The silver snake was slithering towards them with glee and a pop in its side-to-side sashay.

So, this was Barnes. “Is it your pet?”

“He is no pet. He’s one of my soldiers.”

Chrysanthyllis extended her hand, and the little snake readily slinked up her arm and onto her shoulder, curling up into a ball against her neck. Hesitantly, she tried to clarify, “Soldiers?”

“Yes. Well, if I was not under this curse.”

Kyzar did not seem eager to elaborate, so she decided not to push. Instead, she made herself comfortable in his arms. Silence between them was seldom ever awkward, but despite the human edge it gave him, she wanted the conversation to continue.

“Could…we start from the beginning? How everything came to be the way it is now?”

“Right. I was nineteen. Horan approached me at a ball in the empire. She requested a dance, and I refused. A few weeks later, she asked for an audience in my castle. For lack of a better excuse, I accepted. She proposed marriage. She wanted my forest, and she promised her magic in return. When I refused, she turned me into this.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Chrys, if you apologize to me one more time, for things that you have no business apologizing for, I’m going to skin Barnes alive and serve you snake soup.”

She swallowed hard. “I’m – I, I’ll try. Please don’t do that.”

Kyzar grunted, seemingly placated, at least for now. “Good. Answer me this, Chrys. Why did you let me touch you?”

What kind of question was that? Chrys squirmed in his arms as she tried to come up with a reply that reflected the truth as much as it hid it. Finally, she mumbled, “I wanted to do something for you. I’m genuinely – please don’t hurt Barnes – I’m sorry I was not able to fulfil the conditions for the curse completely.”

“You do not have to be sorry for that. I am already grateful that you allowed a monster to lay his hands on you.”

She hated hearing him call himself a monster, even though she had once upon a time referred to him as exactly that. Pursing her lips, she wrapped her arms around his neck tighter. “You’re no monster. I… I’ll try to break this. Please, could you share with me everything you know about the curse?”

Kyzar returned her hug just as tightly, his fingers trembling around her torso as if he was afraid she would become dust before his eyes. She still did not understand why he treated her with such care when he had no reason to do so. The more time she spent with him, the less she thought of helping him as a means to guarantee her own survival, and the more she wanted to break his curse for him, Kyzar, her Zion. She wanted him to be free.

“Horan listed a few conditions. She believed that no woman in their right mind could ever look at me, much less take me into their bed. Of course, other than someone who knew who I actually was, like herself. Therefore, I was made incapable of speech and writing. She thought that by doing this, I would have no choice but to go to her.”

“Avis told me you have been missing for seven years.”

“That is correct. Elliot, that idiot with a sunflower for a brain, he was the only person who could communicate directly with me without triggering the curse. But, like me, he was not allowed to divulge anything to anyone else. Horan said I should be grateful for her generosity, but really, I suspect it was because she thought I would off myself if I did not have even one person who could, well, be open with me. It was one-sided, since I couldn’t talk, but it was something.”

Chrysanthyllis squeezed his finger. “Were there many others before me?”

“There were easily thousands over the years, but Elliot would send them home almost as soon as I showed myself. We did not want any…suicides on our hands.”

So, that was why Elliot told her she was free to leave shortly after her first encounter with Kyzar, and that was also why the both of them seemed to treat her like a fragile child whose mind could break from trauma at any moment. Perhaps it was a good thing she did not have a painless upbringing. Since she considered people to be far more terrifying than beasts and monsters, Kyzar’s outer appearance had likely not been a suicide inducer to her at all. She supposed she had the empress to thank for that.

“But, Chrys, even after you indicated your receptiveness, it was not easy. There was no second chance for you. I couldn’t tell you that, but I still…wanted to give you time to change your mind. As much as I wanted to have you, I could not live if you ended up a sacrifice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Horan said that any partner I took had to ask for my...seed on the very first try. If we did not succeed – if I could not hold back before you asked, or if we stopped in the middle – you would burn alive. And I…” Kyzar swallowed hard. “If you left me…”

Chrysanthyllis pursed her lips. His voice was shaking, and the words were not coming out. She knew what that felt like, to not dare to put thoughts into speech for fear of them actually turning into reality. Because of what Millse led him to believe, they had spent three days in bed, two of which entailed mind-liquifying sex. That one day of tinkering on the line was his way of letting her know she could still back out, and she had invited him to take her without the slightest clue. She wanted to comfort him, to let him know that everything was going to be alright, but she did not know how. She never had someone close enough to exchange such warmth with.

Barnes uncurled itself and slithered to her face. Its shiny eyes locked on hers, and then it drew closer and rubbed its nose against her cheek. The gesture was sweet, and Chrysanthyllis wondered if Kyzar would feel just as calmed as she did if she were to do the same to him. Awkwardly, she nuzzled her temple against his jaw. 

