Page 39 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The haze

The joy

The rewards

Of Hellebores.

I understood the poetry of the ballgown immediately. “Valetise, I am stunned.”

“You see the healing of the world in the pouring red?” she murmured, pins in her mouth.

I saw that potential. I saw everything that we stood to win or lose.

The skirt of the white dress was in tatters. Flowers of the deepest red formed the strap over my left shoulder—signifying a union yet to be healed. More dark red flowers dripped from the bottom of my right shoulder, though no strap was there. This signified the Raises’ already healed seam.

A thick waterfall of the crimson flowers poured from one hip and across the other, and then to the floor in a long train of blood. Both of the other union seams that were yet to be healed.

I swallowed. “’Tis a dress of fate.”

“It is, my queen,” whispered Valetise. “And you are our monster of fate and the only monster deserving to wear it.”

My blonde hair was twisted high around my copper crown that was thankfully more oxidized than not these nights, displaying the ancientness of me. “Picket will be robbed of words at the sight of you.”

Valetise flushed and curtsied in her revealing black gown of lace and laces. “I hope. There is that in the dusk air that warns me to revel in love.”

In love. There was that in me that warned to revel in monsters.

I left my chambers and swept to the dining hall on the second level. Monsters were already in attendance, but for Huckery and Candor who watched the clamor of humans.

I called to them, “I can fortify the walls so that you might both join us.”

Humans were mostly beyond the barrier, though a few had astoundingly managed to get past. Huckery battered an old woman off the wall.

Candor replied, “Thank you, my queen. We are happy in each other’s company under the moon.”

Another romance, and I could not have been happier for Huckery. Theirs was a monstrously perfect match. Respect. Honesty. Companionship. I had rarely seen its like in monsterdom. Those qualities had been hard won for me. “Candor, what are your instincts on the matter of love?”

Huckery stilled as she replied, “My queen, love is but smoke that shrouds the truth of a person’s self and relationships. Love obscures what really is, and so I cannot feel love because I am a monster of truth.”

“You are an unexpected gift from ancients, dear Candor,” I said, startled by her answer. “I had thought myself alone from female company in the matter of love.”

Candor’s teeth spread further in a skeletal smile. “I am happy for you and us, my queen.”

Companionship. Something to cherish.

Though perhaps Huckery would have a tougher time understanding Candor’s sentiments on love, as I had struggled to do the same with See. As I walked on, however, I pondered that Huckery was prone to inner misery, and if this romance supplied that for him, then he need not be miserable in self.

They were a great match indeed.

I entered the hall that Mother had transformed into an incredible ballroom. Black organza covered the ceiling, pulling in around the middle chandelier. The same material spanned the walls, only parting to allow for flaming torches.

The large table that enabled all monsters to sit and feast was gone, and a black violin floated in the air at the center.

Soft music started as I floated into the hall.

No one stopped their conversations to curtsey and bow.

Pawns stumbled here and there. In fact, the smiles on the faces of monsters were decidedly enormous and lingering.

I had never seen monsters so languid and relaxed. How unexpected while so near the ruin of the world and when such tensions in romance still existed.

Black hellebore petals softened the stone floors. They covered the ceiling and walls too. Ah.

The hellebores were drugging them.

I grinned, and then sucked in an inhale as my hand was encased in a large, chalky hand. See pressed a kiss to the back of my hand, a smile upon his face. “My queen.”

“Prince Consort,” I replied. “You were not in my bed when I returned.”

After healing seven veins, my champions and I had not returned until midday .

“Madness of wanting you drove me to purpose,” See answered, rising to his full height. “Perantiqua, you are otherworldly, and I would fall to my knees to thank ancients for gracing us with your magnificence.”

Hellebores were drawing out the poet in him.

See had switched his usual black and silver embroidered clothing for a tuxedo of white. His shirt was red, as was the cravat that poured from neck to the first button of his shirt.

I frowned. “We match.”

“Valetise appeared in my princedom to dress me before dusk,” he said.

She was to be a royal valet.

“Will you dance with me, my darkness?” See asked.

I glanced at my monsters. They were so settled in the festivities of the evening.

The Takes were already dancing, their gazes locked in hopeless fear.

Duke Raise was speaking with King No Change.

King Bring was not here yet—I had asked pawns to wait for my signal.

