unpromptly

"I'm going to kill you."

"Get in line."

"Have you come for my head?"

"I've mourned you for ten years. What am I supposed to do with you, now that you're back from the dead? Pick up where we left off?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Not a whisker."

That earned an exasperated look. "Why are you here, then?"

"The blood runs strong in you."

They scoffed. "How can it? I'm a nobody. Bastard born from who knows where."

"How much am I going to regret this?"

"Quite a bit, I think."

"We've learned that one of the assassins is a short, dark haired man," the advisor said neutrally.

"Not my new suitor!" the queen said indignantly. She had liked him. She frowned worriedly at the advisor. "No, perish the thought. Might you be overly suspicious?"

“And what if I told you their child would grow up to be a monster? Would you kill them then, to save hundreds of thousands of future lives?” 

“What do you call a king without a throne?” 

The king without a throne did not like the man’s suggestively twisted grin. “Ah... that depends, I suppose, on--” 

“If I discover a new planet, I’m naming it after myself.”

“If you discover a new planet, you’re naming it after me. I’m the one financing your interstellar suicide mission, after all.”

“Do I know you?” 

“You saved my life!” 

"You want me to marry you and then murder you? What am I supposed to get out of this?"

His lips twisted. She was struck with the realization that this was his real smile, when he was truly amused, not the broad, false one he flashed so convincingly.

They frowned deeply. "So, I'm supposed to pay you a bunch of money and then you fuck off and do whatever you want? How is that fair?"

"Is this worth your life? Are they worth your life?"

"What do you want for this? And so help me, if you say 'your soul', I'm out."

"Oh, nothing so old school as that. I only want your worst memories."

“What are you going to do them?” 

"What can I offer you? What will convince you to work for me? Ask me for anything."

"I'm done with this business." They laughed bitterly. "You'd have to be able to raise the dead."