Page 16 of Queen Takes Queen
And Her Shadow would blot out the mighty sunforever.
SHARA
Urgency thrummed through my nerves.Morrigan still had a great deal of work to do. Her grove wasn’t completeyet.
The heart tree wasmissing.
My knees quivered, though, and hunger burned in me. I needed to feed before I couldcontinue.
Nevarre’s blood drew me like a moth to aflame.
Need pounded in me, but I stopped before I touched him. He’d already lost someone he’d loved, and that pain was still fresh. I could feel the memory of Brigid’s death throbbing like rusted spikes driven into hisheart.
Deeper, I felt betrayal like cracked, splintered bones. So much loss and anger burned in him, eating at him like acancer.
He turned toward me, but kept his back pressed against the rough bark of the tree. Branches swayed gently around him, his long hair tangled in the limbs. Earth music rose around us, singing in welcome and joy. A beloved son who’d been lost, nowhome.
Though he was worn and weary, he’d been welcomed with openarms.
“Not weary,” he whispered. “Broken.”
His sadness and pain tightened my throat. Finding the grove again was bittersweet for him. I hadn’t known the trees’ significance, but I couldn’t change what Gaia had given back to us. I needed to protect my nest and my Blood. The network of roots still dug deeper into the earth below, now interlacing with the surrounding forest. Trees spoke to each other, whispering of creatures moving in the night, the cold of snow on bare branches, the promise ofspring.
A sense of wrongness miles away. A thrall, I thought. No, a pack of them. They smelled my blood on the air. Mindless hunger pulled them closer, even though they knew what waited for them. They could smell my Blood too. Yet they’d come. They’d linger outside the nest likescavengers.
“Let them come,” Rik growled. One big arm came around me, drawing me back to his chest. He lifted his other wrist up to me, silently offering up hisblood.
But if I bithim…
I’d rather he be inside mefirst.
“Your wish is my command, myqueen.”
I turned and draped my arms around his neck. “Would you be up to feeding two of us atonce?”
His nostrils flared. “Of course, if that’s yourwish.”
I loved that he didn’t question my motives. If I wanted or needed something, he’d take care of it. No matter what itwas.
“Daire,” I whispered, holding my hand out to him without looking away from Rik’sface.
His eyes softened.:You heard his silent wishtoday.:
:Ofcourse.:
The warcat rubbed against my legs and Rik’s, twining around us, his rumbling purr likethunder.
“I need you to shift so you can do the biting,” I told him. “I don’t want to get distracted yet. I still have too much work todo.”
I’d never cease to be amazed as I watched him shift back to my sexy Blood. The warcat folded up, rolled inside, until he was Daire again. No bones popping, pain, or effort.Easy.
“You make it easy,” he purred, rubbing against me. “You make itpossible.”
I moved to the side a bit, making room for him against Rik. With my left arm around Rik’s neck and my right tucked around Daire’s waist, I settled between the two ofthem.
My first two knights. The ones who’d saved me at my darkesthour.
“Where should I bite him, my queen?” Daire whispered in that rumblypurr.
