Page 68 of Queen Takes Checkmate
“I’m not sure, but I think so. I can bring his soul back to the body, but he won’t be Huitzilopochtli the god until he regains his heart.”
In the bond, I felt an immense wave of relief from Mayte, who was holding on tightly to our bond, watching everything I did. I could almost feel her pressed against my back, even though she was at least a thousand miles away.
I closed my eyes again, but this time, I wanted to ground myself. I concentrated on the earth beneath my feet, still separated from me by concrete, but closer than when I’d been in the top floor of the tower. I felt the hum of my blood circle singing around me, brilliant energy streaming up from the ground to the hundredth floor, blocking all attempts—human or supernatural—to break my protections. Powered by my period blood, this circle could not be broken.
Not until my death.
I reached deeper inside myself and found my heart tree hundreds of miles away in Eureka Springs. My heart ached for my nest. My manor house. My trees. My hot spring bubbling up from the ground. I’d suffered and died to grow the heart tree, its thorns piercing my body, puncturing my heart. My blood flowed in the tree, powering the sacred grove that our goddesses had helped me grow. The Morrigan, Nevarre’s goddess, had even sent Her crows to live in my grove.
With that thought, I saw my crow queen in her nest, her shiny black feathers fluffed up against the cold.Soon, she seemed to say in mind, and I felt the promise of warm eggs beneath her breast. In a few months, she’d lay her first eggs.
All of them would. Birds had flocked to my nest. Mostly crows, but I sensed blue jays, cardinals, owls, even a bald eagle in the trees.
The queen sent another image to me, the skies dark with countless flocks of birds flying to her from across the country. Birds chirping and singing, telling her of things they’d seen. Some brought her tokens and gifts. Shiny coins, bits of ribbon, strands of hair. I touched a delicate silver locket, and I could suddenly see the owner.
A woman. No, a queen. I knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Alone, she wept, silently, staring out into a vast darkness. I had no idea who she was, or where she lived, only that she’d once owned the locket now in my crow’s nest.
The crow cocked her head, showing me piles and piles of trinkets. Goddess. So many. If they all had images of owners, bits of secrets attached to them…
:Eyes.: She chirped in my head.:Ears.:
Yes, of course. The birds were my eyes and ears in the world.
I was going to have a huge hoard of shiny treasures to sort through as soon as I went home.
I started to pull back to the mummy, but hesitated, lingering with my crow queen. How had she been able to communicate directly in my head? I hadn’t tasted her blood.
An image filled my head of a large thorn puncturing her in the side, just below her right wing. :Blood. For you.:
She’d bled on my heart tree that flowed with my blood and power. Now she could talk to me directly. Implications flickered through my mind. Reaching up to my rat, I scratched her lightly under the chin.:Would you be willing to offer your blood on the heart tree?:
She squeaked and touched her nose gently to my cheek. I took that for yes. If only I could figure out a way to travel between the tower and my grove quickly without having to get on a plane. I pushed that thought away and focused on the mummy lying before me. My heart tree pulsed inside me, tying me to the earth and the sacred grove. I was as rooted to my power as possible.
I punctured my index finger on one of my sharp nails and traced a pattern on the mummy’s chest. I didn’t know what it meant, only that it needed to be done. The magic dictated that symbol. That word. It meant…
“One Flint,” Itztli whispered. “His calendar day.”
“Huitzilopochtli, Hummingbird on the Left, Lord of Sun and War, patron god of Tenochtitlan, I call you from beyond the grave. By the blood of the Great One flowing in my veins, I command your soul to return to this body.”
My hair lifted around my head briefly. Something fluttered past my head and landed on the mummy. A hummingbird, bright blue with an emerald-green chest. It paused a moment, wings outspread, and then they blurred, releasing the trademark buzz of a hummingbird in flight. With a loud pop, it disappeared into the mummy’s chest.
I traced my still-bleeding finger over the bandages covering his mouth. “Huitzilopochtli, your queen calls you to rise. I call you to glitter and shine as in days of yore. Rise.”
In the distance, I heard a tinging sound, as if someone played a harp or chimes far away, almost out of hearing. His chest rose on one deep breath, and then he released that breath on a furious, heart-rending bellow.
Rik shoved me behind him, while the twins took up position on either side of him. Through the bond, I felt Guillaume raise the sword over his head, poised to slice off the mummy’s head.
“Wait!” I commanded them, pushing Rik’s arm over my shoulders so I could see, though I didn’t make him move out of my way. I was already asking much of my alpha. While I could, I’d allow him to protect me as carefully as he wished, because all too soon, there would be nothing he could do to save me.
The mummy thrashed on the table, rending cloth and scattering centuries of dust. His body swelled beneath the wrappings, shredding them more to reveal blue skin. Strips of cloth fell away, stained with the same blue, so it must be some kind of paint or dye. He reached up and dragged the cloth from his face. Too quickly, because I could see the white bone of his skull before his flesh knitted together over the top, filling in over the cavity where his nose and mouth were.
His eyes gleamed golden like the sun. Beneath the blue paint, his skin was nearly black. His hair hung in twisted plaits from a high ponytail on the crown of his head. He jerked upright and promptly lunged toward me.
Rik pushed me back with a warning growl, and the mummy fell to the ground. He crouched, eyes gleaming like molten gold, and threw his head back to roar again. Not like a beast or a jaguar. To me, it sounded like rage. Pain. Unimaginable grief.
He spoke, but I couldn’t understand the words.
Tlacel translated for me. “Where is she? Where is my love?”
