Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Madness in obsession

Claims all of us

In The End.

W hat a pacing night.

I did not greatly enjoy pacing nights. Anticipation and doubt filled me equally and had done so since my stairway pawns left my queendom to capture Princess Raise.

That was many hours ago, and now the coldest hours pressed on me too often like a mother’s hand checking for fever.

There was no trace of a princess, and I had spent the last three hours wondering over the power of obsession and its ability to turn a queen or king mad. Yet I had perhaps lost romance and relationship with King See due to his obsessed madness, and so I should not allow obsession to overcome me entirely. There were other relationships to nurture.

I read over my letter as the ink dried.

Princess Bring

A thoughtless touch.

A deep regret to have caused fleeing discomfort.

Our friendship swelled within me that evening.

Instincts of connection controlled me,

but ancient thought should have done.

In sorriness and sorrow,

Queen Perantiqua.

I rolled and sealed the letter, then stared at the QP I had pressed into the melted wax.

“Do you send letters to kings?”

I dropped the letter.

My body lit. My heart pounded. Mere nights had passed since our fall from aligned romance, but a century of emotion had passed in that time too.

“You frighten me, King See.” I did not look at the entrance of my chamber.

“You are welcome.”

I supposed that I was, but gratefulness eluded me when it came to him. He had betrayed me. “Why have you come to my chamber, King See?”

“A strange thing, your chamber. Not long ago, I faced a blank wall where your chamber used to be.”

Inside, I stilled. Outwardly, I exhaled annoyance and scooped up the fallen letter. “Strange things occur in monsterdom. Why are you here?”

“Perhaps because you are magnificent, and each time I see you, I am reminded of it.”

I faced him. “ Why are you here? ”

Oh… Oh my.

The blaze of his white face was less than ever before. Betrayal had filled me, and now this emotion had come to interrupt some of my rage.

“What is it, maiden?”

I could see his jaw—the darkness there, like a black beard might cover it. I lifted my gaze to where his eyes likely were. Though how many eyes would he have, the king who saw all? His princes had many eyes between them. “You tell me, King See. It is you who have come to visit.”

“I am here before the week’s end as you demanded, though I do not know myself much better.”

A half-truth. He had used our transaction as an excuse. “You are here to see how I feel about Princess Take spending a day in your palace. That is all.”

Was his touch as silken as his voice? His fingers twitched as if in challenge. “And how do you take such news, Perantiqua?”

I refused to shiver over my name on his lips. He had used the word “take” on purpose. “I take it that you have made your choice in romantic companionship, King See, and that your choice is not me.”

He stilled.

Had I surprised him?

I might just go ahead and surprise him again. “I must also inform you that while the timing of your tutorage felt important a few nights ago, I do not feel strongly about the timing any longer. This night does not suit me for your lessons in war. You might tutor me when you know yourself better.” Or not at all.

The air changed.

I had noted this phenomenon in See’s company before, and the repetitiveness struck me because tonight, the air was dry and rain did not threaten.

I was more ancient since stealing a black pearl necklace, and so my mind studied the memories and possible patterns in a whirling, chaotic blink that I had never experienced as a monster or queen.

The air changed when See entered a rage.

My rejection of his tutorage tonight had deeply angered him.

Nothing in him suggested a rage, which was why I had missed this in the past.

King See replied, “What could claim the urgency of your night and thoughts, maiden? What could be more urgent for a new queen than learning to war?”

His composure was monstrous.

“This is a matter of a queen, sir. Nothing more. Our lessons will wait, so if you will excuse me, I have much to do.” I stepped forward and made especially certain not to walk closer to him than I had at our last meeting.

When had See joined the list of kings that must not know too much of me?

The moment I discovered that Princess Take spent a day in his palace.

King See did not move from the entrance—a power play and the first obvious sign of his rage.

I tilted my chin and waited.

Amusement curled in his tone as he remarked, “You do not act like a jealous king.”

“I imagine I act like a jealous queen.” My walls shook.

The king regarded their warping. “Then you are jealous. Good.”

