Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Meetings fabled

Turning tables.

A s I landed on the ground—on my left leg slightly before my shorter, right leg—laughter bubbled in me at the sheer relief on the faces of my bringing pawns.

“You did not call us up,” Sigil blurted on a sigh.

Hex sagged against my wooden steed, which savagely kicked him away. Victim of Sigil and Toil’s rumbling laughter after, Hex glared at the mount, muttering, “We worried the whole night away.”

“I am sorry to hear that my pawns worried about helping me,” I replied.

They fell over each other to reassure me of their pawnly devotion as I pulled myself onto Mother’s steed.

“Home,” I announced, feeling relief within my grasp. “A bath is in order.”

Perhaps I could soak this rawness away.

Toil bowed one blob over another. “Yes, my queen, and here is a message for you first.”

The letter was stuck to the slime on his back. He turned, then stretched taller, so I could simply pry open the seal and spread the page flat on his back.

Queen Perantiqua,

You upheld your side of the deal.

I will uphold mine.

The princess comes to my palace this night.

With Sight,

King See

And what did he mean by this? For how long had Princess Take already been in his palace?

“I have read the contents,” I told Toil, who collapsed to his usual height and sucked the letter inside of him somewhere.

The letter had inspired a great urgency, and I barked orders at the steed. As soon as the mount exploded forward in a rigid gallop, I connected that See had wished to inspire this panicked feeling.

I did not slow us to a trot.

My three pawns blinked after me while my mind whirled in frenzy.

King See wished me to race to his kingdom after the picnic with Bring. He wanted King Bring to learn of where I had immediately gone too. This was a claiming behavior—though See was upholding our deal, on his own ambitious terms.

See wished to know, to sense on me , if anything had transpired between me and Bring.

At an intersection where sorghum extended between buildings in one direction, and millet in the other, I pulled on the ruffled reins to stop us.

Another thought had creeped in, and that thought had nothing to do with See’s claiming reasons for sending a letter at the exact moment he had.

I needed a princess and her garter.

I would not achieve that through genuine friendship as with Princess Bring, nor through mutual intellectual respect as with Princess Raise. Princess Take would require another approach. What might that approach be?

She had existed as the most ancient female monster for twelve hundred years, and she was still more ancient than me—if I used the measure of her ability to touch King See.

She was not queenly in her thoughts, I expected.

Princess Take was a creature of the flesh. She had emptied herself so her king’s wants and needs could fill her. This intrigued me because I could not fathom how a person could achieve such an emptying, and then why they would want to. Unlike me, her heart and body were separate entities.

Princess Take had been with two kings.

The most ancient.

The most desired.

The emptiest.

Goodness, there was a telling lurch in my stomach because Princess Take must not value love.

She did not value love as her king did not value love and as See did not value love. Princess Take had either hardened past the notion or been warped enough by ancients in the first place. Perhaps her king had broken her heart as See sought to do to me.

I could not be sure, and yet I knew that King See must find her very appealing in this regard. He must wish that I could adopt her point of view on love.

Which I could not.

“To my queendom,” I ordered the steed.

Valetise had dressed me in somewhat of a sack for a midnight picnic with King Bring. She would dress me in something else for a dawn visit with King See and his ex-lover. The idea of meeting a princess who had fucked my king for the better part of twelve-hundred years confronted my confidence and dignity, especially because she did not value love.

Fierce determination had eased some of the wincing hobble from my step as I bustled into my chambers minutes later.

Valetise was waiting. “I am glad you returned.” She briskly unbuckled my belt, then whisked the sack dress away. “Kindly strip off your underthings.”

My underthings for the picnic had been more like a fortress. Not perfect for meeting an ex-lover. I should not like King See to encounter such a fortress, though no lust stirred me yet. This must be confirmation of my feelings for See because I had no regard at all for Bring without lust. I thought more warmly of his kingdom than him.

I strode into the wardrobe after stripping off and wrenched to a halt at the garment in Valetise’s hands. “This?” I blurted.

“This,” she replied.

“This,” I hissed the s , in moderate inner discomfort. “Why does your power lead you to…” I gestured at the outfit.

She smiled. “I do not know the reasons of my power. I sense that which would help you.”

My suitcase-turned-exquisite-monster had never led me astray. Though I was recalling the time she had offered up a lacy leotard that led to me wearing oversized clothing for a week after.

I was more ancient now, but this outfit was arrogant and claiming and bold. Possible rejection stabbed into my skin like fresh stitches. “I trust you.”

