Chapter 74 WHISTLE

Chapter 74 WHISTLE
“Bring them in, Floras' women,” The King shouted to his guards.
Keira gagged as bile surged in her throat; she clenched helplessly while staring at the mad King gripping the sword.
He stalked toward Keira, his chilling calm belying the warped nightmare around them.
"Little Warcat, you thought you could refuse me? Now you'll learn what it means to cross me."
“What are you doing, you monster?”
He threw back his head and laughed, eyes locked on her with cruel delight.
“You came to me as Floras' goods, with an exorbitant price of ten thousand silver, then I heard the reports that you had sold yourself to my enemy, the barbarian mutt, Valen.”
“Do you have any idea what that does for my confidence? I, a king, turned down by a whore.”
Keira’s jaw tightened, defiance flickering in her eyes.
"Don't compare yourself to Valen. He's a hundred times the man you are and will take your crown."
"Tut, tut," the King said, grabbing her face and squeezing hard.
“Listen here, wild bitch, you will beg, and you will kneel before me, and if you don't, you will suffer. When I have tamed you enough, you will warm my bed. When I have broken you, and you have forgotten what it means to be wild, I will break you again.”
Cairo’s growl echoed in her mind.
I'm coming, Keira.
NO, she mindlinked. WAIT, STAY. He will kill you without a second thought, we will both die, we still have a chance.The magic chains are strong, but I may be able to break it.
Keira narrowed her eyes, gathered her courage, and hoiked squarely into the King’s face.
“Bitch!” he roared, backhanding her so she crashed to the floor, chains clanging.
Courtiers scrambled, fear written on their faces as they dabbed furiously at his face with trembling hands.
A commotion at the door snapped everyone’s attention as three women were hauled inside.
Lita, Maren, and Faye stumbled in, terror etched deep in their faces. Their eyes flicked to Keira, then darted away in fear, shoulders hunched and hands shaking.
“Ahh, my little rabbits have arrived. The perfect bait for my Warcat. I didn't realize she was so attached to Floras whores, or maybe I did. Shame.”
He prowled toward them, menace radiating from every step.
“You all possess such beauty,” he sneered. The women flinched at his words. "I wonder how many men have found wonder between your thighs. Strip," he ordered them.
The shaking woman looked at him in bewilderment. He still held the sword in his hand, and he cracked it on the floor.
“Strip," he bellowed coldly.
As they began to undress, a strange transformation overtook them. Their motions grew deliberate, practiced, almost hypnotic, true courtesans masking terror with allure.
One guard gaped, his mouth open, eyes widening as he watched the women's sudden shift in demeanor, clearly unsettled by their composure.
“Take me,” said Keira. “Let these women go free; they have hurt nobody. It is me you want.”
The King turned, his manic grin never faltering.
“Or what, huh?” he laughed. “You’re hardly in a position to make demands chained on my floor.”
He strode to Lita and yanked her nipple with cruel, unnecessary force, so much that she bit back a scream.
Keira found her voice, though it shook with fury and fear. 
“Leave them be,” she demanded, her fists clenched and eyes burning with unshed tears.
The King looked at her and laughed, then returned to his throne and sat down.
“I think we shall have a little show. These women are trained whores. How many of my men should I let fuck them?”
“STOP THIS! Please, I beg you.”
“That's better,” said the King, but I don’t think you are truly broken yet. “I want you in my bed, compliant and obedient. Not this little spitfire before me who thinks she can walk into my castle and make the rules.”
“Kneel,” he ordered. 
A soldier behind slammed my knees and I buckled hard.
I strained against the enchanted chains, fingers scrabbling until I found a faint weakness.
“Guards, he ordered, I need a hundred men brought to the throne room; these whores are about to show me how they earn their keep.
Keira battled the chains, muscles blazing, until she snapped them and scattered them in a swirl of smoke.
Only one goal blazed in her mind: reach the King.
Her claws slid out, eyes calculating the leap that would bring her to him.
The King's eyes gleamed.
“The cat you ride,” the King said, “we have soldiers tracking him now.”
Keira hesitated an instant, then hurled herself at the King.
