Page 36 of To Dance with Death

Somehow they must have found the portal. Or so he thought. But why send only her?

“They were too afraid to come themselves, is that it?” Perhaps they didn’t have his pendant after all. Gustav would never have risked being near the Fate of Death without it, so he sent someone in his stead. Laughable. “Moranya would turn you into soul sludge if she found you, you realize. No mortal may enter except through death.”

“Does that mean you will turn me in?” Her expression is inscrutable.

As if in answer, Ishu lets out a small growl. He chooses to ignoreit.

“Depends on your answer,” he says with a shrug. “I want to know why you are here. The truth.” Not that he expects her to give it.

She bites her lip—a motion his gaze snags on. “My stepmother,” she says after a moment. “I am here because I—I need to find her.” She looks like she wants to say something more—like she’s desperate to, strangely—and yet her mouth snaps shut.

“What an adorable little lie,” he muses. “Almost as adorable as you.”

“I’d give anything to find her,” she says, notching up her chin. “But yes, I have come to appeal to you, too. That’s what you want to hear, isn’t it?”

How very astute. “What, then, could your appeal possibly be?”

“Simply that we wish you to come home.” Her nails curl into her palm as if she’s clenching a secret. “Your people—your friends—need you.”

“Myfriends?” His neck heats, the anger he’s worked so hard to forget simmering once more. “Let us recount, shall we? My dearest friend stole my country and crown, and the rest of my so-called friends helped him do it—after which I was kept isolated for the better part of a month. Tell me, little minx, why should I play nice with liars and thieves?”

“Whatever Moranya offered you,” she squeezes out—almost as if she’s choking on it—“you haven’t decided whether or not to accept. Because whatever it is, there is a part of you still tethered to your true home. Consider the reason for that.”

“The reason?” He laughs—a caustic sound. “You speak of things you do not know. And if I were you,” he says, forcing her to retreat a step, “I would be on my hands and knees, thanking Moranya for the offer she made me. Because had she not, I could have returned to Miridran once I escaped. And do you know what I would have done? Take aguess.” She shakes her head, and he spits, “It is because I did not that Miridran is spared from civil war at my hands. That half my court and council are not strung up before thepalace gates.Luckily for them, Moranya made me realize that such a fight was not worth my time. They will all end up here in the end—subject not just to her judgment, butmine.”

Ishu nudges between them, as if to separate them, but he doesn’t back down.

Neither does she.

“Whatever this act,” she says, “you love your people. You would not harm them.”

“Love,” he says lowly, “is a fairy tale. A mortal king loves his people because they give him power. To think otherwise is naïve.”

It had taken him far too long to learn that, proving just how much of a fool he had been. Time and time again, those close to him had betrayed him the moment Illian padded their purse. He had thought Gustav and Basile were different.

He thought wrong. The only difference was who lined their pockets in the end. Rather than his brother, it had been the queen he worked so hard to pacify. Whom he had thought was a confidante. A mentor, even.

“I don’t believe you,” she says. “I don’t think you believe yourself, either.”

Presumptuous little mouse. He opens his mouth, but to what? Refute? Argue with the tiny mortal, for all the good it would do? He reminds himself that his anger, misplaced as it is, is entirely useless. A moot point.

And he recognizes this for the tactic it is. How expertly she’s dodged his questions and derailed him all in one go. The only thing he hasn’t admitted to himself is just how attractive he finds her, especially now that she’s so…combative.But she’s more trouble than she’s worth. Despite her claims, he’s starting to think perhaps Sadira or Gustav sent her here to see what else they might steal. Why stop at just the one kingdom? Perhaps they want this one, too.

Pocketing his hands once more, he merely offers her a slice of a smile. “You are a marvelous actress. Truly, I can’t help but like you, fruitless as your endeavor might be. A shame you have to go back.” He reaches for her arm—

“Allow me to stay,” she says, swinging out of his reach. “Please, at least let me search for my stepmother.”

“Find her in death like everyone else,” he says. “You will have an eternity to do so. This is no place for a mortal.”

Even if she would be pleasant to keep around. To look at.

“She saved my life.” It comes out in a rasp that grinds at the rock he used to call a heart. “And she was killed for doing it.”

He feels the truth in that, though something still doesn’t add up.

She catches him off guard, then, when she steps towardhim.“Please, Sire. If I am to fail in my quest to convince you, at least help me reunite with her. I—I won’t speak of Sadira or the past. I vow it.”

Ishu circles them now, her tail nudging against them both.