Hounded [Wild Hunt Series: 2]

11: The Match

"As a matter of fact, I have," I said, offering my hand. "A dance."

"Is that a request?"

I glanced back at the door, let my other hand fall from the cloak. I would've thrown it off if I could, but others might see my tender shoulder. Chiro might see my tender shoulder. This healed slower than the other wounds.

"Yes," I said, nodding.

He made a show of sighing, and rolled his eyes when I complimented him on his choice of attire. He was wearing a tie; it was a little crude, and had the mark of the old seamstress' fading talents, but it was a nice attempt, would have looked nicer if both it and his vest weren't spattered with blood. His hand took mine, and then, after a brief command for Gabe to sit and stay (he didn't), and then finally letting the hound loose into the hall and closing the door after us, Chiro led me away from the music, away from the coming and going and into a quiet corner of courtyard.

"This is the safest plan for everyone," I said after one last check around the quiet gardens. The macabre festivity hadn't yet spilled outside, but the courtyard was prepared for that inevitability, little orange lanterns, colorful ribbons and roses tressed around the King's now skeletal conquests. 

Chiro's eyes were dark and full in the lantern light. "How is a forest exile safer? How are you safer?"

He was angry, but polite, and I wasn't sure I appreciated that, settling down on the grass and patting a spot beside me. I wanted him to yell at me, maybe because I wanted to yell at him. "We're dealing with a volcano. I won't let you be incinerated."

He paced the garden path instead, kicking a stone here and there. It'd ping off into the leaves and occasionally something skinny and lizard-like would scuttle under the brush. "That's not your choice."

"As your future queen, it absolutely is, and it looks like the right decision, after that stunt you pulled." I was going to call him human, caught my tongue and rolled my shoulders back defiantly. "You can't kill everyone, Chiro. Not now."

"You would get through a number of demons before morality became an issue, Lady Wilson."

"You know that isn't my point."

He plucked a flower from a nearby wreath and pulled the petals. One by by one, little curls of sunset reds drifted across the grass between us. "Would you like to know why I'm considered the Prince? Because I've killed the worst and I keep the rest from trying. They're all worms, squirming trough the soil, feasting on flesh, waiting for their chance to gnaw on the juiciest bit. They see an opportunity, they take it. I had to do that. You can't give them any room to think, or breathe, or they will eat you alive."

"And I had to use your wealth," I said. "I told the King what I'm telling you now: I will not be cheated."

"I'm going to find Dot first," he said. "But if for some reason I didn't, I wouldn't have cheated you."

"But he would," I argued, picking up a petal. My nail punctured the delicate edge; bloody hues darkened its pretty appearance. "No room to think or breathe, right? That's what I'm doing."

Chiro was quiet a few moments, twirling the barren stem in one hand. "You aren't doing it well."

"Speaking of not doing things well, the King is my wyrm, Chiro, worst of them all. Why haven't you killed him?"

"He made a deal with the Witch for a sort of immortality. You can kill him, but he's the equivalent of one key fitting the lock. The other keys won't work. The other ways to die don't kill him. Everyone makes a deal with the Witch at some point. The only side It keeps is Its own."