Chapter Thirteen Mabel

T he castle is quiet now. The halls are still lit with candles but not in every sconce. No one wanders the halls except for me.

It has been hours since the feast and some time since Fenn was the last of my monsters to fall asleep, rutting gently against the back of my legs. But I have places to be. I have people to meet. Well, one in particular.

The monster hunter.

Magnus.

The queen's captive.

I have so many questions. Even though the queen seemed happy for me to ask as many as I wanted in front of her, I got the feeling it made Magnus uncomfortable to chat out in the open. Even though it was hard to tell from his gruff exterior and his few words, I could see the hesitation behind his eyes, the way his gaze darted across the audience prior to answering me.

I have more to ask, and I don't want it to be a public questioning this time. I want the truth from him. Sure, at the time, he genuinely seemed to adore the queen–even as he despised his position at the same time–but I want the quiet of nighttime, the stillness of the dark hours for Magnus to open up to me, to reveal his truth.

I have no idea where he's being held. The castle is freaking enormous, and it seems even bigger on the inside than when I first saw it from the outside. So only the gods know if I will find him tonight. But that doesn't matter because we plan to be here for a while at least, giving me plenty of time to find Magnus on my own.

So long as I don't get caught first. While elevated, my hearing is not as great as Brugo's, and I considered bringing him along, but I really believe Magnus needs to see just me in order to open up.

I am assuming the monster hunter will either be in the dungeons below the castle or wherever it is the queen sleeps. And it is her chamber I am looking for first.

Take it as a hunch, or the blaring obvious thanks to the way that Magnus and Siorah look at each other, but I am assuming she keeps him close to her.

Gods, please don't let me hear them fucking .

I open my mind, trying to feel out Magnus the way I can with Zeklan. I want to believe that because he is like me, I will be able to sense him as well, that the knack I have for feeling my monsters is because of the fact I am a monster hunter and not the magic placed over me by Reeve and his stupid curse.

But when nothing but the gentle dreams of Zeklan reaches me, I know that assumption is entirely wrong. Still, it allows my senses to open up and make me more aware of the world around me, so I keep feeling my way along in that regard as well as quietly creeping along the long hall I now roam.

I am heading ever upwards, assuming the queen will reside at the very top of her castle, which is some two floors above our room. It makes sense, if I owned such a place with such a magnificent view then I would want to be able to look down over it every chance I got.

The set of stairs I approach now lead to the very top of the tallest tower. If she's not here, I will return to bed and try the dungeons tomorrow night. But even I can hear chains gently rattling as I approach the top of the staircase.

I flatten myself against the wall, hiding in the shadows as I approach the doorway but Magnus' voice drifts down to me.

"She's asleep," he says, his voice so quiet, it feels like a thought rather than actual words, so I continue to sneak carefully. As I reach the last step, I quickly dart my head around the corner before pulling back. But, in that split second, I can see the room only holds Magnus.

Stepping through, I scour the room for everything of note. A large bed where Magnus sleeps, a chair, a chamber pot, several other pieces of furniture, and a door at the other end of the small room.

"The queen is through there," Magnus says when he sees the direction of my gaze. "She sleeps soundly. Thankfully, otherwise she would have heard you coming long ago."

"How did you get such excellent hearing?" I ask quietly.

"You don't?" Magnus returns.

I shake my head. "It's better than a human's but not as good as it should be considering what I am. I thought all our kind were the same."

"It's just you." Because of course . "But you're different from the others like us."

"What do you mean?" I ask, my curiosity piqued. There are not so many of our kind left, so I have rarely come across others like me.

"You're not true to our kind. Something was different when you were made."

"Is that why she doesn't chain me up like she does to you?"

Magnus chuckles and is silent for a moment before answering. "I am confined because I can hide my emotions from her. She can read you like a book but not me."

I snort at him, wondering what this lovesick fool sees in Queen Siorah.

"She really does love me," Magnus says, and I cock my head.

"You can hear my thoughts?" I ask.

"Of course," he replies. "That's what makes you so different from our kind."

Well, that answers that question. Although, I have some of the ability, just not with other monster hunters, only my actual monster lovers.

"How can you stay trapped like this?"

"She'll come around in the end."

"That's messed up, you do realize that, right?"

"Absolutely," Magnus replies with a quiet chuckle. "But we go way back, well before I was told I had to kill her."

"Let's talk about that," I return. "Why is King Gilberd really after Siorah?"

"He really does want what she has," Magnus returns. "But mostly, he just wants to be the one that killed the queen of all the kings."

"The what?" I ask and it is my turn to chuckle.

"She managed to bring this country together like none others had done before. She had to unite all the kings first though. And that has pissed off a great many men."

"I bet it has."

"But how many kings did she have to defeat? Surely Kiros Somu isn't that big?"

The country hides behind the mists, near the great frozen expanse known as the Frozen Core. Many have traveled close to this region but avoided it entirely by making a wide berth, so the general size of the island is known, even if no one has traveled there directly.

"It's not big, but it has always been broken up into several fractions thanks to a kindly king that gave his fourteen sons equal share in the lands rather than appointing the eldest as the ruler supreme."

" Fourteen ?" I screech and gasp, swallowing back the words so I can listen out for any disturbance from the other room.

"Don't worry, Siorah expected you to seek me out, she's not at all concerned about us meeting."

"What if I helped you escape?"

"Well, you'd have to convince me to do so first." Another low chuckle from Magnus has me shaking my head at him.

"You don't have to stay, you know."

