Page 62 of Queen Takes King
Six-inch long claws dug into my belly, pricking my skin. His threat was clear. With a twitch of his foot, he’d eviscerate me before I couldscream.
Time seemed to slow. Or maybe my mind was firing super fast. I thought through my options. Whether I should blast him with a giant fireball now—though fire would be pretty useless against a fire-breathing dragon. Or use Rik’s troll strength to push him off me. Or Xin’s ghostly invisibility. I was pretty sure I could make myself disappear, but I’d feel pretty stupid if it didn’twork.
On the other hand, Leviathan wasn’t hurting me. He hadn’t even let me bang too hard on the ground. The skeleton had hurt my knee and ankle way more than his tail had. He’d scared me a little. That wasit.
So I’d play along. Let him think I was as scared as he wanted me to be. Other than what he’d gleaned from my dreams, he had no idea what kind of power I had, or what my personality was. Whether I’d fight, or surrender. Plot his demise, or capitulate at the first sign offorce.
I forced some smart-alec bravado into my voice. “Seems as though I forgot the key for your chains. Ohwait…”
He lowered his giant head and let out what I thought was a chuckle, though it sounded like a bear waking up after a long winter of hibernation. “That was a nice touch in your dreams, wasn’t it? I thought you might feel safer approaching me if you thought I wasbound.”
The strong musk of his snake scent filled my nose. My spine itched and my fangs ached, like the cobra wanted to slither out of me and roll in his scent. I shuddered, fighting down that thought. No cobra. Though the massive fangs that had left fist-sized wounds in Rik’s stomach might be a nice weapon to use againstLeviathan.
He lowered his massive head closer. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited foryou?”
“It couldn’t be that long. I’m only twenty-two.”
He snarled and snapped his teeth close to my ear, making me flinch away. “Notyouin particular, but any Aima queen stupid enough to try and freeme.”
“So you don’t want to befree?”
“Not if my freedom comes with the kind of hooks that queens try and put into me. I’d rather be here than chained to obey like those morons you call Blood. I don’t live to serve. I don’t live to protect. I don’t give a fuck aboutyou.”
Yet he’d been so careful so far. He hadn’t even scratched me. “Fair enough. I don’t give a fuck about you either. I already have Blood to feed and protectme.”
“And fuckyou.”
“Of course. So if you don’t want your freedom, I’ll be on myway.”
“I want my freedom more than anything, but I won’t trade one prison foranother.”
“Iwouldn’t—”
He threw his head back and roared out blistering-hot flames that crackled to the cave’s ceiling. “Don’t lie to me. You would. All queenswould.”
Such rage. He didn’t only want revenge against Ra. A queen—maybe several—had hurt him just as badly as the god who’d locked him away from the world for thousands of years. “You don’t know me,” I said softly. “You don’t know what Iwant.”
“Queens want the samething.”
“What do you want? Why did you want me to come here, if not to freeyou?”
“Oh, I never said you weren’t going to free me.” He tightened his claws on my stomach, deliberately breaking my skin. “But it will be on myterms.”
I had a feeling I knew what his terms were. “Let meguess.”
“I need queen’s blood to leave this plane, but I refuse to be bound to a queen. So what does that mean, YourMajesty?”
He wanted my blood. And he didn’t mean to let me walk away, because I would own his ass then. So the only way he could take my blood and not have a bond… was if I wasdead.
I toned down my sense of my Blood bonds as well as I could. Like Xin, I let fog fill me. Not to disappear, but to shield my Blood from the undeniable pain that was coming. If they felt what Leviathan did to me, they’d come after me. He’d kill them, or they’d kill him, and in the end, someone that the goddess had sent to me would be gone. A hole would live in myheart.
I didn’t know Leviathan. Not really. But Isis had said he was my destiny. To me, that meant he was mine tolove.
Even if he hurtme.
27
Shara