Valetise blinked back tears. “I trust you wholly, my queen.”

She dressed me, and I settled the copper crown back atop my head after. My, I barely noticed the weight of the crown these nights, and though my mount had galloped most of the way here, I had not pushed the crown up once.

Once dressed, there was nothing to do but shove aside thoughts of my outfit and settle atop the mount. I took a breath. “To King See’s gothic palace, please.”

To the palace of the king who agonizes me . The king who would watch for approaching blindness. He would already see King Bring again. He would know that I had stopped by my queendom.

He would know I rode toward him.

The last time I entered his palace, I was but a simple monster. We had disagreed about love and loss of purpose in princessdom, and then agreed we would be only for one another. Whatever that had meant.

The words we had spoken now possessed a pale and faded quality to them, like they were never real. So much had altered when queendom came between us. We were destined still, but perhaps destined for doom. And perhaps I could take solace from the idea that he had not changed himself in response to my queendom, but was the victim of ancient design. As it was, I mostly understood how I felt for See by how I did not feel for others. That could not be usual or healthy.

Queendom had come between us certainly, and doomed destiny whispered that Princess Take might insert her tongue into this weakness for a taste.

I arrived at See’s portcullis, and as ever, they opened wide in invitation. This king needed no gateman, for he could see all—or see sudden blindness. His kingdom reflected him.

So I was here in his palace, dressed in such a way. Though my outfit was expertly tailored, the message of it squeezed and pinched at my body.

“My queen,” said Will Be as I entered the palace. The future he implied gratified me, for See could have sent Has Been instead.

“Will Be, good evening. Where can I find your liege?”

“Kindly follow me.”

My pawn was unhappy. He was so distracted by Princess Take’s presence in the palace that he had not remarked on my outfit.

He bowed in front of a doorway I had never entered. “In here, my queen.”

“Thank you, Will Be.”

His eyes—all three of them—bugged as he viewed me for the first time, but I could not ask for his opinion when two sets of immortal ears would now hear.

Nothing remained but for a queen to put into action all the positive words of wellbeing she spoke to herself each morning. I tilted my chin and took a moment to notice how my body swayed so. My body was strong and agile and expertly crafted by fifty mothers. No one could take this away, and I would not let them. How I felt was entirely up to me.

I began to wear the outfit, where I had allowed it to wear me.

Will Be grinned, then winked for good measure as he swung open the door. “The most exquisite female monster in existence has come to visit you, my liege.”

My worth did not rely on another, yet a pawn’s show of support did give me a great positive boost.

King See sat on an armchair within.

Princess Take perched upon the small bar in the corner, managing to display one leg from arched and heeled foot to satin upper thigh.

They’d been speaking before I arrived—him in a bored voice and her in purrs, but both had stopped at my admittance, and they did not resume speaking upon my entrance.

See laughed.

He laughed, throwing his head back and nearly spilling the amber drink in his grip. He laughed in a way that a seeing king must not often get to do—because how could such a king be surprised?

Only now did I realize my surprising value to a seeing king.

I wore a womanly version of See’s kingly garb, though his shirt didn’t barely contain his chest, perhaps, nor did his trousers hug his behind. Nor did he wear towering black heels, but the similarities were otherwise very clear.

I was dressed in black trousers that belted low on my hips. The high leg holes of a black leotard embroidered with silver, peeked above the belted trousers somewhat and this leotard also laced over my breasts. My jacket was oversized, and I enjoyed the contrasting fit against the other hugging components of Valetise’s construction.

His laughter continued, and my crown had never fit better.

“How desperate,” drawled Princess Take.

King See’s grin was invisible, and so very clear. “Perantiqua, you entertain me greatly. And warm me. I had not expected such clothing would stir my blood.”

“I am happy to bring you surprise, sir.” And I used the word “bring” purposefully, as he had sometimes used the word “take.” Envy must sometimes win.

He grew more serious and intent, his warmth mounting, and this was how a king in a claiming mindset might react to see a queen wearing a sensual version of his guise.

“Do stop sniffing her, See,” Princess Take sneered. “You are but a dog checking for signs that another dog has been with your bitch.”

Part of me might like to lie about how I spent my time with King Bring. How would Princess Take react to hearing that I had been with two kings?

Yet there would be kingly consequences to such a lie.

I glanced at the exquisite female monster fully. “Good evening, Princess.”

“More like dawn,” she said, and her tone suggested that they had been busy indeed. “As to your interruption—this meeting was clearly planned by yourself and See.”

