The Queen of All that Dies (The Fallen World Book 1) by Laura Thalassa Read Free Book Online

of his kills he never had to dirty his hands.
    My gaze moves from the general to his son who sits further down the table. “I’m sorry, Will,” I say. His face is too grainy to make out, but I’m sure the expression he wears is not a pleasant one.
    “There’s nothing to apologize for,” he says. “Negotiate an agreement and make it back here safely. That’s all I want.”
    My throat constricts and I nod. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I know what I must do.
    I’m going to have to charm the king into giving the WUN what it needs.

Chapter 6
    Serenity
    Five years ago my father and I moved into the bunker. By that time we were in a full-scale war with the eastern hemisphere, and the king had started picking off those political leaders not already dead. Located several miles outside of D.C., the bunker was an asylum for what was left of our government officials and their families.
    It also offered some measureable protection against the high radiation levels caused by the nuclear blasts. Not that it mattered. The radiation was in the water, in the earth and the food supply. We’d lived with it long enough; the damage was already done.
    The day my father and I moved in, when I first saw the beds that lined a single room, my chest tightened. I realized that the world I thought I knew had been gone for a while now and somewhere along the way people had become synonymous with threat .
    My wariness eventually wore off, and my next reaction was excitement. I might make friends . I had to dust that word off; I’d shelved it from my vocabulary for so long.
    The bunker, however, came with its own sacrifices. No natural light filtered into our new home, and I had once been a self-proclaimed child of the sun. An unpleasant schedule came to rule my days. And social interactions were difficult to maneuver; I found I was way more skilled at making enemies than I was friends. 
    Still, I was safe, surrounded by people that didn’t antagonize me, and I had reliable food and shelter. For the first time in a long time, I felt hopeful.
    “I hate dresses, ” I mumble as one of my guards zips me up.
    He snickers.
    “Shut up. It’s not funny.” I can’t breathe in this thing.
    “Freeman in a dress? Hell yeah it is,” my guard says.
    I throw him a look just as Marco knocks on the door to our suite.
    The guard squeezes my shoulder. “Own those negotiations,” he whispers.
    I leave my room as my father opens the door. “Morning Marco,” he says, grabbing his briefcase.
    Marco nods to him. “Ready to go?”
    My father looks over to where I stand.
    “I’m ready,” I say, now that my wispy dress is on. I glance back at my room. My gun lies underneath the pillows on my bed. It’s hard to walk into the peace talks in my flimsy outfit without my usual protection.
    “’Kay, then let’s do this,” my father says.
    We follow Marco out into the hall, our guards shadowing us. At least they are allowed to carry holstered weapons. I’ve seen most of them in action, so I trust their skills.
    We move to the other end of the king’s mansion, where the negotiations are to take place. I fist my hands in the black folds of my dress. I’ve learned a lot about diplomacy from my father, but I’ve never been able to apply any of my lessons. I know how negotiations with an enemy state work in theory, but not in practice, and I fear that something I say or do might cause irreversible damage.
    I can identify the conference room from all the way down the hall. Cameramen and film crews cluster around the door. Flashes of light are already going off, which makes me think that the king must have arrived before us.
    My heart pounds a little faster at the thought. Last night felt like we danced on the edge of a knife. One wrong move and I’d cut myself.
    Despite the obvious danger that comes from dealing with the king, yesterday he hadn’t struck me as particularly … evil. Nor, for that matter, did he seem immortal, though he did appear to