Guards stampeded in to shield the King. Keira slashed at them with her claws, bodies dropped around her and blood spilled. In her mind, she urged Cairo: 
FIND VALEN
Her eyes caught Selenes, and she snarled. The King, then Selene, would feel her claws.
More guards swarmed into the throne room, hemming her in. She slashed, ducked, as more blood drenched the throne room floor.
Then a new face arrived in the madness.
 The Queen.
The broken chains she had placed, tightened again.
Dead and wounded soldiers littered the floor. Everything was a bloody mess.
“I see you don't learn,” the King spat at Keira.
He stared up at the Queen.
"I trust you didn't do this on purpose? One more slip and you will sit with me at the executioners block again. Now leave this damned place."
The Queen hurried out with her head down.
“You have made quite the mess of my floor, my soldiers, and I despise mess. Now pick one.”
“One what you monster?”
“One of your girls,” he said. “Tell me, who’s your favourite?”
She looked at Lita, Maren, and Faye, huddled together.
“I can't.”
The King sat there brooding.
“Well, I guess it will have to be that one,” he said, pointing at Lita. “Such a shame she is a beauty.”
“Guards, make her kneel; it will have to be in the blood. I don't want any more mess near my throne.”
The guards yanked Lita by the hair and shoved her down on the now crimson floor amongst the bodies.
“You think my men don't have families that will miss them. You are a criminal, Keira.”
He strode forward and stopped on the clean tiles, a look of disgust marred his face.
“What is your name?” he said to Lita.
“Lita,” she replied.
“Right then, perhaps in another life you will be careful of the company you keep.”
He turned to Keira.
“I will take her life as payment for all the guards of mine you have taken.”
“No,” Keira growled.
“She is but a sickening whore. And if you don't behave, then tomorrow, I will take the next girl, and then the next. And when they run out, I will start with your toes, then your fingers. I guess that won't matter too much, as you have claws anyway.”
"How can I save her?” she asked. "Tell me."
“Oh, it's too late for that,” remarked the King, “but perhaps you can save the others.”
He threw his sword to the nearest guard.
“Take off her head, and present it to the Warcat as a gift.”
Keira writhed against the chains, which held fast. She bucked and thrashed, all to no avail.
She clenched her eyes shut, but it was a waking nightmare she couldn’t escape.
Faye and Maren screamed and clung to each other.
Lita did not do any of those things; she only turned and looked at Keira.
And in that look, there was no anger, no blame, only trust.
It broke something in Keira that had never broken before.
She couldn’t help but think of when she had first arrived at the House of Midnight Pleasures, and Lita, Faye, and Maren had befriended her, looked after her. Taught her how to laugh and showed her kindness.
Keira gulped, wondering whether the duke's care would have offered greater safety. She scoured her thoughts for a way to save Lita.
The guard raised the sword high.
She looked up at Selene who matched her stare, and Keira swore she saw a slight quirk in her lips, as if she was gloating, prideful. 
Cairos thoughts broke through.
She will pay, the Kings men might trail me, but I will only lead them to Valen. Hold tight little one.
The guard brought his arm down with a heavy thud. Lita's head was half off, and the guard raised his arm again, forcing the sword down, hacking again and again.
Keira forced herself to close her eyes now.
But that didn't stop her from hearing the sound of something falling and rolling to her feet.
She opened her eyes and found Lita's severed head staring at her in horror.
Keira glared at the king with seething fury.
"Oh, don't look at me like that,” he said. “You have repaid a debt.”
He motioned to the guard.
“Place the head outside the Warcats' cell. Maybe tomorrow she will be feeling less inclined to disobey and kill me. I want her by my side when the barbarian arrives.”
He strode to Keira and caressed her face. She lunged to bite him, but he grabbed her throat instead.
“Now, Warcat, did you not learn anything from losing Lita? You must behave. If you don’t, you will choose which girl will go tomorrow, and I promise you, Lita had an easy death,” he said softly.
Maren and Faye were clutching each other, sobbing.
“When do you think that barbarian cunt will arrive? Tomorrow, or the next day? Either way, I have the perfect bait to lure him here, and the perfect trap.”
He motioned to the guards, “Take her to the dungeons, oh, and clean my throne room immediately, it is disgusting.”
He began to whistle as he left the throne room as if none of it had ever mattered.