The Rise Read Free Page A

an involuntary attempt to Search the King. His soul held the answers to so many questions, but he would feel my assault, no doubt. I knew this because I knew that he was a Searcher as well, and he had been drinking Lamia blood. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did. I could feel it.
     
    That meant that he was dangerous. That meant he could probably do things that no one should be allowed to do, things that no one can do, except for me, of course. But I didn’t choose to be what I am. I was born a freak of nature. I wasn’t selling my—
     
    Puzzle pieces began to click together in my head, rapidly forming a picture that seemed to have already been painted, but only now in this frozen moment had come into focus. The blood that was being taken from the villagers, the size the King’s warriors in the room, everything, it all made sense. And it was awful. And I was scared.
     
    But it wasn’t what had me glued to the rich mahogany floor boards of the Queen’s office. It wasn’t what had terrified – paralyzed – me.
     
    Yes, this man held secrets, but the way my thoughts were hissing about them was what had me worried. I only knew of one creature that slurred S’s in such a manner. I was halfway one of them. My control was slipping, ever so slightly, right along with my right mind.
     
    In front of me, glittering in my peripheral from what I assumed had to be countless diamonds and rubies, theKing continued on, that voice seeming to slick and slither against my skin.
     
    “I am King William, ruler of Two Rivers and its four sister cities that our kind call home,” he said, and I bit down hard on my tongue. The struggle that was going on internally was so mental that it was starting to become physical.
     
    Cold sweat was rolling down my back. Warring thoughts were spinning in circles inside my head.
     
    Ssssecretsssssoooo many…Do not lose control… jusssst a peek …not lose control...jussst a…Do NOT LOSE CONTROL…bad man bad man he’ssss a bad man just look and sssseeeee
     
    It is a strange thing to not be familiar with the rhythms and inflections that ride the words passing through your head. To be afraid of the unwelcome thoughts that seem to gurgle up from somewhere that is so deep within you that it seems to not be a tenant at all, but rather a drifter that shows up, takes board, then breezes away on the wind. And you’ve seen him before, but you dare not become too acquainted, because he brings bad news, bad inclinations, saying the things that you dare not think. But when you get down to it, the thoughts he brings are yours . They belong to you. They are part of you, and they are hard to deny. Maybe your hands will get cut and bleed on the wrapping paper, but you want to see just what is inside that box. You need to. Secrets are necessary, and we protect them as Gollum protects his precious ring. We want them – to steal them – just the same. Such was the battle I was currently fighting.
     
    King William stood up, and my eyes rose with him. His pale, smooth hands ran down the front of his black suit, the multiple rings on his fingers throwing shards of light my way. I blinked. I could feel the sweat on my back gluing the fabric of my shirt to my skin. Now that I was looking at him, I could not look away.
     
    “You should also know,” he continued, in that awfully appealing voice of his, “that when I make an offer, it is not a request.” He approached me slowly, walking around me in a semi-circle of observation, the heels of his alligator shoes clicking softly with each step. My eyes began to lift again on their own accord. I forced them back down to his shoes, but only with effort.
     
    Click. Click. Click. “Marv,” King William said, nodding to the Warrior standing behind the armchair he had just vacated. “Would you help Nelly have a seat?”
     
    Before I had time to think, Marv had retrieved a wooden chair from near the wall, shoved its base into the back of my knees hard enough to