Chapter 20

Mia

I ’m half-asleep when the door is thrown open. Zake strides in, all smiles.

“Mia!” He squats down in front of me, speaking in a sing-song voice. “What news I have for you!” I sit up, and he untangles my rope. “Your ogre got caught trying to escape,” he says merrily. My blood freezes in my veins. “He broke right through his cage. What did you tell him to upset him so much, little Mia, and turn him into a monster?”

I close my eyes. I’m out of options now.

What will they do to Cragnorr?

“Ah, yes,” Zake says when I don’t answer. “You are pregnant, aren’t you?” He hoots. “Well, this has all worked out rather well for me.” He tugs on my rope. “Are you ready for the surprise?”

I don’t even want to imagine what he has in store for me—or for Cragnorr.

Zake tugs me along behind him as we depart the house that’s become my prison, and head toward the arena. People have already gathered there, and they’re roaring and jeering.

“You didn’t get started without me, did you?” the King calls out as he approaches his rickety wooden dais. Everyone cheers as we ascend the steps. It’s sunset now, and the ground looks like it’s covered in blood.

Down below, in the pit and all alone, is Cragnorr. He’s strung up by his arms and legs to a set of posts that have been erected in the middle of the arena. A huge man dressed in all black stands nearby, with a long, curling whip in his hand.

Oh no. My Cragnorr.

“No!” I yank on my rope. “What are you going to do to him?” I shout the question, even though I already know the answer. There’s only one thing that whip could mean.

“Twenty lashes. At least.” Zake grins at me. “Why don’t you take a seat and enjoy the show?”

Cragnorr gazes up at me, and when my eyes find his, he smiles a wan smile. He has a huge black eye, and bruises mottle his dark green body.

What have they done to him?

I have to stop this somehow. I can’t watch my Cragnorr suffer, or my heart might just break in two.

“You don’t have to do this,” I tell the King, sitting down on the floor next to him the way he likes, his jewels and treasures piled high around us as if to remind him always how rich he is. “Cragnorr only tried to escape because of me. It’s my fault. Please, don’t blame him. Don’t hurt him.”

Zake tilts his head at me. “You’re saying I should whip you, too?”

A cold shiver passes down my spine. I should’ve known better than to try to bargain, because he will take every possible opportunity to show he’s smarter and meaner than I am.

He chuckles at my expression. “I can’t risk it,” he says. “Don’t worry, you’re safe as long as you’re carrying that thing inside you.” He turns back to the arena and raises his arms into the air, making the crowd go wild. “But your ogre isn’t. He’s done his job now. His purpose is served.”

Served? Does that mean Zake is going to kill him?

A sob threatens to burst out of me, but I grit my teeth to hold it inside. I can’t give him the gratification of my tears.

Down below, the big man in all black lifts the whip. Cragnorr watches me and only me, his amber eyes focused on my face. I want to look away as the whip flies back, but I can’t. I have to be his lifeline. I have to witness his pain, as no one else will. I have to be his anchor.

The whip cracks as it lances the other direction in a perfect serpentine, and it feels like time has slowed. I can’t look away from Cragnorr’s face, the heavy, square jaw, the furrowed brows, his huge tusks and thick lips that are so perfect for kissing. I want to memorize him now before everything changes.

The sound of the whip splitting open flesh fills the air. Cragnorr’s eyes go wide and his brow creases further, but he lets out no sound as the whip reels back again, now licked by blood. I cover my mouth, my hands trembling as the second blow lands across his back. Now Cragnorr’s eyes squeeze shut as he tries not to cry out his agony.

I find myself whispering his name as a third blow lands. A ghost of each lash echoes in my own body, and I crumple to the ground as the crack of the whip can be heard around the arena. Blood drips down Cragnorr’s body, splattering the ground.

There is an odd silence among the crowd, like they’re transfixed by the bloodshed. These brutes, these cretins, leering at my ogre’s suffering for their entertainment... I hope they are haunted forever.

By the fifth lash, Cragnorr’s knees are shaking and his teeth are gritted. Blood is splashed across the floor of the arena, and I wonder if by the twentieth lash, he will simply bleed to death.

It isn’t until the tenth lash that Cragnorr makes a sound: a moan of agony as his inflamed wounds are thrashed over and over again. I find his gaze, and there’s a brutish determination in them. He won’t let this crush him—but it might just crush me.

I can’t watch him die. I will do anything if they would just stop.

“Please,” I beg Zake, shaking his knee. “You can end this. He’s learned his lesson. He’s suffered enough.” I swallow hard, my voice trembling. “Whip me, instead. I’ll take his place. Just let him go!”

