Chapter 11

ChapterEleven

Oh, she was a bigger fool than she realized. Scolding herself for being this dumb, Katherine limped back down the boardwalk toward the town. It was a long walk. Plenty of time to berate herself for all the moronic decisions she’d made back in that castle.

What came over her when she was near him? Was he magical enough to cast a spell upon her? Surely that was the only explanation for the heat that swelled whenever he was too close. Or perhaps that was the reasoning for why her mind wandered and she forgot everything she’d worked so hard to plan on the way up here.

How the hell was she going to make any money if she was at the castle all the time?

If she was sore for two full days after going there, then she wouldn’t be able to work. The almshouse certainly would not provide her with a tall stool to sit on while she stitched people up. So she’d have to let them know that her hours needed to be limited.

But she didn’t have the funds for that. She couldn’t pay her rent if she didn’t have the money, and she already stretched her pay as far as it could go.

Where would she stay?

Why hadn’t she asked him for money as well as to feed only from her?

Groaning, she paused halfway back to the town. At least she couldn’t see the castle anymore, which meant that terrifying demon also couldn’t see that she’d stopped to rest.

Somehow, he had yet to notice that she had been previously injured. Or if he had, he made no note of it. Katherine was always hyper aware of her walk when she was near him. Some part of her didn’t want him to realize that she was... broken.

Sighing, she used the dilapidated railing to lower herself down onto the worn boards. Here, they were a little better structurally than the ones she was most used to. Because of course, the pathway to their king needed to be well taken care of.

She snorted. Far be it from anyone to let the path crumble and then make sure no one else could bother him. And that he couldn’t bother them.

But... Looking into the water at the souls who slowly rose to the surface, eyeing her feet as though they could yank her into the water with them, she wondered if Gluttony could still make it to their town even if there were no floating boardwalks.

Tilting her head, she stared into the water with a frown. “Would you drag him down with you? Or let him pass?”

The spirits hesitated. Perhaps no one had ever spoken with them before. Katherine’s mother was the only one she’d ever heard of who even tried to speak with them at all. She’d been crazy though. Everyone in the town said it.

Poor Katherine with her mad mother who had wandered off into the moors because she truly believed the monsters were her friends. And poor Katherine’s father, who’d gone off after her only to be eaten along with her.

The story was always the same. Monsters like the spirits below her gently swaying feet would never be kind or converse with any human. Not if they had the opportunity to kill them instead.

Still, she wanted to know.

“Would you let your king wander through these waters without a scratch?” She glanced up at the moors, the pale green light glowing from within them while the wisps danced upon the mist. Then she snorted. “I bet you would. I can already see him, emerging out of the mist like some forgotten god while you all parted for him. Are you afraid of the demon king as well?”

They probably were. Although she still couldn’t understand it.

She kicked her good foot back and forth, watching the spirits track the movement with greedy eyes. The one directly underneath her had once been a warrior. He still had his armor on, although it had gone mottled green with age. His cheeks were rotten clear through, only his jaw and teeth visible as he gnashed his mouth.

“I don’t understand why you’re so interested in dragging people down with you,” she muttered, before sighing and shaking her head. “I bet you’re afraid of him. But he’s always been so kind to me, or at least, his version of kind. It’s hard to imagine him as the monster everyone claims him to be, when he’s more interested in telling me that I’m beautiful or sweet.”

She knew the sweet comment was entirely about the scent of her blood. He’d sink his teeth into her neck without a single thought and probably drink her dry if she let him.

He’d done it before.

Not lately, of course. She was the one who got all the young women he’d fed off of, and though they weren’t in great condition, he hadn’t killed one in a very long time.

But she remembered the one he had killed. She was a lovely little thing, the daughter of the previous mayor. Though she couldn’t remember her name, or really much about her other than she’d been beautiful, Katherine had always wanted to be her.

