Page 18 of Queen Takes Queen
:What does thatmean?:
His mouth hardened in a grim slant, his eyes the hard, stone-cold glint of a brutal sword.:Not even the god of light can stand against HerShadow.:
:Good.:I licked his palm but then lifted my mouth, taking his bleeding hand in my own instead. Our blood dripped and mingled, trailing down our wrists.:Let’s grow the heart treenow.:
Lowering our hands so our blood dripped onto the ground, I started walking, slowly, waiting for Gaia to tell me when to stop. I hadn’t realized exactly what She’d led me to do before, but it looked like the grove completely surrounded my house, a tighter ring inside the blood circle I’d laid to create the nest. My manor house wasn’t perfectly center, but set back toward the rear of the grove. I walked toward the center, listening to the earth music. Trees whispered, swaying gently, calling to the creatures of the night. A few birds already roosted in the ancient branches that hadn’t been there an hour ago. A fat squirrel scurried beneath a gigantic oak, scooping up a fresh bounty of acorns that had fallen from the mightytree.
The ground itself pulsed with life, feeding roots water and nutrients. Worms and beetles loosened and primed the soil, responding to the fresh leaves that had dropped onto the melting snow. The ground seemed warmer with the trees, as if their life force was so strong that they could change the very temperature of the ground and air around them, bringing a thaw in the dead ofwinter.
Something like icy water dripped down my spine, making me gasp. I stopped, letting our blood feed the soil. My scalp tingled, my hair flaring up around my head. My face throbbed with each beat of my heart, and my fangs descended. Something in the ground called to me. Urgently. Hungry.Desperate.
:This one will be painful,:Nevarre warned, his tone soft with regret.:My mother did this when she moved her clan from Ireland to Scotland. I was only three or four years old, but I stillremember.:
I’d endure anything if that meant we’d be safe. Especially if Rik’s former queen thought to try and break him. I took a deep, steadying breath and slashed my other wrist. Holding out my arm, I let my blood gush like some kind of grislyfountain.
Sprouting vines writhed up out of the ground and started climbing my legs. I let go of Nevarre’s hand and held my arms out, palms down, letting my blood fall as it would. I tipped my head back and stared up at the full moon, huge and silver in the sky. Had it been there before? I couldn’t remember. But now it looked like it was close enough totouch.
I felt the first prick of thorns, scratching my calf beneath my jeans. A small pain. Though the vines began to twine more eagerly around me. Pinning me. Trapping me. My heart rate accelerated and my stomach quivered, but I made myself stand firm. Bigger thorns dug into my thighs through my jeans. I bit back a soft cry. Shit. It hurt. Up my stomach. Cloth tore. Even heavy denim was unable to stand against the thorny branches. Thorns sank deeper. Instinctively, I flinched away, only to be gouged by others. My skin burned from hundreds of pinpricks. Thousands. But it still wasn’t toobad.
Until the thorny vines snaked around my wrists and yanked me off the ground. A startled cry escaped before I could prevent it. Thorns pierced my wrists, sliding under my skin. Burning, so hungry, like dozens of fangs feasting on my blood. Steam rose from my skin as my blood hit the air. My clothes ripped away, shredded by voracious vines, baring more tender skin for them tomark.
Tears dripped down my cheeks but I tried not to make another sound. I tried to think of Xin’s fog, like I did when Leviathan broke my arm, but I couldn’t concentrate. The pain was too intense. Everywhere. No escape. Relentless. Fire. Blood.Pain.
Iscreamed.
7
Rik
I’d do literally anythingmy queen asked ofme.
I’d kill anything or anyone who threatened her. I’d die for her.Gladly.
But I couldn’t bear to stand aside and feel her pain, hear her scream, and donothing.
Fuck. Her pain was so intense I couldn’t see or breathe myself. A Blood was dedicated to his queen’s wellbeing, so one aspect of the bond meant that any pain or discomfort she felt was magnified a hundredfold. If my queen was hurting, I’d know it, because I’d feel it a hundred times worse than shedid.
We alldid.
Daire retched beside me. Guillaume was on his hands and knees, head down, groaning miserably. Xin stood, but he stared up at the silvered moon and red tears trickled down his cheeks, his face drawn and hollowed with pain. Mehen thrashed on the ground, raking his fingers through the frozen packed snow. Red stained the white, his hands bleeding and torn from ice. He threw his head back and bellowed, so much like his dragon, even though she’d chained hisbeast.
Nevarre plunged his hands into the thorny patch, shredding his arms up to his elbows. “Take my blood. Not hers. Spare her, Morrigan. I begyou.”
If his goddess heard, She didn’t stop our queen’s torment. Instead, Shara was jerked off the ground and lifted high into the sky. Her scream of agony cut through me like Guillaume’s deadly blade. I tried to shift, determined to wade into those vines to get to her. Surely thorns wouldn’t be able to pierce my rock hide. But for the first time since she’d given me her blood, I couldn’tshift.
I could only kneel there in the snow and listen to herscream.
The vines started braiding together, forming some kind of giant tree. The limbs shook, raining down droplets ofblood.
Herblood.
Every drop sprouted another vine. Another torturous plant loaded with spikes. Buds formed on the branches and opened to the full moon. Roses, so dark red they were nearly black. They covered the towering tree and the ring of thorns around it. I’d never seen a rose tree, but that was the closest way to describe it. The sweet perfume lay thick in the air. It smelled like Shara. The soft, sweet scent of her skin, as if I’d buried my face in the hollow of her throat behind her ear, her hair falling down over myface.
She lay stretched out on her back across the crown of the tree, vines wrapping up her arms and legs, making her a part of the tree. Her clothes hung like tattered rags in the lower branches. The full moon hung low in the sky, aimed perfectly to illuminate her and the tree like a spotlight. I strained to see if her chest was moving. If she was stillalive.
The ring of deadly thorns parted enough for Nevarre to squeeze through, though the plants took their toll from him in blood. He looked back at me. “I think we can get hernow.”
I pushed after him, ignoring the scratches that burned like fire on my thighs and stomach. They were nothing, like fireflies against the fireball of agony our queen stillbore.
