Chapter 7
Serenity
Four years ago the western hemisphere went dark.
I was doing rounds when it happened. I sat in the back of a military issued vehicle, a gun slung across my body.
An older bunker member—a retired colonel—sat up front, driving the car around the perimeter. It had been a quiet night. Usually at least one incident cropped up during my shifts, but tonight I seemed to be getting a break. My gaze drifted up to the night sky. I searched for my favorite constellations, but light pollution from the nearby city of Annapolis obscured them.
My eyes had only just begun to travel back to my surroundings when the sky lit up. It flashed, blindingly bright, turning night into day. Then the light shrank away.
Another bomb.
“Shit.”
Less than a minute later I heard the blast. It sounded like the devil was shouting, like he was going to consume me and the earth. The wave of energy hit me, throwing me back into the bed of the vehicle. Beneath me the earth shivered, and the car engine faltered, the front lights flickering before it decided it wasn’t going to die after all.
And then there was silence. Ominous silence.
“What in the fucking hell … ? Serenity, you okay?” the colonel shouted back to me.
“I’m fine,” I said, pushing myself upright.
By chance my gaze fell on Annapolis. The city, which only a moment ago had been ablaze in light, was dark.
I beat the colonel to the radio. “A bomb’s been dropped. Repeat: a bomb’s been dropped.”
I was so shaken that it took me a moment to realize the message hadn’t gone through; the radio was off. I went to click it on, only to find that it had already been on. I glanced back up at where Annapolis should be. Now it was shrouded in shadow.
Later I learned that King Lazuli had detonated several nuclear bombs high above the WUN’s territories. The explosions had released EMP pulses that took out all electronics that weren’t heavily shielded from them.
Most electricity. Many cars. Virtually all mobile devices. Nearly every computer. All snuffed out. Only the bunker and a few other heavily fortified locations—most belowground—survived the EMP pulse unscathed.
The rest of the WUN got set back decades that day.
Bright rays of sunlight wake me. I wince at the sight of them and rub my eyes. My head pounds once, then a few seconds later it pounds again, and again. A horrible headache blossoms, worsening with each passing second. All I want is to fall back asleep, but the churning pain in my stomach has me throwing off my covers and running for the bathroom.
I lift the lid of the toilet and vomit. My stomach spasms while I bend over, letting me know it’s only just warming up. I spend the next thirty minutes huddled around the porcelain bowl, retching until there is nothing left in my stomach. I flush it all down, pretending that last night’s wine is responsible for the crimson tint of the water.
I feel weak, and my head is screaming at me. I might as well have drunk poison last night; it would have the same effect on me. I push myself to my feet and lean over the sink to catch my breath. I wonder briefly if the king also feels this way.
My skin heats at the thought of him. Last night I got to know him too well. We shared secrets, drank wine, kissed.
Oh God, I’m going to see him soon.
And that’s when I notice it. The strange silence of my suite. Surely my father would’ve poked his head in by now. I haven’t seen him since I left last night.
I pad back into my room and take another look out my window. It’s late morning, but that can’t be right, not unless …
A sick feeling that has nothing to do with my hangover washes over me. Did I sleep through the negotiations?
I cross the room and fling open my door. In the common area a lone WUN soldier waits.
He sees my face. “The king requested that the remainder of the negotiations be done without your attendance,” he explains.
“What? Why would he do that?” I ask, furrowing my brows. My worry is quickly morphing into a more familiar emotion. Anger.
The guard shrugs. “You’re probably doing your job a little too well.”
I give the soldier a sharp look, and he holds up his hands.
“All I’m saying is that the king probably wants to make sure he’s still in control of the situation. Having you there might affect his decisions.”
Because one really shouldn’t mix business and pleasure. And last night I established that I was here for the king’s pleasure.
The guard is still talking, but I can’t hear him over the noise in my head. I leave him, slamming the door to my room a little harder than I had intended.
I clench my hands. I want to scream—no I want to hurt something. I want to slam my fist against skin until it bruises.
The king wasn’t drunk like I was last night. No, he’s been busy orchestrating a plan of his own. One where he makes no consolations to the WUN, or to me, or to my father.
Just like I had hoped last night, my hatred is back; however, what stokes it is not my country’s wrath, but my own.