Had he expected me to rage? Had he expected me to attack a princess? Had he expected me to claim him? All of these things, I fathomed. If only he looked through all the scrunched letters behind me. Then he would know the truth of my rage. “What I am is busy with queenly affairs. Kindly quit my queendom.” I did not want him to be here when Princess Raise arrived.

I clung to calm. I would not stomp my foot. I was not a stomping, immortal queen. If King Take caught wind of me stomping, he’d never let me forget it.

See stepped back until he could lean against the balustrade outside. “Quit your queendom. Do you refer to your queenly quarters, Perantiqua, or to the thatched homes outside your gates where dazzled humans dwell?”

The air changed again, and while my first thought had been irritation that See was too observant for his own good, the change in air set me on a different path. He had arrived in a rage. He had mentioned coming to make good on our lessons, and then distracted me with jealousy. But I thought back through the questions and words he had offered unbidden.

Thatched homes.

What claims the urgency of your night and thoughts.

Ah. I saw the whole.

“Does the material of the humans’ roofing distress you, King See?” Now my voice was silken. “Will you return to your palace to watch for sudden blindness to King Bring, he of the thatched kingdom? Do you fear the roofing of my humans is a sign of my desires? You wonder if he claims the urgency of my night and thoughts.” I laughed.

“You do not like the claiming behavior of jealous kings, Perantiqua, and I would not hurt you with the strength of my feelings. Do not push me so.”

I wanted to storm up to the balloon of his power and jab my finger into it. I refrained. Just. “You already have hurt me. Begone from here.”

See studied the distance between us, and I saw that I had unintentionally drifted closer to him. No matter that I might not want kings to know too much, this king always seemed to know more of me than he should. He saw too much of a queen’s growth. He had too much hold on my feelings.

And he would not quit my queendom!

I stomped my foot.

Goodness, what a great relief.

I stomped my foot and a jagged crack appeared that forced King See to step left. The crack split my hotel, and that felt very right.

“You are the essence of a storm, and I stand in the eye to see you,” he announced.

“Leave.” My voice was terrible.

See nodded. The tension in the air had dissipated. He had seen something in my reaction to disperse his rage. “It has started. This is well.”

I saw at once what he meant, and if See had guessed that I fathomed his agenda to harden my heart, then he would not have uttered such a comment.

I turned away.

“You have not asked me what happened with the princess,” he said, and the way he said “the princess” was dismissive and stroked my ego.

“That is not my affair,” I replied. “ You are no longer my affair.”

“We are destined for one another. You are my affair, and I am yours.”

I whirled, planning to send him into fresh rage by doubting our destiny, but the truth came out instead. “You reduced us from romantic alignment to transactional agreement in one night. We are hardly in the affairs of each other, sir.”

“Do you shy away from transactional agreement?”

Crumbs. He had offered me crumbs. And yet. “I would have accepted this colder arrangement between us as we adjusted to my queendom and rediscovered alignment, had you not betrayed me. Now I do not accept that suggestion any longer. I suppose, then, that there will be no agreement between us and that we will not find alignment.”

In danger of stomping again, I crossed my arms and faced away.

“No, you do not act as a jealous king,” King See repeated. “Though I have witnessed your undoing, and that is something I can never be sorry for when you do so with abandon and beauty. It is true that Princes Take arrived at my palace, per my invitation. I was still quite mad, you see. Or perhaps she was exactly what I needed.”

I did not wish to listen to this. I wished to with every part of my being too.

“You can imagine her king’s glee,” he continued. “The king who desires to break your heart and toy with it.”

“You are not so different from him, sir,” I replied.

“Yes, well, he recently inspired me in such matters.”

So that was where he formed ideas of breaking my heart. King See borrowed them from King Take. I would laugh over Take being thwarted so, except that See wished to break my heart when I would have loved him. That was a heartbreak of its own.

“We are truly out of alignment,” I told him. “And this seems more final by the second.”

