Page 80 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Gangrel, Sanguine, and Vassal were all fang. Which was to say they were smiling widely.
Sanguine was the most collected of them, as usual. He sheathed his spear, bowing low. “My queen, the champion, the uh marshal, the uh Princess Take sent us. Her king, her uh husband, her uh…”
I rolled my hand in the air.
He blurted, “Has returned! He has returned from the haze.”
They parted ways as I marched forward. “What is his state?”
“Whatever do you mean, my queen?” inquired Gangrel.
More the fool me for asking a pawn for discernment. I settled into an impossibly fast blur through Vitale, leaped over the gleaming and vicious points of my picket, and then my wall of bars.
The cobblestones rattled with the suddenness of my arrest in the courtyard.
“Where are they?”I called on the air.
I craned to listen and noted Princess Take’s light laughter from her chamber.Surely not.
Surely they would not sacrifice everything for lust. I leaped and blinked and burst through the doorway of her quarters on the second level.
Take sat in an armchair as far from his princess as possible. Grime covered him from head to foot, though I had certainly appeared worse upon returning from the haze. Stubble shadowed his jaw, and there was the oddest, new masculinity in Take where only boyishness had ever resided. His toenails, always so thick and curved remained black from cuticle to tip, but were snapped short.
Such mysteries of a journey through the haze.
“Pawns delivered news of your return, sir. How did you fare in the haze?” I asked. I could not miss the joy between them.
I could not miss that their clothes were on.
Take exhaled. “How does anyone fare there? I have returned.”
And that was all a monster could achieve in the haze. The only monster who had walked into haze andnotreturned from his own merits was King No Change, excluding Princess Bring in her infancy, of course. She had not entered the haze of her own accord either.
“So you have,” I replied. “What did you learn, sir?”
He said calmly, more calmly and with less forced delight than ever, “I learned that punishing myself for an impossible choice arose from weakness of character. The impossible choice is but an anchor, and I might still float where I like, unchanged in morality and free of doubt.”
Ah.“Your insights refresh a queen, sir. Greatly refresh.”
Take crossed to his princess, and extended his hand. She took it and rose to stand by his side.
Take said, “My queen, we have agreed to celibacy for the space of one year to better know each other.”
My brows climbed and I schooled them down. “Indeed.”
“A blink in time, but a long gaze in diversity of feeling,” said the princess.
A smile came quick to my lips. “My heart is glad for an easing of the turmoil between you.”
Because they were my monsters. Because the world needed this of them.
Take straightened. “I was maddened by lust before, but I stand before you with my priorities in proper order. What is to be my role in supporting you?”
I barely recognized this version of him. No doubt he would continue to improve my tolerance often, but this mature monster was something to behold.
“Sir, I welcome you, a great monster, to support me in queendom always. You exist in purpose to grow your power. You exist to stabilize and strengthen my reign. You are the Marquis Take.” I smiled at his princess. “And you, my champion and marshal. Formally, you will be known as Marchioness Take.”
She curtsied low, tears in her eyes. We had not always liked each other, and yet she now possessed everything ever yearned for—allthe parts of her husband’s love.
