King of Me (25 page)

King frantically tried to stop the blood from flowing. “No. No. God dammit, no.” I felt the life draining from my body, my fingertips and toes going numb.

“Why the fuck did you do that? I will kill you!” King raged.

“The curse is lifted. You found peace. And I needed to be sure this Seer bitch would never ruin another life.”

In the back of my mind, I tried to make sense of what he said. King had found peace. That was my requirement for the Spiros being set free. I never said what sort of peace or that it had to be lasting.

“I will hunt and kill every last one of you!”

“No. You will only kill me and my brother. And we are prepared to die. A small price to pay for justice for my entire family.”

I made a tiny gurgle and looked up at King, unable to speak with my mouth.
It’s okay, King. It’s my karma. Just…promise me you’ll look after my parents.

His hands covered in my blood, he brushed the hair from my face. “You cannot leave me now. You cannot.”

I don’t have a choice. Can’t curse myself.

“I love you, Mia. I will find a way to bring you back. I promise.”

No, please. No more. Just…live the life I gave you back.

And just like that, my life faded away to nothing. This time, there was no sense of peace or acceptance, only sorrow. Sorrow and then blackness.

~~~

My heart cannot begin to comprehend what I see before me. It is a vision of both the utmost horror and of the purest untainted joy a man can experience. Because before me I see Mia. The blood flows from a deep gash in her neck into a crimson pool. Yet, in her eyes I see what a man like me has forever dreamed of: redemption.

There is nothing but love to be seen in those shimmering depths of blue as she looks at me. The sensation is humbling. I do not deserve her love. But I have it. And in me she does not see my past or my crimes. She does not see the actions that will forever haunt me. She simply sees me. A man.

My mind abruptly breaks away from this glimpse into paradise and slams full speed into a place I know all too well. Hate. Rage. Revenge. I may no longer be cursed, but I am still a product of my time, not above violence.

“I will not kill you, Stefanos; I will rip you apart, piece by piece.”

He says nothing and lifts his chin. The man knows it is no use to run from someone like me. I am the man who can find anything or anyone.

I look down at Mia and see the light slip from her eyes. I do not want to share this moment, her last breath, with anyone. I want it to belong to me. And only me.

“Leave! I will deal with you later,” I yell.

Stefanos and his brother exit the room, the room I built for Mia, my queen. A room that I’d intended to spend long, slow nights making love to her. This was to be her palace, the place where we would rewrite our story.

But there will be none of that.

Her eyes gently close and a subtle smile curls her soft lips. I do not want her to go. I am not ready to let her die. “Mia, I will bring you back.”

Gods be cursed.
I am King. I possess an ancient arsenal of the most powerful objects known to man. I have lived over three thousand years. I anticipate every outcome and prepare accordingly. Yet this…. I shake my head, cradling Mia’s head.

I’d given her a ring to ensure nothing like this ever happened. Why did she remove it?

This is the moment that my mind clicks. My darkness was in control these past days, and I remember very little. However, I know Mia would not remove her ring—a ring I spent three hundred years hunting down for her. A ring made from a stone plucked from the crown of Hammurabi.

I think for a moment, the clock ticking away, her soul slipping from her body.

He
took it from her.

I slide my hand into the pocket of my black jeans and feel a small lump.
Fucking hell!
I pull it out and slide it on her finger.

My goddamned hands are shaking. “Please, please come back, Mia. Please return.” The ring will only function if worn at the time of death. Not after.

I place my ear over her heart and listen. There is no sound. No heart, no breath.

I shake her by the shoulders, knowing that her soul has not yet traveled far. “Use your power to come back, Mia! You are a seer.
See
the life waiting for you!”

I wait, but she doesn’t move.

I grit my teeth and scream toward the sky. All this wealth, all this power…I have everything one man can possibly want, but I failed at obtaining the one thing in this world I need. Her. The hunt for the Artifact was always about that. It was always about us being together.

I lie down next to Mia’s now chilling body and know I can do little more than wait for a miracle.