“Nothing is final,” he answered. “I had invited Princess Take over to inspire a jealous rage in you. I plotted that you would accept my claim and that all kings should know it. I made these choices as a mad king. For then I sat a time with Princess Take as she tried any number of ways to seduce me into her king’s orders. In that time, I marveled. Her body did not steal me of reason. Her conversation was one-dimensional. Stunted. Lacking in timelessness. Her clothing clung to her body and did not drive me to the edge of insanity to dangle me there. When dusk arrived and she left, I was not consumed with jealousy about where she would go next, nor what they would do. In short, I did not care for her in body, mind, or soul any longer. And as I sat with her from dawn to dusk, madness left me, the likes of which have consumed me since your rise to queendom. I saw that I had gone about new obsession like a fool, and from that dusk I have worked to reclaim my senses somewhat. I am a different king, Perantiqua. I told no lie when I warned you of my ambition and of what I now am—a claiming king. But I am changed for a day in the paltry company of Princess Take. Changed enough to resist madness unless pushed back into it.”

What trick was this?

He intended to lure me into something.

There was another agenda at play.

Such were the cynical thoughts of a woman with a hurting heart. “You forget yourself, See. You intend to harden my heart, not the opposite.”

King See jerked, and I fathomed with some surprise that he had entirely forgotten himself. His shock was tangible.

“Do you mean to reassure me with the fleeing of your madness? All I gather is that you will now go about your ambition, obsession, and claiming in a more calculating way. In a word, you are becoming King Take.”

He inhaled sharply. “That is not how I would treat you, nor is it my end. Our destiny is immortal and ancient, and I believe in this unerringly. What the Takes share is but a photo. We will be the living memory encased within.”

I could see that he believed his words. I had almost managed to convince myself of our lack of alignment… or had I? Why must my heart leap at all his scathing words of Princess Take’s failings? Why must my mind believe that he might return to the king I had known in early monsterdom? Why must my body wish to feel the touch of his power?

At least the hurt was recent enough to wield. “Good evening, See.”

King See dipped his head. “I am glad the dagger did not hurt you. Until another dusk, Perantiqua.”

He was gone.

I laughed after, but the sweetness of standing my ground was balanced by the bitterness of him fleeing before uttering the part I had most yearned to hear.

King See told me everything he hadn’t felt for Princess Take. I had foolishly interrupted before he started detailing all he did feel for me.

And his goodbye… Had he come to check on my state after the dagger wound? Or had he come to tutor me? Or to distract me with jealousy or break my heart?

I could not make rhyme nor reason of this king, and my stomach churned at the realization. He had no princess to teach me. A queen could not be claimed, so I could never bear witness to his war as a princess would.

Rat-a-tat.

“Yes?” I snapped from where I braced on the writing desk. Conversations with King See had this leg-shaking effect.

“My queen,” Valetise murmured. “Your stairway pawns have returned with Princess Raise. They did not wish to overstep and enter your personal chambers.”

Did See glimpse them on his way out? I hoped not, but he saw too much for a king blinded by me.

“Have them take her to the conservatory,” I ordered.

“I will do so. Do not forget your crown, my queen. And, perhaps a moment to lessen your midnight blush and… agitation.”

I clenched my teeth. “He interrupted the focus of my obsession this evening.”

“I would imagine interrupting a queen’s obsession is very hard to do.”

Valetise curtsied and left.

I did not like that See could push me to this state—nor that I had let him. I must focus again on the matter at hand. I must not believe in the possibility of rekindling romance with him. I must abandon thoughts of destiny and enter again into ancient obsession.

Inhaling, I held my breath. Then— oof —released it in a rush.

Princess Raise.

My pawns had succeeded before their deadline of dawn, though I did wish to know what took them so long.

I walked toward the conservatory, listening to the occasional click of my low heels. I hadn’t calmed as much as preferred, or I would have felt the true weight of meeting another princess.

As it was, I felt the weight the second of meeting her. At the conservatory entrance to be exact.

The princess wore a crisp suit and a wide-brimmed fedora hat, a hat I only knew the name of because the president of Vitale liked to wear the same style.

Otherwise, she had no facial features to speak of. I had always thought her king’s face was blurred because I could not see any kings’ face. Should I assume that he was as faceless as his bride? Or did this princess hold unexpected power?

