Page 61 of Of Monsters Of Kings

Once, he’d been willing to die for a cause. He’d been willing to die to save everyday people from a terrible fate, and now—at a glance, a person might assume King Take to be the villain. He thought that of himself. “It does. Thank you.”

“All kings are addicts, you shall learn soon enough. Do not thank me for reciting a boring story from my mortal existence.”

“I don’t believe you a villain,” I told him.

“Ah, mistress, you mistake me for one of a tender heart, as yourself.”

“You’re not the villain. I am.”

He laughed again, harder. His princes joined in.

“You?” He snorted.

I smiled. “Yes, sir. You mean to toy with my life, don’t you?”

“I fail to see how that makes you the villain.”

“Well, I am the unwelcome disturbance to the norm. I am the upset. That’s all a villain is, and that’s what I am.”

Boom!

The ground shook, and I wobbled around on my high shoes in a bid to remain standing. “Is it an attack?”

King Take hissed. “It cannot be.” More gleefully, he exclaimed, “But it is. It cannot be that King See has left his tower, but he has! My dear, you have gifted me amusement beyond all amusement. He comes despite vanity and pride. He comes humbled… for you.” I heard wonder in the last of his comment.

See was here?

At the thought, his power ballooned against my back, and I found myself quite crushed between the presence of two kings. Oof.

I said with difficulty, “King See, I am glad you’re here.”

“Did he hurt you then, mistress?” came the tight reply.

A relief I’d never known washed over me, and identifying the particular brand of the relief took a moment. Safety. Goodness, how on earth could I feel that with King See? And yet, I did. My bravery flocked to me with his nearness, making me feel how unbrave I’d been. “No, sir. I am well. I have thought several times that I should have come to you as bid, though.”

“You should have.” See sounded somewhat mollified by my admission. “I have not left my tower for some years, but such was my fury that I could not rest.”

My voice was small. “Are you very extremely furious at me like Is said?”

“At you, only slightly now that I see you are unharmed. My fury belongs mostly to the king behind you.”

“Come, King See, let bygones be bygones. I won my princess bride fairly. She wanted me more than you, though I did not offer her more than my flesh and you offered her everything. Will you cling to such petty jealousies through the ages?”

This was the matter between them then? King See and King Take had both wanted the same princess.

I peered at the floor again. Was this the force behind King See’s hasty claiming? He didn’t want me per se. He just didn’t want the other kings to have me?

I heard the soft fall of King See’s footsteps as he rounded the perimeter of the cold, damp ballroom, sure to leave enough space between us.

“Your princess is but a shadow of a memory in my mind,” King See said. “The possibilities were laid before me at the time, Take, and I could see that the possibility of her accepting my claim was slim. I could see she was meant to be yours, but I thought my feeling for her was strong enough to overwhelm the impossible. This was in error. Two months ago, or perhaps a sliver longer, I felt a far more powerful sentiment than I ever felt for your princess, and so I can see that the impossible was for a reason, as it always is. Your princess was not meant for me. I was meant to remain alone through the centuries in wait for the rarest of treasures, the most exquisite Lady Perantiqua.”

I shuddered at the way he spoke my name.

“You told me your name was Lady Patch,” Take said in accusation.

“If I had felt more comfortable in your castle, you might have learned my formal name upon my arrival, or after. Yet you chose to speak of toying with my tender heart, so you did not learn it.”

“I did do those things and cannot regret them seeing as I learned your formal name anyway.”

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