The King glares down at me as the whip snaps again, and agony races down my spine. Cragnorr’s pain fills me up, and despite how hard I’ve tried to keep them at bay, tears pool in my eyes. It’s almost unbearable for me—how can Cragnorr still be standing?

“You don’t think he can handle it?” Zake says with a wicked grin. “You have so little faith in him.”

Suddenly, he stands up and raises his arms into the air. Down below, the man in black pauses, letting the whip settle beside him.

“The ogre’s woman begs for mercy,” he calls out to the crowd, and they respond with jeers and boos. “What say you? Leniency? Or...” Zake turns to look at me and winks. “Perhaps thirty lashes instead of twenty?”

Roars and cheers rise up all around the arena. I clap my hand over my mouth, and my heart shatters. What have I done? Have I doomed him?

Cragnorr offers me a sad smile as I crumple to my knees. He doesn’t blame me, but I will always blame myself. His blood will be on my hands forever.

Zake gives the order, and the man in black slings the whip back once more. The King sits down again, and even has the gall to yawn as another horrible smack! rings out .

This time, Cragnorr’s legs finally give out, and he collapses in the arena. The ropes binding him keep his arms held above his head as blood streams down his thighs to the ground. His head bows forward, and I wonder if he’s passed out from so much blood loss.

Another agonizing crack echoes around the pit. He’s going to die out there. Zake is going to kill him in front of me, before he can even meet his child.

Where misery and remorse have occupied all of my soul, suddenly it is filled with a blinding rage. I can’t let this man continue, not for a moment longer. The King is the scum of the earth, the true face of evil, and I can’t bear his existence in this world. I cannot stand by and watch as he tortures my beloved ogre, inching him toward death.

Zake likes to keep his jewels near, even up here on the dais. He decorates with them, piling tables high with them, surrounded by his opulence. And among those jewels, I notice a golden point. It’s buried underneath necklaces, rings, and coins, but the sharp tip reflects the hot sun.

I don’t know what it is, but before I can think twice about it, I’ve taken advantage of my slack rope and snatched up the blade in my hand. It’s a gold letter opener with a jeweled hilt, one that he probably didn’t think twice about leaving out in the open. I have a single chance to do this, and I’d better make it count.

Zake only has time to glance down at me, confusion in his eyes, before I surge up to my feet with the long letter opener in hand. My vision is consumed with the sight of Cragnorr’s blood, with the sound of his agonized cries. My body fills with my wrath, my guilt, and my unshakeable love for my silent ogre.

Gru and Narria are both too far away to stop me. In one swift movement, throwing all the strength I can behind it, I bury the letter opener in Zake’s exposed throat.

Down below, I hear Cragnorr roar, but I’m too focused on driving the letter opener deeper and deeper, until the golden tip emerges from the other side of his neck, covered in blood. Gru and Narria are both frozen, staring in shock as I rip the letter opener back out again, showering myself with blood.

The entire arena goes silent. The lashes stop. All eyes are riveted on me.

Gru approaches us, his jaw hanging open. I position the letter opener in front of me, daring him to try to bring me down. I’ll kill him, too, if I have to. I’ll kill anyone who stands between Cragnorr and I.

On the other hand, Narria remains where she is, the slightest smile tugging up her lips. She crosses her arms, like none of this has surprised her.

It feels like minutes pass as no one moves, or even breathes. I’m panting, blood dripping down my front. I take no pleasure in death, but I will do anything to protect Cragnorr.

“Mia!” he calls out, his voice rough with his pain.

Then, all around me, the crowd begins to cheer.

Cragnorr

What has she done?

I can take twenty lashes, even thirty. I could take a hundred if it meant protecting her. But I cannot protect Mia after this.

Blood spurts from the king’s throat as she stumbles backward, clutching her weapon in hand. She’s covered in red, soaking her front. I expect she’ll be hanged for this, and my throat closes. I can’t lose her and our budding whelp like this. I would rather die myself.

The King’s closest guards advance on Mia while she readies herself to attack again.

“Mia!” I call out, finding my voice at last. I fight my chains, trying to get to my feet so I can get to her. I will throw my body in front of hers.

Then... everyone watching goes wild. The assembled people scream, hoot and howl, a pure eruption of noise. Mia stares down at them, as mystified as I am.

“Queen!” a woman in the crowd shouts. “Hail to the queen!”

The call catches fire. Others start echoing her. “Queen! Hail to the queen!”

Mia stands there, half of her face and her shoulder dripping blood, and slowly lowers her weapon. My own back is covered in blood, too, as if we are linked together by it.

The screaming grows in volume. “Queen! Queen!” Up on the King’s dais, the tall woman with the braid approaches Mia. Too stunned by what’s happening, Mia allows the other woman to grab her arm and raise it in the air. The crowd goes even more wild.

