Page 66 of Queen Takes Checkmate
“If he lays one finger on you…” Rik trembled with the force of his fury.
I said nothing, allowing them each to vent their emotions. Even Mehen practically frothed at the mouth at the idea that I might go in alone to deal with Ra.
When that was exactly what I’d done to bring Leviathan to heel.
“That was entirely different and you know it.” Mehen’s eyes glittered like green fire, his words snapping between us. “I only wanted to eat and kill you to win my freedom. I would have made it quick. He’ll want to fuck you first and deliberately torture you as long as possible before maybe someday you die in horrible agony.”
“And that’s exactly why I must go, so that I can stop him.”
“How?” Rik’s neck and shoulders corded, veins standing out in stark relief against his skin. “How will you stop him?”
I didn’t say anything, but only touched the scales embedded in my throat.
Mehen seized my arm and whirled me around to face him. He leaned down into my space, each word quivering with fury. “And how close will you have to be to that monster to use the serpent? This close, Shara? What will stop him from blasting you into smithereens as soon as you put one dainty toe on Heliopolis soil?”
I leaned in and pressed my forehead to his. He crumpled against me, hauling me tightly against him. “I’ll have to be close, of course. I’ll need a distraction, or at least a reason for him to not kill me right away. And that’s where Huitzilopochtli comes in.”
I’d dropped the phone, but I heard Mayte calling my name. I picked it up, though I was still smashed against Mehen. “I’m here.”
“You can’t trust him, Shara. At all. If he would kill his lover, why wouldn’t he kill you too?”
“Even if he did indeed try to kill your mother before you were born, I don’t think he could kill me if he tried. He’s mortal. He’s mummified. I can resurrect him by calling his soul back to his body, but he won’t be the Aztec god of war and sun any longer. He’ll be… Well, I’m not sure. More than human. But not a god.”
“Are you sure?” Mayte’s voice quivered and I felt her in the bond, clutching Xochitl as tightly as Mehen held me.
Tears burned my eyes. I felt her dread and absolute terror. I couldn’t blame her for fearing for her daughter. “As sure as I can possibly be. I swear to you that if I have any reason to distrust him, I’ll put him right back into the grave. Isis gave me Her power over life and death for a reason. I won’t need the red serpent to suck his soul out and leave him an empty shell again. He won’t hurt you or Xochitl.”
I didn’t say, unless something happens to me first. Everyone was already upset enough.
Rik fisted his hand in the neck of my sweater, picked me up, turned me around, and dropped me into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face against his throat, content to hold him until some of his worry for me eased.
“Tell me.” His rock troll wanted to start tearing shit apart to reach me, even though I was still right here, in his arms. “Tell me your plan.”
I ran my hands down his back and slipped my palms up beneath his shirt so I could feel the heat of his skin. “I don’t know yet. I need to wake Huitzilopochtli first. I need to know why he’s imprisoned, why he’s mortal, and if there’s anything left of his power that I can use.”
“And then?”
I stayed soft and easy in his arms, my hands stroking up and down the long muscles of his back. “We go to Cairo. Vivian will open the portal to Heliopolis. And I go inside.”
A tremor rocked his body against me like a massive earthquake had just dropped California into the Pacific Ocean. “Alone?”
“No. I don’t think so.” I breathed slowly, still stroking him. “Like Mehen said, I’ll need a reason for Ra not to blast me into smithereens as soon as I show up. He needs a reason not to fear me, or suspect me of being capable of bringing him down. If I try to walk into his palace with the open goal of killing him, he’ll just attack me before I can get close enough to use the serpent.”
“Mehen’s right.” Rik’s voice rumbled like rocks grinding into dust. “You’ll have to be very close to use it, unless that snake can fly.”
“Then I get close. I’m the bait. I can’t change that. Ra wants a queen, and he’ll want one of Isis’ lineage even more. Maybe he hopes I can heal him, like Keisha wanted me to heal Tanza.”
“Or more likely, he wants to foul Isis’ line by siring a queen on one of her daughters,” Vivian said grimly.
I shuddered, and Rik almost popped my ribs squeezing me harder against him. “I won’t fuck him. I’ll die first. But I may have to allow him to think that I’m open to the idea. I may have to allow him to believe many things that I hope you all know aren’t true.”
Daire pressed his face against my flank, wriggling beneath my sweater to find my skin. Mehen smashed me against Rik. Vivian braved the other men and hugged me from the other side. My other Blood stood close, Guillaume on one knee, a hand braced on the floor, his head hanging down as if he’d been stripped of his honor.
“I’ve never assassinated a god before,” Xin said, his voice cold and hard. “Send me through the portal. Allow me to get him first. Even if he’s immortal, I can at least provide a distraction.”
“What if your power of invisibility doesn’t work against him?” My voice was faint, because I couldn’t breathe. But I didn’t ask them to loosen their hold on me. “What if they kill you immediately, and I’m incapacitated by the pain of losing you? He’s God of All Things Light and Day. For all we know, all our powers will be useless against him, or surely others would have succeeded in killing him already.”
“The Morrigan’s Shadow can stand against him,” Nevarre said, his baritone ringing. “The Phantom Queen sent me to you for a reason. You need my darkness to fight his light.”
