Page 12 of The Rat King
“My bride’s smile is like the sun, her eyes sparkling copper coins,
When they land upon me, they fill my heart’s coffer,
The graceful sweep of her neck causes swans to weep,
The full curves of her hips cause—"
“Actually, maybe you can read it to me later? After you tell me about the curse, of course. I’ll go find Leviticus.” She bounced twice on her toes before turning to dash from the room, not making eye contact with any of us as she left.
The blushing woman couldn’t have been more embarrassed, and I was dying to know what animal Xavier thought wise to compare his bride’s hips to. Oh, yes, brother. You’re now coming to understand wooing one of these other plane witches isn’t as easy as you imagined. A dark chuckle sprang unbidden from my chest. “Well played, brother.”
Link, who’d been quietly observing the exchange, joined my laughter. “Send word when you’ve dealt with Musson. Otherwise, I’ll be back for the reprieve.”
“I’ll be at the ready if you need me,” I said and followed Link out the door, feeling happier than I had in weeks.
Chapter 7
Avery
Tonightwasthereprieve.The first night the full moon would grant me a few hours to spend time with Xavier not in rat-man form. That meant, I’d officially been here a month. Every day since I arrived, I had lunch and dinner with the king. And every day hisfeelingstoward me would evolve and grow so now they seemed to be a living thing, like a Venus flytrap, ready to swallow me whole. The poems he read me a few days ago in the privacy of my own room had brought the ick to another level. In my plane, we’d call him a love-bomber. It was a lot and while he continually professed to give me my heart’s desire, he refused to give me the one thing I wanted more than anything else. Information.
Though I asked him at some point in every single interaction, he hadn’t yet budged about the curse, and my patience was thinning. So much so that I refused to leave my room when I awoke this morning in protest. I still could hardly bear to look at the man who was destined to be my husband.
On the bright side, as I’d cleaned the library, I discovered a plethora of spell books. It was a trove that I knew Esmerelda and Cara would sell one of their kidneys to get their hands on. I brought various tomes I found promising to my room and had been combing through them. If Xavier wouldn’t tell me about the curse, maybe I could discover something about it in these books.
The hour for lunch ticked past. Midway through the next, I looked up from the volume I was reading and noticed Xavier standing in my doorway with an enormous bouquet of red and pink roses. He walked to the foot of the bed where I was bundled in the covers and extended them to me. When I didn’t immediately jump up and take them, he asked, “Are you well?”
“I am getting tired of asking you about this curse and you giving me nothing, so no, I am not well. And I will not be well until you tell me about it. Would you like to tell me about it today?” I asked, setting down the spellbook and crossing my arms over my chest.
His lips dipped into a frown, and he put his hands on his hips. “Avery, we’ve been through this. The curse is not something that you need to worry about. The rain has stopped. Would you like to take a walk through the gardens?” He lifted the bouquet again as if the flowers would somehow sway me.
“If I take a walk in the gardens, will you tell me about the curse?” I asked, training my eyes on him.
“No,” he said, not expounding.
The finality of how he said it made my brow twitch and the space behind my right eye throb. I was on the verge of a rage headache. It was time for me to expel some of my frustration and the rat-man attempting to put his foot down seemed like the perfect candidate to receive it.
“Tell me now,” I hissed.
“No,” he said. “Get dressed. I’ll take you to the gard—”
“Tell me about the curse,” I yelled. Goddess above I was so angry I was going to strangle the man. How could he expect me to be totally fine living in the dark like this? Especially when everyone else in the Ravsted seemed to be in on the secret, or at least have an idea.
“Avery, calm down,” he said as he paced in front of my bed.
I shot him a seething glare. “I will not calm down. And for the record, where I’m from, it is frowned upon to tell a woman to calm down, often having the opposite effect.” I gritted my teeth and thrust a finger toward the doorway. He would not win today. “Out.”
“Avery,” he cautioned as my hysterics rose.
But Cara had cautioned me not to lose my fiery spirit, and I was only now beginning to suspect she may have been the only one of the witches who truly knew the rat’s nest, pun intended, they were throwing me into. And if she knew, and I was the eighteenth witch, what did that mean for me if I failed? Self-preservation caused my urgency to spiral into a sharp peak.
“I swear to all that is holy, if you don’t tell me, I will not walk down that aisle with you.” I forced myself to stare him down. The longer things went on without me knowing anything, the more out of control I felt, and I was done.
He sighed and slumped down into a chair opposite the bed, so he was facing me. I was sick of this battle and the set of his shoulders told me I was close to wearing him down. I’d never seen him so resigned, so perhaps this was the day he would break.
“You’ll willingly walk down the aisle with me if I will tell you?” he asked, his dark eyes lifting to find mine.
My breath caught. “Do I have a choice?” Coming here had been a choice, but I thought the marriage was a done deal.
