Page 19 of Of Brides Of Queens

I whipped to look across the conservatory.

King See.I had known so before turning. I had sensed his uniquities, and that only poked savagely at my uncertainties of our destiny.

I was not ready to see him after his claiming stroke of power, not even to wonder over the new clarity of his body, even if his face remained invisible as ever. “You intrude on a private moment. Troubling thoughts are not allowed in here at this hour, and not trouble of other kinds.”

“I implore you,” he said in guttural tones, apparently having not heard a single word I had just said. “Arch as you were arched. I see the rosiness of your nipples, and the hints of stitch, and even the shadow between your thighs through thatmagnificentsleeping gown.”

There was a reason I’d worn my quilted robe up here this dusk. I considered grabbing the robe to deprive See of the sight of rosiness and stitch and shadow, but my body was my own, and he had invaded my privacy, not the other way around.

I tilted my chin. “What brings you here so soon toward evening, King See?”

I was not ready for the conversation that must happen because I was now a queen. He had realized the truth of these changes at the same time. King Take had even connected how romance must change between us.

I could not be a princess, so what could a queen and king share?

King See lost his seductive tone, and I felt the contemplativeness in him as he said, “Not long ago, I asked you to call me See, maiden.”

I lifted a shoulder. “Sometimes a request remains a request, and our dinner together feels long ago indeed.”

King See pushed off the tarnished copper archway and ventured a step inside. The tarnish spread over the panels nearest to him, and I glared. I didn’t wish to know how my hotel liked See when he had irritated me and when our romance seemed uncertain.

He tilted his head. “Perantiqua, you are in a small fury with me. How so?”

The balloon of his power was yet to press against me. He did not force me back as Raise had enjoyed doing at the tribunal.

I narrowed my gaze. “Do you feel amusement at my fury, sir?”

“I do. For it bodes well and reassures me in measure. How came you to a fury?”

I had not felt queenly rage much in the last week, but I was learning my rages now were petulant. I had never been petulant in humanity or early monsterdom, but though foot stomping was surely a childish reaction, I felt very much like doing it right now.

I restrained myself, but such a vice bore closer examination. “I came to a fury when you sought to claim me in front of kings like I were nothing more than a common monster.”

The king circled to my right.

Then I understood how my fury reassured him in measure because I felt distracted beyond reason at his calmness. Did he not understand that a queen could not be claimed? “Are you in a fury, King See?”

He paused to study me. “You are in a fury because I submitted to the urge to claim you in front of kings. Should I fury because you did not submit to the urge to accept my claim in front of kings? Perhaps, yes.”

“You might fury how you like.” I crossed my arms, but when he circled another step, my focus dipped to his belted hips. There was something about his horrendously conventional abdominals that distracted me beyond reason. Though as he moved, his coat opened enough that I gleaned a bulge over his hip bones, like the ridges of his pelvis were oversized as his knuckles and wrists.

“Thank you,” he said with a hint of growl. “I shall do so because I cannot do otherwise.”

Such was the nature of fury.

I studied the white blinding blur of his face. The chalky white skin of his hands enticed me. The color had a matt quality that tugged at my curiosity. Would the white come away on my fingers should I grow powerful enough to touch him? My heart sank. My power would need to grow mighty indeed for that, and I could feel no obsession over doing so. And here I’d been so certain we were destined by ancients.

My fury at his claiming stroke leeched away to reveal the true source of my upset. “Sir, I can no longer be your princess.”

“Ah,” said King See so very quietly. “That.”

“That.” He had connected matters as I.

“You are a queen,” he agreed. “There has never been a queen, so how can you be sure on the matter of princessdom?”

My stomach churned. Maybe he had not connected matters all the way. “Because I felt rage when you sought to claim me. A queen will not be claimed by a king. What remains?”

The air changed, and I glanced out the window. Surely it must rain soon.

---