Suddenly, Mia sits up and begins screaming with no end in sight. She yells for me to get away from her, that I am a monster.

I hang my head and think of what he, that fucking monster, has done to her—things no woman should have to endure. Things no woman can forgive.

Fuck.
It is exactly as I feared; too much has passed between us, and my curse has poisoned our future.

It’s over.

If I care for Mia, even a little, I must let her go.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

One Month Later. San Francisco.

I lay on Becca’s couch staring at the bright-white ceiling of her apartment living room, sweat covering my body, my lungs barely able to keep up with my racing heart.

“Another nightmare?” Becca groaned from the doorway, just arriving home from work, which meant I’d slept through the day again. “Get off your ass, Mia. You’re coming out with me and the girls tonight.”

I rolled over and covered my head with the quilt. “I don’t feel like it.” The fact was, I could barely eat, let alone stand and bathe or get prettied up for a night out with a bunch of Becca’s obnoxiously happy friends.

Becca pulled back the blanket and glared down at me with her big brown eyes. “We have VIP passes to a new club.”

“I don’t want to go out.”

“You can’t sleep on my couch forever.”

“Try me,” I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

“Enough, Mia!” Becca barked and flicked my exposed forehead.

I sat up. “What was that for?”

My best friend Becca was one of those women who had a sweet round face and wide innocent eyes that made you want to smile. But when she got angry, her pale face turned tomato red, and that meant you might want to consider fleeing. I knew because we’d been best friends since we were little girls, and I thought of her like a sister. Which was why I’d gone straight to her apartment the moment I’d arrived in San Francisco and hadn’t left, with the exception of Justin’s funeral. After everything that had happened, my parents needed their grieving space and so did I.

“Mia,” she sighed, “I haven’t wanted to say anything because I know you need time—time that I’m more than happy to give you. But sooner or later, you’re going to have to try to pick yourself up. Justin wouldn’t have wanted you to spend the rest of your life on my couch, crying.”

I knew she was right, but what she didn’t know was the full story. It had been a little over three weeks since we’d put Justin to rest, but I was nowhere near ready to face the toxic emotional cloud churning beneath the surface. This wasn’t just about accepting Justin’s death, but accepting I’d lost King, too. He’d left me the moment I came back to life. He never loved me. He never cared. He had only wanted his curse lifted.

I lost them both. Both.
Something I’d never thought possible. So for the moment, all I could do to hold it together was lie on Becca’s couch, sleeping.

I rubbed my stinging forehead. “You’re lucky I love you.”

She sat next to me and moved the sloppy curls from my face. “Mia, I know you’re not telling me everything that happened with King. But when you’re ready, I’m here for you.” I had told her about King—well, everything leading up to the point before I learned who King really was. A cursed king. A ghost.

She squeezed my hand, and I looked into her big brown eyes. “Thank you,” I said, “but I’m not ready to talk about it.”

She sighed. “Okay, but…” She stopped, deciding to retreat. “I’m taking a shower. Think about coming out with me.”

“But I—”

“I’m not asking you,” she said lovingly, “to stop feeling sad. I’m asking you to give yourself the night off. Will you think about it?”

I nodded solemnly, and she disappeared into her room.

Alone again, I slid my laptop from the coffee table and opened it up. I clicked on my email and glanced at the message I’d received from King the day after I’d left Crete. It simply said, “You are safe now.”

He didn’t have to explain what that meant, because I knew.

When I’d woken up in Crete, his body stretched out by my side, all I saw was blood pouring from my neck. I screamed. I couldn’t stop screaming. It was as if my brain had unfinished business, and no matter how hard I tried, it couldn’t stop seeing what it wanted: me dying, blood everywhere.

It had taken several hours for King to calm me down with heavy sedatives, and when he did, all I saw were memories of him, the red light circling his body and pouring from his dark eyes as he tried to stab me in Athens. All I could hear was his voice as he tied me up and told me he was going to break me. All I could feel were his hands on me as he ripped away my clothes, intent on violating me.