"But I want to. Just like you want those monsters and have no proper reason for doing so."

Well, that's true, and I wince with the honesty of it.

"Sometimes you just know you're meant to be together," I say and Magnus grunts at me.

"Exactly."

"How did you end up like this, I mean, how were you made into a monster hunter?"

My mind is all over the place. I have so many questions and I feel we are jumping too quickly from one topic to the next, but I also feel like I have limited time. Magnus may say that the queen doesn't mind me being here, but I am not entirely convinced of that fact. Not when Magnus seems to think the day rises and falls over her very ass.

He chuckles again and I assume it's over what I'm thinking.

"It's a great ass, too," he says, confirming my thoughts. "But, to answer your question, I was made for the same reason you were. Some damned king wanted more power."

"Who was it?"

"King Eugein," he replies, giving me a timeframe for his age and I am shocked at just how old he is.

"I thought Eugein was a myth," I utter.

"He was a man, just like I was. And he turned me into what I am in order to get his mythical reputation."

I try to remember everything I have ever heard about this king. He was supposed to unite the lands and the belief is that he did, only to have them fracture again many centuries later. The story also goes that he will return to reunite the lands at some time in the future. It is a story that mothers tell their sons and whose children become enraptured with when they eventually aspire to become knights to fight for whatever present king they are ruled by.

But there is another part of the story that I remember now.

"You were supposed to be the king," I whisper, grabbing at my bottom lip as I mull over the suggestion. "Eugene only came to rule because he killed his older brother, the one who was born to rule. Is that true too?"

"Yes, it's true, that part of the story, at least. But, as you can see, he didn't kill me, he merely did something worse than death."

"Why are humans so cruel?" I ask, but it's not of him specifically, just a question in general. One I have mulled over for so many years that I can't count them all anymore.

"When did you stop thinking of yourself as human?" Magnus asks.

"Honestly, I don't know. And sometimes I still feel entirely human. However, my love for humans as a species has waned over the years. Probably by the second king that ruled over me. By then, I realized they were all the same. Kings rule for their own gain. For power, never for the people they are supposed to care about." I realize as soon as I say it that I might have offended Magnus. He was supposed to be a king after all. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you were going to be a better ruler."

Magnus chuckles again and for a guy who is constantly in chains, I can't believe how cheerful he is. I wonder if he was always like this–even when he was human.

"No, my humor came afterwards. And don't apologize, I would have been a shitty king, just like the rest of them. But becoming a monster hunter changed me. Although, it took a good century to do so. So, I'm a slow learner as well."

I smirk at his words. Despite everything, I like him. Not Siorah, but Magnus is a gem. It might have to do with the fact I have never felt like I am ever among my peers, but I don't care. Magnus gets me like no others. Only my monsters come close to understanding how it feels to be one of my kind.

"You'll come around to Siorah, she wasn't always such a bitch. Ruling does that to you."

"Can you at least pretend not to be in my head all the time?" I ask but I don't really mind–and he knows it–so he ignores the plea. "Was she born into royalty?"

"Of course, she was," Magnus said. "She would never have been accepted otherwise. Being a commoner is worse than being a woman here. Plus, the castle would have rejected her."

I swallow hard. "The castle? Like the actual castle? Not a council?"

"The magic here prevents anyone but someone of royal lineage from ruling over the lands. She would have been rejected as soon as she tried to breach the mists."

"But how did we get through? How did you ?"

I watch his face drop with that second question and wonder why.

"Now that the queen has been claimed by the castle, she can manipulate the fog that protects this place. After all, queens and kings need servants, don't they?"

He still hasn't answered the second part of my question, but I let it slide. After all, he may have been invited here if they knew each other. She may have needed a monster hunter. But, from what Magnus has already said, I doubt it.

"I snuck through the fogs when they thinned. It only happens once a year, when the queen allows the commoners in to celebrate Sacruemus. But I should have realized Siorah would know, and that she would know Gilberd had also sent me."

"You were employed by Gilberd to kill her. How did I not know this?"

I don't know how to feel about the fact he employed another monster hunter without my knowledge. In all honesty, I think it makes me feel less special. I might have been entirely under the king's control, but I thought I was the only one. And, obviously, he didn't think I was capable of such a task as killing a queen. So, my pride is wounded as well.

"Oh, I'm sure he considered you," Magnus drawls. "But as soon as he knew I had a history with Siorah, there was no way he was going to pick you for the task. Plus, my maker owed the king a huge favor."

"Your brother is still alive?" I mean, there's a lot to unpack from everything Magnus just said, but that's where my head went first.

"He is, but he's trapped by his own curse, the other part of the myth that is true. He will return eventually to these lands, but it will not be because he will reunite the people again. Instead, he was placed under a curse by other kings, ones who wanted his power for themselves. He is being held deep underground, bound by the underworld, until he can work out a way to break free. And, while he deserves to be there, it still hurts to know he is suffering."

So many questions need to be asked now but I have no idea where to start. Instead, I open and close my mouth, forming one question, then another, and another, but never settling on the one burning question I want to ask.

"I get it," he eventually says. "It's a lot to take in."

I simply nod, still not sure what to ask first. And, just when I work it out, everything goes to shit anyway before I can utter it.

The door to the queen's chamber is thrown open, the queen rushing through. Even though she has been sleeping, she's still perfect. A golden robe is wrapped around her slender form and her hair hangs down in delightful waves. However, the pinched expression on her face reveals that all is not well in the world right now.

"Someone is coming!" she declares.