Page 121 of Of Brides Of Queens

I blinked through obsessed madness. Madness that wanted me to attack Princess Change in front of five kings and rip dried flowers from her numb grip.

King See obstructed me from the others’ view.

Perhaps only Princess Raise had glimpsed my face, and she would not say anything of my violent intent.

I blinked again, a few times. King See had helped me.

He murmured in my ear, “You can thank claiming behavior for that.”

I frowned until my mind cleared more with the help of the hellebore. I fathomed that this was my reward for singling him out as I had during dinner.

I released a silent exhale and nodded my thanks.

I could not attack the princess now, though I could sense the bouquet in her garden apron after hearing its rustle. Yet I had not planned on the Changes departing before I secured the bouquet either. The whole point of this dinner had been to lure her from the haunted forest kingdom.

I could not be sure how my power would fare there, and so I would need to lure her out another way. See might feel clearheaded on the matter of bridal gifts tonight, but tomorrow night, he might choose to steal the bouquet away for his own ends.

I swallowed, remembering my audience. “Suit yourself, King See. I will return to you after. We will not be long.”

“Wemightbe,” Bring replied in a silken voice, though his princess had recently become pulp.

“We will not stay in this pitiful queendom a moment longer,” hissed Take. “Come, my flesh. I have taking to attend.”

She swayed in his wake, not in his good graces yet.

The Raises had returned to furious, silent and faceless conversation. An argument? One where the husband urged his wife to come away from a murdering queen. One where a wife refused and reminded him of their recent conversation—the one where he should step back from an alliance with other kings to let them grow weaker in a battle against a queen.

King Raise sighed, then stood. “I leave also, and my princess chooses to remain. While she is in your queendom, I will not risk her by sending more of my fifth against you. I no longer ally withChange and Take. Though I do not trust you, vile queen. I will send food and drink for my princess to consume each dusk.”

“As you like, King Raise, though I have poisoned no monster this night,” I answered.

King Bring did not like Raise’s withdrawal from the alliance against me, but he must feel that threatening an alliance with Take and Change could still sway me into union.

The Changes had just left, and perhaps there was still time to secure a dried bouquet if I hurried. “King Bring, follow me. We have a monstrous matter to discuss.”

My gaze flicked to See, who had walked to the fire and had his back to me.

A monstrous matter indeed.

Chapter Twenty-Five

A mad misunderstanding,

no more

Itook care to avoid the glass panel in the conservatory floor. More than ever, I should avoid a trip to Raise’s stairway kingdom. “King Bring, what is the meaning of this subterfuge?”

“You understand my exact meaning, glorious Perantiqua.”

He did not purr my name like another king, that was what I understood. “It is Queen Perantiqua to you, sir.”

Goodness, but he was handsome with that crimson skin and stark white hair, shaved so close. His soft mouth, such a dreadful contrast to his snapping stomach, curved in a sensual smirk. “My princess is gone, and nothing remains between us.”

I curled my shaking hands to fists. He had left her shriveled body on the chaise in the dining hall to speak such words to me not five minutes after her departure. “Your princess deserved more in the death than for you to abandon her body before burial.”

“We might have drifted in body and mind,” he replied. “But my first princess always understood my reverence of saving. She would expect me to drive forward in purpose. She will feel no abandonment in death. We have time to converse.”

Actually, we did not. Not much anyway. I had a king and princess to pursue. “We shall never know what Princess Bring might think about you poisoning her. You have killed an immortal tonight, King Bring. Tell me how that saves.”

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