“I can’t make it stop,” I’d screamed to him, wanting to claw out my own eyes. “Why is this happening?”

I remembered the sound of his deep voice. Sorrow. As if his entire body was saturated with it. “I do not know. However, I must leave within the hour to attend to urgent business. You will remain here in the compound with Ypirétria.”

I said nothing. Not because I didn’t care, but because my mind had been filled with so many horrible images and feelings, there was no space left for anything else.

Then after he’d left, I could breathe again. The images stopped. The living nightmares dissolved. I knew, without a doubt, that being near him was the trigger.

And it crushed my heart.

After thousands of years of his suffering, the curse had finally been broken, and I’d miraculously escaped death for a third time. But he was like poison to me.

The worst blows, however, were yet to come.

Later, Ypirétria had cleaned me up and fed me. I arranged for a ticket home, knowing my parents needed me there.

When the car for the airport pulled up, Ypirétria came running after me as I got inside. “Vasílissa!” That meant “queen.” We really needed to start using our names.

I looked at the cell phone in her hand and took it. “Hello?”

“You are leaving.” King’s voice was cold and stark.

“I have to go home. They need me.”

“Did the nightmares stop?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m okay now.”

“Good.” His question made me start to wonder.

“Did you do something?”

“I left,” he said.

Shit. So he is the trigger
. “What does all this mean, King? What happened to me?”

A long moment passed. “Miss Turner, I have very pressing business to attend to. I cannot waste valuable time discussing topics that have little impact on the present or future.”

I was back to being “Miss Turner,” which meant he wanted distance between us. I felt my heart crack wide open.

I swallowed back my tears and lifted my chin. “I have to go; the driver is waiting.”

“Keep the phone. In case I need to reach you. And you will take my private plane home—it is waiting for you at the airport.”

“Thanks, but I already have a ticket.” I was about to hang up before I started screaming or crying or something.

“Miss Turner, you will do as you are told.”

I felt speechless. I couldn’t believe King wanted our relationship to return to this—him acting as if I was his employee.

He added, “The 10 Club is being dealt with, but until then, you must stay out of sight.”

“What about the Spiros?” I asked, unsure if I cared any longer about them or anything.

“They will be dealt with as well. All of them.”

“They’ve already suffered enough. Just leave them—”

“Goodbye, Miss Turner.” The call ended, and I didn’t bother to dial him back. What was the point? King now had what he wanted: his curse lifted and his life back. Nevertheless, he’d gone back to being good old King. Not the man I’d fallen for or the out-of-control monster, but the man I’d first met who was somewhere in between.

Maybe some things couldn’t be undone. Maybe his soul had been through too much to go back to being the king of Minoa.

I’d arrived the next morning in San Francisco, feeling like there was absolutely nothing left of me. The journey had been so incredibly emotional and painful. However, fate wasn’t done with me yet.

From the moment I’d left Crete, I began to notice I no longer saw lights or felt things. My Seer gift was gone.

Completely gone.

My only clue to the reason why would later come in my nightmares—new nightmares. I was in that auditorium where Callias beheaded King, standing before those old Seer women. I begged them for my life, knowing that after everything I’d done wrong, I didn’t deserve it.

“Nothing is without a price, Mia,” said the old woman. “If you wish to return, something must be sacrificed.”

“Meaning what?”

“You must leave all of your power here. You must give up your gifts.”

That meant I would never have the chance to “see” Justin and save him. But leaving my parents to deal with my death, too? It would break them. In the end, though, it was really a decision between returning without my gifts, or nothing at all. I chose to live.

But you’re not really living, are you?

“Are you sure you don’t want to go out?” Becca stood in the doorway, wearing strappy heels, tight jeans, and a red silky top. Her brown hair was wound up on top of her head in a giant knot.

“I’m sure.”

Becca took a little purple card from her pocket and dropped it on the coffee table. “There’s a pass. In case you change your mind.”