Page 74 of Of Monsters Of Kings

“Then you are not sure about saving it either.”

“I haven’t given the matter thought.”

“I’d expect not.”

He didn’t expect a lot of me.

“What would you give in return for my snuffing share?” he asked.

“I’ve no idea, King Change. What do you want other than the ruin of the world? Perhaps there is something there we can negotiate on.”

“I want nothing else.”

That made negotiations hard, but not impossible. “King Take wished me to attend a ball for the sake of amusement, and King Bring wished me to reject the claim of King See to leave me open to the idea of concubine. You seek the ruination of the world, which I cannot give, but is there a little step toward it that I could manage?”

“You would give such a thing?”

“I cannot say, you have not asked, and I have not felt how the request sits with me.”

The ground shook suddenly, and I fell on my behind, shielding my eyes against the crumbling dirt from the roots of the tree above. “Goodness, was that you? Did I offend you then?”

My insides seized in fright at the thought. This king was very unpredictable, and I’d met King Take. I couldn’t guess from one moment to the next what he might consider beneficial in the ruining of the world, but he’d mentioned that I was involved in the world’s fate, and so I should be worried if this king became convinced of me saving it.

“Not me. It’s See and Bring come to collect you,” he mused, then faced me.

I watched his blurred form with a wariness I hadn’t much experienced since monsterdom. A man set on hating himself was dangerous to the extreme.

“Would you, wench, grant a future agreement?”

I pursed my lips against the urge to chastise him for continuing to call me wench. “Do I understand correctly that you simply wish for me to agree with you in the future?”

“Yes, wench. I would have you agree with me at a point in the future.”

I waited for more specific terms, and when they didn’t come, I moved forward with caution still. “In return for a future agreement from me, you would permanently return your one-fifth snuffing share of Hotel Vitale to me in full, and immediately, and you would not seek to remove the snuffing share again through any means?”

“I would, for that.”

The ground shook again, and harder. I was glad I hadn’t stood.

“He nears,” the king said. He didn’t sound worried or rushed. Rather, he waited for my answer and seemed animated at the thought of See’s arrival. I hadn’t seen him animated yet. Though, I realized, a fight between kings might help to ruin the world a little, so of course he’d anticipate See’s arrival.

“I grant you this request, King Change,” I said, for better or worse. There would be consequences after this future agreement certainly, one way or another.

He lowered in a mocking bow. “How could you do otherwise? Begone from my wretched company. Await the day of our next meeting, and learn from your mistake today. For I leave you with a parting gift that you did not think to prevent. This opportunity to enrage See and to delay Bring and to irritate Take is too tender not to bite.”

I hadn’t connected that he meant my ruin when King Change blurred forward, and though he did not connect a blow to me, the balloon of his power was more than enough to batter me. I was slammed into the vicious knots of the tree roots behind. My head returned to bounce off his power again, only to slam against roots once more.

The pulse of my mind caught up to my senses.

There was a savage squeeze around my head.

A squeeze created by a king.

I’d just barely become used to princes, and a prince was nothing on a king. So of course, I—a new monster—knew no more.

Chapter Seventeen

Your immortal burden cold and lonely,

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