Page 72 of Queen Takes King
Switch. After switch. Afterswitch.
I started to understand what Guillaume had meant. Power rose inside me—but it had nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Magic rose to a fevered pitch inside me, vibrated my bones, and screamed through my nerves. My hair crackled with static electricity around my head. If one of the guys touched me right now, I was afraid I’d blast him on hisass.
I walked faster from necessity. Half running now. I had to finish before I came apart at the seams. I stumbled over a low landscape wall and Rik grabbed my elbow to steady me. I heard him suck in his breath, his fingers going numb on my arm. But he didn’t letgo.
“More blood,” Guillaume said on my other side, his voice tight with strain. “It’s a little thin. Or slowdown.”
Fuck that shit. I wasn’t slowing until I had my fangs buried in one of them. I worked my hand to get more blood flowing. My whole body throbbed with my heart beat, a heavy, steady thump that was driving me mad. I’m sure I looked like a lunatic, running naked around my own yard, my mouth gaped open with gigantic fangs protruded. I’d wished for fangs—but I should have been careful what I wished for. They grew even longer, poking through my ownlip.
The taste of my blood in my mouth was a torment. I didn’t wantmyblood. I wanted theirs. My hunger torched higher, searing my lungs like Leviathan had burst free and blasted my insides withfire.
I ran harder, dribbling blood from my mouth and my hand. Though I wasn’t sure that my lip bled hard enough to help. The guest house was in sight. I could see the fiery glow of the finish line straight ahead like a wildfire roaring across thelawn.
A bird screeched in the night. What the fuck? Not an owl. It sounded like acrow.
Raven.
I jerked my gaze up as something black soared over the trees headed for us. Larger than any bird—but not as big as Leviathan. Rik roared, shifting to rock troll in a heart beat, the signal for my other Blood to leap to my defense. He shoved me behind him and Guillaume pressed me tight to Rik’s broad granite-hardback.
“You have to finish!” Guillaume whispered urgently against myear.
I could feel the strain in the line I’d laid already. It brightened, hovering on the edge of closing the circle… Or dissipating like fog in thenight.
Xin and Daire pressed tight to my legs, silvery fur on one side, black stripes on theother.
Leviathan… or rather Levi, the man, stood alone. Forlorn, and yes, angry. He reached for his dragon. He strained to fill himself with scales and claws andwings.
But Leviathan the beast belonged to menow.
“I think it’s Nevarre.” I couldn’t focus on the tapestry, not with magic pounding through my blood. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was the man I’d dreamed about. The man I’d called as Blood, though he’d claimed it was too late forhim.
I had to move. I had to close thecircle.
Even if a dead druid raven wasinside.
He dropped to the ground in front of us, a massive, black featheredbird.
“If you close it with him inside, and he’s a thrall, you won’t be able to keep him out unless you kill him,” Guillaumesaid.
Fine. So be it. I’d kill him myself if he even thought about hurting someone inside mycircle.
Myhome.
Mynest.
I sprinted forward and closed thecircle.
32
Rik
The circle snapped into place.
She threw her head back and screamed, lashing the heavens with her magic. Her hair blew wildly, power exploding out of her like fireworks. She stood in the center of a glowing nimbus, head back, arms outstretched, skin gleaming with magic, and I’d never seen anything more fucking gorgeous in mylife.
Her magic called me. Like she’d tied a rope around my dick and jerked me toward her. All of us moved toher.
Even the new man. His long black hair gleamed in the moonlight like liquid ink. He didn’t smell right, though. Ancient Celtic magic masked thetruth.
