Page 13 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

Chapter Eleven

A single loose stitch

In an expertly crafted garment.

“ Y ou have outdone yourself, Valetise,” I murmured.

Valetise had been the first monster of my queendom. How long ago were my memories of her as a suitcase?

“I could do no less for the feast celebrating your return.” She pulled a needle from the calloused pad on her forearm, then plucked a hair from her head.

The strand of hair turned rich brown to match my outfit, though there was a subtle undertone of copper in the two-piece that only showed when I moved.

The silk top hugged me to mid-rib, and the neckline dipped in a V that highlighted the swell of my breasts.

A glimpse of my stomach through sheer organza led into a silk skirt that penciled from my waist to my bare feet.

The slit up the skirt’s side hinted at seduction, but the simplicity of the outfit cried of its clear design as a blank canvas.

The real beauty of her creation was found in the chainmail shrug that draped over my shoulders.

That was her statement piece. That was where she showed me to the world as a beautiful being of war.

“My hair will stay down?” I enjoyed the way my tresses curled and tumbled over one shoulder.

“Yes, my queen, we need such softness and fullness tonight. Will you require your crown this evening?”

Goodness , my crown. I had not given it a thought since my return. “No, that will not be necessary. Monsters are in no doubt of my queendom.”

A skeleton in an armchair slid out of the stone wall.

Candor was here.

She stated, “ Although the queen did not wish to consider King See’s opinion of her appearance, part of her wished to torture him bodily. ”

My lips torsioned, and I glanced at her without otherwise moving so as not to disrupt Valetise’s final adjustments. “Candor, how do you fare?”

“Truthfully, as ever, my queen,” she squeaked.

This was the exquisiteness of her. For though our newest monster was wonderfully shy, she was never shy in the declaration of the truth.

The skeleton had dressed for the upcoming feast by draping jewels over and between her bones. Her ribcage was filled with gems, assumedly from my stores. Or from the kingly goods transported here by Princess Take.

Ah.

I grinned. “The monster of truth wishes to taunt a princess. Do you seek to bait Princess Take by using the jewels she is meant to safely transport here?”

“Yes, my queen. I do.”

She did not lie to herself, and that was very refreshing. “There is purpose to your ploy.”

The skeleton folded her hands on her lap.

“There is. Monsters have largely become used to my candor. They require me less and less, opting to voice the truth of their thoughts and feelings before I do it for them. Princess Take resists the truth, however. She must be broken out of convention. And I will enjoy doing so.”

When I reflected on the way kings and princesses and princes had existed in whispers and half-truths and secrecy for so long, then I could only surmise that this monster of truth was a marvelous gift. “We are much stronger for the truth. You are exquisite.”

The skeleton’s white bones flushed an aged and ancient yellow. “I feel embarrassed by your compliment because you are a great queen. Your confidence in my existence nurtures my self-esteem for the same reason.”

There was such a need for Candor in the wellness of monsters and humans. She would train us away from lies and denial.

“Valetise, what of Picket?” I asked as the wardrobe monster slid her needle away.

“He toils on the perimeters of your queendom as always, Your Majesty.”

I raised a brow, and her lips twitched.

Valetise was dressed in a shimmering gray gown this evening that hugged her curves, a drastic shift from her usual severe black garments. “Picket is enamored by me at last. Defense of you and monsters is his purpose, but no defense against me exists in him any longer.”

Happiness permeated my chest. “This is well. You are in love.”

Love.

She flushed. “The sight of him steals my breath so, and the feel of him robs me of thought. He is a thief of my judgment and a disruption to the very ground I stand upon.”

Steal, rob, thief, disrupt .

How different my views of love. The words Valetise used to describe her warm feelings illustrated exactly how much love took from her. Her breath and thoughts, her judgment and feeling of stability. She was swept away in self by another.

I must remember that Candor was present.

I said, “There was a time that I envied your ability to simply love. I am truly happy that love exists, and that you may delight in the feeling, even if love is not meant for a queen.”

Candor did not add to my comment.