She saw through our fabrication. This princess was far more ancient than other princesses and princes. I should adjust my thinking to see her more as a queen, though that stung at my vanity somewhat.

The princess appeared much as her king. Raisined, gray-skinned, and black in curved nails. Black smudged around her eyes, too, and I fathomed in high emotion this darkness would spread out in a mask as it did on her king’s face. Blackness ran in her veins, too, and I regarded the pattern of her veins up her revealed thigh. She wore a smaller version of her king’s top hat, and where he wore feathers around his neck, feathers splayed over her shoulders instead. “I have wished to meet you, Princess Take.”

“I would think the opposite.”

“’Tis better not to suppose what queens think,” I replied.

Her gaze snapped to See. “Will you enjoy this, darling?”

“Very much so” was his rumbling answer. “And I am not your darling.”

I glanced at him. And then and there, I decided to cease treating See as I treated other kings.

Princess Take slipped off the small bar, and her tight and bejeweled gown did not do her magnificence justice.

“You are truly magnificent,” I said. “As the princes of your king told me.”

She was an undulating creature, wrinkled in skin and yet full-lipped and delicate as a work of art. In the strokes of her painting was a hidden message that whispered to grip her neck and give her everything. Her allure pulled, and the gulping force was startling indeed. “Goodness, but I see the appeal. No wonder kings have fought over you.”

King See’s focus burned into my cheek, and Princess Take narrowed her gaze at my compliment, perhaps suspecting subterfuge.

“You seek to lower my guard,” she decided.

I lifted a shoulder, then ventured closer. Slowly. She was more ancient, and I could not be sure how this monster could harm me. “I speak as I feel.” I tilted my head this way and that to view her angles. “Brilliantly crafted by ancients. I cannot find that you are anything other than transcendent and perfectly designed in every way.”

She scoffed and returned to the small bar.

The princess had expected to purr and crow over my flashing envy, yet I could find none in me. All monsters stunned me with their wondrous exteriors, and she was no different.

King See was silent. Perhaps intrigued. He might have anticipated a queen staking her claim, especially when she had arrived in his uniform, but my curiosity enamored him more.

I followed the princess, trying to see more.

She whirled from the bar. “Why do you follow me like a child? Would you like to hear how his cock tastes? You that cannot even see him?”

“No,” I replied. “I would not like that. I would like to know how you came to empty yourself for another king.”

Her lips curved. “How amusing, but do you pity me?”

“I have not formed an opinion. I am greatly intrigued.”

Her smirk faded. “But I think you are.” Her focus shifted over my shoulder. “What is wrong with her? Why does she behave so?”

King See answered, “There is naught wrong with her, Princess Take, and an unworldly deal about her to marvel over, as you resist doing.”

“That is not what she inspires in me” was the chilling reply. To me, she said, “I emptied myself because I wished to. The reason is none of your business. Your Highness. ”

She walked around the lounge, and I followed.

“He wanted you above all others,” I mused. “Yet he required that you give up your purpose and yourself, when princessdom had only demanded one of those things.”

The princess lowered into the armchair opposite See’s, and I perched on the armrest of the neighboring couch. Quite close.

Fury mounted and bristled in her at my eager nearness, and yet losing composure was something this princess might loathe. “You wish to know why he would ask that of a woman he wanted for princess?”

I nodded. “I do. A very rude question, but I am curious indeed.”

“What shall you give me if I answer you?” the princess purred.

What information would I give her king, in other words. “What would you like?”

“You will watch as I touch him.”

She spoke of touching my king? Rage flicked into being, bubbling in under my patches. “This would satisfy you in some way?”

She smirked. “Satisfy? He has never disappointed. But in this I would be amused in immortality.”

“Perantiqua,” said the monster we negotiated over. “Remember a king’s game.”

Take’s game was information and the breaking of my heart. How ironic that See was warning about the exact thing he intended to do to me. I snorted.

See interpreted my derision. “Even so. The task is mine.”

He would not share my heart break. “I have remembered a king’s game, but I am most curious. Could you bear her touch after what we shared last night, do you suppose? I am very sore myself.”

I did enjoy that his grin did not need to be seen to be experienced. His chest rumbled its gratification at my claiming behavior. “I am only in pain from the ache of wanting more of you.”

Princess Take scoffed. “More? You mean anything at all. Perhaps you can pretend she is me while I touch you.”

