Page 123 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

He stopped before me, and I tilted my head up to look at him. “No, I see that. I have always known that. If there is one thing I can understand about you, it is your absolute dedication to a cause. How I wish we could be aligned in purpose, sir, for you would be a formidable advisor in my immortality.”

The king said, “This will never be.”

And did I detect the slight sadness there? “I wager not. You are dedicated absolutely as I have seen. What remains for us then, King Change? You see beastliness in lack of convention and monsterdom. This is as clear to you as the magnificence of these things are to me. I could not ever doubt in that beauty, where you will never doubt in the evil beastliness. I understand that clarity of surety, even if yours is directed the opposite way to mine.”

King Change doubled over slightly as if winded.

I closed the remaining distance. “Yes, dear king. I have fathomed the whole. No wonder you laughed so much in recent weeks, for you have already seen that the matter of conquering kings was not so simple as a shackling and stitching and complete surrender. I doubt the drops of a curse would have dissolved your stitch otherwise.”

He dropped to a knee. “It would not have, no.”

“So you withheld the final piece of conquering from me.” I rested a hand upon his shoulder. “Something I gained from all kings—See, Take, Raise, and even Bring in the end.”

King Change fell to all fours. “Understanding.”

The word filled my queendom, which had quietened—only shimmering and squeezing at intervals now that the acute danger had passed.

“Understanding,” I repeated. I had not troubled to understand this king. I had dismissed any chance of understanding him, for how could I ever fathom his evil brand of ruin? How could I ever fathom the demise of monsters? And yet we both held a strength of surety. I would laugh over saving, and he would laugh over ruin. I admired his originality and respected his cunning. I was unequal to the absoluteness of his dedication—for where he would not allow love to factor in his decisions, I still would. Though his union needed mending just like all others had, this king might have come closest to succeeding. If only he had feltmorefor his princess at the same time.

Yes, there was much to admire about King Change. I had just done so nearly too late. “I understand you now, and that is what matters. Come, we return to shackle and stitch.”

My insides quailed at the idea of sacrificing another stitch to his shackles. The mother who had belonged to the last stitch had been one of my most steadfast.

Adalina.

I must get through hellebores, though I already knew she would notbe.What happened when immortality was erased from the already dead?

“And so I must return to awaiting your ruin of this world,” said the crawling king.

There was a warning in there. “What plan do you return from?”

But he was saved from answering by a parting of my pawns. They made way for King See, who strode quickly to join us.

Finally.

I was annoyed at him for missing the entirety of this threat to my queendom, and yet the sight of him.The sight of him.Those hands had swept over me and filled me. His fingers. His mouth.

My body warmed for the presence of him.

I wanted to return to what we had shared. Over and over again, I wished to be filled to that place where black spotted my vision and we slumbered for a day, and then a day again. I wanted to wake with him still within me, having slept so deeply that a king could sneak up on us.

I wanted my See.

“I apologize, Perantiqua,” he said low, bowing slightly. “I was held in slumber after our…” His lips curved.

“Slumber, you say? Ancient-given slumber?”

He nodded curtly. “The end in you was too much for my kingly mind.”

My insides purred at that. What woman would not wish to hear that her body and magnificence had forced a king beyond the edges of his sanity? “I am glad slumber was not overlong. That is why you did not come.”

“That is another matter,” said King See. “Are you well after the poison? Princess Raise and Princess Take told me all.”

“There is some weakness, but I am well.”

“Good.” See circled me to gaze down upon King Change with disgust. “You always did lack the necessary qualities to lead.”

“I led us to victory,” King Change shot back, sitting back on his haunches.

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