Page 48 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

Chapter Thirty-Two

What reason was left?

But I had been here once

With another growling creature.

H as Been cleared his throat from the stairwell.

I arched a brow at Valetise, though she did not notice, so absorbed in the task of making my outfit look different from the night prior, and the night before that.

The garment had morphed from voluminous dress of shimmering copper to a tailored jacket and voluminous skirt, and now to a tailored vest and wide-leg trousers.

“Has Been,” I called. “What news do you carry to the top of a tower?”

His voice was muffled. “Only the news that everyone is ready, and the carriage is prepared beyond the grave.”

“Thank you, Has Been.”

Pawns would be the only monsters to remain behind, along with my mother .

Valetise slipped a needle back into the calloused pad near her elbow. “I have done what I can, my queen.”

I had tried to tell her that wearing the same outfit three times at the end of the world was perfectly expected. I had only tried the once.

“How do you fare, dear Valetise?” I asked.

The monster was as pragmatic and efficient as any wardrobe monster should be, but there was too much color in her cheeks.

“I will do what is required of me,” she said. “I have absolute trust in the monster who leads us to saving.”

Even a mighty queen could feel her stomach churn at such devotion and expectation, and I would never show fear to my monsters. “You should, for she will. We do not end here, Valetise, and neither do you and Picket. I see a long immortality for both of you.”

If this was The Real End, then I would have her walk into evil with hope and dreams filling her.

She curtsied, then walked to the trapdoor. She paused at the first step. “My queen, my power was drawn up to make another garment for you yesternight. You will find it wrapped in a box just over there. For when it is needed.”

I tilted my head to look where she had pointed. A carved, wooden dress box sat to the west. “However did you get the material?”

She smiled. “Prince Consort See helped, my queen.”

Valetise disappeared down the stairs, and I walked a few circles around the olden rock to survey the map of the world’s ruin.

Most of it was a sound and flowing circulatory system now.

Only two areas were warped and pulsating with ruin still—the area relating to the Change’s broken union, and then the heart.

We might succeed in mending the Change’s frayed union tonight.

But without the heart…

Without healing the heart, monsters would survive until the villain regained strength to overrun us again. We would survive, fewer in number, and most of us without our loved ones, until such pain eroded our immortality to dust.

I faced the olden rock and wondered how so much black could still swirl in there.

See and I had never been stronger and more united—there was not the innocence and blind trust nor expectation of a new romance, nor a romance between mere monsters.

We held the tried and true romance between a queen and prince consort in our hands.

That was rather a stronger and different thing than anything in existence.

Yet still so much black.

What had I not considered? If only time could eliminate all the black, then we were sorely out of good fortune.

“A matter for tomorrow night,” I murmured. If we made it there.

I descended through the tower to join the others.

Picket stood beside Valetise, a ropey arm draped over her shoulders.

Candor sat beside the slumbering Huckery. Her bones drooped, and I could easily understand that she would have preferred to face this moment with an awake baron. Unfortunately, the transfer had demanded an immediate slumber, and one that would last ten years.

Ten years was a blink, and yet for those in the trappings of love, I was certain that duration felt unbearable.

I squeezed her shoulder as I passed.

My champions lurked behind the Changes, and glee of the world’s reckoning lit their cackling faces. I smirked as madness flickered into being within me.

King No Change was rather less in power than last night, having transferred much of his power to Huckery. I could not say how King No Change would serve me, but his fate would reveal itself soon enough. For now, I could certainly say that he would never harm monsters again .

He was looking at his princess. She did not look back.

For in the transfer, I fathomed she had gained great clarity of her future.

The princess, who was not really a princess any longer, would remain awake for this battle.

Perhaps the one after that, and then she would need to pay the price of her surge in power.

One year. Not so bad, really. Not compared to Duchess Raise, nor Huckery.

Her fate? My lips torsioned at the thought. For what she would become gave me such hope of a saved world.

All in good time.

I joined See at the fore. “Why are you here?”

“Because I must be this time.”

When I did not reply, he added, “I am your escape, my darkness.”

Ah. And truthfully, if this went astray, I felt emboldened by the idea that I might glimpse his milky eyes one last time.

