I’m struck that he cares. Something uncomfortable catches in my throat at the thought. Right when I assumed I was the loneliest creature in the world, I find out I might matter to someone.
The doctor comes over and starts up the machine that’s centered over my lower abdomen. I’m beginning to guess it is some type of scanner.
Montes sits in a chair next to me and takes my hand. The whole situation should be ridiculous. It’s not.
The scanner thrums to life and begins to travel over my abdomen and up my body.
Behind the doctor a wall of computer screens come to life. The main one catches my eye. On it I can see my skeleton, and fainter but no less clear, I spot my reproductive organs, then my intestines, then my heart and lungs, and lastly my head.
The doctor scrutinizes the computer screens for a long time, looking over the images and the readouts. “There are no cysts, no apparent scarring or obvious swelling. I don’t see anything that might indicate you’re infertile, Queen Lazuli.”
The king’s hold on my hand loosens with his relief.
“Great,” I say, lifting my torso off of the bed. “That means I can go, right?” I ask, trying to rush this along.
The doctor hasn’t looked away from the main screen. “Hmm,” he says.
Montes’s grip tightens again, and he pushes my chest back down. “What is it?” the king asks.
The doctor sucks in a breath, and the king’s hand begins to crush mine.
“Ow.” I pull my hand out of his.
“Sorry,” Montes says, distracted. He recaptures my hand and watches the doctor.
My heart thumps. Montes actually apologized. For squeezing my hand too tightly. The man who apologizes to no one.
“What is it?” King Lazuli asks the doctor.
The doctor pauses. “The queen has cancer.”
Chapter 19
Serenity
There it is, the burden I’ve been hiding for a year now. Radiation-borne cancer. It was common in the WUN, especially in and around big cities where the king deployed the nukes.
Montes stands up and drops my hand. “Cancer?” I’ve never heard that tone in his voice. Like devastation and disbelief wrapped into one. Surely I’m not the source of that anguish.
“We’ll have to do a biopsy to be safe, but judging from the imaging here,” the doctor says, returning his attention to the screen, “it’s overwhelmingly likely that what I’m seeing is cancer. It looks like it’s metastasized.”
And that’s the other discovery I made earlier today when I coughed up blood. I’ve had stomach problems for the last year, not lung problems. However, I’d seen several bunker residents suffer through the various stages of cancer. I know this is the tail end of the process.
The Pleiades granted me my wish. I’m going to join them soon.
Montes glances down at me, and I see true fear in his eyes. “What can we do?” he asks the doctor.
“It depends on the particulars. The queen will need to be placed in the Sleeper to remove the cancerous tissue where possible.”
The Sleeper?
“She’ll also need to be put on the same medication as you, Your Majesty.” The doctor gives Montes a meaningful look.
“It’s already done,” Montes says, and there’s something fierce in his voice now.
I glance at him, my heart constricting. I’ve fantasized about killing the king—there have been times in my life where I wanted nothing more than to see him suffer and die for all the pain he caused me. And yet now that the tables are turned and my life is in danger, the king seems to want to do everything in his power to keep me alive.
I can’t stand that my ethics might be more corrupt than the king’s.
The doctor comes over to us. “Have you experienced any unusual symptoms up until now?”
I give him a long look. “I’ve lived most of my life in wartime conditions. I have no idea what ‘unusual symptoms’ might be.”
The doctor’s eyebrows dart up. “Were you exposed to radiation during that time?”
“Of course.” It was everywhere—in the soil, the drinking water, the crops. No one living in the western hemisphere could totally avoid it, but especially not me, who lived so close to D.C.
The king’s hand squeezes mine, and I glance at him. His expression is carefully blank, but that vein is pulsing in his temple.
War tears down everything. Morals, loyalties, lives. Its aftershocks can ripple long after it ends. This is merely one more way that it’s ripped my life apart. And now, maybe for the first time, it’s affecting the king’s life on a personal level.
“We will fix this,” the king says in that commanding voice of his, like this is just another minor obstacle.
Suddenly, I pity him, because some things simply cannot be conquered, and this might be one of them.
The next evening we sit on a jet flying to what was once Austria. Next to me, Montes drums his fingers on his armrest, his leg jiggling. His eyes keep returning to my stomach.
“Cancer,” he murmurs. He’s said that word several times today. Stomach cancer, to be precise. It’s one of several types of cancer caused by radiation.
I can’t help my next words. “Ironic that you caused the cancer you’re now trying to stop from killing me.” There’s poetic justice in that, though only the king gets the luxury of justice. The rest of us just pointlessly suffer.
He rubs his eyes. “We—we are trying to stop it from killing you.” I notice that he doesn’t address the other part of my statement. I guess he has to pretend it all away, otherwise he might actually realize what a despicable human being he’s been.
“Have you taken your medication?” he asks.
I shake my head. It’s the same mystery drug the king takes. Neither he nor the doctor told me what it does, but it leaves me wondering what exactly an undying king would need a prescription for.
