The Cursed King

One.

The towns and cities mentioned are entirely fictional creations of my own. Every character, location, and object in this book exists solely in the realm of imagination. This work draws no inspiration from reality; it is a product of my own creative thoughts.

Meraki

(v.) to do something with soul, creativity, or love; to leave a piece and essence of yourself in your work.

~•~

Let's start with the introduction, shall we?

Hello, I'm Aelia Grace.

"Detective Aelia," a voice popped into my office.

I didn't even have to look up to know it was my annoyingly nosy, desperately jealous coworker, Blake. He was leaning against my doorframe, showcasing his latest absolute crime against fashion: a tacky, eye-watering pink floral shirt paired with mud-brown pants.

My nose scrunched in immediate distaste. Look, I'm no fashion guru, but I'm pretty sure what he was wearing could be legally registered as a weapon against human eyesight.

But Blake didn't just suck at fashion- he was also hands-down the worst detective in the entire department. The man was a glorified lapdog for the rich and powerful. Throw a few hundred-dollar bills his way, and he'd gladly set a serial killer free and tie the bow on their getaway car.

"May I help you?" I asked, slamming my laptop shut.

I didn't want him catching even a glimpse of my screen. If Blake was lurking by my desk, it meant one thing: he was trying to snitch on my current caseload. Which meant someone "special" had likely lined his pockets to find out how close I was getting.

"Oh, you don't have to stop your work for me. Please, carry on," he said, flashing me a nasty, greasy smile. He genuinely thought he looked intelligent right then. It was tragic.

"No, I'm actually done for the day," I lied smoothly, forcing a tight smile onto my face. "Nice shirt, by the way. Where on earth did you find such a... unique piece?"

Distraction tactic 101. Blake was a textbook narcissist; you could easily fool him with a couple of cheap compliments.

Sure enough, his smile stretched wider, and he actually plopped his ass right down on the edge of my desk. "Right? You remember I told you about my grandma who lives out in the countryside? She visited a local beach near her town and bought it for me. She knew it would suit my vibe."

I bit my tongue to keep from asking if his vibe was 'a flamingo with the legs of an alligator.' That would be too rude, right? Even for me.

"You really should visit the town my grandma lives in," Blake blabbered on, completely oblivious to my internal mockery. "It's totally secluded, miles of pure wilderness, and there are these hidden beaches nearby..."

Ding.

A literal lightbulb went off in my brain.

A countryside with endless, untamed wilderness. A secluded town with dangerous, winding roads flanked by thick mountain forests on one side and a sharp cliff on the other.

It was the perfect place to escape to. The perfect place to hide. And the perfect place to dump a body.

"s**t!" I cursed aloud. How had I been so blind? Why hadn't I realized it before?

I grabbed my phone and dialed the officers who were supposed to be on a stakeout at our prime suspect's house.

Ring. Ring. Ring. No answer. I tried again. Nothing.

Shit. f**k.

"Detective Aelia Grace," I barked into the desk phone, routing directly to dispatch. "I need backup at the Elaine murder suspect's residence immediately. Send everyone available right now!"

I slammed the receiver down and grabbed my coat. "Blake, I need to leave. Lock the door behind you when you get out," I said, shoving past him.

Blake was staring at me, his face a picture of total, dumbfounded shock. "What?" I snapped, pausing at the door.

"You're working the Elaine murder case?" Blake asked, his voice suddenly dropping its annoying pitch. "The case with twenty-seven victims from the same exact town? Girl, do you have any idea how dangerous this killer is? He took out twenty-seven people and didn't leave a single shred of DNA behind. Five of them were active police officers, and the rest were retired cops. The guy clearly loathes the police. No one in the entire department was willing to touch this case with a ten-foot pole, and you just took it?"

"Yes," I said bluntly, gesturing impatiently for him to get out of my office so I could lock up. In my rush, I had momentarily forgotten that Blake had a bloodhound's nose for other people's secrets. I'd almost made a massive mistake by letting my guard down. "Look, if you're suddenly so deeply concerned about my survival, call your little buddies in traffic control and tell them to clear a path for me. And maybe pre-order a 911 dispatch to the suspect's house, just in case."

I didn't wait for his reply. I sprinted down the hallway, burst out of the precinct, and threw myself into my unmarked cruiser.

I drove like a madwoman, tires screeching as I tore toward the suspect's address. But the second I pulled up to the driveway, my stomach plummeted.