My gaze snapped to hers. “Let us define touch.”

“I will sheath myself on his cock and ride him.”

“You will not,” King See replied without hesitation.

Yes, I would certainly not treat him the same as other kings now.

“That is less like a touch, Princess Take, and more like sex,” I remarked.

His rejection had angered her, but she clung to composure still and focused on me. “Perhaps King See should say what he will accept.”

The king in question faced me. “A king would hear what she would accept, for fear that he would never make her sore again.”

I chuckled, and he inhaled sharply at the sound.

The princess jerked on her chair. “The song of you?—”

What the song was, she never divulged before clamping her luscious lips shut.

I considered See.

The touch had to be enough to make Princess Take feel she had triumphed, but not enough to cheapen See or raise a rage in me. “She might run her hands up your thighs and stroke your cock through your trousers. Three times, and no more. Does this sit well with you?”

King See’s shoulders tightened. “I will pay the price for your curiosity.”

Princess Take gurgled a laugh. “I will make you hard. And then she will know that your body wants me, even if your silken words have convinced her otherwise.”

I had not considered that possibility, not having a cock of my own, but I could not back down.

See answered, “As you have said, Princess Take, I will think of her anyway. Any hardness will be because she watches what you do, nothing more.”

“For this, you will answer my question fully and truthfully,” I demanded.

The princess did not reply. She stood instead, a seductress that inspired my own. She swayed in a dusk dance toward him, like smoke above flame. I was transfixed and when she kneeled before him—full lips parted as if to accept him in her very mouth—my rage at her suggestion was separate from my wonder at it, for she tightened the very air with lust and seductions.

King See turned his head to me as she ran her hands up his thighs. He was very still, and the touch must make him ache. He was a king who could not be touched by another after all.

“You did not say how I could stroke him,” Princess Take hummed, peeking up at him through her long, black lashes.

Dread uncurled its poisonous claws. “I did not.”

Princess Take bowed her head and dragged her lips over the front of his trousers. See’s breath quickened.

She rose from her haunches to stroke him with her breasts next. He was almost frozen, though he remained turned to me.

Princess Take had already done two things to him that I could not, but then she did something I desperately wished to do.

She straddled See.

Lifting her slitting dress high, so that I could view her lack of undergarments, the princess ground her core over his trousers and the cock beneath them.

And this might have gone quite well for her and us, or as well as possible, if she had not twisted slightly at the end of her movement to deliver as much of her core to his cock as she could. But she did twist, and the garter that had not been visible before became so.

I had mostly been a kind and accepting monster.

Red blanketed my vision as I blurred and blinked forward in a monstrous attack. Obsession and addiction drove me, surely not myself.

This was madness.

I shoved her flat on the rug and gripped her throat in one hand. My other hand squeezed her cheeks so that her lips puckered.

“ Mine. ” My voice was terrible. Horrible. Grotesque. Multi-layered. The timbres grated and whined against each other.

“Release me, or die by my king’s hand,” she screamed. “Have See. I have used him already.”

Laughter spilled from me, cold and evil. She thought I referred to See as mine. I spun and sat on her chest.

Surprisingly, she moaned next instead of screaming again. As I grabbed her leg and yanked it closer, Princess Take wiggled down so her face was between my thighs. In the distant parts of my madness, I heard her inhale and felt her lips against the seam of my trousers. She enjoyed the warmth of me, and I did not care one bit about princesses.

My breath caught as I wiggled the coveted garter free.

I groaned and lifted the garter to my face as Princess Take groaned for other reasons.

The bridal gift was of crimson silk and delicate black lace layered over top. Ribbon bows circled the garter, and the crimson ends trailed down, designed to whisper over exposed thigh. A perfect bridal gift.

Mine.

The feel of watching eyes interrupted my crooning.

King See grunted as Princess Take lifted her hands to grip my thighs and pull me down firmly against her mouth. My trousers were between us, but she moaned and strained to access more.

I found my voice in the haze of madness. The whine and grate had not left it. “Perhaps I should have paid for her answer with my body.”

See did not laugh, and though Princess Take rubbed her face between my legs as if wishing to cover herself with my scent, I got the sense King See was not watching this unexpected intimacy between his ex-lover and current lover at all.

He was fixed on me and what I held.

Ancient fever drained from me at once and all together. Goodness. He had seen me rip the garter from the princess. He had witnessed me croon over the garter like an addicted creature. I had attacked a princess and felt such elation and relief upon holding this garter.

