Page 21 of Kiss the Filthiest King

There’s something in his tone. Something that makes me fix him with a steady stare.

“What?”

He sighs. “No one told you. I suppose they were leaving such a distinguished privilege to family.” He seems resentful to realize that means him, given that he’s as close to family as anyone conscious in this room could be. “They were indeed brought here—but not by us. I understand you have a little insight on what it’s like to be prey to the folk.”

My heart’s galloping in my chest.

So that’s what Valdred was avoiding saying. My parents were captured.

“What happened? Who has them? Where are they?”

Those shifting eyes, so like my sister’s in both shape and in the way they don’t truly seem to set on a specific color, search mine. I don’t know what he finds there, but after a moment, he replies simply, his words unadorned.

“Dead.”

No.

No.

He can’t mean that.

My mother.

Dad.

We were hiking just three weeks ago.

Laughing at Sunday dinner.

I feel sick to my stomach, bile rising up my throat.

“They were tortured first,” he continues, his tone even. “The only reason they did not suffer is that I didn’t allow them to feel what was done to their bodies. But it would have been oh so excruciating.”

I stand, ready to launch myself at this monster. Except my legs can’t hold me up, so I fall to the ground helplessly, a sob caught in my chest.

I wish he could lie, so then I could delude myself into believing hewaslying.

“I do not take pleasure in your pain, child. But you need to know what this world is like. You need to understand it, or you will also suffer such a fate. You demanded to be brought here. Now all the courts know there’s another mortal to take and torture in order to reach the queen. It’ll be your future, unless you guard yourself against it.”

I want to hate him. I want to shout insults at him. But I’m too busy sobbing.

Mom. Dad. Ben.

All of them dead.

This is the reality of this brutal world. I’ve been thinking about it like it’s just a pretty, make-believe universe, despite getting a taste of their violence in my apartment.

He’s right. I demanded to be brought here, though Valdred wanted to take me elsewhere, to safety. I didn’t understand. Not until now. I thought this was a fairy tale with a pretty princess.

And in my ignorance, I’ve made myself the next target.

“You’re her one weakness.”

“I’m not the one who got her killed the first time,” I snap, if only to hurt him too.

Loch pins me with a stare. “I do not dislike you yet, mortal child. Do attempt to keep it that way. You can’t afford enemies of my caliber.”

11

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