My heart thumps. “Yes,” I admit.

The king nods slowly. “You thought because I refused to tell you how I died before, I’d always refuse to tell you.”

“How you died before?” I go completely still. Already he’s admitted so much more than I expected.

“Perhaps ‘died’ is the wrong word.” He sits on my bed and cups the side of my face. In his eyes I see something I hoped not to. I don’t know what love is, and I doubt the king does either, but the expression he wears seems awfully near the mark.

“You really want to know?” he asks.

I nod.

He lets out a breath, then making a decision, he says, “All right. I’ll tell you the whole sordid story—it’s a long one.”

This moment strikes me as terribly anticlimactic. King Lazuli, the feared ruler of the entire globe, is about to tell me his biggest and most well kept secret. A secret men have killed and died for. A secret that used to bring goose bumps to my skin.

He presses his mouth to my ear, exhales, and breathes the first line. “But not here—”

The sound of shots ring out.

The king pulls back, and we stare at each other for a moment. Then we’re moving.

Ambushed. Someone knows we’re at this hospital, and we’re being ambushed.

On the other side of the door, I hear Marco’s voice. “Montes, Serenity,” he shouts, dropping our titles, “stay inside.” Then his footfalls move away from us.

He expects us to hide in this room like sitting ducks, but I’ve had too much military training to ever act like a civilian again. Oddly enough, Montes seems to have the same idea. He tries to push me behind him as he approaches the door. Instead I brush past him.

The king catches my hand. “Serenity—”

I turn and look at him. “I know what I’m doing.”

He opens his mouth, then closes it. Montes tugs me to him and kisses me.

“I’ll follow your lead,” he says when he breaks away. “Just don’t get hurt—that’s an order.”

I pull away from him. “I won’t.” I just hope I’m right.

Chapter 21

Serenity

I crack the door open and peek out. Just as I do so, my guard, who has been stationed at the door, turns toward us.

“Get back inside,” he commands.

“You and I both know we’re outnumbered,” I say. That’s the only way a group would be ballsy enough to infiltrate the hospital. “We need to leave this place.”

The guard hesitates, and in that span of time, a series of shots punctuates the silence.

Now is the perfect time to kill the king or, at the very least, severely injure him. It’s an unpleasant realization that I don’t want him to meet his end here.

“Can you help me get the king out?” I ask.

I can feel Montes press in behind me.

The guard’s eyes flick from me to the king. “There’s a back way out of the hospital where a car should be waiting,” the guard says. “I can get him to it so long as the enemy isn’t waiting there to ambush us.”

Having been in communication with the Resistance for so long, I know how these groups work. They probably jumped on the unusual opportunity to attack the king while he was in a vulnerable position. It’s a toss up whether they know the layout of the place or not.

“I’ll go first,” I say to the guard. “You’ll have to navigate.”

“No.” Montes’s hand falls heavily on my shoulder, like he’s considering physically restraining me.

“My queen,” the guard says, “it’s my job to protect you too.”

The sound of gunfire is getting closer.

“If the king dies, the world will be leaderless when we need one the most.” I shouldn’t be worrying about the king’s death. He can’t be killed. But I’ve seen him bleed just as easily as I do and watched him take medications like any other person might. I am beginning to think the Undying King isn’t quite so resilient as he might have me believe.

“Serenity—” Montes begins.

I swivel to face him. “I’ll be fi—”

The king shoves a gun into my hand, and for a beat I stare dumbly at it. I hadn’t even realized the king was carrying.

“Don’t hesitate to use it,” he says.

My fingers curl around the weapon, and I nod. I open the door wider and pull Montes out with me.

To the king and the guard I’m sure I look resolute. That’s not how I feel. Inside I’m battling years of conditioning. Two months ago, I would’ve used this opportunity to assist those who are attacking us. Now I am protecting the very person I once hated.

“Where do we go?” I ask.

The guard points down the hall, and we begin to trot. We pass the nurses’ station, which is now abandoned.

The sound of gunfire is moving, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from.

At some point the guard yells, “Stop!”

I halt and turn to him and the king. The guard pulls out a key and inserts it into a door that blends into the wall.

My eyes move to Montes. He looks surprisingly calm, and I have to wonder how often he’s been in this situation. As for me, I’m breathing heavily, but I feel exhilarated.

The guard opens the door and beckons us through. I enter first and glance around. It’s a stairwell.

“The car is down two floors,” the guard says.