And every bit of this, the silent King See had watched an arm’s length away.

He always did see too much of me.

Princess Take mewled and whimpered and begged under me. The sound was not a welcome one, and neither were her increasing attempts to break apart the seam of my trousers so she might access my very tender flesh.

I pushed at her hands and rose, shoving the garter deep into my jacket pocket. “That’s enough.”

Princess Take was a sprawling, bejeweled mess on See’s rug. Her lips were puffy, and desire glazed her eyes and pressed her thighs together as if against incredible pain. Her chest heaved, and I could see that the princess wanted nothing more than for me to kick off my trousers, pull my leotard aside and let her drink, as Bring had described such acts.

How to navigate this unexpected twist where I had attacked a princess, and then she had submitted to desire of me. Yet how monstrous, for instead of addressing this twist, I instead said, “You promised to answer me fully and truthfully, princess. Why did your king wish you empty when he already preferred your flesh above all others?”

She licked her lips, and her husky voice pulled at me to return to my position on her face. “He did not prefer it. He did not request it. I emptied myself because he needed me to.”

Which begged the question of why he needed her empty.

I deliberated.

She had not moved…

“Perantiqua,” purred See. “I will fill you first and fight to fill you last, as I have informed you. That oath is not limited to kings.”

The menace in his words was believable. I would not sit on her again. Now I should navigate the twist of the evening.

“You may go, Princess Take.” I walked to the armchair. “Thank you for your honesty and for your willingness to negotiate on your king’s behalf. I shall forget neither. And thank you for your offer of pleasure. I am flattered and also amused that all the envious possibilities of this dawn somewhat turned on King See.”

He laughed darkly at my comment. Neither of us had known this might occur.

With his laughter, the princess came back to herself as if slapped.

I winced with the suddenness, guessing what she must feel. Humiliated. She had rubbed her face between the legs of her ex-lover’s new delight. She had mewled and whimpered.

I was reminded of her comments about See checking his bitch. Princess Take would have been my bitch if I had let her, and that I had not added extra sting to the situation.

She struggled to her feet in her bejeweled dress. “My king shall know of this.”

I had a garter, yet I might have collapsed a stack of cards by taking it.

I saw how this would go—how Take and Raise would join in alliance, both on behalf of their princesses. Change would race to join them, eager for ruin. King Bring would join them when I refused to let his princess return to be killed, for his obsession would turn to hatred.

The weight of this crashed on me and thickened my tongue.

King See was ever calm. “You have taken pleasure from another this dawn, princess.”

She drew herself tall and fixed him with a challenging look.

He stood, uncowed by everything her posture threatened. “Your king did not negotiate the exchange. You chose to submit to your desire of another monster.”

The princess did not stammer in fear. She crossed her arms and tilted her chin in defiance. But she did not have a response either.

King See’s menace filled the room. “Take has wished to break my heart for an age, and that of this young queen too. I shall revel in breaking his.”

What did it matter whether pleasure was negotiated in advance? The doing of the act was the betrayal, was it not?

Apparently not, because the princess’s defiant face slipped away. Her eyes were huge on her face and monstrously wide with fear. “Do not break his heart.”

She glanced at me, but the princess understood she bargained with an immortal king.

“I have waited an age to ruin him,” See hissed. “To steal from him that which I believed he stole from me. The irony is that I do not wish for you any longer, but hurting him would be an amusement indeed.”

The princess licked her lips again, and her gaze darted for an exit. “If you wish him to save, do not treat him such.”

She implied that King Take was a fragile being indeed.

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.”

Guilt pressed at the creature in me. Shame cloyed.

“She is perantiqua, ” he hushed. “She is layers of dusk and stardust and midnight and immortal flame. The expression as you tore a garter from a princess, who was tamed by the deliciousness of you—she who would sooner love to hate you. The princess will agonize over the desire she displayed, the unrequited desire, no less. And me as pathetic as she, for I exist only to be crooned and claimed over as you did this garter. Though I am not your obsession, so if I cannot inspire such crooning naturally, then it occurs to me that I could control such croonings and claimings from you. Then I would not need to break your heart and you would not steal all I am to build your tower. Yes,” he whispered. “With a garter, I could do that to a queen.”

I could not look away from the crimson silk and black lace garter he dangled out of my reach.

I could not rip the bridal gift from him. Not physically. Not with power. “Madness claws at us both in this moment. Our obsessions clash. You could do all the things you have mentioned.” And more.

He already knew the truth of this.

