Page 108 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

I started to pull my dress overhead, but my body paused in its work.

His chambers.

I had never visited them. I had woken from slumber in another chamber, that in hindsight had been the chamber for his mistress or future princess. Back in a time when those things were possible. His chambers were… him.

My hands lowered as I took in the large bed—not the bed I had seen in the long days he had shared with Princess Take. This was a bed made for a towering king. The sheets and cover were as white as his skin and milky eyes. The bed was set high to account for his height, and I would need to climb up. The ceilings were very tall, of course, as was the entrance to what I assumed was his wardrobe or bathroom. A rug softened the stone floor.

A huge fireplace.

A tapestry artwork on the far wall opposite the bedroom.

A naked painting of me. I approached the painting that was of a Perantiqua long ago. One who was more Patch than Perantiqua, really. She lay on the stone floor in a lacy bodysuit. Her hand was nearly between her legs and her back was arched. She was in pain. She was unsure. She was overwhelmed with the need induced by the silence of a seeing king.

She was beautiful, and though I might like to think she was no longer, that was not true. For I felt everything now that I had then, and though I understood more and could withstand so much more of See, the problems that plagued us now were more intense. Deadly.

This woman was me. I should not forget that I would never change from the essence of myself, despite ancientness and power.

King See had not moved from the doorway, and I dared to think that he could not move for fear of stealing this moment from me.

This chamber was warm in a way that I could not have guessed. There was something in See, as apparent by his surroundings, that wished for happiness. I felt stability in this chamber. I felt… staidness and a purposeful softening of his vices and failings. His character and inner growth called to meandscared me. Could these qualities survive in the storm of us?

“I do not wish to think of what might have been between us,” I said softy.

His voice was harsh. “The past is closed. There only remains what you are doing and what you will do.”

I closed my eyes. “I do not wish to think of the future either.”

See spun me and dragged me tight against him, tilting back my head with a grip on my jaw. “Then do not. Tonight is ours. We have it.”

Our touch had felt too much and too prized since we had become able to do so. To think a truth, our touch still did feel that way. Too much to experience and hold and bear. The reason I felt unsatiated was because I could never get enough of him. We would always be depraved and addicted.

I slid my hand over his, which gripped my jaw, and then slid my hand down his wrist and forearm to trail my fingers up the back of his arm. Towering strength. These arms had held entire ages. They would hold me for the rest of time, but I could not lose myself in the beauty of us beyond tonight. Not after this gala. This would be the last time I could feel such things.

I opened my eyes. “Ups and downs. Ins and outs. Such tangles fated for us forever. I love you, See.”

King See froze. His wide, milky gaze was fused to mine, and I regarded him, still in the trappings of his hold.

He dropped his hold. “Perantiqua, we cannot love. Wecannot.”

There was a studied dismissiveness in him that was frustration. His body was coiled tight. He did not wish to speak on a subject that had no hope in it. He wished to sink inside me and forget as I wished to forget. As we would. For two nights.

I hummed. “We have decided not to speak of the future tonight. Tonight, though, we love.”

He curled his hands to huge fists. “That is a dangerous twist on fate. I cannot entertain it.”

A V of chalky white skin was visible in the neck opening of his black tunic. I rose on tiptoe to kiss it. “Not even a little?”

He snarled and stepped back. “You will grow more ancient in connection. I will be as I ever am. I must only do what I can return from. You need this of me.Weneed this of me.”

I erased the distance again. “I am only willing to spend the next two nights with a monster who loves me, See. Is that monster you?”

He stopped breathing, and the king was afraid. I could see his fear. He was afraid not to have my body. He was afraid to do what I asked too. He was more afraid of the latter. “I cannot. I will not. Our future?—"

“Our future,” I mocked. “A king who sees too much is immobilized.”

See snarled and hooked his fingers into my dress. “A king who sees too much iscareful.”

I tilted my head.

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