Page 12 of Queen Takes Queen
“No one sane would torture people like she does.” Rik’s voice still rumbled, his muscles rock against me. “She’s the one who carries ademon.”
“She only tortures alphas,” Daire’s voice broke and he turned his face deeper against Rik. “I lived in dread that one day he’d get called up to join her Blood. She burned through the alphas much tooquickly.”
Rik dropped his other hand on Daire’s head and leaned into me harder. “There were plenty of alphas in their prime ahead of me, but I was relieved when she finally allowed us toleave.”
I closed my eyes a moment, fighting to regain my composure. My eyes were hot and burning, but I wouldn’t cry. Not now. Maybe later, when it was just me and him and I could hold him tightly against me, I’d cry at how close I’d come to losing him before he could have ever found me. “How did you end up in Skye’s court in the firstplace?”
“My parents served as sibs in Jarnsaxa’s court. She had a long-standing relationship with House Skye to exchange young Aima to keep the blood fresh in both courts. No one outside of Keisha’s court knew exactly how bad it was, especially for alphas, and when I did realize how dangerous it was for me, it was too late. It would have shamed both my parents and my mother’s queen if I broke their agreement, and so I endured to the best of myability.”
“That’s what we do,” Daire said softly. “If you don’t have a queen of your own, you endure, and hope for the best court possible. I guess we were lucky not to go to Marne Ceresa’scourt.”
Rik grunted softly. “I don’t know anything about how she runs her Blood but surely it wouldn’t have been as bad asSkye’s.”
I could feel dark spots in Rik’s bond that echoed with pain and fear. Memories of things he’d seen, that he tried to shield me from. He didn’t want me to know exactly how terrible it’d been for them both, but him inparticular.
Part of me wanted to know, so that I’d be sure and not do anything likeit.
He turned to me so fast that I flinched back a little at his intensity before I could catch myself. “You’d never do anything like it. I have no doubt of that at all. If you want to see the torture she inflicted on her Blood, my mind is open to you. It always is. But I’d rather you not see and fear the same way as wedo.”
I reached up and stroked the hard marble planes of his face until his fierceness eased. “I’ll take your word for it. I don’t want to see, unless it’s something I need to know to beather.”
“You’ve already beatenher.”
“Actually, yes, you have,” Gina said, her voice trembling with worry. It made me turn away from Rik to see her face. Her eyes were big, dark, shimmering with fear. “You’re able to breed. That means you’re able to conceive. From everything I’ve read about her in Grandma’s notes, Keisha Skye will hate you for that reason alone. It’ll make a political fight personal for her. In fact, her obsession is probably eating her alive already, wondering how on earth Selena could have conceived you with a human. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s kidnapping human men off the street now to try and conceive anotherchild.”
“Would it be better or worse if she knew thetruth?”
The truth was so much more difficult to believe, even as outlandish as the thought that I might have been half human. The people who’d raised me until their deaths weren’t actually my parents. Selena was my aunt, and Alan had no blood relation to me atall.
My mother and Selena were both Aima, a powerful line of vampires descended from the ancient gods and goddesses. My family in particular descended fromIsis.
Myfather…
A long forgotten god. Typhon, the father of monsters like Cerebus. And me. Though I didn’t have three heads, I could transform into both a cobra and a wyvern sofar.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’ll matter much,” Gina replied. “You can breed, so you’re a threat to her personally. The other queens will definitely be more wary if they know you’re not half human, but for Skye, it won’tmatter.”
“Let’s handle this one problem at a time, then. Keisha Skye is my problem right now. She’s planning an attack on the nest, something that no one’s heard of before other than Mayte Zaniyah, since she sent the warning. What goddess is House Skye descendfrom?”
“She’s several generations removed from Scathach, the legendary warrior maiden associated with the Isle of Skye,” Rik replied. “Though she isn’t known for being a warrior like her ancestor. The only power I’ve ever heard associated with her is controlling the weather, especiallystorms.”
I frowned. “Then what power does she have that might affect or come from theground?”
“None that I’m aware of. I’ve never seen her display her power, though, and since we weren’t Blood, we didn’t feel herdirectly.”
Gina typed on her laptop a few moments and then said, “According to Grandma Paula’s notes, the hurricane in 1938 marks the death of Tanza. Over six hundred peopledied.”
I didn’t try to think of a solution exactly. I just let ideas well up in my head. Options. Possibilities. Until somethingcrystallized.
I stood and immediately everyone stood with me. “Go ahead and get the trip set up as weplanned.”
Gina nodded, but her brow was creased withworry.
“Thank you, Winston. That was a delightful breakfast, er… very latebrunch.”
He inclined his head. “You’re most welcome, YourMajesty.”
“Shara, please. I don’t want there to be formality in my house. As far as I’m concerned, you’re allfamily.”
