Page 30 of Queen Takes King
Doubts gnawed at me, though I don’t think any of them couldtell.
It took all my will to remain calm and blank, the skills that had kept me alive through one of the most tumultuous Aima courts. Empress Wu had been consolidating her power and widening her influence in both Imperial and Aima courts from the moment she was born over a thousand years ago. Even if that meant assassinating her own family members. A lesson that generations of surviving heirs had learned all toowell.
House Wu was destroyed from the inside out, our own daughters slaughtered, blood and power wasted, until little of that great house remained, and I had played the knife in that destruction. I had been the silent shadow that eliminated competitors for my queen’s power in her own house… until she found that no more power remained. She couldn’t even sustain her own court any longer, and so dissolved the San Francisco nest and abandoned America—and her court—entirely. Leaving behind the knife she’d used to decimate the last of hercompetition.
I thought again of my alternatives. I could return to China and find a small Wu court that had survived. Or I could join one of the other American queens. Everyone talked about Keisha Skye’s alliance with the Paris court, and how much stronger that made her, while ignoring theobvious.
Skye was weak enough that she needed an ally to hold her territory, and the Paris queen had been weak enough, despite her age and grand old city, to accept heroffer.
I didn’t even know why I was here, not really. I’d been waiting to feel a call for so long that I’d almost given up and settled on Skye. While Shara Isador certainly carried enough power to make the Triune queens tremble in their precious seats, I didn’t sense the kind of drive and piercing savvy that would make her a threat. The cobra queen had been impressive, no doubt. But I was a killer, a silent assassin, and I didn’t get the impression that she’d be willing to use me in thatregard.
She seemed… soft. Another American queen who wouldn’t be able to stand against the old queens. Too young. Too ignorant. Too…safe.
Standing, she gave me a lingering look, a bit of a frown on her lips. As if she had serious reservations about me, too. She refilled her coffee cup but didn’t return to the table. “Do we have any planstoday?”
The queen. Asking her Blood. What they were doing. I caught myself before I could shake myhead.
“You should rest today, my queen,” the big alpha said, his eyes narrowed with concern, even though he’d been the one killed—by her—thismorning.
I stood and followed her to the next room with her other Blood, my mindwhirling.
Shara picked up an old book on the table, but didn’t sit down. She didn’t say anything, but her alpha glanced at the other two and they disappeared a moment. He sat in the corner of the sofa with his leg up on the cushion, and she settled into his embrace, leaning back against him. The other young Blood tucked them in with a blanket and the knight brought a phone toher.
Guillaume de Payne. Even I had heard of him. That he served at her side definitely made me reconsider her potential stature. She’d managed to call him as Blood when he hadn’t served a queen in a hundredyears.
Scanning her messages, she jerked upright. “There’s a man here asking to speak to the queen. At least he doesn’t know myname.”
“Is he Blood?” Alrikasked.
She closed her eyes, and goose bumps dotted my arms. I felt the brush of her mind sweeping through me like a ghostlyphantom.
“No. Well, I don’t think so.” She looked at me, eyes narrowed. “I don’t feel him, but I don’t feel you, eitherXin.”
She didn’t feel me. I didn’t know what shemeant.
My skin prickled harder and I scented her magic rising. I went down to my knees, submitting to whatever test she wanted to run me through. The more power she displayed, the more I’d be convinced I should be here, rather than finding the New Orleans queen to rate her power. Or perhaps I should have followed rumors of the other queen toMexico…
A wave of energy slammed into me. I shuddered with bliss, my fangs aching. Sweet power. She had plenty of magic to spare. But power wasn’t enough to hold court in America, let alone establish herself against the Triune. Power wouldn’t be enough to hold me,either.
“Let me in,” she whispered aloud. “Or I cannot allow you tostay.”
I opened my eyes, meeting her gaze. “I don’t know what you mean, myqueen.”
“Rik burns like Vesuvius, a volcano ready to erupt at a moment’s notice. I can see him with my eyes closed. Daire prowls in my mind like his warcat, his fur winding around me even if I’m not touching him. All I have to do is think of G and I hear his horse hooves thundering in the night. I heard him before he swore his oaths and gave me his blood. But you…” She didn’t rise or move, but I felt that brush again, as if she touched me. “I feel nothing. I can see you kneeling here, but I can’t feel you at all. Did another queen send you tome?”
“No, my queen. Wu Tien dissolved her bond and returned toChina.”
“Are you athrall?”
Taken aback, I fought to keep my face smooth, my tone normal. “Of course not. You wouldknow.”
“Would I?” She asked Rik over hershoulder.
“Yes. You felt Greyson, and he didn’t feel likeus.”
She gave me another long look of consideration. “He’s so good at hiding, though. Maybe he’s a thrall and is just trying to get close tome.”
Now the big alpha gave me a suspicious look, his shoulders tensing. One gigantic arm curved around his queen, keeping her close to the protection of his body. “One or two human victims, maybe. Any more than that and he’d have a taint, a stench onhim.”
