“Where, by gods, are you going, woman?”
“I can’t be here right now. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.” A life without him. Really, truly without him. After making love, a glimmer of hope in the back of my mind had begun to spark—that we might find a way through all this and come out the other side as two, whole, living people. But it just wasn’t going to happen.
My body halfway out the door, he spoke. “Wait.”
I stopped in my tracks.
“You. Are. A. Seer,” he said.
I looked at him. “I-I don’t understand.” But what I really meant was: “Are you out of your mind?”
He stepped forward, his skin and hair still dripping with bathwater. “You will curse me to roam this earth, Mia, for however long it takes. And then you will be the one to free me.”
I walked over to his bed and fell on my ass. Not sat, but fell.
“This is the solution.” King sat beside me and brushed the wet strands from my face, tucking them behind my ear. “Callias will end me. You will bring me back.”
I stared into the depths of his luminescent blue eyes. “You are asking me to sentence you to years of horrible pain. I can’t do that.” So many things could go wrong. I had no clue how to do a curse. And even if someone told me how, I could get the curse wrong, and he’d end up dead. Dead dead. Or I could be snapped back to my time before freeing him, and he’d be left to suffer for about three thousand years.
“I see no other solution, Mia.”
I hissed out a breath. “I promise that in the future you would rather die than live like you do. The pain is…a living hell.”
He looked at his hands for several moments. “It will be my burden to bear. Not yours.”
“You have no idea what you’re asking—”
“It is my decision and mine alone. You will not deprive me of my last wish.” He sliced through me with those blue eyes. “I want to do this, Mia. For us.”
His words made my stomach do sick little twists—joy mixed with a sense of deep guilt. It meant I’d see him again, but he really, really didn’t understand what he was asking. And to condemn someone to this sort of agony, a torture so cruel and horrid that even in my darkest moment, even when I despised the man, I’d still felt sorry for him…I couldn’t do it. Not if I really loved him.
“No,” I said sharply. “We have to find another way. I don’t know how to curse you. And how will I bring you back? What if you’re wrong and—”
He pressed his lips to mine, silencing me for several long moments. My body immediately reacted to him—calm, hot, crazy.
He pulled away. “Has anyone ever told you that you ask too many questions?”
I nodded. “It’s a sign of intelligence.”
“I thought it meant the opposite.” He grinned.
I smiled. “Funny, King.”
“Yes. I do have my moments; however, today I believe it is because I am in love.”
Once again, I resisted the tears. He’d said a word I couldn’t have ever imagined coming from his lips: love. But there it was, the truth. I loved him, and he loved me. How it had happened, I didn’t know. But it had. Despite the absolute impossibility, we’d found each other. Which is why he needed to fight for us instead of fighting his brother.
“Cursing you,” I said, “means…it could mean…” I couldn’t begin to comprehend. “If, for whatever reason, I can’t bring you back right away and things play out like they did originally, you’re going to do terrible things. Horrid, ugly, heinous things. You are not a good man, King.” King had murdered off the bloodline of the Seers, except for me. Then there was his role with the 10 Club, heads in fucking jars, and God only knew what else. The man had been alive—or dead—for three thousand something years.
He squared his broad shoulders and stared with that glare I knew well. The man was about to lose his temper. “I do not wish to discuss this further, Mia. I am telling you—”
“Why can’t we find a way to just…have you travel forward with me now?”
“Do you have one?” he growled.
“I have the bracelet. No, I don’t know how it works, but you could try to use it, and I could—”
He suddenly grabbed me and kissed me deeply, with every ounce of emotion his body dared to expose.
I melted into him, wishing for this to never end, hoping that he’d change his mind and run. Run with me. Maybe we’d have another week together. Maybe we’d have twenty years. I didn’t know or care. I just wanted more time.
“I know you are worried for me,” he said, “however, I am the one volunteering for this fate. There is no other way.”
I winced. He didn’t understand who he would become and the terrible things he would do. Yes, I’d told him he became a monster, but clearly he didn’t get it.
“What if,” I said, “history repeats? Because if it does, you have to believe me, you don’t want that future.” I swallowed back the tears.
“What is it that I do? What are you not saying?” he asked coolly.
“You are not good to me. That’s why us leaving is the only option.”
“Mia, we are moving forward with this plan. And everything you hide only lessens our chance of seeing this through successfully. So whatever is it you are concealing—”
I’d already told him he’d hurt me, but I never gave him the explicit details. “I can’t tell you. It’s…”
“You will tell me!” he yelled.
I glared at him. “No.”
“I will place you over my lap and hit your ass until you are black and blue if I must, but you will tell me.”
I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless with rage. “How dare you threaten me.”
“I do not believe in threats.” He grabbed me and pulled me towards his bed, throwing me over his lap with his hand raised. “Tell me! I am your king, and you will tell me!”
“How dare you!”
His hand came down hard with a sting on my ass. “I dare! I am the king. And I love you enough to fear nothing. You, however—”
“You whip me and rape me!” I screamed.
