Page 20 of Queen Takes Checkmate
“I don’t trust you. I don’t know if I can ever trust anyone who worked with Keisha, but you have a double strike against you, because you allied yourself with Alessandra, too.”
She lifted her gaze to the other queens, who’d drawn into a tight group with their Blood on the outside in a ring. We hadn’t threatened them. Yet. If Shara ordered their deaths, nothing would keep us from completing her order, let alone a few paltry Blood. I could squash half of them with my tail without even getting up.
“Your Majesty,” Carys said, drawing her attention. “May I now demonstrate my gift for you?”
My queen nodded, so Carys stepped closer to the crying woman and closed her eyes a moment. Her mouth moved, as if she was muttering beneath her breath, but even my sensitive ears couldn’t pick up what she said.
Carys opened her eyes and nodded sharply. “My gift lies in pure numbers, Your Majesty, and I can now tell you that the probability of Virginia Athos betraying you is one in two, or roughly fifty percent.”
The woman gasped, and two bright red dots spread on her cheeks. “How dare you? I would never betray my queen.”
“That statement carries a nine in ten probability, Your Majesty, though I believe the question you must ask yourself is who her queen truly is.”
“Marne Ceresa,” Shara said flatly.
“While nothing is completely certain, my gift agrees with ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent accuracy.”
“Take your Blood and go to your queen,” Shara ordered.
Virginia gave a dirty look at Carys, tipped her nose up, and stalked toward the exit. One of her Blood looked back over his shoulder with a snarl on his lips.
Rumbling out a vicious growl, Daire crouched on my back.
“Daire,” Shara said. “Let them go. I don’t care.”
He blew out a disgusted sigh and paced around in a circle before flopping back down on my side with a huff.
She looked thoughtfully at Carys. “You see probabilities? That’s what made you so valuable to Keisha?”
Carys inclined her head. “Aye, exactly that, Your Majesty. The strategies are yours to devise. I can only tell you how likely your success or failure will be. The numbers appear in my head as you speak.”
Shara rubbed her fingers over Llewellyn’s scalp in soothing circles. “So if I had refused to accept my mother’s Blood as my own…”
Carys paled. “I see zeroes. Everywhere. I’m afraid that would have been certain death, Your Majesty.”
“Please, just call me Shara.” She settled back more fully against Rik and breathed deeply. With Llewellyn curled against her, she stilled for several long moments. Her bond quieted, her thoughts drifting away as if she’d fallen asleep.
With my full belly and Daire’s steady purr, it was all I could do not to drift away to nap with her. Her bond wound through me like a soft whisper, a sweet lullaby. I smelled sand and felt a night breeze on my face.
“You,” she said with sudden conviction. I opened my eyes and lifted my head. She pointed at the group of queens, though her eyes were still closed. The remaining Blood shifted restlessly, the queens looking at one another. “No.You.”
A woman stepped around and through the waiting queens. “Me?”
Shara opened her eyes and sat up. “Yes. What’s your name?”
“Gwenhwyfar Findabair, Your Majesty, though most people call me Gwen.”
:Descended from Guinevere, the White Enchantress, Queen of Camelot,:Daire whispered in her bond.
:King Arthur’s Guinevere?:Shara asked.:Like Knights of the Round Table?:
:The very one.:
The woman came closer, standing alone before our queen. Her long dark-brown hair hung in a thick braid over her shoulder and down to her waist. She was pretty but nothing much to look at. Though maybe I was too full of my queen’s enemies—and Shara’s blood—to care about any other queen.
“Carys, what do you see as the probability of Gwen’s success in holding New York City for me?”
Absently, Carys reached up and scratched under her owl’s wing. “As she stands here, now? It’s not very likely, Your Majesty.”
