Page 33 of The Catacomb King
Probably his precious father and Vizeking didn’t likethateither, any more than they liked his human form.
After a moment, he closed his eyes, as if praying for patience. Then he said, without looking at me, his voice soft and jagged, “What if you thought there was a way out?”
I scoffed. Did he think I was stupid? “I’d say youjustsaid,You’re not going anywhere.”
“I don’t talk like that.”
“Yeah, you do. All booming and serious.Call me Your Lordship.” I pitched my voice lower.“I know how a vagina works.”
He smirked. “Would you like to find out how serious I am?”
“No thanks. Touch me and die, motherfucker.”
“Not about yourvagina. I meant about letting you go.” He said the words like they hurt him. But: “What if I told you I would set you free in exchange for filling the reservoir?”
His words were like water. I wanted so badly to believe they were true. I knew they weren’t, that a prince who was capable of kidnapping me was also capable of lying through his teeth, but the back of my mind was already calculating wildly:What if? What if?
The Vizeking had given me three days.
“I only have three days,” I said, hating myself for even engaging with this. “Even if I could work that fast… well, I’ll starve if I don’t eat your food. And if I eat your food, I can’t leave anyway. So, no.”
“How long until you starve?”
He sounded serious. “I mean, truly? Maybe a couple weeks if I have water. But —” My voice cracked. I shouldn’t tell him this. But I felt, somehow, like we were negotiating in good faith. Stupid, stupid, stupid. “I’m not sure I can hold out that long. I’m afraid I’ll eat your fruit before that.”
Something sparked in his eyes.
I knew it. Why had I been so honest?
But he only asked, “How longcanyou hold out?”
“I mean… maybe that whole time. The whole three days. I don’t know. But Hades, even if I manage not to eat, I can’t build an irrigation system in three days.”
A brief shiver through his body at the sound of his name. Gods, what a baby. “I meantYour Lordship,” I corrected myself, sarcastically.
He closed his eyes. But when he opened them, the dangerous spark was gone. There was nothing left but that wide expanse of blue. “Yes, you can,” he said. “I believe in you.”
Now it was my turn to shiver.
“And you won’t have to do it yourself,” he added. “You won’t so much as lift a finger for the construction, obviously. I’ve recruited an army of workers for you. Those were the logistics I was handling before.”
“You don’t think I can do manual labor?”
“It’s beneath you,” Hades said flatly.
“Tell that to the Stammerers,” I muttered, but Hades either didn’t hear me or didn’t get it.
He went on, “I am the Prince. The workers will do as I say. And if you do this thing for me, then up until it’s time to sacrifice you to the Monarch, I will do asyousay.”
I hesitated. “If I do it, I want permission to run pipes from your reservoir to Limer.”
“That’s not —” Hades began. But he took a deep breath. “Okay. Fine. Yes. I’ll figure it out.”
“Promise.”
“I promise!”
That changed everything.