His body fell limp, like he’d been hit with a thousand bricks, and he tossed me off him onto the bed. “This cannot be.” He suddenly looked at his hand in disgust, as if frightened by his roughness with me.
I looked away. “I escaped right before you…”
“I do not know what to say,” he whispered.
The tears flowed down my face. “It wasn’t you. Not really.”
He stared at the floor. “And yet you allowed me to…” he whispered, “be with you. Without grudges.” He was about to say something else, but closed his mouth, stood, and turned for the door.
“You are not that same man,” I said. “And you can’t feel guilty for something that hasn’t happened yet.”
“But there is no denying that I have the seeds of evil inside me. It must be there.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
His chest heaving, he swallowed. “I-I-I will fight Callias at sunrise.”
He was almost out the door when I realized that it wasn’t long before the sun came up.
“King?” I said, my voice trembling, the tone begging him to tell me what was going on inside his head.
He didn’t face me, perhaps because he couldn’t. “I must place the well-being of my people first.” He took a breath. “And if what you say is true, then you are correct. You cannot curse me.”
“What are you saying?”
His large shoulders lifted and fell. “I will die.”
“No. Let’s think this through and find another solution.”
His beautiful eyes were as cold as two blocks of ice. “There are no other options.”
King left, and I broke. Broke.
I’d lived through so much pain, but this…this was the wall. “I will break you, Mia,” King had said on that horrible night. And he’d been goddamned right: I was utterly and completely broken.
C
HAPTER TWELVE
Just after sunrise, I followed the massive flow of people outside the palace walls to an open-aired auditorium that reminded me of a scene straight from Gladiator. Present had to be the entire population of Minoa, their skin colors ranging from deep dark brown to light olive. Some had long straight black hair and others curly. The men, most anyway, wore only simple sarongs made from linen and kept their hair in braids or ponytails, while the women wore tunics or togas made from rough, hand-dyed fabric. Had I been in any other situation, I would have been talking to everyone and asking questions for posterity’s sake. But my heart was too heavy to care that someday this civilization would cease to exist, and likely, I was about to witness the beginning of the end.
Unsure if I’d be able to observe the horrific event about to pass, but unable to walk away or stop myself from praying for a miracle, I sat high up in the last row of stone benches next to a group of women wearing white head scarves. They were much older than me and among the few spectators who looked dismayed. The rest behaved like a wild mob, ready for a boxing match between champions. I couldn’t believe it.
Barbarians.
I sat on the edge of the bench and wiped away a tear, my mind still searching for a way to stop this.
“It is all right, dear,” said the silver-haired woman to my side. Her eyes were dark brown and her skin worn by the sun.
I made a polite smile, but said nothing.
“You are the one Hagne spoke of, aren’t you?” she asked.
I looked over, and all four women stared. “I’m not sure.”
“You are Mia, the Seer.”
I stood up. “I think you have me confused.”
“This is Hagne’s work.” The woman grabbed my wrist and pointed to my tattoo. Not the one that King had placed on me, but Hagne’s. “Sit,” she commanded, “do not force my hand.” Her touch sent static through my arm.
I didn’t have the energy to fight, so I sat. “What do you want?”
“Is it true that Hagne tried to kill you?” she asked.
Of course, I tried to kill her first, but that wasn’t the question.
I nodded.
“Is it true she had eyes for Callias?”
I nodded.
The woman turned to her companions, and the ladies mumbled frantically. With the roar of the crowd, I couldn’t hear a damned thing.
The woman faced me once again. “So the king killed her with just cause.”
“Yes, I believe so.”
She nodded solemnly. “I am ashamed that we did not deal with Hagne in time.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We knew she’d been…let us say, using her gifts in unsanctioned ways. She was tainted, as are all Seers who betray their oaths.”
“I’m not following you,” I said.
“Those of our kind who use their gifts to gain power or wealth are defying the gods and the natural order. They become crazed animals who must be put down.”
“You’re all Seers?” I asked.
“We are the elders.”
I had so many questions for them about Seers and how our gifts worked, but there was no time. “Then you can stop this,” I pleaded.
She shook her head no.
“Why not? They haven’t fought yet.” I pointed toward the arena.
“The challenge was issued by Callias.”
“Yes, because Hagne’s family threatened to rally the people into a civil war. The king thinks this is the only way to avoid massive bloodshed.”
“I’m sorry, my dear, but it is too late. The wheels have been set in motion.”
“But you just said—”
She held up her hand. “Our people are unhappy that the king ended Hagne’s life, one of our own, without consulting us first.”
“But you’re saying her death was inevitable.”
“Yes,” she said, “however the king has violated an agreement with our people, and there must be a fight to set things straight, or there will never be peace again.”
This was ridiculous.
“Besides,” she grinned, “everyone knows that our king is the better swordsmen. He will prevail. And Callias has been a thorn in his side, a jealous fool—”
“And a thief!” chimed in one of the other women.
