Page 78 of Of Brides Of Queens

“Your magnificence and brilliance, as always. They draw me to you, and so I submit to powerlessness after a brief struggle to resist.”

Lover’s words from a king who did not believe in love.

“As for why I am truly here, I cannot ever say,” he said. “Does desire, agenda, guilt, or fury move me to your queendom? What I feel for you is rarely simple.”

On that we could agree. Many feelings conflicted in me, too, and what we shared—whatever that was—had always bliss and bitterness.

“You have two princesses in your queendom,” he stated.

“Perhaps you come to spy on me, sir.”

“I became blind to them earlier.”

Ink stole across my cheeks. “Of course.”

“I enjoy your blush more for its humble origins. We undo each other with ease.”

When he looked at me like this across the table with the flame flickering behind him, breathing became difficult. “I find this to be true. Two princesses are here tonight, you are right. They came because they wanted to.”

“As many immortals have come to you. Most of us came to you during the battle against King Raise.”

“Curiosity has such an effect.”

He conceded this with a nod. “I arrived in haste when struck with blindness to Raise’s fifth. I watched as you defended your queendom.”

I rested my hands on the table. “You were content to watch.”

“Content.” He laughed under his breath. “I could not say what that might feel like. I was not content while wishing to carry you across rubble. Nor while wishing to obliterate those who dared come for your queendom. I wanted to lay you on ember and soot and shove into you like an animal. The sight ofyou inspired this. Did I feel content? Not once. Not even when you won.”

I blinked through the fever his words had inspired. That was the difference between Bring and See. Bring might have inspired a fantasy, but See flushed me with fever. “Not even when I won. Because your ambition to claim me reared its head. You hoped battle might weaken me too.”

He tilted his head. “Yes. I did.”

“I fathomed, and so we are to remain in a cold place where intimacy comes at the mercy of your obsession and madness, and so there will be no intimacy tonight.”

“In that matter, I have recently felt less mad.”

“I am glad for you, sir. How recently?”

“Last night.” The word held a slight purr.

Indeed.

King See leaned forward, and I listened to the creak of his chair in the silence where only flames crackled. “Tell me, Perantiqua. When did this dining hall appear?”

Yes, this was where my thoughts had arrived. The last time he became less mad, he had assumed a meeting with Princess Take was behind it. Now his lessening madness seemed more aligned to my growing queendom. Last night I had secured lace gloves. Last night my power and queendom had grown.

“When, Perantiqua?” he breathed.

I arched a brow. “Last night.”

He rested his hands on the table to mimic mine. “And so the path becomes clearer where my madness fades as her power grows.”

Apparently, and for the sake of his madness, I was glad. But other questions remained.

“The humans beyond your walls recite a poem as they clutch corn husk dolls,” he murmured. “Have you heard it?”

I was careful not to react. “Poem? I cannot say that I have.”

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