The suspect's black sedan was already roaring out of the opposite end of the driveway, kicking up gravel. Right next to the house, the stakeout vehicle was parked. I threw my car into park, hit the pavement, and ran over to the officers' car, pulling the door open.

It was completely empty.

A violent chill raced down my spine, freezing the blood in my veins.

No. No, no, no.

There were two of them. Two heavily armed, highly trained stakeout officers. A single man shouldn't have been able to take down two cops without a massive struggle or a firefight.

I scrambled back to my cruiser, throwing it into reverse and flooring the gas to pursue the fleeing sedan. I hit the radio, my voice tight with pure adrenaline. "Suspect is fleeing. Two officers are missing, presumed compromised. I am currently in pursuit heading north toward the mountain line. I need backup now!"

I tossed the mic aside and focused entirely on the road, pushing my engine to its absolute limit. Up ahead, the suspect's tail lights flickered through the dust. He knew I was there. He sped up, matching my desperation.

Within minutes, the city grid bled away into the dark, towering treeline of the forest. We flew past the trees, the road growing narrower, twisting violently as we began to ascend the mountain pass.

I glanced in my rearview mirror and felt a sudden wave of relief. Two sets of flashing red and blue lights were gaining on me from a distance. The backup was coming. I breathed a sigh of relief because, honestly? I knew my limits. I had the brains to crack a twenty-seven-victim serial killer case, but I was a total disaster in hand-to-hand combat. And guns? I knew how to shoot one, but I lacked the cold-blooded will to actually pull the trigger on a human being. It was my biggest flaw as a cop, and in a fight with a monster who killed cops for fun, I'd be nothing but a light snack.

"Come, my child."

I gasped. The voice didn't come from the radio. It tingled directly inside my ears, echoing softly in the chamber of my skull.

As if pulled by an invisible, hypnotic string, my eyes ripped away from the treacherous road and looked up through the windshield. A massive, breathtaking full moon hung in the sky. It was impossibly bright, casting an eerie, luminous glow over the mountains.

"Come to me, my dear child."

The whisper came again, vibrating with a melody that felt both terrifyingly unnatural and deeply, profoundly healing. It defied logic. I was completely mesmerized, slipping into a heavy, warm trance. The world around me faded into a blur. The suspect, the police lights, the danger- it all evaporated. There was only the moon.

By the time the fog snapped in my brain, it was too late.

The tires lost their grip on the asphalt. The steering wheel jerked violently in my hands as the car veered off the sharp edge of the mountain. My heart stopped. The vehicle vaulted into the endless, black abyss of the canyon.

"Come to me."

The voice boomed, deafening now, vibrating through my chest.

"Stop it!" I screamed, panic finally shattering the trance.

I fought desperately with my seatbelt, my hands shaking so violently I could barely get a grip on the plastic buckle. With a hard click, the belt snapped free. I didn't think. I kicked the driver's side door open and threw myself out into the open air, praying to whatever deity was listening that there was a deep river at the bottom of this cliff.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the impact. I waited to either hit the water or be splattered into a million pieces against the jagged rocks.

But instead of a bone-shattering crash, a strange, intense pressure enveloped my body. It felt like a vacuum, a sudden, violent tug that defied all laws of gravity- pulling me sideways rather than down.

An instant later, I landed with a soft, breathless thud.

Wait. Soft?

I opened my eyes, my breath catching in my throat. I wasn't covered in river water, and my bones weren't broken. I was lying on a bed of thick, vibrant grass. Scattered all around me were massive, ethereal flowers that pulsed with a brilliant, bioluminescent glow. They cast a soft indigo and violet light across the landscape. I had spent my entire life reading forensics and geology reports, and I knew for a fact these flowers did not exist anywhere on Earth.

In utter awe, I pushed myself up, my hands brushing against the dew-kissed petals. I looked around. It was an endless, rolling sea of glowing flora. And right in the center of it, looming like a dark shadow against a starry sky, was a massive, crumbling stone castle.

'My child.'

The voice echoed in my mind one more time, fading into a gentle whisper before vanishing completely.

"That damn voice," I muttered under my breath, my hands trembling as I brushed the dirt off my jeans. That voice had literally driven me off a cliff.