“Remove your jacket,” See ordered.

I did so, letting the oversized jacket fall.

“Your pants.”

My fingers worked at the buckle, and soon I was left in a black leotard embroidered with silver that laced over my breasts, barely containing them.

“You are far smaller than I,” he hushed. “I could wrap my hands about your middle and my fingers would overlap again. Have you wondered how we might fit together?”

I could not speak for fear he would withhold the garter. Lust was never less present.

“Remove your shoes,” he ordered next.

Once I had done so, I was smaller again before him. He towered so. “Is your obsession satisfied in the way it needs?”

That was my only hope—that his obsession would demand he walk the path of heartbreak instead of this all-encompassing and easy control. I would laugh at wishing for heartbreak if desperate madness did not claw at me.

See curled the garter into a tight fist. “Does it? In this manner you could exist in my palace. Scantily clad and ready. I would be blind, but there is always a price for such things. The bridal gift of Princess Take could keep you in my power. You would be mine in complete utterness, though not in the way I had envisioned.”

I would.

I was a vulnerable queen indeed. I would ask him for the price of possessing the garter, but there was no price higher than the potential of power over me. I knew, because there was no price I could think of higher than the potential of power over him. A heady and tantalizing prospect. “Consider that your madness will lessen when you give me the garter. You need only battle obsession to do that.”

Yet what I asked would demand everything of him, because if he failed to give me the garter, I would never stop trying to get it back. I was incapable of the very thing I asked of King See.

“I seek more from the moon than the sight of her,” he said in a ragged voice as if alone amongst cobwebs and shadows. “I seek her soft light in the night and anticipate her dusk appearance and basking company. Who could pull and push at me with such strength, ever-changing?” King See shook his head. “To keep her as a plaything tempts like nothing born, and yet the moon could be mine in entirety—in company and delight and thought—not as a mere plaything where authenticity of every act and word must be suspected. Naturally do I yearn for her to join me in all authentic ways, and so I resist this dawn.”

King See did not believe in love, I reminded myself. He sought to destroy my ideals of love too.

I would remind him, but doing so would bring a swift halt to his lover’s speech. I was deeply enamored by the difference he posed to Bring. Bring, who could not see anything past my power and body. Bring, who would have already trapped the moon for a plaything in possession of this garter.

See lifted his head, and his despair pressed me back three feet.

“Hide this garter, maiden,” he said hoarsely. “Hide your black pearls and lace gloves. Never tell me where they are kept. I cannot be trusted with knowledge of them. Hear me well , for I have resisted this dawn but might not any other. I am maddened, you see, and while you exist, I will be as this always. Do not reveal their whereabouts now, nor in ten thousand years. Swear it. ”

I would say nearly anything to have the garter in my grasp. “I swear it.”

King See drifted the bridal gift to me. “ Take it. ”

Chest heaving, I watched its floating approach and licked my lips. “Thank you.”

When I did not move quickly enough, he roared, “Take it!”

I stumbled back, though he had turned to direct his rage the other way. His palace warped and swayed and buckled with his upset and fury. A scream lodged in my throat, but obsession lunged me forward to snatch the garter from the air.

“ Leave. ”

I gripped the third bridal gift and blinked for the door. But something like the feeling of a looming storm made me pause. There was a drawing in of the sky and everything in the world.

The feeling was larger than the feeling of a garter, and so I glanced back, and the sight tripped me soundly.

I slid along the stone floor and my crown clanged down the hall.

Rolling, I propped up and stared back at King See. I stared at his bared teeth and chalky white skin. At his milky eyes, blinded with all he saw. At his thin, cruel lips that wished to do any number of things.

I stared at his face as his palace squeezed and warped, I stared at his face in the throes of towering, vice-filled fury that he could barely resist. There was nothing mild about the rage that contorted him, and why would he mask such a shameful expression around a queen who could not see him?

“Flee.” His roar shook the very stones beneath me. “My madness is no less.”

The words jolted my heart to beat again.

Will Be, Is, and Has Been appeared between me and their king. Their eyes shimmered with malice, and there was no doubt they were there to protect me against their liege.

“My queen, he means what he says,” shouted Is. “Run!”

See laughed cruelly, a mad king truly.

I had yearned for the sight of See’s face for so long, and how cruel that I must snap a panicked memory for now and barely that.

But there could be no us without my immortal freedom, and there could be no me without it either. I would protect us from his madness tonight.

Garter in hand, a king’s face swimming in mind and heart, I fled.