Page 54 of Queen Takes Checkmate
Night had fallen outside long ago. In fact, dawn was only a few hours away. I could feel the darkness now, though it was weakened by city lights that never went out. Blood trickled from the neat cut Guillaume had made for the queens. Just a few drops. I also sensed a large amount of period blood captured by the magical net I’d set so I didn’t ruin all my clothes.
I’d been bleeding heavier than usual. Annoyingly so. I didn’t know what it meant, if anything. Periods could change from month to month, and my Blood sure the hell weren’t complaining.
Power flared to life inside me with a low, internal whomp like a gas stove or furnace catching flame. So much power, tossing me here and there like a tiny stick amidst a hurricane. Fuck, wave after wave crashed through me, lifting me higher. I had nowhere to go with it. Nothing to use it for. I wasn’t in danger. I didn’t need to grow another grove in the middle of New York City.
Thunder crashed and rolled in my skull, my ears roaring as if hundred-mile-an-hour winds rushed through me. My hands came up to my ears automatically, trying to quiet the noise. But it did no good. The noise was inside my head.
Finally, realization dawned on me. That endless thunder was the heartbeats of my new siblings. Several hundred lives thudded away inside my head, waiting to do my bidding. Using the Shadow again to distance myself from the pounding heartbeats helped. I still stood inside a raging inferno of rushing energy, endlessly searching for an outlet. A release. Power pummeled me, trying to bring me to my knees.
People always thought that great power was a fantastic gift, but in reality, it was a fucking nightmare. I had to figure out how to control it. With this much magic pulsing through me, I could obliterate New York City with a thought.
The power needed something to do. An outlet. Something big.
I had an idea. It might not work, but… What the hell. I’d try. The worst it could do was tear down my tower and kill us all. Not a pleasant thought.
Focusing my will, I pushed the power away from me. I could feel the crackling energy all around me, burning with my fire and Vivian’s phoenix, softened by Isis’ moon. A glowing magic sphere enclosed me, sinking down into the marble. Yes. I needed to go down. All the way to the ground.
One. Hundred. Stories.
I couldn’t waver. I couldn’t allow a distraction to break my concentration. I didn’t think I’d survive the fallout if this power whipped back into me uncontrolled.
Distantly, I felt my physical body standing, my feet spread wide, my arms rising out on either side of me. Rik never let go of me. My anchor in the storm. His heavy palms on my shoulder kept me from getting sucked up into the maelstrom of power blazing through me.
I pushed the sphere’s diameter out away from me. I needed to enclose this room. The hallway. My awareness passed through walls like a ghostly specter. Wider. I needed to hold the entire building. My arms trembled, strained wide as my sphere spread through the tower and out.
Into the night air.
I did it.
Relief made my heart pound, but I wasn’t done yet. I took a couple of deep, forceful breaths, building up my strength. Then I shoved my power deep, down toward the ground. Falling. Wind blasted me as I picked up speed, almost like I was tumbling down an elevator shaft. Ground. I needed to find the ground. Not concrete and asphalt. I needed Gaia for this, the touch of Her life’s essence. Not easily found in a skyscraper.
I smelled dirt and rocks moments before my power hit the packed earth deep beneath the concrete footings of my tower. I quivered, my legs trembling with strain. I held the entire tower in my sphere. I could feel the crisp, cool air on my face, even while my nose filled with the sterile, dark scents of dirt that never saw the light of day.
It was still alive, though. If I scraped some of this dirt up and put it into a pot, it’d grow whatever I gave it.
So I gave it my blood.
I released the magical plug holding my period blood inside me. I felt the hot gush between my thighs. I smelled the raw iron and copper, mixing with the scents of cool earth and the darkness of night. My domain. Blood. Night. Dark.
Great Mother, please accept my offering and give me your protection on this place. Keep all who live inside this circle safe.
I shoved my blood deep into the earth, envisioning a giant blood circle snapping into place where my sphere touched the ground.
Land that had been neglected and misused for centuries lapped up my blood as eagerly as Daire. Tremors rocked the foundations of the tower. The building swayed, the floor shaking beneath my feet. Steel groaned, absorbing the stress of infinite power roaring up from deep in the ground and streaming hundreds of feet into the air like a geyser.
My blood circle. Complete. Without me ever stepping foot around it.
As the power ebbed, something called me. A whisper. A breath. I listened with my whole being, searching for that small, still voice.
Dried, dead lips whispered,“Wake me.”
Panting, I opened my eyes. I’d fallen to the floor, though Rik cradled my head. My Blood were pressed in a tight circle around me, backed against me so they all touched me in some way.
Carys and Gwen both stood over Rik, glaring at me over his shoulders and clucking like angry chickens.
“A little warning would be nice, Your Majesty,” Carys snapped. “You almost took down the whole building.”
“We need you alive, not burned out into a shell,” Gwen said only slightly less tartly. “What did you do, anyway?”