Valetise curtsied. “Thank you. I had not wanted to feel all of love’s warmness when you were in turmoil over King See. I feel free to love with abandon now that my queen is powerful in all ways.”

That Valetise had not felt happy to love during my turmoil was a sign of my previous fragility.

“Shall we attend the feast now, my queen?” Valetise murmured.

I nodded, and Candor slipped back into the walls of my queendom as I left my private chambers with Valetise in my wake.

I pondered her confession and felt the rightness of what she had said. I felt powerful enough to withstand any hurt now, but I had not seen the signs of my vulnerability before.

He had. And he had shared the truth with me so savagely.

The truth could be gift wrapped and made palatable.

Just now, I might’ve informed Valetise of how weak love was, and how it limited her and stole away her self.

But there had been no point to that truth beyond the truth.

Valetise would never be a queen, so she did not need to be aware of all a queen must consider.

Telling truth did not need to be cruel.

King See could have chosen to speak all of his observations in kindness, constructively and toward a heartening point. He might have shared the truth to support me instead of tearing me down.

But he had not, and now no warm feeling remained.

Clanging of goblet and laughter of monster lifted into the midnight air of my queendom as though a goddess danced under the moon. A smile touched my lips as I neared the dining hall, for I was about to be in the company of monsters.

That was a matter of joy.

I entered the dining hall to find Candor there. Valetise left my side to join Picket, and then the clanging of goblet and laughter of monster halted for a time as I floated to my seat at the head of the table.

How deeply gratifying to peer down the extreme length of the table and find an empty seat. I had prepared myself to be annoyed by the sight of King See’s milky gaze, but the five copper panels holding shackled kings were arranged around the table, and no monster sat opposite me.

Good.

Monsters resumed their conversations. Quieter, of course.

Conversation faded again when Gangrel rapped his black fingernail against the side of a decanter.

“The most delighted of welcomes to our magnificent queen upon her return from the grave. Our queen, we despaired in your absence, and we are remade now that you grace us with your exquisiteness anew. Please never leave us, for we cannot do without you.”

He colored slightly at the end and quickly sat. Other pawns hastened to add their words to his, and over the top of all that, Candor’s voice was clear.

“ Most pawns felt annoyed they had not been the first to speak words of welcome to the queen.”

Huckery chuffed a chuckle from where he sat beside Candor. The skeleton’s teeth spread wider at the sound of his amusement.

I held my goblet high and waited until Mother filled it. She had pushed all manner of foods and drinks to pile upon the table. I hoped she had not exhausted herself in death.

“My soul is warmed by monsters always. I greet pawns and princesses. I greet kings and monsters of my queendom. Nothing could content your queen more than existing in your esteemed company. Let us celebrate monstrous unity tonight, then let us settle into a queen’s rule and purpose.

Feast and drink and be as happy as you dare. ”

Princesses clapped politely, and pawns beamed. Some kings nodded, and others did nothing.

I drank from my goblet and did not focus on any one monster.

I tuned out my bodily distractions, then allowed my many minds to take everyone in.

I fully abandoned my senses to give full attention to the spinning cogs in my mind.

Once I understood everything that my minds had observed of those in the room, I returned to my body too. All this in a blink.

Someone had placed Princess Change in a chair, but she did not look at anyone and did not seem to care where she was—or even that her king was present and trying to decipher the problem with his princess.

Princess Bring had grown too large to completely immerse herself in the sand pile. She was less of a sticky mess tonight, and more of a sticky blob. Her king only had eyes for her, and for his inner journey.

Princess Take was seducing her king.

The Raises were in love, and the princess rested her head against her king’s shoulder.

Pawns were in great spirits, though they were not impervious to the subtle tensions rippling through the dining hall; those between myself and King See, or Princess Take and Candor, or King Bring and the pawns—who had all shared in daylight activities with his princess for a time.

Valetise was feeding Picket a morsel of food, and every one of his rope fibers strained toward her.

Love. Union.

Strange concepts.

Of course, amid all of this, I was aware of how King See’s gaze raked me. I was aware that he did not wish to succumb to lust, but the slit in my skirt and the glimpse of my stomach through sheer organza was undoing him.