I’ve only been awake an hour when I hear a knock on the door. The WUN soldier answers it before I do.
“The king wishes to deliver a present to Miss Freeman,” I hear someone say on the other side of the door.
That’s all I need to hear. “Don’t bother taking the gift,” I yell at the soldier. “I won’t accept it.”
My guard shrugs to the person standing in the hallway. “Sorry sir, orders are orders,” he says before closing the door.
Once it clicks shut, the guard shakes his head and glances at me, a twinkle of respect in his eye. “The king’s about to learn just what a ballbuster you are.”
“The king’s a fucking prick.”
The guard snorts. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I’m staring out my window, bathed under the dwindling sunlight, when I hear my father enter the suite. As soon as I do, I rush out of my room, ignoring the faint pound of my fading headache.
My father rubs his eyes, his face weary.
“That bastard,” I say.
“Serenity, watch your language,” he says.
The irony is that I’ve been ruder to the king’s face than this.
“What happened?” I ask.
My father takes a seat on one of the couches in the common area and drops a package he came into the room carrying. “Other than the medical relief you managed to wrangle from him, King Lazuli’s not budging on most of his conditions—and they’re the important ones.”
“He kicked me out of the peace talks,” I say quietly.
My father meets my eyes. “I know,” he says, his voice resigned. Of course my father knows.
As we stare at each other, I feel another strange pang of sympathy for the man in front of me. The situation is unfolding how he feared it would.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“You shouldn’t be the one apologizing,” my dad says.
But that’s exactly why I’m apologizing—because he blames himself. My father has a whole lot of insight, yet none of it could prevent what’s happened. What a burden it must be to perceive the future yet be unable to change it.
His eyes shift to the package at his feet. “You have a present from the king.”
“He can take his present and shove it up—”
“Serenity.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. I grab the package and walk it into my room. Once I’m alone, I rip open the cardboard box. Inside is a pale yellow dress, and resting on top of it is a necklace made of yellow diamonds. Yellow, because it’s my favorite color.
I work my jaw at the sight. How many stomachs could these items feed? How much medical relief could they afford? Everything that comes from the king is blood money.
My hands shake when I pick up the card resting on top of the pale fabric. The note is simple.
Forgive me, and feel better.
I crumple up his note. Forgive me my ass. The king is not sorry. But he will be.
Marco raps on our suite five separate times before I decide to meet the king. He has my father to thank for that.
The entire time my father sits in the corner of the room, peace treaty on his lap, his hands threaded through his hair. He hasn’t turned the page since the knocking began.
Marco bangs on the door once more, and my father stands suddenly. Throwing the document on a nearby table, he strides towards the door.
“Dad, what are you doing?” I say, standing up from my own seat.
“I’m going to tell Marco that you will not see the king.”
Crap. I hadn’t meant for this.
“Wait, no.” I cut him off, and stop him with a hand. “Dad, it’s fine.”
“It’s not fine, and I can’t watch this.”
If my father intercedes now, it could be game over. Scenarios dance through my mind, none of them good. The ripple effects could be disastrous. I can’t let that happen.
“Please, Dad. Sit down. I’ll answer the door.”
“I can’t ask this of you,” he says. “None of us can.”
My throat works at his admission. “It’s alright. This arrangement isn’t forever. Just please, go sit back down.”
My father stares at me for a long time, his nostrils flaring. For a man who’s good at masking his emotions, he’s not doing so well at the moment.
Finally he nods and walks back to his seat, his movements mechanical.
Hurrying to the door, I grab the handle and fling it open before I can reconsider my actions.
“Evening Marco,” I say when I step out into the hallway.
“The king requests—”
“I know,” I say, pushing past him.
“He wants you to wear your gift,” Marco says to my back.
“And I want to live in a world where I don’t have to worry about radiation poisoning, but neither is going to happen anytime soon.”
I can hear Marco’s huff, but he’s smart enough to realize a lost cause when he sees one.
This evening Marco leads me to a different area of the mansion. We stop in front of a solid wood door and Marco knocks twice.
“Come in Marco.” I can hear the king’s muffled voice on the other side of the door.
Marco twists the handle and ushers me inside. The king’s back is to me and he’s staring at the walls of the room.
