Page 46 of Queen Takes Knights
“You said you didn’t mean to kill her.”
“I was her Blood. She was my queen. Even though she left the nest and abandoned us, I was still her Blood. Do you know what that did to me? Do you? Imagine the furry pussy cat, here, still craving your blood. Bound to only you. Hungering for you. Unable to feed on anyone but you. But you change your mind and leave. You cut him off. You turn your back on your power and your legacy and everyone who’s sacrificed their entire lives to be at your side. What are they supposed to do then, Shara? Hmm? How are they supposed to live when the very air they breathe is intolerable without your presence?”
I sensed his location near the base of the broken light pole, though I didn’t see any movement. Just a feeling of… emptiness. A negative space that tried to say“nothing to see here.”
“She still loved me,” he whispered, and despite everything he’d done, those broken words moved me. Until he continued. “At first, she would sneak out to me occasionally, when the need became too great. We could no longer share power, and watching her wither was the greatest punishment I’ve ever endured until her death. All because of you, dear Shara. She withered away to nothing for you, and you weren’t even hers.”
My mind knew that. It was the only logical assumption given what I’d learned about Aima and the way they conceived. A human man, no matter how much she loved him, couldn’t have been her alpha. And if she’d been a breeding queen, she would have pulled Blood to her need. Her alpha—surely Greyson, by the way he’d followed her all these years when none of the other Blood had—would have been driven to mate with her. I would have been his child. Certainly not Dad’s.
I wasn’t half human and not exactly full Aima either.
So I couldn’t be Selena’s child.
“Who?” I whispered, my heart breaking all over again. I remembered the night I’d gone to the goddess’s pyramid. Mom had said she’d loved me. I knew that. But she’d lied to me my entire life. She’d died to protect me, and I wasn’t even hers.
“You know who,” Greyson whispered back, cackling beneath his breath. “The nameless one.”
My aunt, or rather, Selena’s sister. “What did she do to have her name erased like that?”
“She had you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Shara
My head ached so badly I honestly thought my skull was going to crack open. It felt like one of the ketars was jammed in my left temple. I reached up, touching my head, but it felt normal. No lump, no blood, just pain. Blinding pain that made my knees buckle.
Alrik caught me against him, lifting me up in his arms. “What have you done to her?” he roared.
“Nothing, nothing at all.”
I forced my head to turn and I saw him, finally, as he stepped out of the shadows. “Think you the ones who wiped out house Isador will be thrilled to know all their efforts to prevent an heir have failed? Let alone this particular heir. They’re very afraid of you, sweetheart. And they should be. Oh yes. We should all be afraid of what Isis has wrought in you.”
Despite the ice pick digging into my skull and stirring up my brains, I asked again, “What do you want?”
He came closer, wrapping one pale, dead hand around the iron bar of the gate. He sucked in a breath, a soft hiss of pain, but he didn’t release it. “I want to be Blood again.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to make my brain work through the pain. He wanted to be Blood. To a queen. Me. Which meant taking my blood.
:No!:Daire roared in our bond, at the same time that Alrik retorted aloud, “Never.”
“Since when does a Blood dictate what his queen can do? Which Blood she can take? When her others come, and they will, my friend, will you tell her no, never, then, too?”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?” Greyson whispered. “Even if he’s a king?”
Alrik trembled, his hands clutching me so hard I couldn’t help but gasp with pain. No one had ever said anything about a king. Only Blood and queens. I had no idea what a king was, but by my Blood’s reaction, I could only assume it wasn’t something he’d be pleased about. But I refused to show my ignorance in front of our enemy.
“Put me down,” I said. My voice was weak, shaking from the headache, but Alrik complied immediately. “Daire, move aside.”
He did, but when I took another step closer to Greyson, they both stiffened. Our bond blazed with urgency, as if they could hold me back with the force of the blood we’d shared.
Greyson was right… and very wrong at the same time. They did not dictate to me. Even though they were sworn to protect me.
I’d been alone for so long. Scared for so long. Having them with me was great. Fantastic. To be able to sleep, without worrying that something would break through the walls or salt lines to get me. Not to have to run at dawn, every day, hoping and praying I could get away before they tracked me down. I was tired of running.
And yes, I loved the sex. The companionship. The intimacy. I couldn’t imagine being alone now.