Everyone in town did. The woman had been stunning, and walked through the town with a confidence only the rich could have. She’d traveled back and forth to Gluttony’s castle so many times, people had started to whisper that maybe she’d become their queen. Maybe, for the first time in the kingdom’s history, someone had tamed the demon in the castle.

And then she’d died. Returned with wounds on her neck and so pale her body had looked deflated.

Katherine could still remember the mayor’s screams. He’d been so distraught he’d left the next day. Just up and left an entire town who had relied on him for years because he refused to be so close to the monster who had taken his daughter’s life.

Biting her lip, she looked back into the water. “Why do you think he did it?”

The spirit below her froze, and she met his wide-eyed stare. How had his cheeks rotted clear through when his eyes were still there? Maybe it was part of their curse. They’d be able to see, no matter how much they didn’t want to see any longer.

“Killing her, I mean.” She cleared her throat as though the question was a little too awkward to ask. “Everyone thinks he did it because he couldn’t help himself. They paint him as the picture of a villain, or perhaps as some bloodthirsty animal who can only devour everything that comes in his path. But he hasn’t done that with me. In fact, I’d argue he’s been nothing but a perfect gentleman in my presence and I suppose that’s rather unsettling. You see, I wanted him to be the monster as well. It’s so much easier to deal with someone like him if they’re a terrible person. And not just... human.”

A soft snort interrupted her musing. “He’s not human.”

That raspy voice was rather surprising. She hadn’t expected anyone to be listening to her, let alone respond. It definitely wasn’t the spirit in the water. For all that her mother had been certain the spirits retained some memories, they absolutely could not speak.

Freezing, Katherine looked around herself for someone who might have been listening to her musing. But she was well and truly alone in the mist. Even the comforting blanket of fog parted a bit for her to look up and down the boardwalk. Nothing. No one. Just herself and her thoughts.

Frowning, she muttered, “How would you know that?”

“It’s easy enough to see. Just look at him.” Again, the voice seemed to come without a body at all. But she could definitely hear it, and maybe if she kept it talking, she might be able to pinpoint where it was coming from.

“I see a human when I look at him. Isn’t that the point of his figure?”

“You’re an idiot if you think red glowing eyes and fangs are as human as they come.” A snort accompanied the angry words. “You should leave him up there in the castle to rot on his own. It would serve him right.”

Were the words coming from... underneath the boardwalk?

Oh, that wasn’t good. She was likely talking to some creature she was completely unaware of. Suddenly frozen with fear, she looked down at her feet and swore she saw a shadow reaching for her from underneath the planks.

She’d never moved so fast in her life. Katherine ignored the twinge of pain and stiffness in her hips as she drew her legs out of the creature’s reach. She nearly pitched off the opposite end of the walkway. Breath wheezed from her lungs, ragged and horrified as she contemplated how close she had just been to being pulled into the water.

Whatever creature spoke with her wheezed in laughter. “Oh, that was hilarious!”

It took a while to get her breathing under control, but once she did, anger took the place of fear. “What a cruel thing to do!”

“How many young women dangle their feet over the dangerous muck of this kingdom? I taught you a lesson.”

“You were needlessly mean. If you aren’t going to yank me into the water, then why threaten me?” Katherine wrapped her arms around her waist, sitting uncomfortably on the hard planks and waiting for whatever it was to rise out of the water.

And yet, nothing did. Nothing even moved at all.

She listened to the faint hum of zipping dragonfly wings and the burbles of popping bubbles before she cleared her throat. “Are you going to answer me?”

“I’m waiting to see what you’ll do next.”

“Why?”

“Because I have never met a human who could speak with me before. Your kind are... well, notoriously unaware of their surroundings.”

She wondered why it had struggled to find such cutting words. When it paused, she’d already assumed it was thinking less than savory thoughts. But then it seemed to pick the worst words to say to her, as though it was searching for what would insult her the most.

A fluttering memory cut through her thoughts. Gluttony, his back turned to her but golden candlelight illuminating his handsome features. He had called her brave.

