Page 53 of Queen Takes Checkmate
In the end, every sibling who’d stayed in the tower accepted my contract. Luckily, I only had to taste eight more queens’ blood to solidify our alliances, assuming they all stayed too. My silver nails proved invaluable for making a small, tidy wound that didn’t cause the same forceful climaxes as my bite.
Maybe it was petty of me, but I drank deeply from all the queens who wanted to swear to House Isador. For one thing, I hungered, though I’d rather have my Blood. But I also wanted to make a point. They’d all seen me drain Keisha Skye to death. I could drain them as easily. All of them. I chose to let them live, and I chose to pay them well to join my house. I didn’t want to start out as their queen by making blatant threats, but I expected loyalty.
As the last queen approached me, pale and nervous, Kevin leaned down to whisper, “Daniella Thalassa, formerly a House Ceresa sibling.”
So she carried Marne Ceresa’s blood. Just the thought of tasting Daniella’s blood, and taking Marne into my body, made me twitchy. “How did you come to serve House Skye?”
“The queens came to an agreement in a formal treaty,” she replied.
Kevin offered a folder to me. The pages inside were handwritten in elegant, swirling strokes on what felt like some kind of antique parchment. The date in the upper left-hand corner gave me pause.
1480.
I glanced up at her again, unable to hide my amazement. She looked maybe thirty years old, not well over five hundred. Her complexion was smooth and glossy like a porcelain doll with big blue eyes and a delicate rose-bud mouth. Her gleaming brown hair was pulled back in an old-fashioned up-do with curls cascading down from the top of her head, though the short dress she wore was modern.
Despite the age of the document, the wording itself was simple to understand. Daniella Thalassa was an envoy to House Skye from House Ceresa and would improve relations and communication between the two houses.
Envoy. That seemed pretty clearly to mean spy.
“It was common for the queens to exchange envoys back in those days,” she said quickly, noting the tightening of my lips. “It wasn’t underhanded or sneaky in any way, shape, or form. I wasn’t a spy or sent to betray Keisha in some way. I was truly supposed to bridge communication between her and Marne Ceresa. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement for several hundred years. I have Marne Ceresa’s approval to make the same arrangement with you.”
Fuck. She’d already been communicating with her former queen about me. I’d known that was a possibility. I just hated worrying that I’d said something or betrayed myself or my goddess without even thinking.
I tried to be as politically polite as possible rather than yelling“fuck, no!”“Please convey my appreciation to your queen for all the years of service you provided to Keisha Skye. Perhaps in the future she may wish to make a similar arrangement with House Isador, but until that time, I wouldn’t dare offend her by taking one of her siblings into my house without personally agreeing to new contract terms myself.”
Daniella inclined her head and curtseyed. “By your leave, Your Majesty, I’ll return to Rome at once, then.”
I nodded, trying not show as much relief as she was. She probably thought I’d kill her, like I’d killed Alessandra. I closed my eyes a moment, fighting down a sudden wave of panic and reproach. She’d have told Marne Ceresa exactly what I’d done.
:That’s a good thing,:Guillaume whispered.:She’ll respect it, because it was the right thing to do.:
In my head, I heard too many other thoughts—and none of them were mine. Gwen was distracted, staring off into space as if she could hear something that no one else could. She mentally measured the distance between her and the Blood she’d called, trying to estimate when he’d arrive. Carys kept cooing what a good bird Winnifred was in cutsie baby-talk that was so at odds with her outward gruff appearance. The other queens were terrified, anxious, and excited, all at the same time, a dizzying mix of emotions.
My head felt so fucking cluttered now. All these new queen bonds made me feel stuffed and spied upon, even inside my own head. I could feel their emotions as my own. Could they feel mine? I didn’t want them to know so much of myself. I didn’t want them to know my heart. That was for my Blood alone.
:Can I ensure they don’t have full access to my thoughts, as I do theirs?:
:You’re the more powerful queen,:Rik replied at once. :You can do whatever the fuck you want. Use them when you need to, but otherwise, shut them down.:
Guillaume added,:Just imagine them going dark, or silent, in your head.:
I closed my eyes and blanked my mind. I wiped everything. I just wanted a few moments of peace and quiet in my own head. Sweet, blissful silence.
Rik’s fingers dug into my shoulders, grounding me. Though the pressure in his fingers told me he didn’t like the silence much at all. Thinking of his bond was enough to let my alpha rush back into my awareness. His mind slammed up against mine, squeezing me tightly.
He fucking trembled, his fingers convulsing on my shoulders.:Goddess help me, I couldn’t feel you. It was like you’d completely dissolved the bond. You were fucking gone.:
His bond settled in my head, laced with the scent of hot rocks and iron.:I’m sorry. I had no idea.:
I thought of Daire, and immediately his bond wound through me, just as frantic as a house cat who’d been locked out of the house all night by accident. Guillaume. His steel blade gleaming inside my head with a brutal, cutting edge. Xin, my ghostly wolf, howling mournfully until I opened to him. He pressed his nose against me and I fisted my hand in his ruff. I quickly opened the rest of my Blood bonds, not wanting them to be distressed another moment.
I could feel the other queen bonds, but I didn’t touch them or let them come back up into my focus. I thought about Nevarre’s Shadow, spreading over the window to block out the sun, and my sense of the queens faded even more.
Perfect.
Now that I had the bonds sorted, I wondered how different my power would feel, if any. I hadn’t really tried to do anything since taking Gwen and Carys, and now I’d added seven others. Some of them had taken siblings under House Skye, and some with Blood had also taken siblings. It was a complicated hierarchy of lives that now existed underneath my house name. My power base, ready for me to draw upon in times of need, would continue to grow as Gwen officially took her own Blood and siblings for the tower.
Remembering that Guillaume had said to try and pay attention to where I reached for my power, I closed my eyes and settled back against my chair. Rik still gripped my shoulders, but his touch was soft and steady not hard and desperate. I took my time sinking deeper inside myself. Thinking of my power… but not actively trying to call it up.