I turned to address my monsters, but Mother’s frail wheeze cut me off.

“Patch.” She coughed after.

Cassandra did not greet me. The mother was deep in vigil and preparing for her great battle with the combined force of her and Niyna’s powers.

“Yes, Mother?” I asked.

She wheezed, “You must unstitch me now, my Patch. My fate is not to remain in this place.”

My focus shot to her eyes. “Where does fate lead you?”

“To somewhere you will find me. This is not our goodbye. Do not fear.”

Not an easy thing. There was something reassuring about having my mother stitched where I could never lose her. “Why must I unstitch you?”

She smiled. “Because this is a strong moment, Perantiqua. Future moments may not be. You must unstitch me while knowing that we will still share our goodbye. ”

My heart squeezed in my chest. I whispered, “So if I do not unstitch you, then you will never go.”

“I will go, as we all will, and there will be no saving.”

I bowed my head, pain filling me. “Ancients are merciless tonight. To place saving between queendom and my mother.”

“You have known,” she said, coughing.

I have denied. “We will have our goodbye?”

“We will, my Patch. I tell you true.”

I had not expected that a force could still my hand in matters of queenly duty, but my mother was my last love. She was my only love, and the child in me… Oh, but the child in my soul. I had told her that our mother would never leave us.

I closed my eyes. “I lied to my self that you would always be here.”

“We both hoped, Daughter. That is not the same thing as a lie.”

Tears squeezed from my eyes. “Mother, I believed you would always provide for me.”

She lifted a hand to cup my face. “I shall always provide for you in your heart. The greatest honor of a mother is to experience the pain and pride of seeing her daughter no longer need her. You are ancient in my heart, Perantiqua. Always ancient.”

Dragging in a steadying breath, I walked to the tower, then returned to kneel by Mother with my needle in hand. She did not flinch from my gaze.

Nor did she flinch as I slashed through the stitch connecting her to the statue of a mother on her left.

I tugged on the thread, but it would not pull through.

Ah . The needle was important. I threaded the needle, and then pierced back through the hole in Mother’s palm.

The needle slid through, and I tossed aside the thread that had anchored her.

I cut through the thread connecting her to Cassandra. The first mother did not break her vigil as I threaded the needle and repeated the act on my mother’s other palm .

Mother did not move. “Thank you, my Patch.”

“Do not thank me for doing what is needed for you to die,” I replied, then kissed her cheek. “I will see you again.”

“You will,” she answered, then joined with Cassandra’s chant.

I tucked the needle into my trouser pocket, then strode to the others.

“Speak whatever words you must on the journey to the seam. Evil will attack as soon as it senses us. Remain close to my champions. They hold the real power against this sickness. Cassandra will do the rest, and you will each know your time to join the battle. This moment stands between monsters and our saved world. Fight for monsters. Fight against this villain who deserves no place here.”

I would not say goodbye. I would not admit to any doubt of winning.

I turned and leaped through the grave, and See was just behind me.

On the other side, I forced back the minions—and the humans who appeared more like vacant, rag-clad beings now. The carriage was there, as Has Been had reported.

See opened the door for Valetise, Picket, and Candor. Pawns strapped King No Change to the back of the carriage, and then the slumbering Huckery to the top. See sat in the driver’s box.

Each champion situated along the carriage shafts. They would draw the carriage, and my heart mourned for Life, who would have usually fulfilled that task.

Madness was a welcome reprieve. I set my thoughts on the remaining artery to be fixed, and let reckoning fill me.

I burst into the air, and felt the whoosh and cackle of champions behind me, the lumbering carriage in tow.

The last artery. The last frayed seam.

Goodbye to a mother.

Heal the heart.

Even filled with reckoning and ample madness, my mind whirled. And it could not. Not in this dire moment where so many unique and beautiful souls depended on me. I tuned out of my body and allowed my power to drive my body toward our battle.

My minds whirred and spun, offering up wisps before they calmed in the twist of their cogs. I sat in my thoughts until the ring and clamor of my mind was calmer. Not as calm as I would love, but calm enough to focus on the task at hand.

On accepting Cassandra’s departure and all that she had been for me.

On supporting my monsters.