Page 78 of Queen Takes Checkmate
I tore into his throat like a savage beast. I didn’t spare him my fangs or my ravaging hunger. I let my cobra’s thirst drive my instincts. They thought me a witch, something less than human. Then I would play the part.
His blood immediately soothed the agony burning inside me. He let out a roar of release for me, holding nothing back. He knew we played a game. He thrashed hard against me, appearing to fight, struggling against me.
When he cradled me to his torn throat and welcomed the coming darkness.
Hissing and snarling, I hauled him closer, rising up over him as he sank to the floor. He lay on his back, twitching slightly as I drained him. I could see him now. My beloved knight. His blue eyes stared up at me with the softest, most beautiful look of love on his face.
Goddess. I willed him to understand. I willed him to forgive me.
Then I lunged up toward the skeleton guard who’d dragged him in. I seized his sword, lifting it over my head with both hands.
And brought it down on my headless knight’s old scar to cleave his head from his body once more.
32
Rik
Something was wrong. I knew it. Her plan wasn’t unfolding as she’d expected.
Or worse, it was going exactly as she’d expected, and now Carys’s probabilities were coming true despite our queen’s best efforts.
My skin twitched like Guillaume’s hell horse trying to dislodge a fly. Since my skin was solid granite…
That wasn’t an easy feat.
I had a feeling that Guillaume was in trouble. I wouldn’t have normally thought of his horse. Not now. Not when our queen’s bond was dead.
I met Daire’s worried gaze, and I couldn’t feel him. After decades of sharing a bond with him, I had no idea what he was thinking.
Fuck that shit. I did know. I didn’t need a bond to tell me we were fucked.
“I’m not waiting a fucking second more,” I growled.
Daire breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s about fucking time. Let’s go get our queen.”
I reached for Xin’s bond automatically to check his location and muttered a curse beneath my breath. I couldn’t feel him. I had no idea if his gift of invisibility worked here or not. I could only hope he was still alive and making his way toward Shara.
Something crashed behind us, sending me whirling around, boulder fists raised, ready to pummel the threat into dust.
Leviathan, king of the depths, huffed smoke into my face. I didn’t need her bond with him to know what he was thinking, either.What’s taking you so fucking long?
He shifted back to his human form as we ran toward the temple. Tlacel, Nevarre, and Llewellyn led from the air, keeping watch for those skeleton soldiers that had tried to drag her through a portal in Kansas City.
Fuck, that seemed like a lifetime ago. Not just a few months.
I tried to keep up with Daire and Itztli, but they easily out-paced my rock troll’s lumbering pace. Only Ezra and Mehen hung back with me. I wasn’t sure why Mehen had even shifted, until he started telling me what he’d seen.
“The sunfires are fucking impervious to just about everything I could think of.” He shook his head grimly. “They didn’t care about my fire. I tried to smash them with my tail, shred them with my claws, bite them in half. Nothing worked. Finally, I just knocked a giant wall down on top of their lair. That did the trick, though I don’t know how long they’ll be pinned.”
“It’s not the rocks blocking the lair,” Ezra panted. His shaggy hair was plastered to his face. I could see why he didn’t want to shift to a furry grizzly here. The sun was merciless. “It’s the fucking darkness.”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, my mind racing. “Nothing here will like the darkness. That means the temple will be open to the air, right? We should be able to see everything. But if they know we’re coming…”
Mehen grunted. “I’ll shift and go tell the other fliers to stay high and quiet. If I see the chance to grab her and get her the fuck out, I will.”
I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, squeezing hard enough he cursed at me. “Don’t interfere unless you must. She knows what she’s doing.”
He grimaced and nodded, so I released him. He leaped and shifted into the dragon in mid-air. For a moment, his wings provided a tiny bit of shadow. Such a relief. Then he raced ahead to flag down the other winged Blood. They’d have to fly very high to avoid casting shadows on the ground and alerting the guards.
