“My king, please allow me to speak on behalf of our visitor.”
“Visitors request entrance. This human is trespassing.”
“My king,” Annaleigh says again, and I wonder whyshegets to speak whenever she wants, and I don’t. Did Kale call her anambassador? “Please consider that this woman doesn’t understand the laws and customs of Isiriel. Those on Earth don’t even know of the portal’s existence, so they don’t understand the political importance of receiving clearance to travel through it. I beg you, my king, let her speak. She means Isiriel no harm.”
The flame in the king’s eyes has fallen to a mere flicker, like the flame of a large candle, and I get the distinct feeling that the king is very fond of my best friend. He lowers his chin in a nod and then looks away from her to turn to me. He leans one elbow on the table, regarding me. “Alright, human. Speak. Tell me who you are and why you came here.”
I glance over at Annaleigh, and she smiles at me, which brings me a lot of comfort. She won’t let anything bad happen to me. I feel sure of it. I turn back to the king. “My name is Alice, and I came here because Annaleigh told me that she’s been really happy since she came here, so, I don’t know, I thought I might be happy here, too.”
For a long time, the king doesn’t say anything, just stares at me. And then he looks away, down at the table, like he’s reading something there. “You weren’t happy in your own realm?”
The memories hit me like a mallet: walking in on my fiancé fucking someone else, the way he tried to apologize, the ring I left on his kitchen table.
“No,” I say confidently to the king. “My fiancé, the man I was supposed to marry, I caught him with someone else.”
I hear the slightest gasp of breath come from Annaleigh’s direction.
The king seems to have a confused wrinkle to his brow. “Caught him doingwhatwith someone else? Planning war? Did he betray his country?”
Despite the precarious situation in which I find myself, this makes me laugh. “No. I caught him having sex with another woman.”
At this, the king’s flaming eyes climb higher. “What fool would think he could find a human female more desirable than you?” He asks this question so seriously, like he’s expecting an actual answer, but all I can do is sputter. When nothing actually manages to come out of my mouth, the king just waves me off.
“You’re free to leave.” He tilts his chin in my direction, and there’s a slight upturn of one side of his mouth. I get a weird feeling in my stomach. Is this giant fire monster…cute? “Alice,” he says, my name coming out almost like a purr, “welcome to Isiriel.”
Two
1 month later
I’m tending my garden in the strange blue light of the Isiriel sun when a shadow falls over me. I put a hand up to shield my eyes and look up at the Isiriel male that’s just approached my cottage. He’s small compared to the other males I’ve seen that come from the High Mountain, but his eyes are still glorious flames in his head.
“Hi,” I say, dusting my hands off on my pants. It’s a strange thing, but I discovered when I settled into life in Isiriel that I like to garden. It’s something I never really considered when I lived on Earth, but Isiriel is a much more simple place than Earth, and things move slowly here. When faced with how I wanted to spend my time and what kind of job I wanted to take on to benefit the community, I chose gardening. I don’t grow vegetables like some of the other gardeners here, but I grow flowers, beautiful flowers that I barter on the weekends for everything I need to survive. A bundle of flowers called Liyriatha got me the pants I’m wearing right now.
“The king requests your presence.” That’s all he says, and then he just stares at me, his clawed fingers laced together in front of his hips.
“Do you know why?” I ask him, feeling feisty. The Isiriel king, King Cage, sure is bossy. Annaleigh, who doesn’t live in the village with the humans but in the High Mountain with Kale, assures me that King Cage is actually very kind-hearted, but all I ever hear is that he summoned this person here and sent that person there. There’s a reason America isn’t a big fan of monarchy.
“The king requests your presence,” the monster repeats.
I sigh and stand. “Should I change?” I’m in dirty cargo pants and a tank top, not exactly attire to visit a king in.
“The king requests–”
“Jesus, I get it. Okay, I'm coming.”
It’s a long walk to the High Mountain, and by the time we get there, I’m sweating. But inside, it’s cool. At least, it is until we get to the throne room. The throne room is way hotter than the rest of the mountain, which I’ve walked through several times, because it’s where the river of magma is, which is probably exactly why it’s the throne room, knowing King Cage and his arrogance.
And then I’m standing in front of the empty throne, and when I turn to ask where the king is, the guard that led me here is gone. I’m alone in the room. I glance over at the alcove that leads to the portal to Earth. I wonder if anyone cares that I’m gone.
“Alice.”
I turn at the sound of the king’s voice. He walks into the room, so big and broad that it seems like he takes up all the extra space, and I forget that I’m supposed to bow until he’s already seated on the throne. And then I mostly bow just so that I have an excuse to stop looking at him. I don’t really understand thebiology of it, but even though he’s a fire monster, King Cage is…well…hot. It doesn’t seem to matter to my libido that he has fire for eyes and that I can see his lava blood beneath his ashen skin, skin that leaves dark marks behind at every touch, according to Annaleigh.
I dip my chin, and when I look back up, there’s a curious smirk on his face. Arrogant bastard. I guess you get to be arrogant when you’re the king.
“The Captain of the Guard tells me you’re integrating well into society here in Isiriel.”
I lace my fingers behind my back. “Oh. Well, that was a kind thing for him to say.”
