Page 56 of Queen Takes Queen
Whispering among themselves, the crowd turned uneasy as my queen entered the plaza. Now that she’d broken the geas, they had reason to fear her. They knew how powerful she was. They knew why Mayte had invited her. So the guesses about how exactly Zaniyah would be absorbed into Isador had begun. The higher queen would decide all their fates, even down to whether this nest would still stand when Shara wasdone.
Positioned on either side of the procession aisle, the twins’ attention locked on my queen. Shara came toward us, her head high, her step slow and measured. No one watching would suspect it was because she still felt weak from breaking Skye’s geas on the nest. But we knew. Her cheeks were paler than normal, her eyes burning too brightly with hunger, a hint of fang still showing as she walked past. Even after feeding deeply on all of us, she stillhungered.
Her step faltered ever so slightly as she passed between thetwins.
:I know,:Rik growled in our bond before I could say anything.:She feels them. We’ll see if they’re called or not. I don’t care to have any of Zaniyah in our ranks. Not after what they allowed her to face without a singlewarning.:
The bullshit geas was just that. Complete and utter bullshit. I could not fathom how men who wanted to serve as Blood to a queen would stand silent and watch her walk into a trap without saying a word. Maybe I’d start with beheading these two before I took out Zaniyah’s alpha. All three heads lined up as tribute to our queen would still not be enough to make me, or any of us, but especially Rik, forgive theirsilence.
Not fuckingclose.
SHARA
After springing Skye’s trap,worrying about political etiquette seemed ridiculous. I didn’t care what Mayte thought of me now. I’d already achieved something no one else had been able to do. She owed me. She needed me, just as Gina and my Blood had said. I could relax and enjoy the food and conversation, at least as much as I could with this hunger still gnawing atme.
I needed a nice long session with a couple of my Blood. No, fuck that. All of them. I wanted their muscles against me. Rik’s massive arms. Daire’s purr. Nevarre’shair.
Fuck. I had to distract myself before I simply got up and dragged my Blood off to find a bedsomewhere.
Rik stood behind me, one hand on my shoulder. Gina sat on my right, and Mayte on my left. Her alpha stood too, but not shoulder to shoulder with Rik. I don’t think her alpha dared stand that close to my Blood for fear that he’d crush his head like amelon.
The rest of my Blood were seated in front of us, facing the rest of the tables, alternating with Zaniyah’s Blood. Servers moved through the room with pitchers and bottles of wine. The smells wafting from somewhere behind us made my stomach growl. Loudly enough that all my Blood turned to look at me and then gave a pointed look at the queen sitting beside me. At least my Blood were going to eat, though I worried about Rik if he was going to stand through dinner. I’d tapped him prettyhard.
“Some wine, Your Majesties?” A server offered a bottle, label up. I glanced at it and nodded, though I had no idea what kind itwas.
He poured some for both of us, a fine tremble in his hand that almost splashed some red wine on the table. “Thankyou.”
“Tell Sarah to start serving the firstcourse.”
The young man nodded and backedaway.
Mayte offered a basket, lifting back a gingham napkin to reveal warm, soft tortillas. “Hot and fresh from the kitchen. Sarah bakes them in an cast iron skillet over afire.”
I took one and tore off a piece, surprised at how thick the tortilla was. Nothing like what I’d had back home, and thank the goddess. These were fantastic and I told her asmuch.
“I hope you enjoy the rest of the meal as well. We decided to keep everything pretty traditional, though Sarah always likes to throw in a fewsurprises.”
“If everything’s as good as this tortilla, then I can’t wait.” I wasn’t very good at small talk. Or rather, I’d never really had the opportunity to practice carrying a conversation. “Have you lived here your entirelife?”
“Oh yes. My grandmother founded this nest when Mexico City was still Tenochtitlan. She’s still alive, though prefers a quiet life now and passed the nest to me. My mother died over five hundred years ago when the Spanish came through.” She took a sip of her wine, and so I did too, though gingerly. I didn’t want to risk intoxication until I got more than a tortilla on my stomach. “They say you weren’t raised in anest.”
“No, I wasn’t.” I hesitated a moment, trying to decide what story to share. The commonly-known one that was a lie? Or thetruth?
I touched Rik’s and Gina’s bonds.:Should I let her believe I’m half human? Or tell her the truth? Would she even believeit?:
Gina leaned forward and turned slightly so she could join the conversation. “Shara had an unusual upbringing. So unusual that we haven’t divulged any details to theTriune.”
“I see.” Mayte was silent a moment, though I wasn’t sure if she was communicating with other people through her bonds or just thinking. She tipped her head toward me. “I have secrets I don’t divulge to the Triune aswell.”
Bianca scooted her chair closer to her queen and kept her voice low so that I strained to hear. “There’s more than one reason that we like to keep to ourselves. In some ways, Skye’s geas helped keep us isolated. That’s not always a badthing.”
“If she couldn’t have me, no one could,” Mayte said bitterly. “All my efforts…” She blew out a sigh. “I’d honestly given up hope, until I had an unexpected, but most welcome, phone call from the Isador consiliarius that you were coming to my area. A new queen. Even better, an Isador queen. That name alone breeds fear and respect, even among the Triune. I could only hope you would consider my invitation. I refused to even let myselfhope…”
The servers returned and set stoneware bowls of soup in front of us. It smelled so good I startedsalivating.
“If you’d like a vegetarian posole, Sarah always makes an extrapot.”
“No, thank you, this is perfect. I’m not a big meat eater usually, but this smellsincredible.”