Montes digs through a bag at his feet and pulls out water and a bottle of pills.
I take them with me into the small restroom and shake one of the small white pills into my hand. Staring down at it, I try to divine its use. Perhaps I’ll turn into the same douchey prick the king is. The thought makes me smirk, despite my circumstances. I unscrew the bottle of water and toss the medication into my mouth before taking a long drink.
Almost immediately my stomach clenches. I’m sure even a healthy stomach might rebel against this medication if it were as empty as mine.
I lean against the counter and take slow, steady breaths. The jet chooses that moment to hit a patch of turbulence. I barely have time to turn my body to the toilet before I start to retch. Hot tears roll down my cheeks as my stomach tries to force its contents out of me.
I’m still bent over the toilet when the bathroom door bangs open, and the king strides in. He pulls back my hair while I dry heave, and once I’m done, he gathers me to him and strokes my face as I shake.
“How did you manage to hide this from everyone?” he asks, his voice soft.
I’m still too nauseous to answer. I curl up into him and bury my face in his shirt. “Don’t leave me,” I whisper. I don’t know why I say it; I don’t know why I’m giving or receiving compassion from this man. But I do know this: only compassion can redeem someone. Even the king. Even me.
The king carries me out of the bathroom and lays me out on one of the jet’s couches. I won’t let him go, and the feeling seems to be mutual by the way he cradles my torso in his arms.
He pulls one of his arms out from under me and brushes my hair away from my face. “You’re okay,” he whispers over and over again. His eyes look frightened, like I might die right here and now.
Gradually my stomach settles, and I feel a bit better. The king kisses the skin along my hairline, and I continue to cling to him. “I’m
supposed to hate you,” I whisper.
He laughs humorlessly. “Are you finally admitting that you don’t?” he asks, his throat catching.
“Never,” I whisper.
“Liar.”
I curl up against him, forgetting for a while that he’s the culprit behind every bad memory I possess, and eventually I fall asleep in his arms.
Over the next two days, a biopsy is taken, and it’s confirmed that I have cancer. Then come the X-rays. By the end of my second day, I’m scheduled for surgery.
The hospital allows me to stay with the king for the evening. As soon as I see the fluffy bed in our room, I collapse onto it. The mattress dips as the king joins me.
We’re in yet another one of his estates. I’m no longer surprised at the excess of it all.
I feel Montes tug off one of my shoes, then the other. Next he rolls me over and begins removing my pants. I raise my eyebrows but say nothing; I’m not completely opposed to sex.
But the king doesn’t try to seduce me. Once I’m undressed, he strips down and joins me on the bed, gathering me to him. Our exposed skin presses together and it feels exquisite. Never in a million years did I think I’d enjoy casual intimacy with the king.
Since finding out that I have cancer, Montes has revealed this other side of him, one that’s inexplicably compassionate. It’s made me realize something else: the king is lonelier than even me, and he desperately doesn’t want to be.
“Don’t make me go in for surgery tomorrow,” I whisper. I’d kept quiet about the cancer because everything about illness frightens me. Declining health, doctors, medications, surgery.
The king doesn’t answer for a long time. So long, in fact, that I assume he won’t.
“My father killed himself,” the king finally says. “Died at the hand of his own gun. And like you, he was the last family I had.”
I stiffen in the king’s arms.
“Why are you telling me this?”
The king touches my temple. “You have that same look in your eyes he had. It’s been there from the first moment I saw you. And I fear both he and you know a secret I don’t.”
I watch the king for a long time, my throat working.
“We do.” Never had I imagined my life leading me here, to this moment. Yet now that I’m here, I wonder if there is a beautiful design to things.
“Then tell me what it is,” the king says. Those intense eyes are fully focused on me.
He doesn’t know; he really has no clue when it’s quite obvious. It’s the secret he continually hides from.
“Everything that lives must eventually die.”
The surgery happens the next day, and just like the last time I was in the presence of a doctor, soldiers have to hold me down while the doctor administers the sedative.
The ordeal is one that should be solely reserved for the worst inhabitants of hell.
“Why are you fighting this?” the king asks me as he holds down my shoulders.
It’s a good question, especially since I want the cancer out. “That needle better not come any closer to me,” I say. Like I wield any power in this situation.
“Serenity, you need to be put under. You know this,” the king replies.
“No—please, no.”
“Christ,” the king says looking away, “Stop begging. I can’t take it.”
“Montes, please.”
“I’ll have to leave if you don’t stop.”
I lock eyes with him. “Don’t leave.”
He nods and I hold still. I squeeze my eyes shut when I feel the needle enter my skin. The doctor kneeling next to me begins to talk. “I’m going to count back from one hundred. Follow along with me. One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, …”
I repeat the numbers in my head, focusing on his voice until my eyes drop and my mind drifts off.
