Page 24 of Of Brides Of Queens

“You mean write your name on my body and let me fuck another king’s kingdom?”

“Yes, I feel a different king now you are queen.”

“You are still yourself,” I cried out.

But he wasn’t, and we had both learned that this night.

King See shook his head, a sadness to the gesture. “No, Perantiqua. I am but a claiming king now.”

Chapter Five

Leather and letters

Tiaras and tangles

Iconfessed to Valetise, “I am in knots, and this vexes me as I believed myself done with very messy tangles.”

I was yet to move from my bed, though dusk was near.

Valetise bustled around in the wardrobe. “Perhaps speaking of the knot might unravel it a way, my queen.”

I exhaled, thinking about the word King See had pinched across my behind yesterday evening.

King Raise wanted me for eternal servitude. King Change could send his humans against me at any moment. But I couldn’t fathom these threats through the sudden and shocking changes in romance with King See. “I am unsettled by the change in him. My rise to queendom has apparently erased our alignment and agreement, and See admits he flounders and spins. He states that I am his obsession and that his ambition is to claim me. If he had not jotted upon my body and displayed me, then I would not truly believe it, though he warned me. I cannot help but wishthat he was still the same and that we could figure out the matter of romance in queendom together.”

“Perhaps only a queen might figure this out,” she answered.

Perhaps so. Yet he was a king, so why could a king not figure it out while a queen avoided eternal servitude and war?

“There was a danger to him last dusk that enticed,” I admitted, staring at the ceiling. “Part of me wished to be burned by the hot stove, so to speak. I hoped that we would find agreement, too, but pleasure will not provide us with this. I am saddened that I might not depend on him in queendom as I had assumed.”

“You might depend on me, my queen.” Valetise appeared to curtsy.

A lump rose in my throat. “Thank you, dear Valetise. Your words help to reinforce the fragile feel in me. I do so wish that I remained aligned with King See, you see, or that intimacy could remain open to us in some form. I feel fragile indeed and face the world with less support than yesternight.”

Valetise had draped a dress of matte, gray leather over her arm below the needles spiking out of her upper forearm. As fragile as matters felt, the toughness of my attire for the night sat well with me.

“My queen,” she said. “These thoughts are very ancient. I can only think that there must be an answer and that this will become clear with time and reflection. I am not much help in queenly matters, but my ears are always ready to be filled with your tangles.”

I smiled up at her, feeling the torsion. “I fear that because this is a tangle all tangled up in other tangles, then you are right about time and reflection. Weeks and months have a way of revealing answers, however. I must get comfortable with discomfort of ignorance and uncertainty until a path is revealed.”

“You are capable in heart and mind,” Valetise replied. “Now, I imagine that a queen cannot avoid the night, queen as she is.”

I sighed. “There is much to do.”

I flung off the quilt, and after, Valetise displayed considerable strength inserting me into the tight, sleeve-like leather dress. A lucky thing that I could somewhat glide because the garment didn’t allow for movement of my legs.

A knock sounded at the door.

Valetise cracked the door open and accepted a letter from Is.

I turned the letter over, sighing at the seal of King See. “He writes. What fresh turmoil does he offer?”

I opened the letter.

Perantiqua,

A new queen must learn to war.

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