Page 39 of Of Monsters Of Kings

Chapter Ten

One touch did earn one thousand years slumber,

Time for ancients to warp, break, and build.

Five powers to grasp the world’s fraying seams,

And if golden fate deems fit, to mend.

“Greetings, lady.” The male’s voice was pitched low and filled with uncertainty.

I dusted my hands off on my apron. “Toil, good evening.”

This prince had pushed me into a one-month slumber, but that was no reason to be impolite. He might have come to speak an apology.

The sun was fading in the sky, and his conventional beauty beamed still, though soon our dusk forms would appear.

“I hope your evening is still good though I have arrived,” he mumbled.

“You speak of the manner of my slumber?”

He licked his lips. “I must agree that King See’s rage in this matter was warranted. We should have guessed that as a new monster, you might not be strong enough to look upon us. I can only say we felt very surprised in the moment, and all three of us are very sorry to have caused undue slumber.”

“Thank you, Toil. I appreciate that you didn’t intend me harm. Are Sigil and Hex with you?”

“No, lady. They are at odds about coming. They are sorry for your slumber, and very relieved—as I am—that you’ve awoken still yourself, though.”

I grunted and pushed another set of bars into place. “At odds to see me?”

“Well, yes, lady. Our liege orders that we capture you tonight and drag you before him. Sigil and Hex feel strange knowing their orders and coming to exchange pleasantries with you beforehand.”

I pulled a face. “I’m not sure about an evening spent that way. Do you need to capture me?”

“Yes, I’m afraid. He is our liege, and we are his princes.”

“I see.” And perhaps I really was beginning to.

“Lady,” said Toil. “Allow me to remark on your intriguing word arrangement. Have you been practicing?”

I lifted a shoulder. “I woke this way.” Slumber must be behind the change. He wasn’t the only monster to have remarked on it.

“How lucky for anyone who chances to hear you.”

I didn’t need to do anything with a compliment. “Would you mind delivering a letter to King Bring before dusk? Maybe that would change his mind about capturing and dragging me about.”

Toil stepped forward. “I’d be happy to. How wonderful if there were a peaceful way out of this misunderstanding.”

I’d waited all week for Bring’s princes to visit, or any other prince for that matter. Even See’s princes hadn’t called in. I pulled a letter—one of four—from my apron and passed it through the bars. “I’ll talk further with Bring, but I do ask that he abandon the capturing and dragging, please.”

Toil tucked the letter into the back pocket of his jeans that followed the curve of his masculine legs.

Where did his clothes go when he turned into the bulbous slimy monster? I blinked a few times at the memory of their dusk-clad horrors.

“Are you renovating?” Toil asked, peering through my wall of bars. “I’ve never seen a wall like this.”

I pushed my hair back to wipe at my brow. “Reinforcing the place. All the windows here have bars, aside from reception, so I’m pulling them out and crushing them into a barricade here.” I pointed to the far left. “And there’s a door I took off the laundry room so I can get in and out. It was the thickest and strongest.”

“You feel unsafe here to be doing such things?”

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