Page 52 of Of Monsters Of Kings

Otherwise, their skin was chalky and white, and their joints oversized. Their hands were particularly disproportionate, the knuckles almost gorilla-like. All in all, I had to admit that their monster forms were true indeed, and I could understand why they’d been apologetic about their daylight forms. Monsterdom suited them very well.

The shimmering in my mind eased.

My instinct had been correct. Not only had my strength and word arrangement grown monstrous indeed, but I could look upon princes without too much trouble. At least those I knew.

“What business do King See and King Bring have in a snuffed space?” a male someone sneered. “And who is the lady you protect?”

“’Tis no business of King Take,” Will Be replied.

“Anything for the taking is the business of my liege,” the person shot back.

The reply did appear to resonate with Has Been, but he said, “Leave now or face six princes.”

“See and Bring have united again?” the person said, and I heard his shock. “I would not have predicted it so quickly after their parting—sooner an alliance with Change.”

Will Be snapped, and his jaw unhinged for a time before clunking back to rights. “You insult my liege. Change is a soulless cur.”

“Your king professes to understand his position.”

Is growled. “Understanding is not agreement. Now, begone.”

This was a prince of King Take. Thus far, no other princes had come by Hotel Vitale. If this prince was a threat, and his king tended toward drink and whoring, then what better opportunity to pass over my letter than now, protected by six friends.

“Sir,” I called. “Might I trouble you to carry a letter to your liege on my behalf?”

Silence rang out in the chill of unfurling night.

The new arrival’s voice trembled. “What is this voice of tinkling seashells and whispering silk? Such beauty, and at dusk to prove its mightiness. Magnificence. You called her lady, and I can hear it is so, though how is it so? Most precious of rare, speak again so my monstrous ears might hear your wonder and mourn that I shall never hear a sound equal.”

Why could others hear and see and feel such a way about me when I couldn’t feel much other than shame and fear and loathing? Had the shortness of my slumber handicapped me from seeing the truth of myself that was blatant to others? If only I could capture their feeling of me more.

“Don’t interact with Take scum, lady,” Toil muttered over the blob that might be called his shoulder.

Take scum. King Take was a king who didn’t care about the world—if the princes before me were to be believed. Take was a king who had chosen to make merry until the ruin or saving or the world, and who would take no accountability for the outcome.

He also possessed one-fifth of what I needed to live out my days as an unskilled monster.

“I have written a letter to King Take,” I called again against Toil’s recommendation. “Will you present it to him, prince?”

“Prince Gangrel, lady, and I would present it to him, yet I’m unsure if he would believe it very important without hearing you himself. I find myself strangely eager that he understand the importance and do as you would like… Why is that?”

“She will not see him,” Sigil snapped. “She won’t even see our king.”

“This is because he wishes to capture and concubine me,” I informed them.

“Concubine you,” Hex repeated. “Surely not such one as you.”

I walked around their body barricade and passed the letter to Hex. I avoided looking into their eyes for now because that was where monsterdom congregated most, and I’d rather not sleep for another month. “Read for yourself.”

“King Take would not concubine you,” Gangrel stated. “He prefers variety aside from the more constant pleasures of his princess.”

Indeed. “Your king treats his princess as a wife?”

“A wife? Nothing so common. But he prefers her flesh above all others.”

I was happy for her sake, if that made her happy. I could only think that I’d be vastly unhappy with such an arrangement—to be merely preferred and only for my flesh.

Prince Gangrel’s voice strained. “The lady ventures nearer to me. Lady, my liege does not capture, did you know? There is just a pretend sometimes before he bites.”

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