Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

I was ill-prepared for the creativities of an immortal being

T he climb up See's spiral staircase was awful.

As I ascended the seventeen flights to reach the king's chamber, I felt every bit of my embarrassment over last night's ball affair.

But did my mortification originate from the fear I'd felt in Take's presence? Was it due to the way See and Take had conversed about me as if speaking of a rare jewel? Perhaps embarrassment stung me because of the way See's princes had carried me from Take's castle. Whatever the origin, many unspoken things seemed to exist between me and the seeing king tonight that weren't there two nights ago. He'd made his intention to woo me clear during my last visit, but something changed between us last night, yet the change offered nothing tangible to inspect and turn over either.

I felt dread. I felt anticipation. I recalled the reverberating thud in my chest and my relief when See arrived.

One more flight of stairs.

I wrapped my black woolen coat tight about my body. I'd had to physically rip the woolen coat from Valetise after realizing the full extent—or lack thereof—of the clothing she'd laid out for me. King See had bargained a night to look upon me, and he really would look upon me. I didn't care about the sexuality of the garment. In fact, if he were looking at my daylight body in this garment, I might've felt excited. I only cared that he'd see the monster of me tonight.

My patches.

My stitches.

Hardly anything was covered, and King See would view me as I still couldn't bear to view myself. This exchange felt too much. This felt… significant and terrible, as if I were showing him a book half-written or a painting merely outlined.

I arrived at the top landing.

The king sat on his throne of bones. I could see the blur of him in the streaming moonlight.

"Lady Perantiqua," he said without delay. "You have come to uphold your end of our bargain."

I clutched my coat tighter. "Yes."

"Was King Take's one-fifth snuffing share returned to you?"

"It was, yes. Thank you."

"Why do you thank me?"

"Because I don't know how the ball might've gone if you hadn't come."

"I would imagine that King Take might've lost some interest in you, more the fool him. My coming has ensured he will plague you through the ages. You should not thank me. You should berate my headstrong decision to storm his castle."

I nestled my chin inside the wool coat, though the air was warm enough. "Even so, I was glad when you arrived. I'm… mortified over the whole affair."

"Why so?"

"I cannot figure, sir. Perhaps because I was the topic at hand. Perhaps due to the sincerity of your romancing words. Perhaps because I inconvenienced you, or because of what we do tonight."

He hummed. "What will we do tonight, Perantiqua?"

"I will let you look at me all night long," I mumbled.

"This saddens you?"

"Sadness is not the chief emotion, sir. Mostly I feel unsettled at the idea of you seeing my body." I leaned against the wall, still clutching my coat tight.

"You do not wish for me to see you?" he asked. "Are you shy, then, Perantiqua?"

Purrantiquaaah. His unusual pronunciation of my name always convinced me of his dire thirst.

He thirsted for me.

I'd grown up with the realities of the breeding pens and the ever-present threat of extinction. While I'd been kept busy surviving and caring for Mother when my peers started to explore their sexuality, and while I might not know many exact details of how physical intimacy worked, that wasn't what worried me tonight. "I am not shy, no."

"Then what unsettles you about revealing your body to me?"

I flushed at his words. "I'd rather not say, King See. It's a hard matter for me, and for whatever reason, I'd prefer you not to know."

"I would know of your hardships."

"This is not one I would share just now."

"If not now, then soon I hope."

I lifted a shoulder. "Maybe."

He stood, and I felt the press of his power. I'd be here all night, and so I slid down the wall to sit as his power forced my gaze to my knees. I curled my legs against my chest and rested my head there.

"I see you now," he hushed. "You are curled in on yourself at the top of my stairs. Your head is turned, and your eyes squeezed shut. Your breath comes fast. Mistress, if you do not wish me to see your body, then I am content with seeing you as you are. When I asked to look upon you for a night, I did not mean that you must be naked. Wear what you will, and I shall marvel in your dusk beauty all the same."

Tears stung my eyes. "If only my suitcase had known, sir. She has dressed me in the most ridiculous thing."

"I need not see it unless you wish, ancient one."

My voice wavered. "Thank you."

There was a crunch and shattering of bone. "I turn my throne to better see you. Now, mistress, there will be silence so that I might study you at my leisure. Speak no more."

