Page 20 of Queen Takes Queen
I found the corkscrewed tip of the vine tightly wrapped around her leg closest to me. I pulled on it, as hard as I dared, trying to unwrap it from her thigh. At least the top. Her breathing quickened to a frantic pant, but she didn’t cry out again. Rik would probably have ripped the tree out of the ground and beat me with it for being so slow. With the vine peeled back, I could see the damage it’d done to her skin by the red, angrywelt.
One leg free. At least her upper thigh. But as soon as I let go of it to work on the ones tightly coiled around her calf, the upper vine quickly snaked back around her in a new place, making her cryout.
“NEVARRE,” Rik roared like a category tenhurricane.
“I’m trying my best but these fucking vines…” I growled my own wordless curse. “Morrigan, please, let my queen goso—”
The vines quivered and released her at once, though the spiked thorns were still pinning her in place. I pushed up to my feet to gain some leverage. Balanced precariously, I had to lift her straight up off the thorns to do as little damage as possible. She met my gaze, her eyes solemn, braced for pain, but notafraid.
Gripping her forearms firmly, I counted out loud, taking deep breaths. “One. Two.Three.”
I pulled her straight up against me. My fearless queen didn’t make a sound though I felt the slide and pull of those wicked thorns grinding against bone and tendon and muscle. Blood should have fountained from her chest, but she didn’t have much left. She flopped, lifeless and heavy, almost toppling us both out of the tree. I knew exactly which one of us Rik would catch and it sure as hell wouldn’t beme.
“Jump,” he ground out. I could see him pacing back and forth beneath us, but there were a lot of branches in theway.
I gathered her closely to me, tucking her arms beneath mine so she didn’t accidentally catch on a branch. Then I closed my eyes. “Great Queen, Goddess of Shadow and War, move Your branches out of our path so I may get my queen tosafety.”
I didn’t look to see if She heard my prayer. I jumped, clutching Shara tightly to me. My hair snagged on a branch, pulling my head sharply to the side and likely yanking a good chunk out of my scalp. Another branch swiped me slightly on the shoulder. But otherwise, we slipped straight through the vicious branches and dropped into Rik and Guillaume’sarms.
Rik already had his bleeding wrist pressed to her mouth, cradling her against him. A massive hole gaped in her chest and blood ran from so many wounds I couldn’t even begin to count them. Yet shelived.
“Of course she lives,” Guillaume said softly. “She’s Isis’s daughter, and she’s feasted on the headless knight’s blood. The tree could have ripped her head off and she’d still find a way to come back. But my blood can’t do anything about the pain she must endure tosurvive.”
My knees quivered and I sagged against Guillaume. Surprised, I looked down at myself. I too bore many punctures and tears and scratches, and while no massive thorn had spiked my heart, I’d lost enough blood to bewobbly.
Guillaume offered his wrist. “Feed, my friend. She needs us all prepared for Skye’s attack, and she’s not going to be up for feeding any of ustonight.”
Grateful, I carefully bit into his wrist. My eyes fluttered shut as the first soothing, rich flow hit my tongue. Sharing blood was such an intimate thing. We already shared our minds through her bond, but this would deepen my sense of only him. It was like our souls brushedtogether.
He was so old and weary. Not as old as Mehen, but the great king of the depths had his rage and thirst for retribution to sustain him. For hundreds of years, Guillaume had nothing but his honor. While he’d served Desideria, that honor had weighed him down like a massive chain around his neck, dragging him slowly to hell. Something so treasured and valued had become the sole source of historture.
Even now, I saw him in battered armor, bloody, dirty, dented. But Shara’s blood had wiped away the tarnish from his armor and cast the chains aside. She’d freed him, just as she’d freed theking.
Just as she’d freedme.
I lifted my head. “Thank you, Sir Guillaume. I’m indebted toyou.”
“There’s no debt among Blood.” A corner of his mouth twitched slightly, the closest thing to a smile I guessed his face ever got. “HerBlood, atleast.”
Rik groaned, drawing our attention to him. She’d recovered enough to sink her own fangs into his wrist. Though he’d made a wound for her to drink from, sometimes instinct took over and you buried fangs in the one you loved. Something I had missed sorely with Brigid. Ropes of come spurted onto the ground, some onto the heart tree’s trunkitself.
“Sorry, Morrigan,” he panted, eyesclosed.
A gust of wind whipped my hair back from my face, carrying with it a hint of a woman’s sultry laughter. “I don’t think She minded. At all. In fact, She’d probably love it if we all made such anoffering.”
The breeze twirled my hair back into my face and I smelled the roses again, thick and sweet and heavy. The roses Shara had grown with her blood. Ghostly fingers brushed my cheek and trailed down my chest. Powered up with Guillaume’s blood, I intended to offer myself to Shara with the hopes that she’d sink those brutal fangs into metoo.
She opened her eyes and looked directly at me, though she didn’t lift her mouth from Rik’s wrist until I stepped closer. “Are yousure?”
Dropping to my knees beside her, I tipped my head to the side, offering my throat. “Withoutquestion.”
She started to sit up, but didn’t have the strength yet to make it on her own. I pulled her close while Rik lifted her, holding her between the two of us. She sank her fangs into my throat and my back bowed, every muscle straining with release. My come dripped onto the ground and my head buzzed with the whisper of Her trees.Too long, son of Morrigan. Shadow walks again. Call to war. Danger iscoming.
I forced my eyes open. “Danger,” I forced the word out, meeting Rik’s gaze. “The trees sense itcoming.”
My alpha’s hard eyes drilled into me. “What isit?”
Guillaume pressed against us now, and Shara turned to him, sinking her fangs into his throat too. I scooted away enough to press my hand to the thorny trunk of the heart tree, ignoring the immediate stings on my palm. Closing my eyes, I sank into the tree, letting it pull me down through the trunk, pulsing with our queen’s blood, deeper into the earth. Cold, rich earth, dark and fertile though stony. The tree was happy to be here, even though it wasn’t Ireland or Scotland. New dirt, new organisms, new life. Root fingers dug through the soil, deeper, tiny wires that connected the heart to the grove, and the grove to the surroundingwoods.
