Page 55 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

So humans were faced with an unsettling experience, that of a leader who did what they said and for all the good and right reasons. What trust was growing in the world. And that trust spilled into community and families too.

Such wonders existed in a saved world.

Pawns flittered away in the scrape of a spear or a lumbering walk, all of them departing to uphold some or other effort to counter humans. How far we had come in ten years, and how much further we would go in another ten, and then ten hundred and ten times that number.

I turned to find that See was speaking in undertones to Has Been and Is.

He could be betraying me in some way. No doubt, if that was so, then the truth would be revealed in time. Then I would forgive him.

Just as he had forgiven me in time for killing his brother.

See was more likely checking in with the pawns. More and more, my prince consort was stepping into the role of Wellbeing Monitor. When not researching and testing the relationship between monsters and humans, he was either with me, or traveling around the globe to see how monsters fared.

I trailed up the stairs of my queendom, which was a far cry from the ruined building we had awakened in after Mother won the final battle. Humans and minions had done their worst to my home, and then blackness had done the rest.

Yes, monsters had awoken in ruins, all of us baffled and shocked, and then afraid to believe we had won.

I could only recall the warm candlelight of my mother, and then the shared heart of me and See. I recalled leaning back on him and feeling no fear, and then I was here, surrounded by my monsters again .

My queendom had healed rapidly. We had quickly found our feet.

And I could only fathom that Mother’s candlelight would occupy the world’s core forevermore, but really, I could not properly say. Perhaps I would go there one night once humans were settled and monstrous in their own right to glimpse what I could.

Or perhaps I would not, so that I might always imagine her there saving us.

I stared out of the openings in my conservatory, circling the olden rock that still occupied the center.

Five panels lay empty, the shackles open and unoccupied on the ground.

There was no need to shackle powerful monsters yet, but the shackles had not disappeared, so a queen must consider that monsters may drift in purpose from time to time.

I floated in my gliding walk to the rooftop garden and peered across my queendom. Which was the whole globe.

Picket had removed my wall of bars and my lethal copper picket fence too. He had then torn down the misters and filters that once worked so hard to keep humans alive. After that, he had started on the enormous walls surrounding Vitale.

So now Vitale spilled out of its previous confines.

Huts dotted the rolling hills beyond. Some sand remained, particularly around the ample water sources, but as far as my eyes could see—which was far indeed—lush green and rich browns covered the ground.

Sparkling water, and pops of red, yellow, and blues.

Birdsong filled the air. Pouring water. Faint strains of laughter from the caves in the west where the naked humans dwelled.

Picket was steadily working around the other seven hundred and twelve walled cities, removing their walls too.

“Contemplating queendom, my darkness?” said See, coming to sit on the bench beside me.

Each time we sat here I was reminded of all the times we had done so, always different versions of ourselves. “ Always, prince of mine. Tonight I contemplate all we achieved against such odds. I consider how to prevent ruin from ever returning.”

For there were doors for ruin to inch open and squeeze through again. My romance, the romances of others, and humans, most of all. Just because we had survived did not mean the danger was gone and buried.

Buried things had a habit of popping up when a person least expected them.

Monsters would be eternally responsible for the state of this world. We were its immortal guardians.

“I forgive you,” I said.

See’s milky gaze burned into my cheek. “Will you tell me what I am forgiven for?”

I smirked. “A queen is probing for guilt.”

He snorted and pulled me closer. “There is no current guilt.”

I would believe him, but he was an extraordinary liar when the situation demanded such. “For that I am glad. Ten years of peace is but a blink.”

My prince kissed my palm and then set my hand against his heart. “Seconds account to days, decades, and eons, wife and queen of mine. We must give a decade its proper due.”

I sighed. “We must. You are right. My connection is great, but I cannot fathom living in this way for immortality. When will I believe that immortality is forever, I wonder.”

See tilted my face to his. “Let us hope that answer is never, my darkness, my Perantiqua. For that would be a sorry fate indeed. Better to doubt tomorrow, better to live with a foot in the shadows.”

“For there the most brilliant diamonds shine.” I searched his milky gaze.

He inhaled, and I felt the stuttering of his heart in my own. “Yes, she does. ”

See set his lips to mine, and this would continue forevermore.

Such was a saved world.

The Real End