Page 12 of Queen Takes Checkmate
:Come to me, my raven.:
In a heartbeat, he was at my side, carefully sliding his arm around my waist without touching the other woman.
“You’re all my family.”
Rik pressed his lips to my hair, lightly brushing his mouth back and forth. “You’re our everything, my queen. You’remyeverything. And while I know you love Gina and Winston as family, I say as your alpha, that I will never trust anyone not Blood with your safety. That doesn’t mean that I don’t trust them. Not at all. I believe they’re as loyal as mostly-humans with a bit of Aima blood can be. But they aren’t Blood and never will be. They can be compromised, just as Bianca was compromised.”
“Are you saying a Blood cannot be compromised?”
“Never,” he replied. “With even a shallow Blood bond, you would know their heart and minds. You could use your power to drag out any secrets, no matter how deeply they try to bury them. If any other queen or god planted a spell, geas, or other trap inside them, you would sense it. Your blood alone would attack it. The more blood you share, the deeper the bond, and you’re a queen who gladly feeds us. No one would be able to hide from you.”
His words triggered something inside me. Like a tiny seed that was barely a speck, the idea sprouted ever so slightly. My blood was the key to my power.
And the key to who I could trust.
Without effort, Gina’s mind was accessible to me, like a box that had suddenly popped open. My blood unlocked her like a key, no matter how mighty the chains she might have tried to use to keep me out. She hadn’t tried, not at all, but everyone had secrets. She wasn’t the exception, though I felt her intentions. She hadn’t kept the secret out of a malicious desire to harm me at any time. Rather, out of shame, she’d hidden this item from her past so deeply inside herself that even she had almost forgotten it.
Almost. But not quite.
There was a reason she only ever talked about Grandma Paula, and never her mother. Janae Talbott had betrayed House Isador. She’d paid for that crime with her life under my mother’s rule as queen. Her execution had been done quietly out of respect to the long line of Talbotts who’d served my family without even a hint of betrayal or impropriety. No one outside Esetta’s immediate circle of Blood and the Talbotts even knew.
Paula had continued to serve as consiliarius and brought Gina into the family business sooner than planned to compensate for Janae’s absence.
I wondered what Janae had done to earn her death. The answer was there in Gina’s head, a glimmer of something buried, but slightly visible. With a bit of effort, I could draw that information out.
But out of respect for all she’d done for me, I left that secret buried. I didn’t need to know.
My touch in her mind had been so light that she didn’t even know I’d seen that glimpse of the dark secret that haunted her past. It didn’t make me think any less of her. I still trusted her without question. In her whole life, that was the only thing she had closed off from me, and it’d only taken a few swallows of my blood to open her mind so much that I’d gleaned that information without even trying.
“Would Madeline agree to take my blood as you did?”
Gina’s eyes widened. “I’ll ask her, of course, if that’s your wish. I don’t know why she wouldn’t. It’s a great honor.”
“I wouldn’t do it to honor her, though it’s alright with me if that’s what she assumes. I’d do it so she couldn’t ever betray me.”
“I’ll ask her.” Gina pulled away from me and smiled, but I was sure a hint of pink darkened her cheeks and she couldn’t quite meet my gaze. “I also prepared briefs on each of the three queens Llewellyn mentioned. They’re in the folder.” She nodded her head at the desk near the window. “I wasn’t able to find out much on such short notice, but at least you’ll have access to their lineage. I agree with him that they’re your best options from the queens I interviewed.”
“Thank you, Gina. Seriously, I don’t know what I would do without you.”
She laughed, more like herself, and breezed to the door. “You’d manage. You’d have a thousand candidates waiting outside your door, begging for the chance to serve Isador.”
“No one will ever replace you.” I kept my voice light and teasing, though each word echoed with certainty.
Turning at the door, she gave me a beautiful smile that lit up her entire face. “It’s been my greatest honor to serve you, Your Majesty, and with the Great One’s blessing, I hope to serve a very long time.”
4
Shara
Isat in my favorite place—between Rik’s thighs with his arms around me—waiting to meet this new queen. The room I’d changed in was quiet and large enough for all my Blood, so I decided to meet her here. Nevarre had fetched the large chair I’d used earlier, and its mate sat across from me, a safe distance away, but close enough for easy conversation. Once I met Carys, I could hopefully make a quick presentation to formalize our agreement and go home.
I wasn’t scared or nervous, not like when I had to meet Mayte for the first time. I’d faced Marne Ceresa, one of the most powerful Triune queens, in the mirror. I’d survived Keisha’s attack when we’d first arrived. I’d met powerful, ancient goddesses face to face. I didn’t think I’d ever be nervous meeting an Aima queen again.
Gina’s file on each of the three queen candidates was sparse, but combined with Llewellyn’s assessment, I only cared to meet Carys Tylluan. She was descended from Blodeuwedd, the Welsh goddess of spring. House Tylluan’s claim to fame was a legendary sunken kingdom where their nest had once been. It had disappeared several hundred years ago, and they’d joined House Llys for another couple of hundred years, only to eventually be absorbed by House Skye.
At some point, Keisha Skye visited their nest and had chosen Carys to come live permanently in New York City. Gina didn’t note a reason, but I guessed it was because of Carys’s strength. Keisha had been concentrating her power base as much as possible.
:She’s here with Llewellyn,:Guillaume said in our bond. He stood guard at the door with Itztli, Tlacel, and Nevarre. Rik had asked Xin to remain invisible and close to me, just in case we had any issues with this unknown queen. Mehen stood on my other side with his fierce glare ready.:Daire and Ezra have joined them. She has no Blood of her own present.:
