Page 10 of Queen Takes Queen
“So how long do I have to put up with all of you being absolute shits tome?”
I snorted. “As long as you wereimprisoned.”
“You tried to hurt hertoo.”
Wincing, I shrugged and focused on the bird again. It still sat there. Watching. It was strangely colored, too. More tropical than anything I would have expected to find in Arkansas. But it didn’t feel like a thrall or another Aima, though I’d have to get closer to be sure it wasn’t something magical. “I never would have killed her. I just wanted to stop her from smashing all the bones in his body and suffocating him. Does that bird look strange toyou?”
“Yeah, I wondered how fucking long it’d take you to notice it since we’re supposed to be on guardduty.”
:There’s a suspicious bird watching us.:I told Rik in the bond.:But I don’t sense anything off or threatening. It’s just out ofplace.:
:Showme.:
Looking at the bird, I dropped my inner shields. Literally letting my guard down. Rik’s bond surged inside me and I felt him slide into me, looking out through myeyes.
“Fuck,” Mehen whispered beneath his breath. “I didn’t know he could do that. You even smell like him rightnow.”
I didn’t try to speak, not with Rik in me so strongly. It’d be weird to hear his words come out in my voice. I didn’t think Mehen or any of the other Blood would be able to do this. Not as fully as I could. I’d submitted to him in more ways than one, which made this easier. He might have fucked Mehen last night, but mighty Leviathan hadn’tsubmitted. Notentirely.
A raucous caw announced Nevarre’s raven as he flew past, headed straight for the strange bird. I hoped he didn’t kill it. The bird was beautiful and it wasn’t hurting anything.Yet.
The giant raven landed on the ground below the limb and cocked its head, watching the smaller bird. It squawked and squeaked, Nevarre bobbing his head and pacing beneath the tree. Then the bird shot up into the air, headedsouth.
:It was a messenger from Zaniyah.:Nevarre said through our bonds.:Skye will attack. She said beware theground.:
“Beware the ground?” Mehen asked. “What the fuck does thatmean?”
Nevarre flew back over the nest boundary and landed on the ground before us.:She was a true bird, a quetzel, not a shifter, so she didn’t have a full vocabulary. She sent me images, though, of something swarming up out of the ground. She pecked at it, like she could eat it. So maybe bugs? Worms? But something coming up out of theground.:
I let out a disgusted growl—that sounded way more like Rik’s troll than my warcat. “Up through the ground—directly into thenest.”
Rik backed out of me so hard and fast that I reeled, losing my balance a moment. Mehen steadied me with a hand on myshoulder.
:Everybody shift. Nose to the ground. Nevarre, use your eyes from above. If you see anything suspicious, even a dark speck against the snow, map it for us. Find this fucking threat before our queen’s nest iscompromised.:
RIK
Idid not relishthe chore of admitting to my queen that her supposedly impenetrable nest might soon come underattack.
I had sworn she’d be safe here. And within days, we faced an unknown threat from the ground. Worse, she’d owe a debt to Zaniyah for warning us inadvance.
But all of those considerations paled in comparison to the very real threat of what would happen to my queen, and me, if Keisha Skye managed to get a hook inShara.
“How does she know where we are?” Shara asked, turning from her conversation with Gina to look atme.
I hadn’t thought she was listening through the bonds, not while planning the trip with her consiliarius. “Kendall wasn’t our only sib in Skye court. Any of them could pinpoint our location, though we fed from Kendall themost.”
“So she’s going to try to break through the nest from below,” she mused, staring off into space. “Could one of her shifters fly over at the same time, likeNevarre?”
“No, not to my knowledge. But I’ve never heard of anyone penetrating a nest through the ground,either.”
:If Nevarre wasn’t your Blood, he probably couldn’t fly high enough to penetrate the nest,:Mehen added, still in his human shape. Now that our queen had taken him as Blood, he couldn’t shift into his dragon form unless she explicitly allowed it.:Your blood creates a magical wall that extends above and below, though the ground is harder for your blood to penetrate. Most winged creatures couldn’t get over it, but my beastcould.:
“What kind of shifters would come up through theground?”
“None that I can think of,” I replied. “Especially in her court. She has mostly cats and wolves in herBlood.”
“You haven’t talked about her courtmuch.”