“We have a new queen!” shouts the braided woman.

Mia gazes out at the crowd, mystified, as they holler and scream. “Queen! Queen!”

At last, she seems to recover her senses. The woman whispers something to her, and Mia straightens her back, raising her other arm in the air, too.

“Silence!” But she can barely be heard over the cheers. “Shut the fuck up!” she roars at the top of her lungs, and the crowd abruptly quiets. Everyone stares up raptly at the dais, where Mia stands with the dead body of the King behind her.

“Release him at once!” she shouts, pointing down at me. “And bring him immediate medical attention!” The man in black stands frozen for a moment, before Mia stomps her foot and points. “Now!”

Then my binds are being untied, and I fall to the ground without them to hold me up. The searing pain in my back is worse than any I’ve ever felt, and my legs can’t bear my weight. Four guards rush out, surrounding me, and I expect them to slap manacles on me—but instead they reach for my arms and lift me up, one on each side to help hold my weight. They lead me, hobbling, out of the arena and back into the holding area, where all the cages now sit empty.

Instead of being put inside one, I’m led up the steps, back the way I came when we were first captured. The guards guide me through the camp, to a lopsided tent where an elderly man is already holding the flap open.

“Here,” he snaps, and I’m brought in to find a cot to one side. I don’t fight as I’m laid upon it on my belly, my bloody, lacerated back exposed to the air.

“This is going to hurt, big guy,” the healer says as he brings a cloth covered in fluid down to my wounds. “Just don’t kill me, all right?”

It burns as it touches my raw wound, but I grit my teeth and bear it as he applies a topical treatment. The man in black had made a point of hitting the same places over and over to deepen the pain, and those hurt the most when the healer works on them.

But it doesn’t matter. None of it matters. If these deranged people have made my woman their queen, and she is safe, I will be happy for the rest of my life.

Mia

I’m in a daze as Narria holds up my hand in the air. The people are chanting, “Queen! Queen!”

“What the fuck is happening?” I mutter, still baffled.

Narria leans over to bring her mouth to my ear. “You killed him,” she says. “That makes you next in line.”

What? By killing Zake... I’ve done this?

I wish I’d known that rule.

But they listened to me when I demanded they free Cragnorr, and he was led off without chains. I hope they do what I ask and get him help. No matter how his physical wounds heal, though, he may never truly recover from what’s happened here today.

“Now say something inspiring,” Narria says, shoving me to the front of the dais to overlook the crowd. “Be... queenly.”

“But I’m not!” I have no idea what such a thing entails. I want nothing to do with what Zake created here, or these horrible people. “I’m not a queen.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Narria hisses. “You just murdered the king. You have to show strength, or they’ll change their minds quick.”

Fuck, she’s right. I know they’re capricious, as evidenced by every one of the fights I’ve witnessed in this pit.

I try to think of a speech. What do a bunch of lawless drunks want to hear?

“Well,” I call out, trying to put as much confidence as I can into it, even if I feel like a mouse under a shoe. “You made a questionable decision today by choosing me.”

The crowd is absolutely silent. Narria gives me a look like I’m a colossal idiot.

“But you made a questionable decision the day you chose him, too, so what’s new?” I point at Zake’s dead body, now propped in his fancy chair, head toppled forward and blood covering his front.

A few chuckles down below. Good. Okay. “I’m not what you want,” I continue on. “I’m just a girl who ran away from home in her nightgown after cutting her neighbor’s hand off.”

More murmurs.

“I’m practically married to an ogre.” I gesture down to the pit, where he was being whipped only minutes ago. “In fact, I’m pregnant. With his child.”

More silence. Surely this is where this ends. I had a good opportunity here, one to save both my and my ogre’s hides, and I’m ruining it .

Then a hoot goes up from the crowd. A few others join him. “The ogre-fucking queen!” someone shouts.

“The ogre-fucking queen!” It becomes the new chant, and quickly spreads through the crowd. Hands go up in the air, and people are soon screaming the words. “The ogre-fucking queen!”

I look over at Narria helplessly. I need some way out of this.

“The ogre-fucking queen, as she said, is very pregnant,” Narria calls out, bringing down the chaos once more so they can hear her. “So she’s going to get some rest, and then there will be a marvelous feast tonight, isn’t that right?”

Right. “A truly wondrous feast!” I cry out. I’ve spent enough time sitting on the ground at Zake’s side to know what to say. “We will celebrate a new era by rolling out the extra beer! All rounds on me!”

Narria helps me down the steps of the wooden platform while people scatter. My legs are shaking hard, my whole body alive with the terror, thrill, and relief.

Still, I manage to tell her firmly, “I need to see Cragnorr. Now.”