“Chrys?”

“I’m s…” She stopped herself. “Have I overstepped?”

“Not at all.”

Reassured, Chrysanthyllis wiggled closer to him. “Your Grace, I think you might have been lied to.”

“Elaborate.”

“I don’t think I would have died had we not been successful on our first try. If you had decided to take…Horan, with the intention of killing her, you could have stopped halfway, and she’d die.”

Kyzar stilled, as if she had rendered him dumbfounded. She bit her lower lip, wondering if she could have phrased it in a softer manner.

“You’re saying that…I put the both of us through that hell out of sheer stupidity. I wanted to climax the moment I pushed into you.”

Her cheeks burst into flames. “Your Grace!” she exclaimed.

“It’s true.”

His grumpy voice would have come across as rather adorable had they been on a more innocuous topic. Chrysanthyllis shrunk in his lap, her face steaming. 

“Another thing: while you were unconscious, Horan mentioned something about how she can’t kill you.”

It certainly was not because of their blood ties. Chrysanthyllis gnawed at the inside of her cheek as she thought hard. Millse was undeniably much stronger than both Kyzar and her in their current capacities combined. Obviously, she could not snuff Kyzar out, because he would be useful to her in his human form. Conversely, Chrysanthyllis was dispensable. It mattered not that she was the child born of an emperor and her sister, another great power wielder; the consequences of killing her, a weakling scorned and spurned by her own parents, was nothing Millse Horan, steeped in darkness, could not handle.

“She must have been very confident that you’d take her to bed,” she hazarded quietly. “It’s not impossible for her to tether her life to yours. If she had reason to believe you would kill her after the curse was lifted, the only way to prevent an attempt on your part would be the threat that if you killed her, you would die too.”

Verbalising her speculations was wearying. From as far back as she could remember, Chrysanthyllis rarely ever had to convey such a large volume of words, but Kyzar listened to her from start to end without complaining or losing patience with her lack of concrete conclusions. With him, she did not feel small. She felt heard.

“Meaning, for as long as my curse stays unbroken, both of us must live for each other now that you have slept with me.”

“It is but a guess.”

“I trust you.”

Chrysanthyllis stared at him. He trusted her, he said. She was a stranger, the kin of his enemy, and there he was, disregarding all of those facts and putting his faith in her. Why was it so easy for him, and so difficult for her? Putting aside the intimate nights they spent in bed, they were strangers brought together by chance and circumstance, two individuals who would have never looked at each other twice had they met under different conditions.

Something inside her was welling up, bubbling over the edge, and to her own dismay, she realised that whoever Kyzar was, she was falling for him, and hard. It was poetic irony, how fearful she was of humans and how the first person her heart felt for, was someone who looked like everything a human was not.

“Are you feeling better?”

“I’m sorry?”

There was a smile in his voice when he replied. “You must be craving Barnes soup tonight. I was under the impression that the forest was a healing place for you. Was I wrong?”

“I was apologizing because I was unsure what you meant. How did you know the forest…”

“You like being here, and your magic has been getting stronger day by day.” He brushed her hair away, cupping her face. “See here, your wound does not look a day old. In fact, it’s healed so well I can barely see it.”

“If I may volunteer some theories?”

“You do not need my permission to talk, Chrys.”

“Thank you, Your Grace. I think there might be something in the forest that Horan wants. The air here…it’s special.”

“Is it something that you also seek?”

“I am drawn here, to be honest. In here, I feel welcomed.”

“Does my castle not offer you the same? Do not be afraid of speaking the truth. I will take no offense.”

“It’s a little different. I do not feel unwanted, but I also…do not feel like I belong.”

“If I bring in more plants and flowers, will that help?”

His earnest question caught her by surprise. “You don’t have to do any of that, Your Grace. After your curse is broken, I shall not be imposing on you further.”

He stiffened around her. She had misspoken, but she did not know what about. Awkwardly, she tried to lighten the atmosphere by circling back to the issues at hand. “May I request books on magic and curses? My knowledge is limited, and I believe they would help me decipher your curse.”

“Certainly, Elliot will be at your beck and call. I shall have a new desk moved into my study for you.”

To be next to him when she was not in the forest, meant that she would be enjoying his company for many hours throughout the day. Chrysanthyllis could barely keep the smile off her lips. Perhaps Kyzar wanted her within sight at all times, because their lives were tied together, but for her, it was more than that. For as long as it took them to break his curse, before she had to return to Keashire, she wanted to treasure their time together. She wanted to see him for who he really was.