I took to staring at my hands on my knees.

Was he thinking of how mismatched they were? How the shapes of my nails were all different, some oval and some round and some square?

"But how could one mere skin contain such exquisiteness," See murmured. "The sense is perfect."

I'd heard a similar comment, and how odd that someone should see me that way. The unevenness of my skin abhorred and repulsed, and yet others saw it as a natural consequence. They had no trouble accepting that one skin couldn't have contained my uniquities.

The stone was hard, and I extended my legs to cross them at the ankle for a time. Thankfully, the woolen coat covered most of me from neck to knee, but as I moved, the coat slid off the gossamer robe beneath, revealing one of my legs to midthigh.

Did See notice? He was so quiet.

"Your long blonde hair is monstrous, if you don't mind me saying so," he said, voice pitched low.

I wondered on his words. I'd thought the same of the chiseled abdomens of his princes—how the convention of their abs had been such a delightful, horrible contrast to their more monstrous features. My blonde hair hadn't changed from how it had been as a human. He was right. Monstrous indeed.

My behind was going numb. I drew my legs into a cross-legged position. The king inhaled sharply, and I peered down to see that shifting had exposed some of my stomach. Through the coat and gossamer robe. I made to close my wool coat again.

"Consider staying as such, mistress," the king hushed.

My hand stilled at his awed request. He'd already seen the jagged stitch up my middle. "Okay," I said, finding it hard to vocalize the single word. He sounded so amazed, and there was something heady about inspiring such.

I was painfully aware of the wool, long coat as the silence settled in, thicker and more cloying than before. The coat kept slipping off the robe beneath, and the stress of holding the coat edges together as the minutes ticked by made my breath stutter and my skin warm. I was fidgeting, half numb and half nervous. King See hadn't spoken, but he must see how flustered I was becoming. And what for? All I had to do was sit here and hold my coat together. I shouldn't feel warmer and more agitated by the second.

Him seeing me flustered was now a worse fate than him seeing more of my patches and stitches. Had an hour passed? Two?

"I need to take this coat off, King See."

His words were chilled and displayed no sign of my fluster. "I will see all that you offer, Perantiqua."

I released the wool coat and sighed when it slid off my shoulders to pool around my hips. I leaned forward to tug the rest of the coat away and tossed it down the stairs. Silly thing.

I hugged my body afterward through the gossamer robe and everything beneath that it didn't hide.

The air in the landing felt dense. My throat didn't want to breathe it. My inhales were small and rapid.

"Wonder, you have me tight in your claws," the king whispered. "She is not of this world."

He must see the bodysuit beneath the gossamer robes made of fine mesh. The sleeves were full length, and strategic sewing of black and gold flowers and vines covered some of my breasts and between my legs, but naught else. Nothing but mesh covered my back and behind, but I'd remain facing the king, so that was of no consequence.

My voice trembled. "I did not intentionally dress this way, sir, I would have you know. My suitcase, Valetise, is to blame. I feel very uncomfortable that you would assume it was my choice given that you didn't mind what I dressed in for this night."

The king's voice was strained. "I will send Valetise a thank-you note, mistress. Now, be silent."

Not the silence.

I fell mute, and if I'd thought being rid of my wool coat was the answer to how flustered I'd felt, then I'd been sorely mistaken. My skin brushed against gossamer and mesh with every exhale. My chest rose and fell more dramatically with each passing minute. I turned my head aside and inhaled through my nose as my hair slithered over my shoulder.

Why was I this way? I felt faint.

My skin was scorching. My mind didn't squeeze or shimmer but felt trapped in a franticness. "See." I shifted position for the umpteenth time. "I can't stand this any longer."

"I know," he replied.

I swallowed a gasp. "What are you doing to me? Are you using your power?"

"I use no power on you, and I do nothing that you are not also part of, mistress. The feeling between us is awakening your seductress, and she is breathtaking . I have lived and lived and, so it seems, not lived at all."

"I am no seductress," I said with difficulty. "I have no experience in the matter."

His balloon of power pressed harder.

"I beg to differ. Everything you do seduces. The turn of your face. Your small breaths. The press of your thighs. This breathless, writhing response is for me, lady. You have made me feel powerful beyond measure, and that is what seduction achieves. You are most assuredly a seductress this night."

