Page 126 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

And so ancients had given King See a vision of the exact wish of his immortality where he was justified in his patience for so many centuries. They had shown him a future whereheended up with a princess, just like other kings. They had lured him with a fate where he was not shackled and consort to a queen.

“You are happy as my princess in this future,” King See continued in a frenzy. “There is a shuffling of sorts. Your queendom crumbles, and your pawns become mine. Kings are shackled tome,but they harbor no resentment, not even Change. There was always part of them and other monsters and even you who believed that I wasmorethan other monsters.”

I sucked in breath, for I could easily believe that kings and pawns would vastly prefer him, because I had vastly preferred this king too. He had always seemed more to me. Other monsters did view him with some reverence. “What of other princesses?”

His thin lips curved, and where I had seen his lips as the most delectable of his features, now the thinness portrayed an evilness.

“A king must be satisfied,” he said. “But you will accept the sharing of me. You are wise enough in connection to figure out that you cannot do otherwise. You will never be allowed to seek satisfaction from another, but me. Lust is a formidable negotiator.”

The hollowness in me had no sound. No monster might have suspected how empty I felt. My mothers’ warning no longer felt very stretching or urgent. In fact, I felt so very removed. “This is a cruel lie to break me.” I lifted my head. “See, admit that this is a cruel lie, and we can still return to what we shared.”

But I could hear the lie of my words.

He regarded me coolly. “I cannot admit such a thing, for I speak truth. I will not answer to you from this moment, for I am destined to be king of all, including you. Mykingdomwill never answer to you, either, for it has never been yours, and now it never will be.”

I staggered as my focus drew inward to a recent memory. One in his kingdom when I had stomped my foot and demanded to know where See was… except the kingdom had not squeezed or shimmered with my rage.

His kingdom had never answered to me.I had not noticed.Foolthat I was.

“My humans were never yours,” he said next.

I staggered again. For suchtruth.His humans had never allied with mine. His humans had only displayed the same violent and conniving unrest as those of other kings.

His kingdom was not mine. His subjects were not mine.

Hewas not mine.

No.I pressed a hand to my head, and the other to my heart. “No.”

“You will never be queen of me,” he said softly. “That fate no longer belongs to us.”

I had not noticed the discrepancies. I?—

I pushed on my chest in a bid to force the aching out my heart. My voice was as ragged and stretched as the rest of me. “You are blindto the future of this path, See. You gamble the ruin of the entire world on a whim.”

“No more than on the future paths belonging to you,” he calmly replied. “I cannot see them at all. But I will tell you what I witnessed with my real eyes. I have seen a queen stumble and stagger from pawn to princess to king and scrape through time and again, but I have rarelyseen herbeand rule as a queen. I have seen her react and cling to control wherever she could find it. This queen did not even think to stitch my shackles in place, so blind was her trust. I gave her a key, and she never thought to demand the final two lessons promised to her so that she might learn the rhyme and reason of my war. She is sloppy. She leaves loose ends. She is chaos. She isunsuited to queendom.” He took a breath.

I did not trust his sudden softening. I could never trust him again.

See said, “No one has tried harder to be what they are not, but you are meant to be mine. Stop fighting to uphold a fate that terrifies you. Let go of that sorry future. I am ready to fight that battle for you and for all monsters, and I will protect you always. You must find the strength and connection to believe in me, and to believe that queendom is not yours. I kneeled at your feet, and now you must kneel at mine. This is our destiny.”

And share you with princesses.

I was wrung out in soul and mind and heart. He had connected the past, present, and future so convincingly. He had provided all the details and cruelties from the moment of us meeting to now. Why did he not rush to help me when the glass vial was shoved into my back? Why did he throw King Change into the grave, helping the king to where my mothers sat in deathly vigil.

He knew they protected me in death.

He needed me weak.

My focus fell to my mother’s grave.Go do what you do best,he had said to King Change.

See wished Change to tear apart the circle of my mothers. He wished the other king to tear down my tower in the world of gray scale and barrenness. For while the tower was intact, so was my queendom.

See would only send Change if he could not go.

He had sent Change therebeforeconfronting me. The future where a king of monsters existed instead of a queen was not a certain thing.

See’s ruling future was not assured, and so I could pierce through my shock to access the anger boiling deep within. I could attack See and claim my queendom. Yet… I was a queen weakened by curse, andhewas a king of new strength, and how much new strength I could not sense nor say. I could attack See andfailto claim my queendom.

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