Page 97 of Of Monsters Of Kings

I’d give him that. “Of course. King Bring wishes me by his side.”

“And I wish you by mine as my princess. What say you of that?”

“I say that I’m a young monster still.”

“You are ancient enough to know we’re meant for each other, Perantiqua.”

Purrantiquaaah.

My heart thumped as he said my name, but I swallowed a lump in my throat after. “I am young enough to deny.”

“Has he driven you from me?” he asked, and sadness filled every tone. “I wish that you would come from the shadows so I might look upon you. I hear a leaden weight in your tone that brings me concern.”

A conflicting creature as I was with a foot on every path, human and monster, ancient and young, I couldn’t rest my mind enough to figure this out on the spot. “I am weary, sir. That is what I know.”

“You are mine. That is what I know. Ancients designed us for one another.”

They surely had. “Fate doesn’t obey ancients, King See.”

He replied, “And you try to say that you are young. You are mine. Tell me I am wrong.”

“You are not wrong, sir. We are for one another. Yet part of me rejoices over any reason to deny our destiny. I should not silence that part of myself until my decision is made.”

A shuffle from above. A sigh. “Tell me what I might do in this matter, mistress. Tell me, and I shall do it. I am restless with concern and uncertainty of how things will go.”

Nothing could help my mind but rest. “Allow me to say that you handle blindness remarkably well these days. But go now, King See, and allow me rest. I have denied that twice and cannot deny it longer. Leave me to make a choice free of your influence, and at dusk in one week, order your table set for dinner. I will come to let you know my mind.”

I walked from the shadows for him. If he’d watched me be a plaything for a king in a cauldron and felt caught in tangles, then I would want to look upon him too.

A heavier sigh. “The sight of you breaks and makes me, maiden. I suppose that I despair and hope in the same breath. One week will feel a century, and I must battle away the urge to send my princes to capture you so I might lock you away on display. But away I will to my kingdom instead, through some strength and good feeling that I didn’t think myself capable of. Hear me, mistress. One week you ask for, and not a moment more shall you receive.”

I nodded. “That’s all I ask, sir. Your terms are fair.”

I worried at my lip after.

“I would do that to your mouth given the chance.” Menace entered his voice.

I recalled how bored and detached he’d been at our first meeting and how agitated by blindness. I nearly couldn’t recognize this passionate version of him that took blindness in his stride and dared to suppose many things.

He did feel something for me, so I told him, “You should know that I don’t blame you for your past. You didn’t design to hurt me. This is just a matter of my future happiness, sir. I must be the judge of that.”

“I fathom, though I would like to judge your happiness for myself. Will you consider some advice in the meantime?”

I considered that. “I suppose so.”

“Pause before mentioning the changing state of this snuffed space to other kings and princes. They might find something in this to investigate, and I wonder if time should be allowed to reveal impossibilities at its leisure.”

I’d felt the same instinct to conceal the hotel renovations and also my ability to blink here and there. “I shall heed your advice, sir.”

“Then good morning to you, maiden. I wish you healing slumber.”

“Good morning, King See.”

The press of his power receded.

When I dragged myself up to my room, Valetise rustled until I relented and changed from my three-days-old business dress into a nightgown, but a shower was beyond me this morning.

I fell into my four-poster bed, then fell victim to the elusiveness of sleep with equal heaviness. Daylight passed in a bout of tossing and turning. There was nothing healing about the slumber, and I grew to begrudge King See for the comment around midday.

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