I suck in a breath of air. The walls are covered with maps of every nation on earth. Strings crisscross the images, connecting one section of land to another. Pins hold the strings down, and beneath a few of these pins are images. Most are of people whose faces have been crossed out; only a precious few remain unscathed. My earlier nausea rises.
“Feeling better, Serenity?”
“Fuck off.”
The king turns to face me, his expression unreadable. “You’re not wearing my gift.”
“You can’t bribe me into liking you.”
The king’s eyes flick to Marco. “You can go.”
Behind me Marco’s footfalls fade, and a moment later the door clicks shut. There’s no one else in this room but the two of us. No guards, no servants. Like the pool last night, it’s just the two of us.
“I can’t have you clouding my judgment during negotiations,” he explains without me asking.
My hands fist. “Right. Because how awful would it be to compromise for once in your life?”
“I haven’t spent the last decade waging war with your country to finally compromise.”
“No,” I agree, “you haven’t.”
The king glances away from me at the maps that line the walls. “I’m not an idiot,” he says, not looking at me. “I know the WUN sent you here to seduce me.”
My body goes rigid. I have no idea why his confession shocks me; it doesn’t take a scientist to put two and two together.
He laughs, the sound hollow. “The problem is, it worked.” His eyes move over me, and something in them softens for a moment before he shutters the expression.
“Uh huh.”
His lips curl into a smirk. “You find that hard to believe?” he asks. I’d say that he was mocking me, except his eyes are too serious.
I fold my arms over my chest. Of course I do. “Why are you telling me this?” I ask.
“To warn you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“I get what I want. Always.”
“You keep telling me that, yet I haven’t seen any proof.”
“You want proof?” he says. His eyes are calculating, and the smile dancing on his lips is sly. He’s no longer the man I talked to yesterday; he’s the man who’s been taking over the world for the last three decades.
I take a step back. I shouldn’t have spoken just now; my words were careless, and around the king, careless words could mean the difference between life and death.
I shake my head and close my eyes. “No, I don’t want proof. I just want this to end.” I open my eyes. “I don’t want to see any more crossed out faces on those maps of yours.” I jut my chin to the wall behind him. “I don’t want to be hungry all the time. I don’t want to see the hollow-eyed looks of the people I live alongside.”
“I can give you that,” he says, slowly walking towards me, not stopping until the two of us are dangerously close.
“Of course you can—but you won’t.”
“That’s because no one’s offered me the correct price yet.” He says it like this is a simple matter of haggling.
I throw my arms up. “You can’t expect the WUN to willingly cripple our future economy for you.”
The king eliminates the last bit of space between us and fingers a lock of my hair. “That’s not the price I was referring to.” Almost lackadaisically, his eyes move from my hair and land on my face.
And now I get it. I take a step back, then another. I furrow my eyebrows; I think I’m going to be sick. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Even if I believed that was a legitimate trade—which we both know it isn’t—no.”
“You could end this all now, and you refuse to agree to it?”
“You’re asking me to make a deal with the devil.”
“You and I both know you already signed your soul away a long time ago, Serenity.”
“Because of you and your stupid war. I already told you last night, you don’t get to have me.”
The king prowls towards me, closing the distance between us once more. “I’m not just talking about sex,” he says.
But sex would be included in the arrangement. “I’d rather die than do anything with you.”
“If it’s death you wish, we can arrange that.”
The king reaches out to touch my arm, and I slap his hand away. “Don’t. Touch. Me.” I’m shaking; this was never supposed to happen. I’m getting played by the king, and I don’t know how to get myself out of this situation.
King Lazuli sticks his hands in his pockets and leans in conspiratorially. “You know the thing about strategy? It takes knowing when to act and when to be patient.”
I take a good look at him. King Lazuli’s been waging this war for almost thirty years, yet he looks to be little older than thirty himself. I’ve seen footage of him shot, blown-up, and stabbed, yet he hasn’t died. He’s unnatural in more ways than one.
“If you try to force me into this plan of yours, I will find out your secrets,” I say, “and once I do, I will kill you.” I stare at him long enough for him to see the vehemence behind my words. And then I turn and walk away from the king and the sick tapestry that hangs along the walls of the room.
I’m almost to the door when he speaks. “I plan on making you love me before that happens.”