Princess Bring was beautiful in a gown of pink that washed her pale blob in blush.

She was speaking with Princess Change, but peeking at the entrances every five seconds.

Princess Change was ignoring her king.

Pawns were mingling and drinking and smiling.

I set my hand in See’s and hooked my train up in the other hand. “I will dance. My monsters are well and happy.”

See stepped forward to curve an arm behind my upper back. He whispered in my ear, “Perhaps something to do with the décor.”

I bit back a smile. “Perhaps that.”

He whirled us in a sudden spin without warning, and my body followed him as we joined the Takes in the center of the ballroom. The fabric covering the walls and ceiling billowed at our blurring arrival to the dance floor. Monsters noticed that, erupting in clapping and cheers.

See drew me tight against his body, and I felt the jut of his oversized hip joints low on my stomach. We swirled and dipped to the haunting melody of the violin.

And the hellebores worked on me as surely as everyone else.

I stared into his gaze, and he stared back.

“What thoughts occupy a prince?” I asked.

He spun us in a wide arc. “One thought. Her. And what of a queen?”

“Many thoughts always, but one belongs to him.”

The ballad ended, and See escorted me to a throne in the corner. A second, smaller throne was set beside it. I cocked a brow.

See winked and only sat once I had done so and arranged my ballgown and train.

Goblets brimming with wine appeared on the small table between us.

“Thank you, Mother.”

We drank, and I chuckled after swallowing. “Hellebores in the wine. Mother, you would have us all mindless.”

See tapped his goblet against the rim of mine. “Shall a queen join me?”

I did not know whether my power would submit to them. “A queen is curious to try.”

He chuckled under his breath. As we sipped at our wine, we sat in companionship while watching the others.

Pawns were dancing with each other. Princess Change howled with laughter with Princess Bring. Goodness. The Takes were in a dancing frenzy. King No Change appeared the most lucid, but then he could not drink while shackled.

I summoned Toil and Hex, and they wobbled to attend me.

“My queen,” slurred Hex.

My lips trembled against a smile. “Dear pawns, kindly wheel King Bring down from the conservatory. We must not forget him. ”

I could only hope that they would really do so as the two pawns weaved out of the hall.

See took my hand, absently rubbing a large finger over my pulse. I fidgeted on my seat, then spotted the small smirk on his face.

“You are doing that on purpose,” I hissed under my breath.

“Seducing you?” he murmured.

I sipped at my wine. “Just that.”

“A prince, and a prince consort at that, has considered that monsters must come first, and that they will do so whenever they wish. Even if my head is between their queen’s thighs.

So he has concluded that seduction will therefore occur whenever possible, or he may never be able to make a queen scream, ‘My prince.’ They may interrupt when they wish, and I will seduce in the same manner. ”

“That will merely distract me,” I replied.

He placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head. “That is why you are a queen, and I am a lowly prince consort.”

I snorted at his show of false humility. “Seduction cannot always occur before monsters, sir.”

I regretted the words as soon as they were past my lips. Cannot always occur. Which implied that seduction could sometimes occur.

His smirk widened.

How timely the arrival of King Bring. How shocked his arrival upon seeing the drugged behavior of monsters.

I had intended to present Princess Bring, but this union did not need my help. In that the princess was unaware of his arrival. She laughed with pawns and a princess. She was beautiful. She was innocent and pure. She was exquisite.

And I watched the world stop in his eyes. He was frozen in time at the sight of her. There was no moon and stars for him, only her .

I watched as the axis of King Bring shifted to rotate elsewhere.

Princess Change had noticed his presence, and she jerked her head, eyes wide. Princess Bring whipped to look, and her chest blob rose.

She stumbled toward him, and gently weaved between pawns.

Princess Bring approached her monster and stopped before him. They looked at each other for an age, and then as the violin music took up another haunting ballad, the Brings were snapped from their stupor.

Princess Bring flushed and folded her blobs into a curtsey.

“Sir, I have wished to meet you since I learned of you a night ago. I am Princess Bring, and they tell me that I am yours, and that you are mine. I can only feel grateful that such a handsome monster is mine. And how fares your inner journey that the queen has informed me of?”

King Bring stared at her. He stared and blinked. Then he swallowed. “I—I—I?—”

See snorted softly beside me.