“And a womanizer!” barked another. “He has three unclaimed children that we know of. We will all be far better off with him gone.”
“But the king isn’t going to win,” I said, panicked.
The four women stared, clearly not understanding.
“King will let Callias kill him,” I clarified.
“Why would he relinquish his divine right?” one of the women asked.
“It’s a long story,” I answered. “But you have to—”
“It is a shame, then, because our people will not stand to be ruled by Callias. They would rather burn the island and everyone on it to the ground.”
I blinked as her words dangled in the air. If Callias ruling would cause civil war…and the Seers knew that Hagne was nuts and…My head hurt from spinning so hard.
I had to stop this. I had to. The only way to really change course was for King to live.
But Callias died in the first version, and that didn’t work out either. King had been married to Hagne and then challenged for the throne by Callias. King won the fight but discovered that his wife had been behind everything and cheating on him. In retribution, or perhaps to smother any flames of civil war, he executed Hagne’s entire family and then took her out, too.
But if King dies, it changes nothing. I had to stop him so we could rethink this. We had to. Because clearly King had no idea his brother was loathed by the people.
“I have to stop the fight.” I ran down the steps of the coliseum, but arrived to a high railing that separated the first tier from the second. “Shit! Where is it?” I turned and spotted the stairwell and darted down, slamming into a brawny man with thick black curly hair, holding a spear. He looked just like future King’s driver.
“Arno?” I said.
“I am called Sama.” With his large size, he easily forced me back.
“Let me through; I have to speak with the king.”
“Only the Minos family and the council are permitted to pass.”
Dammit! “You’re a Spiros, right?”
He nodded.
“I know you’re supposed to protect the king. He’s about to die—I swear it—and if he does, it all goes to shit.”
He glared at me.
“I’m not crazy. I’m a Seer. And I see the future!” I lied.
“I cannot let you pass.”
The crowd roared with deafening screams—the same sounds I’d heard when a football team enters their home stadium.
I covered my mouth. “Oh dear God, no.”
I turned and ran upstairs to the balcony overlooking the arena. The male members of the crowd had already pushed their way forward.
I wiggled through a mass of sweaty, smelly, shirtless male bodies. “Move!” I barked repeatedly until I reached the front.
There, to my horror, was King. His shirtless, muscled torso glistened in the early morning sun. He wore only a simple blue sarong. No helmet. No body armor. Just a big bronze sword.
“King!” I screamed, waving my hands in the air like a madwoman. “King!” But he couldn’t hear me let alone see me in the midst of an ocean of onlookers.
My mind buzzed. If I couldn’t reach him, I couldn’t tell him that he wasn’t saving his people or anyone and history was going to repeat—the Minoans would disappear if he left Callias in charge.
“King!” I screamed again, just as Callias entered the stadium. The bastard wore a dark brown leather breast plate and a bronzed helmet as he strutted in like the hero of the day, waving his arms and sword. The crowd booed him.
“Fuck. Fuck. Think, Mia. Think.” If they were all going down, then I had to do something to save King. Anything.
I glanced up at the row of silver-hair
ed Seers looking on with emotionless expressions.
I pushed my way back through the wall of cheering subjects and leapt up the steps two at a time.
“You have to help me!” I screamed at them.
The women stared.
“Please. Please don’t let him die,” I begged.
“But he must, my dear girl. This is his fate.”
Fate. Fate. What did that even mean?
Nothing to a woman who’d seen the laws of the universe broken as easily as a child might pull apart his or her favorite Lego set.
“Curse him!” I screamed. “Curse him to walk the earth until he finds a Seer who loves him.” Meaning me. Facing him in the future would be my cross to bear.
The woman closest to me frowned. “Why in the world would we do that?”
“Because he is my fate.”
“What you ask is impossible. To cast such a curse, you must have rage and hate for the person. We do not.”
I thought about it for a moment. “I do.” I had enough loathing and anger toward King, the evil version, to last a lifetime. Maybe an eternity.
The woman gave me an odd look, then glanced at the other three Seers and got the nods. When she looked back at me, she simply smiled, bent over, grabbed a small chunk of stone that had cracked off the corner of the bench, and then handed it to me.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.
“You must use an object that is from the earth, something that will endure the test of time as the anchor for the curse.”
Shit. I felt my blood pressure drop. This is the Artifact. History was repeating.
It doesn’t matter!
“Then what?” I glanced over my shoulder as the crowd roared wildly. King and Callias now fought, their swords clashing as they danced around each other like well-seasoned boxers waiting for the perfect punch.
The old woman shrugged. “You use your gifts to channel all of your pain, hate, and rage toward this man. Whatever injustice he has done to you, push it back to him. Then you cast your punishment.”
“You mean I just wish it? Are you sure?” I asked.
“The gods will decide the rest,” she said.
The crowd roared, and I glanced over my shoulder. King was on the ground.
No! Stone in hand, I rushed down the steps back toward the mass of bodies who’d now silenced. A pin could drop and be heard.