Page 21 of Of Brides Of Queens

My hands tightened to fists. “I am not your only ambition, See. You do not see clearly. What of the world? What of purpose?”

“I care not. My obsession is before me, and I am but a monster. Twelve hundred years passed in belief of my path, and now all my resolutions and cares and religions are erased. This happened when you became queen. I am meant to be maddened and obsessed.”

Nothing good could come of this discussion. “You will better understand yourself soon, and I will not let you damage whatwe share in the meantime. We are… out of alignment for a time. Nothing more. We have mostly agreed in monsterdom, so this is all rather new, but do you not seek to win my affections and warm my thoughts toward you? How can this menacing madness inspire romantic feeling?”

“You speak of love. What we will share will transcend that failing.”

My hotel shook underfoot. He was maddened when I needed him to be calm and certain and stable—everything that I did not feel as a new queen. I had depended on him being as he had always been. “Yet you call me lover when it suits your primal urges.”

“Need I remind you that I am suddenly obsessed?” he breathed. “Or perhaps I always was from the first sight of stitch and patch.”

If he was obsessed, then so was I. His was the face I yearned to see most of all. Though I had felt obsession in the past when collecting cleaning carts, obsession usually carried a thoughtless abandon with it that I could sense in King See right now. That was not what I felt for him. I did not feel maddened. With him, there was always toomuchthought. Too little abandon. I felt a wariness of how other monsters might perceive us. I felt a disappointment that he would dismiss love between us, and from this, I felt a great hesitation of falling into more romance with him. I felt constant anticipation and a little terror at what may come of our meetings. I felt an addiction to his visits, for our interactions always came with a little bite and poison that could not be entirely healthy.

Yet I did feel more for King See than any other.

But we were out of alignment and did not agree as we always had.

“No good comes of this conversation,” I whispered. “I am heavy with words uttered and no solutions offered.”

I strode to the entrance, but a tendril of his power wrapped around my waist, gently spinning me back.

I kept my face turned.

He hushed, “The storm of her thunders under my feet and strikes lightning into me. She is at war.”

Of love, this king did not believe, but his mouth did not always share that sentiment.

“You have complicated matters, and uncertainty plagues me,” I told him.

His hold tightened around my waist. “Uncertainty.”

The word was hissed. Dark.

I couldn’t stop the tremble of thrill. “I have always thought us destined, sir, and trusted in the feeling between us.”

The air grew so cloying and terrible. Finally, rain erupted from the bruised clouds above.

King See pulled me against the balloon of his power, and did he enjoy the sight of my breasts pressed there? The shallowness of his breaths told meyes.

“You wish to seduce me after such a sad conversation,” I asked.

“I do.”

“And how are we meant to enjoy pleasure with the water between us murkier than ever?”

“As easily as the doing, maiden. Intimacy is no concession and no answer and no promise. Intimacy is just that.”

I tried to inhale, but pressed as I was against his balloon, such breaths were difficult. I could not bring myself to mind when I saw how they affected him.

Here was a king maddened by the want of me. A king whose ambition to have me in completeness would surely clash with my queenly endeavors. Yet my body quickened at the idea of exploring this new version of him too. “You summarize my sentiment most eloquently, sir. Yes, I find that is my concernnow that I am queen. When we agreed to only be for each other while navigating our future path, I did not possess such concerns, but now intimacy must be just that and no promise of what may be after.”

King See lowered me to my knees on thyme. “We agree. Remove your gown, Perantiqua.”

Should I do so? He was mad.

Yet my body was tight with intrigue for this mad king, and there was another part that was desperate for us to agree on just one thing.

I lifted my gown overhead, feeling the whisper of material against my breasts, then the soft crunch of thyme under my knees. I knelt naked before him.

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