So she supposed she would continue to be brave.

Katherine rolled onto her belly and crawled to the edge of the walkway. Curling her fingers over the edge, she took a deep, steadying breath before slowly pulling herself over the edge and peering underneath.

At first, all she saw were shadows. Just the green glow of the same spirit beneath her, his grin a little too toothy for her comfort. And then there was nothing at all. She’d thought to see some giant, frog-like creature with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Instead, she looked into nothing. Just boards that were covered with algae and moss, as expected, and the bubbling surface of the water.

And yet... Narrowing her eyes, she turned her attention to a strange mass of shadows that coagulated in the very corner where there was a post holding up the walkway. There it was. A strange mass of shadows that shifted when it realized it was the object of her attention.

“So it’s you,” she muttered.

“You can see me?”

“I can see spirits, yes. My mother could as well. It’s why she was so obsessed with your kind.” And perhaps her mother hadn’t been crazy after all. Katherine remembered her prattling on about spirits that looked like colored mist.

People in the town had always assumed she’d meant the ones in the water. The dead bodies that stared up through the bog, with no memories or feelings at all. Just rage.

But this was a real spirit. Like the ones her mother had spoken of.

“My mother used to tell me about balls of light that followed people around,” she murmured, still upside down and staring. “She told me they were always here, no matter how many times we tried to escape them. She said it was a gift for us to be able to see you all, and to know who you were. To speak with you as though you were like us.”

The undulating darkness paused a bit, and then shuddered. “Humans aren’t meant to know we exist.”

Perhaps not. But her mother had been deemed mad for knowing it, so really, there weren’t a lot of people like her.

Fingers carded through her hair, and she realized her horrible mistake. Her red locks had gotten too long lately, and leaning over like this only caused them to dangle just above the water. And one stray coil had touched the surface. Just enough for the spirit to reach up and run his fingers through her hair.

“Ugh!” Disgusted, she wrenched away from him before he could grab a handful and tug her into the bog. She’d never get away from him then!

Drowning would be a terrible way to die.

Landing hard on her rump yet again, Katherine stared at the water as the little black spirit burst into laughter. It seemed to enjoy her fear and her reaction to the horrible sensation of that dead man’s fingers. She would never forget that moment. Even now, her skin crawled as though he had touched her all over.

The black mass rolled up onto the boardwalk, shuddering with its own mirth. “Oh, that was hilarious! I enjoyed that very much. Do it again.”

“No,” she hissed, wringing out the stray drops of water in her curls. “Who are you, anyway?”

It gathered itself up, almost as though it was trying very hard to look larger. “Do you not recognize a dangerous spirit when you see one?”

She pointed toward the water. “Of course I do. That one is very dangerous. I don’t think you hold much danger to you at all.”

It deflated before muttering something so quiet she couldn’t hear. “Fine. You may call me Spite.”

“Spite?”

“Yes. It’s an emotion. I know you have felt it before. It’s a rather common one with your kind.”

She wasn’t so certain of that. Her mother had said something about spirits feasting upon human emotions, and some of them were as tall as her father. Walking along behind people, feeding off them, like leeches.

This one was very small.

“Ah, yes.” She nodded as though she agreed with what it was saying. “Terrifying indeed. Perhaps you wish to return to Gluttony’s castle?”

“I have no interest in that.”

“But you know quite a bit about him, I assume?”

Were those... eyes in the darkness? It seemed to blink, two orbs of dark grey, rather than black, moving underneath the mass of its shadows. And she swore those must be eyes.

“I know everything about Gluttony,” it replied.

“Hmm.” Without thinking, Katherine bent down and scooped it up. The spirit was very cold, rather like holding icy frog eggs in her hands, but it remained in her arms as she started back toward the town. “I think you and I need to have a little chat, then. Do you think you could tell me everything you know about Gluttony?”

“Will you use it against him?”

“Most likely.”

It shuddered in her arms. “Then I will tell you everything.”