Page 15 of Queen Takes Queen
My brain said it couldn’t be the same grove. The same trees. It wasimpossible.
My magic was another story. It leaped in my blood, eager and restless, ready to be used. Magic that I’d lost when the last beloved tree had been ripped from the earth andburned.
She cupped my cheeks in her hand and turned my face up to hers. “You’re crying. What’swrong?”
“Nothing,” I whispered hoarsely. “It’s… wondrous. I never thought… I never hoped…” I buried my face against her stomach. “Myqueen.”
She stroked her hands through my hair, holding me close. “Morrigan was your queen’sgoddess?”
I shook my head against her. “My mother’s. My queen was Elspeth White, but she dissolved our bond when we lost the grove. Then I lost Brigid too, the druid witch who took me in when no one elsewould.”
“How?”
The image of the fatal car accident flashed through my mind. I let Shara have it, seeing it like a movie. Our farm truck careened off the road into a steep ravine. “She saved me with her magic, but I never knew why. Not untilnow.”
Shara’s doubt was bitter on my tongue. A simple car accident shouldn’t have been able to kill me, not a son of Morrigan, even without a queen to power my magic. But the flames had been so intense, the ravine too deep. We couldn’t have crashed in a worse place, and I hadn’t been able to save us. I deserved her doubt. I had failed to protect Brigid, and now I was alive and she wasn’t. “Flames erupted immediately so hot and intense I couldn’t breathe. I started to shift automatically, but my wing was so badly broken on impact I couldn’t even think to fly. Let alone carryher.”
I felt Shara’s bond sliding through me, liquid moonlight touching those old shadowed places of pain. Reliving those memorieshurt.
I relived them everynight.
She paused the memory playing out in my head. We’d run off the road and crashed into the ravine. I smelled gasoline. Blood choked me, dripping down my face. Feathers were sprouting from my skin, the raven starting to emerge. Slowly, she backed up the memory, flashing scene by scene. The truck flying through the air. Veering off the road. The bluest eyes in the world looking into mine, framed by brilliant red hair. Freckles sprinkled across hercheeks.
Brigid.
:She’s beautiful,:Shara whispered.:She loved you verymuch.:
I couldn’t answer. I hoped that I’d made her happy while we were together, even though I’d failed her in theend.
Shara backed up the memory a bit more and my eyes watered. Something flashed across the windshield like a lightning bolt. The heat and brightness made my eyes tender, streaming again, even from thememory.
“Ra,” she said aloud. “He caused her to swerve off theroad.”
I tasted blood in my mouth, hard iron and cold hate grinding through me. “The god of light killed myBrigid?”
“I’ve seen that light before. He tried to kill me too, though not with a car accident. I’m sure it’s his signature,though.”
The knight managed to make a very disgusted sound even in his horse form.:I agree. It’shim.:
The trees whispered around us. Leaves and branches speaking the ancient language I hadn’t heard in hundreds ofyears.
Ra. Retribution. Punish him.Ra.
I met my queen’s gaze and she nodded. She heard them too. She was part of the grove now. It spoke to hertoo.
Standing, I slashed my palm open on my fangs and walked closer to the giant pine. My knees trembled, not with fear, but awe. These trees were sacred, impossibly old, and magical beyond even my understanding, and I’d been privileged to grow up in the grove. The sight of these glorious old trees bulldozed into a pile and burned had brought my entire clan to their knees and my mother had died ofdespair.
Reverently, I placed my bleeding palm on the ancient trunk.I’m sorry I failed to protectyou.
The bark moved beneath my hand as if the heart of the tree surged, pushing outward. One bough brushed my cheek and the whispering wrapped around me. Not words, but a feeling. Forgiveness. Peace. Fate.Destiny.
We were all connected. We were all brought to this moment for areason.
Herreason. Morrigan’s. And Shara’s. They were united in thisgoal.
My magic pulsed in my blood, dancing with joy and burning with retribution. The heavy beat of my heart was Her war drum. My raven, Hermessenger.
The Battle Goddess blessed me with Her shadow and Her wings. I would fly to war with my queen, her goddess, andmine.
