“You’re hurting me,” I said, trying to twist away.
“Your touch hurts me, too,” he replied, his voice as rough as his hand as he pulled me closer. “But it’s a pain I enjoy.”
Arcus had once told me that my touch unsettled him, made him uncomfortable because it penetrated his defenses and made him feel things he didn’t want to feel. But this was different. The king’s touch hurt me and mine hurt him. If it gave him pleasure, it was a twisted one.
He drew me along to the wall opposite the head of the table, then pressed a barely visible recess on the stone wall that must have been a kind of mechanism. A hidden door swung open. We entered a narrow tunnel lit with torches. The ceiling was so low he had to bend his head.
“This tunnel is for me alone,” he said, his hold on my wrist easing as we walked, his voice muffled in the tight space. “You enjoy an incredible privilege by seeing it. I do so only as an act of great trust.”
My senses quickened. I hadn’t done anything to earn his trust. And yet, if it was there, I had to use it to my advantage.
After a minute, we came to another door. The king pushed it open to reveal the throne room, draped in torchlight and shadows, the sky black against a moonless night. The throne was a large, menacing presence. Ice flowed down it and into the hallway and, I knew, all through the castle, even out into the arena. When I’d first seen it, I’d thought it looked like veins connected to a heart. Now, as shadows darted about in the walls, I realized the Minax lived in the throne but moved about in the ice connected to it.
I stifled a gasp as the familiar invisible force stole my fire.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, my voice subdued by the pressing shadows. “I thought we were to dine.”
“You refuse to eat. I’m tired of games. This is where you really want to be. I give this to you as a gift.”
He pulled me forward until we stood within arm’s reach of the throne. Its dark power beat against me in waves. I wanted to cringe away, to run, but at the same time, I felt an insistent pull, moth to flame.
“Do you feel that?” he asked, pressing my hand to the throne. “Pure power. The throne was created by Fors himself as a gift to his Frostblood people. Did you know that?”
“Yes,” I whispered, cold spreading up my arm. “But Fors is your god, not mine. It burns me.”
“A further gift was bestowed by his brother, Eurus. Some call it a curse from a jealous god who sought to destroy his brother’s creation. But it’s really a gift of power that only the chosen can feel. To unlock it completely, you must have the right person. Someone who was created to bear a power so great.”
“The child of darkness,” I murmured, pulling against his grasp.
“Yes. When I took the throne, it told me to find the child. Together, she and I will bring darkness to the land. And with her, I’ll be complete.”
His eyes burned with intensity, an excitement I’d never seen before. I shook my head, my mind writhing with denial as his meaning sank in. “I’m not. I’m not the child of darkness.”
His icy fingers touched my chin, tilting my face so my eyes met his in the flickering light.
“The prophecy says the child of darkness will have a powerful gift. I’ve tested all the strongest Frostbloods and Firebloods in my arena. You are the first to show a connection with the throne. Stop resisting, Ruby, and you’ll never know pain again.”
I shook my head. “But others will. People are suffering and you don’t see it. The throne has taken away your mercy. You’ve become a monster.”
“Not a monster,” he said, stroking the curve of my cheek with his thumb. “Together, you and I will be like gods.”
“I don’t want to be a god!” I twitched my chin from his fingers. “I want to be a healer like my mother.”
It was a truth I hadn’t known until the words were spoken. I wished I had been given a healer’s touch, a healer’s gentle patience, instead of the rage of emotions that went with a power that killed and maimed.
“You deny it, but killing gives you pleasure. It allows the darkness to seep in further, merging with you more with each death.”
He pulled me to his chest and found my lips with his. Cold and hot merged with darkness to create a new flame. His lips were hard, but they warmed under mine and filled me with a twisting excitement. His hand came to my face and tangled in my hair, the sharp stone of his ring cutting into my cheek.
His lips found the hollow under my chin, moving down my throat in a cool caress. A rush of sensation blurred my thoughts, pleasure mixed with distaste in equal measure. My hands found his shoulders to push him away but held on instead. The king lifted his head and smiled.
“My bloodthirsty Fireling,” he whispered, smoothing the pads of his fingers across my lips. “Just one more fight, I think, and you will be ready. Once you let the Minax merge with you, its power will increase tenfold, and together we’ll share it.”