Page 58 of The Beast King's Bride

“You’re making excuses for him. Stick to the facts. What did he do? What sort of games did he play and lose?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know exactly, my lady. The king will not speak of it, not with me. But his court deserted him when it was made clear that things would not be getting back to normal. His advisors, his guards, his friends.”

“What about his family?”

“They were the first to go. It’s said that they sought shelter in another kingdom, and took with them most of the treasures of the palace. It was a betrayal unlike any other. And of course, all the other staff fled, too. When the predators run, we smaller creatures follow, aware that something more dangerous has arrived.”

A shiver racks me. I rub at my arms. “But you stayed.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“My husband… he stuck around for the first few decades. He was a manservant, waiting upon some of the aristocrats who did not leave in the first waves of desertion. They hoped that things would get better. But once they left, too, my husband decided to make the best of it. He stole everything he could get his hands on. He had been a trusted servant and had access to many coffers. He stole the king’s scepter. One of the crowns. Lots of gold and gems. He ran and left me behind.”

“Gods, I’m so sorry.”

“We have a child. He probably didn’t want to be burdened with us in his new, rich life. I had been a kitchen helper in a house in town but didn’t dare to show my face there or anywhere after my husband robbed the king and left. Yet the king sent for me and didn’t ask me a single question, only offered me this job.”

“And Zylphia?”

“She’s my mother. He understood that I love her and worry about her, although his own family never cared for him. But you see, he doesn’t think he’s good. He made mistakes, I’m not saying the contrary, but who would ever be able to beat the Empress at her own game?”

“Did all this happen recently?”

“Oh no, my lady. A hundred years ago or so.”

“A hundred years!”

“Or maybe ninety. I’m not sure. And it has to be so much more for you, as time passes more quickly in your world. All I know… the situation seems to be getting worse. This past year, the land has been dying faster, the crops failing, the animals dying… the monsters multiplying.”

Gods. “How old are you? How old is the king?”

“The king was young when the curse fell on him. Barely an adult. I’m about his age. The Fae live long lives compared to humans, my lady.”

“I realize that now.”

“I should go, my lady. Will you come with me? You said you wanted a guide out of this palace wing.”

“Yes.” Tucking flyaway strands of hair behind my ears, patting down my skirts, I follow her out of the king’s rooms, not even bothering to poke my nose into any other corner and box. My head is pounding, trying to let it all sink in.

I knew the Fae live for hundreds of years. It’s one thing to know something from stories and hearsay and another to live it. The king doesn’t look much older than Pete, a young man cresting the summit of adulthood just barely, his youthful looks offset only by those gleaming horns and the accumulation of scars on his strong body.

As we wind through corridors and galleries and exit into the inhabited wing of the palace, my thoughts finally return to Auria’s story and the curse, the king’s kindness to her and her mother. Two stories about the king so far, one from Jassin, one from Auria, painting him in a bright light. And they both seemed honest, seemed to be telling the truth.

The king was good to them, that much is obvious. He has a forgiving, kind side to his character.

But if they think it’s enough to make me like him, they’re wrong. I have to safeguard my heart against this man, this creature. Whatever it is he really wants from me, he’s had a hundred years to plan on how to get it. How to make himself look good and convince me to give him whatever it is he seeks.

Question is, what does he seek from me? He has to know by now that I have nothing to give. Though I was in a glittering gown when he found me, though I keep saying I’m a princess, I’m lower than the lowest servant, a half-human, a non-human. Not even a Fae. I’m nothing.

When will he realize that he took me by mistake, that I’m not the one he was supposed to find, and what will he do then in his rage?

I hope I’ll be far away by then, back home, in a house of iron, dressed in iron, hiding for the rest of my life so that he won’t find me and kill me then and there.

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