Page 65 of Queen Takes Rook
Sinking into his bond, I couldn’t hold back the tears. This man. Such honor. Even Guillaume would be impressed.
He had guarded my mother for centuries. He’d loved her more than life itself. When she couldn’t have a child with him despite his alpha power, he’d sworn to do whatever she needed to fulfill her heart’s desire. Like Rik had promised, he would even find a god so I could have a child.
Only Llewellyn had gone so far as to swear to allow his queen’s greatest enemy to claim him as her own. So Isador would always have eyes and ears in House Skye, awaiting the day that the young Isador queen would come to put an end to the darkness and torture their queen committed.
He’d come to Keisha. Even knowing that she tortured alphas. Even knowing that she hated Isador. He’d put himself into her hands. Willingly. Gladly.
Simply because my mother had asked him.
So that one day, when I needed him, he’d be here and ready to come to my side.
Rage and hurt surged in me. I hated that this man had suffered for my sake. While I knew that Keisha had tortured men for decades, seeing how Llewellyn had suffered put it in more perspective. Worse, she hadn’t used him to try and sire a child. He was still alive.
How many had she already killed?
She’d kept him alive—so she could torture him with all that he’d lost.
His sight. His queen. The daughter he hadn’t been able to give her.
Volatile power crackled inside me. I filled him with strength. I focused on his eyes, drawing on Esetta’s memory of him. Dark eyes, like hers. Sparkling with a thousand falling stars.
He strained against the chains, muscles bulging, pumped with my blood. I felt his flesh tearing, where chains dug deeply into his wrists and ankles over the years. I turned my rage on those chains and tore them away like they were spider webs.
His beast exploded free. Lion claws grated on the marble, but huge red-gold wings lifted him into the air. His beak opened, and his shriek made cracks splinter through the windows, though they didn’t break completely.
Gryphon. No wonder Keisha had kept him chained and hooded.
He swept back down and snatched up someone in his claws, tearing her apart in midair and splattering the crowd below with blood and intestines. He hadn’t given me his blood yet, but with my blood flowing in him, I knew exactly why he’d killed her.
She was the one who’d “cared” for him. She’d been his keeper. The one who’d taken his eyes.
He landed in front of us and settled in to tear at the body in his talons, tossing back chunks of flesh.
A slow, loud clap drew my attention back to Keisha. She lounged back on her throne like I hadn’t just freed a man she’d kept imprisoned for more than twenty years.
“Now you owe me even more of that delicious Isador blood. Shall we get on with the proceedings, so you can pay the proper respect to your queen?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “You will never bemyqueen.”
26
Rik
Looking at my former queen made every nerve in my body stand up at full alert. Every alpha instinct I possessed screamed at me to shift, grab Keisha by the throat, and beat her into a bloody pulp against her own throne until she was dead.
So my queen would be safe.
Because if anything happened to Shara, my fate would be much worse than Llewellyn Isador’s had been.
Keisha looked at me, and it felt like she ripped all the skin off my body. “You’ve managed to turn my young sib into a fine alpha specimen. Tell you what. You give him to me, and you can keep the rest of my sibs free and clear. I’ll settle the blood debt with the Triune. In fact, I’ll throw in Vega. She can take over your alpha’s spot.” Her tone sharpened, her lip curling with disgust. “Evidently, she’s already intoxicated on your power. She’s of no further use to me.”
In her lioness form, Vega slunk closer to me, though Tlacel bit a chunk out of her hide for getting too close. She might have submitted to Shara’s power, but she sure as fuck wasn’t Blood. She wasn’t one of us.
I knew Shara loved me without question. But I couldn’t help the fear worming through my mind that maybe she would take Keisha up on her offer. If it meant Shara would live, and we had no other alternative, I would do it. Without question.
:No. Never. I’ll kill us all before I allow you to fall into her hands.:
“I don’t know,” Shara said aloud, her tone suggesting she might take Keisha up on her offer. “I’ve heard that alphas don’t fare too well in your court.”
