King didn’t react to the jab. I held my breath, waiting to see where this would go.
King shook his head condescendingly. “Since we both know you don’t need the chalice because you have no one you care for or who’s ever cared for you—alive or dead—why don’t you name your price so I can be on my way, Talia.”
A sinister rage flickered in her eyes. “I want Miranda taken out and myself appointed as the new president of 10 Club.”
His blue, blue eyes flickered. “You know that I am merely a member. I cannot grant such a thing.”
From the way she cocked a badly drawn eyebrow, I could see she didn’t believe him. “You and I both know you can make things happen—you have influence among the other members.”
King shook his head. “You wouldn’t last a day as president—the other members will kill you before the announcement goes out.”
She glared at him. “I wasn’t done yet.” Meaning, she had more demands?
“Go on.” King crossed his thick arms.
“I want you.”
He scoffed. “Never going to happen.”
“Why? Because you married that little Seer cunt.”
I could tell that comment got under his skin. Deep, deep under. Jaw flexing, fists clenching hard.
“No,” he replied. “Because you are a vile, treacherous woman and my dick would rather shrivel up and fall off than enter that three-hundred-year-old rotting hole you call a vagina.”
Ouch! That had to hurt. Good one, King. I hoped he was listening in on my thoughts. Wait—she’s three hundred years old?
She cocked her head to the side, almost as if she knew she had him by the balls. “That’s my price, King. Take it or leave it.”
He stared at her, unflinching.
Oh, God. He’s not actually considering her offer, is he? I needed to intervene.
“I think it would be pretty humiliating to have a man’s dick literally fall off at the sight of you.” Talia shot poison darts from her eyes at me. “What? Just sayin’.” I shrugged. “Also saying that Seers are extremely rare. Would you want one as a trade instead?”
“Theodora,” King barked, “you are to remain silent.”
But…wasn’t that the plan? Trading me? I thought.
Silence, he projected into my head.
Talia lifted a brow and then took a good hard look at me. “A Seer,” she said with delight. “I thought you killed them all, King. Except for your Mia of course, who I hear is no longer useful. Just had to break her, didn’t you?”
Given my and King’s history, I wasn’t shocked by hearing he had killed Seers. I just wondered why. A question for another day.
“Well,” he said, “I clearly have not killed them all, but I am not willing to part with this one.” He gave me a shushing glance, urging me to keep my mouth shut.
Talia shrugged. “Suit yourself. My terms still stand if you want the chalice.”
What the hell had just happened? Because if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that King had…protected me again, like he had at the party. Yes. This man who’d hunted me and hated me for killing his brother was now saving me from whatever horrible fate might become of me if I were to be given to this woman.
“Show me the chalice,” King said.
“Wait.” I grabbed his elbow. “Can we talk? Outside?”
The nostrils on King’s perfectly straight, regal nose flared with contempt.
“It’s important,” I urged.
He narrowed his beautiful eyes at me, which reminded me of why he was doing this: Mack. And while Mia had not gone into detail, the fact that she was willing to save Mack versus her own brother, simply based on the fact that King could not live without his twin, spoke volumes. She knew that these two brothers were clearly joined at the hip and had been for eons. Honestly, I was an only child, but I could still relate. I felt the same way about Mack as King did.
“It better be important, Miss Valentine, or I will be forced to punish you,” King said.
I wanted to kick his shins for that comment, but my Seer goggles told me this was all an act. The colors bursting from his body were vivid greens and white. Not that I’d figured out what any of it meant, but looking at him literally made me feel good.
I lifted my chin, playing along. “That’s Dr. Valentine, King.”
He dipped his head. “Very well, Dr. Valentine, you have two minutes.”
I followed him out the door into the hall. Once the door was closed, I went into hysterics. “What are you doing, King?” I hissed.
“Saving my brother,” he hissed back.
“Then do it,” I barked. “Trade me like you said you would. I don’t care.” Mack was everything to me.
“He will never forgive me if he returns and finds you are the property of Talia. This is the only way.”
“No.” I fumed. “You will just have to tell Mack that I did this for him, because he would never forgive me for ruining his brother’s life.”
“I am over three thousand fucking years old, Miss Valentine. I will not let some second-rate, pre-Colombian voodoo queen Seer tell me what to do.”