Witch Doctor #2: Sacrifice (Staten Krown)

11

The king's quarters were grand. They were at the very top of the tower. By the time Catalina and I climbed all those steps I was sweating and breathing heavily. You would think they had an elevator for all these floors. I think all together there were about 18 floors to the tower. You could almost tell we were somewhere important. The people who walked around on this floor seemed important. They seemed like they had a purpose. The rugs were a royal golden color. As we walked down the halls there were portraits painted. I figured they must have been paintings of past kings by the way they were postured. It wasn't like any of them wore crowns or anything but they had this pride about them in the portraits. Catalina didn't seem interested in any of this. I assumed she must have seen it all before. I couldn't help looking around though. I wondered everything about these kings. How long were they kings for? What kind of magic did they use?
When we got to the room that was clearly the king's room Catalina stopped. She didn't stop by her own though. There were a group of men over by the room.
"Don't get smart with these people," Catalina said, "Be very careful. The Royals are a powerful coven. Bah is strong but alone even he wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of them. They attack in packs too. I've seen it. The force of the elements coming out of those little sticks is no joke. It's not a pretty sight."
I believed every single word she said. She moved very carefully too almost in slow motion. I felt like I was almost watching a remake of the Matrix by how she was moving. Her warning wasn't at all necessary. I didn't plan on getting smart with any of them.
I wasn't surprised to see Eli standing there. At first I thought it was his brother Corey and I was a little excited to see a familiar face but when I noticed it was Eli I was more then nervous. He eyed me and eyed Catalina. He wasn't alone. He was with a few others who were dressed in black. They were all the handsome men of the Royal coven.

"We came to see the king. He called us," Catalina told Eli.
"No s***t," Eli said almost immediately offending me, "Catalina huh? I saw your little blood show the other day. It was...disgusting. I don't want you coming in here. The boy can come in."
He looked her up and down.
I panicked a little bit with the fact that Catalina couldn't come in with me.
"I'll go in alone," I stated.
He nodded, "Good. You and I know each other. You're friends with my brother. You know they call me the Fire Caster. It's a little nickname they have for me. You know why they call me the Fire Caster?"
He smiled at me as though I would have known. He had this strange look in his eyes. He didn't seem to focus on me. He was all over the place. He seemed to be taking pride in the fact that he was scaring me even before he started scaring me. The idea that he thought he was scaring me was actually made me nervous. He had this sickness about him. I couldn't stand being around this Eli guy for too long.
"I'd assume it's because you like fire."
"Yes I'm a pyromancer," he explained, "You are going in this room to see my king. If I see even the smallest droplet of blood I will burn you—alive. Not only will I burn you. I will burn your entire coven. That little boy you keep running around this b***h with all the time I'll burn his ass too. I'll set that mothaf***ka on fire. I'm crazy as f***k. He won't know what hit him. Then I'll become king and s***t right. You know why? I don't even want to be king all like that. I'll become king so that I can lift the fog. And when the fog is lifted I'll go find your family. I'm a beast too because guess what? I'll burn them while they sleep."
My mouth dropped open a little bit. Catalina put her hand on my shoulder and I was glad she did. This motherf***ker was crazy!
"No blood..." I said raising my hands.
It was interesting that he was nervous about blood but it made sense. If only he know how horrible I was with blood magic he wouldn't have even brought that up. I'm sure it was coming from what he saw Catalina do with blood magic on Tiana before. His eyes watched me as he opened the door and let me in.

The king didn't have any waiters or anything like that. I think the title was more of an understanding then an actual position. He was actually painting something when I went into the room. It was a large room with cathedral ceilings and more space than I'd know what to do with. His canvas was barely blank and he was seemed to be washing it with a color. He leaned harder on the easel so much that it looked like it would tilt over at any second. He was so into his art that he barely noticd me walk into the room. I looked around my eyes canvasing the room for the bracelet. The more I thought about it the more that I knew Bah had put a spell on me. The only thing I could think of was that bracelet. Luckily I found it. He had put it down on a table not too far from him. I assumed it was so that he could paint or maybe he just never held it on him. Either way it was close enough for him to grab.
"Sir."
"What is it? Go away," he muttered underneath his voice not even turning to acknowledge me.
"Sir...you called me here."
"Did I?" he said and finally turned, "Ah. Oh dammit. Is it noon already? Time flies in this goddam tower. You lose yourself here. Come sit...well...dammit...no chairs. around Just...lean I guess. Get comfortable."
I just stood there when he stood back and looked at his blank canvas. He put his brush down on the ground carelessly and turned to me. His young voice seemed pleasant and so different from
"I am comfortable."
"Well...I'm going to be your husband," he said laughing, "Strange isn't it? I'm not into an alternative lifestyle. I mean mind you I'm a 40 year old stuck in a 5 year old's body and happen to be the immortal king of the witch doctors but I'd like to think of myself as relatively normal. . I just wanted to let you know that. I've heard some things about you and..."
"Was it from Corey?"
"Yes, but don't worry it was nothing bad. He just thought that you might be...you know...alternative. I have NOTHING against alternative lifestyles. I just wanted to let you know—well I'm not into that. I'm not even sure if it's true. Corey just happens to enjoy that kind of lifestyle and it may just be wishful thinking on his part."
"Corey happens to be right. I am gay."
"Oh well..." the king said, "You do understand this marriage is strictly business. Mind you I won't rob you of any luxuries. Keep in mind this isn't the Buckingham Palace and you aren't Princess Kate. Hell you aren't even Pippa. Don't expect a lavish life. The tower does however have some benefits when it comes to royalty and these benefits I'm willing to share. It'd be your right if you were King. I just want don't want to be coerced at all."
"Don't worry I won't hit on you."
It amused me that even in the magic world every straight guy thought that if***gay men immediately were attracted to them. He had the body of a kid. What kind of pervert would I have to be to be attracted to him? He sighed deeply.
"I'm glad we got that out in the open," he smiled, "I didn't want this to be awkward. You know. Corey admires you. He trusts you. Personally I think this will work out in my benefit. You see no one is a real fan of Sacrificial magic nowadays if you haven't noticed."
Really?
"I think there were clues."
"Oh more than clues young man. The things your people do are just...excuse me if I sound blunt...barbaric. There is no class in playing around in liquid body substance. Not my thing personally. But I assume you all are not so bad so if I need to use one of you for my own personal gain I'd prefer it to be a more civilized barbarian."
He was straight trashing my coven but the truthfully I didn't blame him. The stuff that I had seen made me question how barbaric the coven was. I could only imagine how it looked like to outsiders especially after Catalina cut her face all up.
"I'm glad we can work this out."
"I believe this will bring us all closer. Even though Bah isn't my favorite person I believe bloodlines between our two covens will make everyone trust the Sacrificial coven a lot more."
Trust.
I smiled, "I can shake to that...to peace I mean."
He smiled, "To peace and trust."
Trust.
I walked over to him to shake his hand and as I did it I found my body hitting the table. I tripped over it and landed on the floor. He bent over to help me up and as he did it I snatched his bracelet off the floor and quickly put the fake bracelet on the floor.
"I'm sorry. I'm extremely unorganized."
He nodded, "You're preaching to the choir. I don't know you much Micko but I think the two of us can be friends."
"I'd like that."
He shook my hand and I felt the hard paralyzing guilt go through my stomach. From that moment on he made little small talk. He kept saying some stuff about the wedding. He was telling me little stupid details about it that I didn't care about. I kept thinking the whole time what Bah had planned. I wanted to put it out my mind but it wouldn't leave my mind. I felt so uneasy.