All the fluster I was ashamed to show—the very reason I'd shed my wool coat—was the thing drawing him in. "I'm not sure I quite understand how these make you feel powerful."

"Be silent, mistress."

I groaned. "I do not care for silence. It's harder than talking."

"You have no idea of hardness." A hint of groan entered his voice.

I fell into silence with him, and an anger built in me as my flustered stress sought any outlet and came up empty-handed. I rose on my knees and sat on my haunches next. I wrapped the gossamer robe tight, then stood, pressing my thighs together.

I paced along the wall furthest from his throne, sighing and growling slightly in turn.

And he did not speak.

I stopped in the middle again, tight fists by my side. "Why don't you speak?"

He must hear the anger in my tone.

King See didn't reply, and why not when I could hear his uneven breath and the way he shifted on the throne? He must know a way to end this torture. Why did he keep up this silence?

I'd had enough.

I pulled off the gossamer robe and threw it after the wool coat. The itch of its whisperings over my skin remained, and I swept my hands over my stomach and thighs, then up again in a desperate bid to be rid of it.

The absence of the robe felt like a cooling summer breeze.

Until it didn't.

King See groaned again, and that gave me permission to groan too. My head thudded against the wall behind after, and I swept my hands over my body again. Doing so wasn't much, but it was something.

"Mighty ancients, you must be designed to destroy me," the king whispered.

"Are you certain?" I latched onto the conversation like a lifeline.

"Only ancients could have managed perfection. I am sure."

I flushed and didn't know what to say. That he was looking at my patches and stiches was something I hated, and that must account for my mounting anger and frustration. I wanted him to do something to help me, anything . The nothingness of this night was infuriating beyond measure. I wanted to scream. I wanted to charge over to his throne and take his face between my hands. I wanted any number of things that weren't part of our bargain. "I would not have agreed to this if I'd known how it would be."

"I expect not," was the cold reply.

Did he feel the same anger?

I resumed my pacing. "I don't see why you asked me here to just look and not talk or for any other reason!"

"We are limited in what is possible, mistress, as you know."

"I know that," I snapped, realizing the words sounded childish, but quite unable to prevent them.

"You come undone for me at last."

"I'm not undone. What does that mean? Why do you talk in riddles tonight? I…" I sank to all fours, then lowered to press my forehead to the ground. I moaned, then choked on a sob when the cool stone did nothing for my fever. "Help me, please."

"What ails you?"

"My body burns."

"Yes, I have watched you catch on fire."

"Then do something about it. There must be something you can do to help."

"Would that ancients granted me the power to, maiden."

I rolled away from him. "What would you do to me if ancients did grant you the power?"

His power pressed harder. "I would curl against your back and whisper in your ear. Perantiqua."

I shuddered.

I want him. The state of me, the feeling within and over my skin. This was want. I wanted him like nothing else. The force of my lust made me quail, and I could only be swept along with it.

I whispered. "And then?"

"I would roll you back, so I could look upon your face."

I rolled to my back, barely knowing myself.

"My hand would cup between your thighs. Just the softest squeeze for fear my power might harm you, a new monster."

Was I breathing? I couldn't tell. I swept my hand over my stomach between my legs and squeezed, moaning on a sigh.

There was a long, menacing snarl from the throne. His power pinned me to the floor. He was standing and closer than ever before. "I would rip off that tormenting garment and have you, maiden. Every piece of you. Cease touching your body in this manner. I cannot watch any longer."

His power slapped my hands to the stone either side of my shaking, mess of a body.

I burst into tears, overwhelmed by the sensations of my body and lust-filled mind. I cried flat on the stone floor and didn't attempt to cover my face or self.

King See was right. I was undone.

"What is it?" he growled at last.

If he didn't know, then how would I? I'd had an idea that an immortal king would know what to do with everything he'd created with mere silence.

I covered my face with shaking hands and willed the sobs to stop shaking me. Eventually, they did enough to allow speech, though pitiful hiccups distorted my words. "I think you have forgotten I'm a new monster tonight."

No answer.

"Is our bargain done, King See?"

A ragged inhale. A weary sigh. "Our bargain is done. Go now."