Page 112 of Of Monsters Of Kings

“I must leap to you, Huckery. Please don’t let me fall.”

The prince holding me sighed. “You aren’t in any fit state to leap into thin air, lady. Mutt of King Change, are you ready for this precious cargo?”

“Do not call him so,” I found the energy to snap at Sign.

His hold tightened. “Lady? I?—”

“Do not call them so. They are princes the same as you, and they seek to do right despite the order of their liege.”

Prince Sign colored, and though I knew my reprimand wasn’t entirely fair, I was too battered to apologize.

“I apologize, Prince Huckery,” said Sign. “I misspoke. Are you ready then, lady?”

Huckery growled, and I was tossed through air, high up and between thousands of stairs. Panic seized my insides, and a shriek left me right as Huckery chomped a hold on my nightgown.

The light fabric tore.

I froze.

“He has her,” came Sigil’s shout. “Pull us up, lads.”

We dragged higher in short bursts, and I had ample time to locate Sign’s worried and resigned face below.

“Thank you, prince,” I whispered. “I’m sorry for Raise’s ire if he should have any.”

The prince bowed. “I acted with my own mind. I am glad you might be free. Don’t come here again, lady. I won’t be allowed to help you a second time.”

I wouldn’t step foot in this kingdom ever again. “Farewell, prince. Venture to the surface sometime, if you please.”

He bowed again, and we both winced at the rip of my nightgown.

Up and up I was pulled, and the tearing of fabric was awful to my ears. More awful was the slash and grate of Raise’s power as it tried to hold me in his kingdom. The pain overwhelmed me many times, but I did register when Will Be and Is guided me into my conservatory. The effect of Raise’s power disappeared.

I was free.

I listed and fell against the nearest body—that of a buxom brunette.

The masterful flare of her skirt caught my attention, as did the tape measures around her waist. The buckles of her shoes were familiar somehow too.

In a daze, and not entirely conscious perhaps, I lifted my head to look at her face.

Her smile was kind and monstrous. “My body arrived in the nick of time, lady. It’s a pleasure to formally meet you. What have you done to your nightgown?”

A thirteenth monster had provided the extra length on the princely rope. She’d saved me.

“Valetise,” I croaked at the suitcase who was no longer a suitcase.

This wasn’t the strangest part of my night by any means.

Chapter Twenty-Two

My mother had spoken

Of the way the world was

When romance was not myth

And so I knew to ask.

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