Page 97 of Of Brides Of Queens

Princess Take mewled and whimpered and begged under me. The sound was not a welcome one, and neither were her increasing attempts to break apart the seam of my trousers so she might access my very tender flesh.

I pushed at her hands and rose, shoving the garter deep into my jacket pocket. “That’s enough.”

Princess Take was a sprawling, bejeweled mess on See’s rug. Her lips were puffy, and desire glazed her eyes and pressed her thighs together as if against incredible pain. Her chest heaved, and I could see that the princess wanted nothing more than forme to kick off my trousers, pull my leotard aside and let her drink, as Bring had described such acts.

How to navigate this unexpected twist where I had attacked a princess, and then she had submitted to desire of me. Yet how monstrous, for instead of addressing this twist, I instead said, “You promised to answer me fully and truthfully, princess. Why did your king wish you empty when he already preferred your flesh above all others?”

She licked her lips, and her husky voice pulled at me to return to my position on her face. “He did not prefer it. He did not request it. I emptied myself because he needed me to.”

Which begged the question of why he needed her empty.

I deliberated.

She had not moved…

“Perantiqua,” purred See. “I will fill you first and fight to fill you last, as I have informed you. That oath is not limited to kings.”

The menace in his words was believable. I would not sit on her again. Now I should navigate the twist of the evening.

“You may go, Princess Take.” I walked to the armchair. “Thank you for your honesty and for your willingness to negotiate on your king’s behalf. I shall forget neither. And thank you for your offer of pleasure. I am flattered and also amused that all the envious possibilities of this dawn somewhat turned on King See.”

He laughed darkly at my comment. Neither of us had known this might occur.

With his laughter, the princess came back to herself as if slapped.

I winced with the suddenness, guessing what she must feel. Humiliated. She had rubbed her face between the legs of her ex-lover’s new delight. She had mewled and whimpered.

I was reminded of her comments about See checking his bitch. Princess Take would have been my bitch if I had let her, and that I had not added extra sting to the situation.

She struggled to her feet in her bejeweled dress. “My king shall know of this.”

I had a garter, yet I might have collapsed a stack of cards by taking it.

I saw how this would go—how Take and Raise would join in alliance, both on behalf of their princesses. Change would race to join them, eager for ruin. King Bring would join them when I refused to let his princess return to be killed, for his obsession would turn to hatred.

The weight of this crashed on me and thickened my tongue.

King See was ever calm. “You have taken pleasure from another this dawn, princess.”

She drew herself tall and fixed him with a challenging look.

He stood, uncowed by everything her posture threatened. “Your king did not negotiate the exchange. You chose to submit to your desire of another monster.”

The princess did not stammer in fear. She crossed her arms and tilted her chin in defiance. But she did not have a response either.

King See’s menace filled the room. “Take has wished to break my heart for an age, and that of this young queen too. I shall revel in breaking his.”

What did it matter whether pleasure was negotiated in advance? The doing of the act was the betrayal, was it not?

Apparently not, because the princess’s defiant face slipped away. Her eyes were huge on her face and monstrously wide with fear. “Do not break his heart.”

She glanced at me, but the princess understood she bargained with an immortal king.

“I have waited an age to ruin him,” See hissed. “To steal from him that which I believed he stole from me. The irony is that I do not wish for you any longer, but hurting him would be an amusement indeed.”

The princess licked her lips again, and her gaze darted for an exit. “If you wish him to save, do not treat him such.”

She implied that King Take was a fragile being indeed.

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