Page 98 of Of Brides Of Queens

See circled behind my chair. “I believe you are trying to play to my good side, Princess Take. How will this go for you?”

She gathered the answer was “not well.” “What do you want, See?”

He rumbled behind me, and while this exchange was occurring, any number of complications occupied me in chaos.

“Your garter, I think,” he said.

I swallowed, trying not to betray myself.

She inhaled. “My bridal gift? Impossible. My king would know.”

“You set your lips between a queen’s thighs. You would have covered yourself in her slickness had she allowed it, and you intend to hide this betrayal from your king. This uncomfortable secret demands an uncomfortable price.” His sneering tone was harsh. Ruthless.

I almost winced for her, and yet a plausible cover for stealing the garter trembled in sight. I might avoid a war with four kings if this worked.

“I will pay it,” Princess Take said wearily. She extended her left leg forward. The slitted material slithered free to expose smooth flesh free of any stitches and utterly uniform in its milkiness. She stared. “But where is it?”

King See murmured, “I removed it from you already. You were so taken with inhaling Perantiqua’s intimate scent that you did not realize.”

The shame he delivered her was cruel indeed, but I froze when the princess’s focus fixed on something above my head.

I dragged in breath that did nothing to fill me. The garter.He has it.I could feel the bridal gift dangling over my head, gripped in the hand of King See. How did he retrieve it from my pocket?

My fury and panic thundered, and I gripped the armrests, grateful this chair was made for an immortal king. I could not touch him. He was more powerful than me. If he wished to keep the garter, I could not think how to wrestle it from him.

The princess stretched out her hand. “No, I have changed my mind. I cannot give that away?—”

“Then I pen a letter to your king this night,” See boomed, and the walls of his palace squeezed. “There is a price for secrecy that you have never had to pay, princess of the spying king. Pay this now, or your king will pay it for you with his turn to ruin.”

The most ancient princess swayed with the horror See painted.

“No,” she whispered. “No, I will not allow that. Y-you may have the garter.”

Princess Take spun from us and strode to the door, wrenching it open. She panted with all she felt. “Never speak of this. I have made payment. Swear it to me.”

“I swear it,” I croaked.

“I will never speak of this,” hissed King See.

Rage thrummed in me like a heartbeat and urged me to rip a garter from a king’s grip.

Panic screamed that I was a new queen, unable to do what madness bid me.

“Queen Perantiqua,” the princess said, glancing back. “You are prone to violence.”

The shaken princess left, slamming the door after, and I remained frozen as we listened to her departure.

She was right. I was prone to violence in the matter of bridal gifts. I was a conniving thief in this matter too. I did not feel cheery about these aspects of myself and also could not regret the outcome. Such was obsession.

I rose, keeping a leash on panic. King See had just helped me. He would give me the garter.

I faced him.

“Give it to me,” I commanded in the layered voice that grated and whined on itself.

He must know that I was not really this creature, but then the creature was inside of me and part of me, so maybe I was this terrible thing.

King See exhaled, tilting his head. “Endless darkness rises in her.”