Chapter 25

As ordered, the Invisibles had informed him when Avalina was about to leave. Not that she could, of course, he had ordered the drawbridge to be raised last night, but the idea that she would try to slip away still angered him.

When she had entered the throne room her presence was the same as before, so tangible in the air he nearly raised his fingers to try and feel it again, but this time he kept himself in check.

He had watched as she knelt before him, and just as he was about to order her to get up, she did so without him having to say a word.

This surprised him. Nobody ever rose until he ordered it.

Frowning slightly, he opened his mouth to say something. . .

Only to realize she had beat him to it.

Seeing no reason to procrastinate, he got straight to the point, feeling the Invisibles slip into the room.

When the girl refused, he did something he had never did before.

He asked.

Said the word, "Please," to be precise.

The Horned King never asked for anything. He simply took it. But a tiny voice in the back of his head urged him to try and act civilly. The girl would not cooperate if he demanded it of her.

And so, he ground out the very first "Please" he had ever spoken in his life.

And she had still refused.

The Horned King's temper snapped then, but no one could tell, as his voice stayed the same.

The girl was terrified, per usual, but this time her terror seemed a bit different, and it was confirmed when she stammered something about not having seen him.

This was the opportunity he had been waiting for since she set foot in the castle, made all the more sweet by the fact that she already had an idea of who he was.

Deliberately, he rose from his throne and slowly descended the steps, never taking his eyes off her, not wanting to miss a moment.

He watched as her eyes traveled up, to his hands, chest. . .and then his face.

The look of shocked horror on the girl's face, unable to move in her fright, was exactly the reaction he had been wanting.

She didn't move a muscle, staring right into his eyes, until he was less than an armlength from her.

Then the girl seemed to wake up from her terrified stupor and ran for all she was worth.

The Invisibles had left the door open this time, but it didn't matter. She could not escape him.

The Horned King teleported himself to the balcony where he knew she was headed and waited.

As she fled into the room, she noticed him right as he loomed up in front of her, but it was too late.

Her scream was choked off as he pulled her to him and teleported them both to the prison level.

He grinned to himself. It felt so good to choke something else, something other than the Creeper. Something to kill if he felt like it.

Pulling her in front of him, he was able to look her over.

Tears were flowing freely from Avalina's eyes, which he noticed now were wide in terror and a bright green, with a rim of bright gold around the iris that fanned out into the green like fresh sunbeams.

It reminded him of forests and sunlight.

As she fought harder, he felt his eyes burn red, remembering his vow he had made last night. The Fates would not win this one!

Looking into her eyes from this incredibly short distance, he realized he could see his own reflection in their bright depths, which were growing rapidly dimmer.

He saw Death reflected back at him.

He visibly flinched at his horrific appearance, right as her eyes fluttered shut.

"Sire!"

A voice snapped harshly from the doorway, breaking him from his thoughts.

Whipping his head around, he glared at the entrance and gave it a glare to shut up, before turning back to the girl as he felt her weight sag in his grip.

Instantly letting go of her, he stepped back a couple feet and motioned to the Invisible to close the cell door.

The girl coughed and choked, her ribs heaving as she drew in rasping breaths.

The Horned King stared at her as she reeled back from him in terror, still on the ground, staring back at him with tearful eyes.

The Horned King narrowed his own, which were dimming back to blackness.

This should feel good. It *had* felt good until a couple of moments ago. Now the satisfaction had left him. What was the problem?

He had planned to taunt her and threaten her family, but all he managed out was a warning that she should not run from him again.

He glared at her harder as she pleaded with him to let her go. If she thought he was gullible enough to let her escape and go telling all of Prydain of his return, she was a fool.

Realizing he couldn't look at her any more, he turned and walked out, but even with a closed door between them he still heard her sobs.

Pausing for a moment, he had listened, before heading to his chambers.

Now, in his privacy, The Horned King paced in a rage, fuming over the events that had taken place.

'I planned to kill the girl and I did not. Why? Why did I let her live? Instead of watching her life leave her body I let her draw another breath. And another. And another. Breath I swore she would never taste again. Now she is in my dungeon, instead of at the bottom of the lake. I wanted to kill her. I needed to kill her.'

A snarl of rage escaped him.

'I *Should* have killed her. There was nothing and no one to stop me. .I could have. It would have been so easy. Just a few moments longer, and it would have been a corpse that hit that dungeon floor. Not something still clinging to life, begging me to release her.'

The Horned King snarled again.

'Shedding blood held the utmost appeal to me these many weeks, to break this cursed monotony, and when I am given the opportunity I let it slip through my fingers. Why?'

For once, an answer presented itself to his silent tirade.

'Her eyes.'

He tried to push the thought away, but failed.

'They were as green as the mountains in springtime,' he remembered grudgingly.

'Bright and deep as an emerald forest pool. The sun shone inside them. They held Life.'

The remembrance of seeing his own reflection inside their frightened depths made him shudder slightly.

'Until Death was mirrored inside them.'

There was a reason why there were no reflective surfaces in the castle.

The sobs he had heard through the dungeon door echoed in his mind.

'She brought it completely on herself. If she had agreed she would not be there. Does she realize how much it took for me to utter that one little word? Does she not realize the honor she was given?'

He grimaced at the memory of actually speaking that detestable syllable.

'No, she does not. But here I am, begging a mortal for something, the very thing I swore I would not let the Fates do to me.'

Another snarl, louder than the others, escaped him as he paced the floor with a vengeance.

'And they have done it. I cannot believe myself for being so weak. I ask her, not order, command, or demand. . .I *ask* her to stay and she refuses. The only time I've ever asked a mortal for anything.'

A soft sigh escaped him.

'Not that I truly blame her.'

Going to the window, he stared out over Prydain, past his dead realm and on into the miles of green and sunshine that stretched as far as the eye could see, where his influence over the land ended.

'Keeping her here will profit nothing. She will never be of any use to me, nor will she be able to look past. . .this.'

He narrowed his eyes at the thought of his face.

'My appearance is a testimony to all the people I have murdered and destroyed. Their deaths are etched irrevocably into my being, and I can never escape it. I will wear them until my dying day. And although Ava_'

The Horned King cut it off quickly before it could finish.

He had not been able to get her name out of his head since it had been uttered. He had even begun to think of her by name. It took a conscious effort not to think about it, which only urged his mind to repeat it more inside his head.

'And although the girl is useless to me, I cannot let her go. Killing her would save me the trouble of keeping a prisoner, and I have yet to do even that.'

The Horned King tightly gripped the sill.

'And so a prisoner she stays.'