Chapter 20
Serenity
When I wake up, the king is at the side of my bed. He’s smiling and holding my hand. Almost reflexively I smile back at him. It’s strange to feel this way about anyone. The fact that the king is the one who’s opened my heart is just proof that fate is a cruel bitch.
“How long have I been out?” I ask.
“Not long, although now the entire hospital knows you snore.”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t snore.”
The king smiles slyly. “You’re not the one who has to fall asleep next to you each evening.”
“Most people bring their loved ones gifts; instead you bring your effortless charm.”
He squeezes my hand tighter, and he leans in until his lips are barely an inch from mine. “How do you think I came to rule the world?”
“You’re an asshole,” I say, staring into his eyes, “and as an asshole, you’ve done a lot of asshole-ish things—including marrying me. That’s how you came to rule the world.”
The king touches my cheek. “Hmm. I think I like your dirty mouth better in the bedroom,” he says, and then he closes the remaining distance between our lips.
My mouth moves against his, my tongue enjoying the taste of him. It’s frightening how right he feels pressed this close to me. He has the same dark soul I do; he knows and embraces my sins, and I’m learning to accept his. I know he is dangerous to be around—dangerous to love—but my heart doesn’t seem to care.
I lift a hand and run it through his hair, my fingers rubbing a strand of it together. This thing of my nightmares is just as human as I am.
Finally, he pulls away. “I have a meeting I’ve been putting off until you awakened.” He glances at the clock hanging in the room. I can’t put it off too much longer, but …”
My hand slides from his hair to his cheek. “Go. I’ll be waiting here for you to return.”
He stands, looking reluctant to leave.
“The sooner you leave, the sooner I’ll be out of this godforsaken place,” I say. The shudder that ripples through me is very real. My skin crawls even now at the smell of disinfectants and sickness that lingers in the room. An epidemic tore through this land years ago. I’m sure many people filed through these doors only to perish.
The king bends down and kisses my forehead. “Promise me you won’t shoot anyone until I get back,” he says.
My lips waver before they tug up at the corners. “I won’t make a promise I can’t keep.”
The King
It’s not until the door to Serenity’s room clicks shut that I let the façade slip. I run a hand over my mouth and jaw, feeling my age even if I don’t look it. If my guards notice, they don’t say anything. Not if they want to continue getting their cushy paychecks.
She’s dying. The phrase repeats over and over in my head. That’s what the doctors here seem to think. They aren’t the only ones to think this, either. The royal physician had also pulled me aside, shook his head, and murmured his fears. Nothing official—it was a concern, not a diagnosis.
But several of the world’s best doctors sharing the same fears? I’d be a damn fool not to take their words seriously.
I grapple with emotions I’ve never fully experienced before. I hadn’t realized the depth of them—hadn’t realized I even could feel this way about someone.
I’d wanted Serenity’s affection, her fire, even her love—I just hadn’t realized I’d give anything back in the process.
I rub the skin over my heart. The thought of losing her after I’ve only just gotten her makes it twinge.
Marco meets me at the end of the hall. “Your Majesty,” he says in Basque, as he often does when he wants privacy, “how’s the queen doing?”
“Fine.”
Marco peers at me. We’ve known each other—trusted each other—since we were kids. The man can read me like a book.
“You talked t
o the doctor then?” Marco guesses.
Of course Marco would piece it together. I nod.
“And?”
I rub my eyes. “Doctor said the cancer had spread. The Sleeper reversed the damage, but …” I take a deep breath. My hands tremble slightly, “we don’t have the knowledge to stop the mutated cells from continuing to replicate.” Which means the cancer is still, at this moment, producing more malignant tissue inside Serenity.
The Sleeper can fend it off so long as it doesn’t move to her brain. But it inevitably will, and as soon as it does, it was game over. Not even the Sleeper has the ability to replicate the intricacies of the mind.
“So she’s … ?”
“Yes, I believe so,” I say, before Marco can finish his thought. We’d bought Serenity time, but not much.
“Have you considered keeping our queen in the Sleeper until a cure’s been discovered?”
I hiss in a breath. That’s months—maybe even years—away.
My gaze snaps to him. “Of course I have. That’s a last resort.”
I’ve spent all this time pouring money into destroying healthy bodies and perfecting a body that isn’t broken. Scant few of my efforts have focused on fixing sick ones.
“Hasn’t it gotten to that point?” Marco asks. “She’s dying. This could halt the damage.”
Something thick lodges itself in my throat. It comes down to the Sleeper or death, and either option still takes her away from me. It’s been hard enough waiting out her recovery during the last few weeks.
“Since when do you care?” I give Marco a sharp look.
“Since you started to.”
Just like that, his words deflate my rising anger. I rub a hand over my mouth. “She might spend years asleep in it before we have the technology to remove the cancer forever.” My voice comes out strong and smooth; I can’t let even Marco, my oldest, closest friend, see how vulnerable I feel.