at my chest. The swelling pressure under my ribs has increased, making my stomach roil. “I could slip away and hide.”
“He's the Hunter King. He would find you.”
“Yes, he would.” The pressure in my chest releases.Hunter would never let me go.Is it fucked up that I’m relieved? I rub a hand over my face. “What the fuck am I going to do?”
Sian is about to respond when the door flies open, and Mikkan comes striding in. His eyes are wild and he’s stroking his beard compulsively. He’s flanked by two guards I don’t recognize.
Sian leaps up. “What is the meaning of this?”
Mikkan points to me. “Seize her.”
I jump up but it’s too late—the guards grab me, one to each arm, yanking me out from under the fur. I’m struggling with all my might, trying to shake them off. They’re Betas, but they’re still much stronger than I am.
“Let her go!” Sian steps in front of me, but Mikkan waves a hand and she stops. Her eyes go weirdly unfocused. Is there some kind of magic afoot? There’s magic on this planet: what Hunter did with the vines was proof enough of that.
“When the king hears of this—” I begin, but I’m interrupted by a deafening crunch, followed by a hissing that makes my blood run cold. It’s like the noise the Slythin made in the forest, but a million times louder.
A gigantic snake—at least five times the size of the one we encountered earlier—has burst through the wall of windows.
The freaking windows!
It fixes me with one cold, calculating eye. Its scales are ghostly pale. It has one enormous, glistening fang.
One fang that happens to be the exact same size as the one currently mounted in the audience chamber. It’s not dripping venom—small mercies—but it’s bigger than I am.
Is this the snake Hunter fought all that time ago? It’s still alive?
“Put her in the cage!” the councilor snaps. “He’ll be back at any moment!”
“And what do you think the king will do to you when he returns to find me gone?” I find my voice. The guards are dragging me over to the hissing, spitting creature. My boots scrape over the ground, crunching the broken glass. “He’ll kill you before you can blink!”
“He won’t know it was me.” Mikkan fists his beard. “Do you think I’m that stupid?”
“Sure looks that way,” I mutter, then scream as one of the guards lets go of me to open the door to a metal cage which is strapped around the Slythin’s neck.
Is this fucking happening?
The cage’s hinges creak so bad, they hurt my ears. It’s coated in some sort of white flaking stuff that stinks like mold.
Why, oh why did I send Hunter away? The bond pinches in my chest. I probe it, trying to communicate with him.Please come, I beg silently, frantically.Please come and rescue me.