She laughed, though I did not know where from. “A midnight blush, a distraction of mind and body. Is this the queen that I hear of only this night?” Her voice was clear and unafraid.

She had not known of the new queen, or perhaps even that a new monster had walked into the toothed beast’s yawn. Her confinement had been comprehensive.

My attention swept from the very free princess to Sign, Seal, and Deliver, who lay very unfree. She had them trussed in an awkward roped heap atop the glass entrance to Raise’s kingdom.

Who had delivered whom?

Princess Raise kicked Seal, who grunted. “I had decided against coming, but then Prince Seal mentioned your invitation to bargain. Curiosity got the better of me.”

“Curiosity is a great force,” I replied.

“Why did you send my liege’s princes to capture me to bargain?” Her shoulders tightened. “ How did you do that?”

“You could have informed your king of the capture attempt.” I ignored her questions.

“Is that what you suppose?” the princess mocked. “He would have tried to prevent this visit, and I did not want the bother of convincing him.” She frowned, yet did not utter her confusion over why she just answered me honestly.

This princess wished to know how I had power over Raise’s princes. Did she wish to mimic this for her own end? “You are in my queendom, and I am glad you came of your own choice.”

“Why do you wish to bargain with me?” She faced my mirror, straightening her tie and inspecting her crisp suit. She adjusted her fedora next.

“I wish to get to know you. There are few female monsters.”

She snorted, dusting her shoulders off. “Right. What do you really want?”

“You might assume what you will. I have given you my answer.”

“Uh-huh. My time is not cheap, especially after confinement. I get extra itchy, and as far as I can see, you have nothing to bargain with. You should have had the princes bargain on your behalf while I was trapped.”

“Forgive me, I had thought that you would not agree to anything at all that you did not wish to, having chosen a three-year confinement over signing an amendment with your king.”

She laughed again, then pivoted from the mirror. Her hands were slotted in the pockets of her waistcoat. “And I will not. What do you have that could interest me?”

“My pawns have freed you. What is that worth to you?”

She stilled then, just for a blink, then the truth of her feelings was gone. “That earned you this conversation, oh great queen.”

“Careful,” I whispered, and the walls of the conservatory rattled with my warning.

She considered their movement.

“Tell me what you want,” I ordered.

She blurted, “I need a place to stay.” Her eyes widened after, but she did not voice her shocked confusion this time either.

I arched my brows. “A place to stay.”

The princess shrugged off the confession. “My king will lock me up again. I refuse to sign his amendment. Let me stay here. Don’t nag about how I come and go, and you can ‘get to know me’.” Her tone let me know that she would roll her eyes if she had possessed them.

Or could I just not see them?

She was a delightful surprise, and as opposite as could be to Princess Bring. “How many times can I get to know you?”

She smirked. “I was confined for three years. How about one visit for each year of confinement?”

“One visit equates to the time between dusk and midnight.”

She tilted her head as if surprised I was entertaining the discussion. And why would she feel anything else when I had just taken on serious ire from her king when he learned his princess was staying here?

Yet Princess Raise had not stated how long I must let her stay, and that told me she was itchy indeed after confinement, or that I made her far more nervous than she let on.

“I suppose I can do that.”

I crossed the conservatory and extended my hand. “We are agreed.”

She lowered her chin, perhaps looking at my hand in whatever way she saw. Her hesitation to take it indicated a wariness. The undercurrents to this princess were well concealed. She wore armor in the form of bravado.

Princess Raise shoved her hand into mine, then gasped, and I barely managed to conceal my own. She had gasped at the feel of my hand in hers, but I had nearly done so for a very different reason.

Fingerless lace gloves peeked artfully out from under her suit sleeves, lending a feminine edge to her attire. It took everything in me not to rip them off her.

They were perfect.

They erased almost all of my reason.

I could not rest until they were mine .

By the time she had covered her reaction to my touch, I had covered my savage desire to rip her gloves away.

“Agreed,” she announced.

My savage desire was hidden, but my body wished to betray me. I could not ruin this relationship before the beginning. If I remained, then I would.

Without replying, I left the conservatory, and her laughter rang in my ears.

I would get those lace gloves.

I would get them.

I would.