Then, the detective brain took over, analyzing the sheer impossibility of my situation. The mountain pass I had just plummeted from was notorious. It was a straight drop into a shallow, rocky riverbed surrounded by jagged boulders. Survival rate? Zero.

So if the bottom of that valley was supposed to be rocks and death, how the hell was I standing in front of a magical castle surrounded by glowing, alien plants? That weird pull I felt in mid-air... it sure as hell wasn't gravity. It felt like my body had been ripped from one dimension and dropped into another.

GROOOOOWL.

A low, guttural vibration rattled through the air, vibrating right through the soles of my shoes. It came from the direction of the ruined castle.

I flinched, my muscles locking up. Great. Fantastic. I couldn't even handle a human suspect in a fistfight, and now there was a predatory animal lurking in the shadows. And judging by the sheer volume of that growl, this wasn't a stray dog. It sounded deep, dangerous, and utterly massive. I had somehow survived a fatal cliff plunge just to become a midnight snack for some monster.

I slowly backed away, trying not to make a sound, before turning on my heel and sprinting in the opposite direction of the castle.

Almost instantly, a deafening, furious roar shattered the silence. Then came the sound.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Heavy, terrifying paws slammed against the earth, tearing through the glowing flowers. By the sheer weight of the impact, whatever was chasing me had to be the size of a freaking elephant.

Dear Gods, I thought frantically, tears of pure terror stinging my eyes, why did you save me from the car crash just to let me get eaten alive two minutes later? Was it just so I could see some pretty flowers before my soul said goodbye? Is that the joke?

The heavy footfalls were right on my heels. In a moment of absolute, textbook panic, I made the classic mistake: I turned around to look.

My breath hitched, and my brain completely short-circuited. Chasing me down was a creature straight out of a nightmare- or a mythology book. It was a wolf, but it possessed the muscular, terrifying build of a giant man. Its maw was lined with razor-sharp, silver teeth, and its claws were longer and sharper than any tactical knife I'd ever seen. He was utterly enormous.

I squealed like a terrified deer. My legs tangled together in my panic, and I went down hard, sliding onto my ass across the grass.

The wolf-man leaped.

I closed my eyes, curled into a ball, and let out a pathetic whimpering sound, waiting for the teeth to tear into my throat.

Two massive, heavy paws slammed into the dirt right on either side of my head with a deafening thud, spraying loose dirt over my face. My heart leaped entirely out of my chest. I whimpered louder, squeezing my eyes shut tighter.

But the fatal bite never came.

After a few agonizing seconds of pure silence, broken only by a heavy, ragged breathing, I slowly peeked one eye open.

The creature was looming directly over me, its massive chest heaving as it stared down at my face.

My eyes went wide, pinned between absolute, paralyzing fear and a strange, detective-born curiosity. Now that he was inches away from me, the human resemblance was undeniable. He had a structured, almost aristocratic jawline beneath the dark fur, and his eyes held an intelligent, deeply sorrowful depth that no ordinary animal could ever possess.

The beast let out a sharp, irritated growl when he noticed me analyzing him

Okay, I thought, my mind racing at a million miles an hour. So he's offended that I'm staring at him. I mean, fair enough. I'd probably be annoyed too if a random stranger fell out of the sky and started staring at me like I was a freak. It's a totally valid boundary. Completely understandable.

Aelia, shut up. Stop rambling inside your own head and think of a way to survive this.

"Stop thinking. Your thoughts are giving me a massive headache," a voice rumbled.

I froze. The voice didn't come from my head. It came from the beast. It wasn't entirely human; it was a terrifying, resonant combination of a deep human baritone and the wild, rolling growl of an apex predator. But the most shocking part?

The damn thing spoke English.

"He speaks," I squeaked, my voice cracking so badly it was barely audible. I was quite literally on the verge of ruining my pants.

Brain, think. Think! Come up with a plan, a negotiation, a lie- anything!

But my mind was a total blank. What could a human detective possibly do here? I couldn't even take down a regular human criminal without calling backup. How was I supposed to win a standoff against an enormous, talking wolf-monster?

I desperately searched my memories for anything useful. Did I ever go hunting with my dad? No. Did I ever take survival classes? No. A wave of sudden regret washed over me. I really, really should have accepted that offer from my coworker last year to attend those weekend wilderness self-defense classes.

"I said, stop thinking," the creature growled again.

This time, his glowing eyes bared down on mine, and he sounded thoroughly, dangerously pissed off.