“We wouldn’t miss it,” Luka told her, and she nodded once more before leaving.
Luka shut the door then and faced me.
My teeth clanged shut with anger. “Talk about my emotion regulationone… more … time … and see what happens.” I glared at him.
He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I love you. Let’s open this, shall we?”
I groaned. “Fine.”
We brought the letter over to where Liv, Ruby, and Milika were hiding behind one of the beds. “It’s safe to come out,” I told them. “Just a dinner invite from the king.” My voice was laced with sarcasm.
Milika’s hands went to her mouth. “King Constantine wants to meet you?”
“Tell me everything you can about him,” Luka urged her.
The troll folded her hands in her lap and looked at the ground. “He’s … vile. Evil. You should not go.”
Luka and I both frowned at her assessment of him. “I don’t see how I can miss it. Can you tell me more about him so that Aspen and I can be prepared?” Luka urged her.
Milika nodded, resigned. “He is a purist. Vampire, fey, and witch only. Everyone else is beneath him. Mixes are not allowed—”
“Not allowed how?” I asked her.
“They are killed or sold, depending upon the pedigree,” she replied blankly.
Liv, Ruby, and I all froze, processing without going into a cussing fit and scaring her. The Ithaki were killed or sold? Those were the only options? And since when was being a big badass werewolf the bottom of the food chain?
“What else?” Luka pressed her.
“He holds the Freedom Games every year,” she said.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Slaves enter in a fight to the death, and the last one standing gets to be free, no collar. This year’s fight is next week.”
I glared at Luka. “That sounds familiar.” Those stupid vampire king crowning fights were just as barbaric.
“Is he married?” I asked her, wondering what type of conversation I would have to uphold with the woman of the house.
“He was. She’s dead.” Milika’s eyes hit the ground again.
Luka and I shared a look of dismay. “How did she die?” I asked.
Milika swallowed hard. “He killed her three years ago for having an affair with a werewolf.”
Yikes.
“The psycho killed his own wife?” Ruby blurted, and then started to pace. I knew we were all thinking the same thing. Save the wolves. Save the babies. Save the trolls. Kill this king. But it just couldn’t happen. Not today, probably not even this year. This kind of culture needed to be systematically dismantled. But we could start with the babies and the women in the brothel. Put an end to that.
“He didn’t kill her at first, just cut out her tongue,” she said flatly.
Nausea rushed through my system and I looked at Luka. “We’re in hell. This is literal hell.”
He nodded. “Maybe we should go. Let—”
I put one hand on my hip. “Let babies be killed or sold based on their pedigree? Are you crazy? That is not the man I’m going to marry.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, but we can’t do this alone, and my most powerful allies, Sawyer and Demi, are dogs to these people, so what do you want from me?”
