Page 54 of Of Monsters Of Kings

He had a point, though I wasn’t sure how to feel about varying strengths of my scent. “Thank you, Prince Gangrel. I am mostly here at the hotel if King Take has a reply.”

“You live in this sorry place,” he stammered. “You should be on a pedestal, Lady Patch. If only my king did not have a princess. But then, why should I say such a thing when my liege prefers her flesh most? That is not princely of me.”

Take had a princess too. What of the other kings? “Would you kindly hurry the letter to your king? I would see matters resolved soon.”

“I hate to leave you, but I will do this, of course. Just wait until Sanguine and Vassal hear of you!”

The prince was gone, and the quiet accusation of six princes lingered at my back.

I faced See’s princes and, with a rein on the shimmering in my mind, I pushed my gaze from their disproportionate feet and up their legs half-revealed by torn jeans. They were shirtless, and so lean that I could see each of their abdominals. I considered this conventional for a tiny second before seeing that convention was a horror of its own. The normalcy of their torsos abhorred and contrasted the rest of their monsterdom. Their jaws hung dislocated, and drool shone on their chins and on some of their chests. They had holes for nasal cavities, and no noses to speak of. Their foreheads were as their hands and feet, disproportionate and protruding beyond their bodies.

They were… absolutely themselves. I had so many questions for them, and I could see now how their daylight forms were false and very bland.

“You look upon us,” Has Been whispered, dashing away a tear. “Lady, could it be that a month of slumber has strengthened you this much?”

“Your true forms are a welcome sight,” I told them sincerely. Friendship was more of a possibility if I didn’t need to always gawk at their feet, or only see the princes in the sliver of time before dusk. I ran my focus along all six princes in turn—See’s princes and Bring’s. “You are all amazing. I feel very curious and eager to know more. I’d like to thank each of you, too, for staying here to protect me. Prince Gangrel might misconstrue what he saw here into a new alliance between your kings, and I can see how that might’ve caused issues between kingdoms.”

A few gulps and gasps revealed that the princes hadn’t pondered that in the slightest.

“But why did we act so?” Sigil asked. “Our liege will be most enraged.”

See’s princes were very quiet and a little pale.

Will Be said, “Can none of you see that our lady is such a rarity that we’re driven to contemplate her safety in the fate of this pulse?”

“But our oaths are to our kings,” Hex mumbled. “The ancients made us such. How can we defy this?”

“Only ancients could alter the binding of such oaths,” Is replied after a beat. “She is a creature of changing, and we are destined to change in her presence. If we are united in protecting her from the other kings, then perhaps we, for the first time in a long time, have a common ground.”

“The other kings will learn of me?” I asked him. This would be well, if so. I had two more letters to deliver.

“King Take has no reason to hide your existence, Lady Patch. He has no reason to tie you to him, like Bring, and no reason to protect you like my liege. He will anticipate how best to toy with you, and he might find informing Change and Raise of your existence very amusing as surely a mess will result.”

All I needed were the remaining three-fifths of my treasure, not a mess. I sorely hoped that I did not live to regret my greed. I already had more than I’d ever had, yet the urge to ensure all fifths returned here was a drive almost beyond reason. I felt sure that I couldn’t survive otherwise. All fifths must be here and not a bedframe or sink plug less.

You have survived on less, my mind whispered.

And I had. But not as a monster. No matter how I tried, I’d been unable to fully resist slumber during the day. If I couldn’t move around in daylight, then I couldn’t properly interact and exist with the humans in Vitale to earn a living.

“So be it,” I announced to myself. “I must get the letters to the other kings.”

“What if we delivered them for you.” Toil blinked forward.

I tilted my head. “Aren’t you meant to capture me?”

“Drat, I forgot about that. Yes, I suppose so.”

“What’s this?” Has Been had stepped closer to me at the mention of capturing.

I gestured at Bring’s three sheepish princes. “They have orders to capture and drag me before their King.”

The air charged.

“Then we will not leave your side, Lady Patch, to ensure that they cannot do so,” Will Be declared. “Our liege would expect no less, especially in the light of Bring’s concubine desire.”

I winced. King See would certainly not like the concubine offer, nor the part in the letter about rejecting him as part of a deal with Bring. I had to admit that becoming a daylight plaything sounded a lot like entering the breeding pens, and I’d resolved to never do that. There was one point of difference, though, so I wouldn’t say no to King Bring, exactly, because if he was happy to never have children, then desperation could well drive me to accept the position of concubine in the end. I should keep the option open in case not all the snuffing shares were returned.

“You cannot always be with her,” Sigil scoffed at See’s princes. “When you’re called away, we will take her.”

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