Page 72 of Queen Takes Checkmate
Rik’s voice crashed and rolled like boulders tumbling down a mountain. “You’d be his prisoner.”
“Yes.”
Huitzilopochtli wisely said nothing, but his golden eyes blazed. He was all too eager to indulge his legendary thirst.
“He’s not Blood,” Rik growled. “You can’t trust him.”
“He’s not my Blood,” I agreed, keeping my voice light. “And that’s why this will work. Ra knows enough about Aima queens to be suspicious of our bonds and blood exchanges. I think he’ll be able to verify that Huitzilopochtli has taken my blood, but that I haven’t taken his. That makes me weaker in his eyes. He will trust I’m actually a captive because of it. He shouldn’t be too alarmed by Huitzilopochtli, either, because he’s already defeated him once.”
“That’s true,” Vivian said, though her lips twisted sourly. “I’ve seen his vizier touch a queen and even burn out her bonds. It’s extremely painful, and one of the first things he does to new captives. He can’t risk their Blood finding a way to track them down.”
The plane shifted beneath us again, metal groaning.
“Rik,” I said warningly. “We can’t fly to safety if you damage the plane.”
The creaking stopped.
“What aboutourbonds?” Ezra growled. “You can’t fucking let him burn us out of you.”
“I won’t,” I agreed.
Rik’s chest heaved against me like massive bellows. “No. You can’t. I can’t bear it.”
Teary-eyed, Gina looked from Rik to me and back. “What? I don’t understand.”
My heart ached so badly that I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t try to answer her.
“She can shut our bonds down.” Each word that Rik said crunched like rocks bursting under immense force. “It’s like she’s gone. Even to me.”
I turned in his mighty arms and cupped his stone face. My hands looked like a child’s on him. “I need to get close to him. Close enough to kill him. I must appear weak and defenseless. As soon as I can, I’ll open our bonds and access my power stored inside each of you. I’ll blast through the reserves if I must, deploy the red serpent, and then we leave. All of us.”
“Thirty-five percent probability,” Carys whispered.
I nodded, not turning to look at her. “That’s the best number you’ve given me all night.”
“Those numbers fucking suck donkey dicks,” Ezra retorted. “You can’t risk your fucking life on thirty-five percent!”
I didn’t look away from Rik’s granite eyes. “I can, and I will, because I know I will win. I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I can’t fail because I love you too much to let you down.”
He lifted me up higher in his arms. “You could never let me down.”
I pressed my lips to the cold stone of his. “Because I’m Shara fucking Isador and what this queen loves, she keeps for all time.”
“You will have to order me to leave your side. You will have to compel me to your will. Because nothing else will keep me from you. I love you too much to allow this without your power forcing me to do so.”
I swallowed my tears and nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. I love you.”
“And I love you, my queen. Give me my orders.”
I reached within myself and tapped the power humming deep inside me. My hair sparked, electricity shooting through me like a live current. I’d been bleeding for days and my period had made no signs of decreasing. Perhaps my body knew I’d need every single ounce of blood and power to defeat the Lord of Sun.
“Alrik Hyrrokkin Isador, I command you to depart from me. I command you to lead the rest of my Blood to attack through the palace portal. You may find me on the other side and come to me, but not before I reach the throne of Ra and have deployed the red serpent to its task.”
His jaws worked beneath my fingers, a low groaning rumble deep inside him as if the plates of the earth collided and crashed inside him. “I hear and obey, my queen.”
29
Shara
