Page 72 of Queen Takes Triune
He snapped at my flank, though I easily side-stepped his wicked teeth.:To Rome and back, firecrotch.:
21
Shara
Relieved that Mehen was apparently unharmed and headed back to me, I concentrated on my guests.
I hadn’t thought much about formalities when I’d asked Gwen to bring Kevin to me. I hadn’t even warned Winston that another queen was joining me. Gracious as always, he quickly returned to the kitchen and grabbed another cup, though he lightly chided me. “If I’d known you were expecting guests, I would have used the finest china, my queen.”
“This is perfect, Winston. Thank you. This is Gwen Camelot, her alpha Lance Camelot, and my soon-to-be second consiliarius, Kevin Bloom. I can’t remember if I formally introduced you before. Everyone, this is my very dear friend and Isador butler, Timothy Winston.”
Gwen had started to lift the cup to her lips, but she quickly set the cup down. A sound escaped her lips, almost like a hiccup. Lance immediately leaned down to offer her comfort, gently patting her shoulder.
She was fucking crying.
Oh goddess. Had I made a horrible faux pas? She’d been introduced to me as Gwen Findabair, but surely now that she’d claimed her Blood and taken her rightful place as queen of her house…
I checked her bond and breathed a small sigh of relief. She was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. Not furious or embarrassed that I’d gotten her name wrong.
Winston handed her a napkin and she lightly dabbed her eyes. “I’m so sorry, my queen. It’s just the first time I’ve ever heard my house name used like that. Camelot has been dead for so long that I feared my house would only be a distant memory.”
“Camelot lives once more in you, and I’m honored to call you my sibling.” I turned my attention to Kevin, who waited not-so-patiently off to the side. As soon as I looked at him, he snapped to my side. “Are you sure—”
“Yes,” he said quickly, grinning. “I’m sure. I’ve wanted nothing else, even though Grandad tried to scare me off at a young age.”
“How did he try to scare you off?”
Kevin chuckled, shaking his head. “He took me to the office when I was six, determined to bore me to death with all the menial recordkeeping tasks the job requires. He showed me a simple spreadsheet and gave me a stack of receipts to enter. He told me later that he expected me to sneak outside to play or to start drawing on the receipts. Something a normal kid would do. Instead, when he came back, I’d entered all the receipts and color-coded them by categories I’d made up.”
“How old were you when you created the new Triune sibling database?” Gina asked.
“Eighteen.”
“Amazing,” Gina replied. “And Marne Ceresa isn’t going to be furious at us for taking you away from her house?”
“Not at all. Grandad set the expectation for me a long time ago that I was to find my own house to serve. That’s how I ended up at House Skye.”
I’d torn both wrists open deeply not even an hour ago, but the delicate skin was smooth and unblemished. Even the heart tree’s thorn that had gone through my heart hadn’t left a scar.
I punctured my right wrist with the tip of my nail and offered my hand to him.
Kevin dropped to his knees as he took my hand in shaking fingers. “I swear my life to you, Your Majesty, Shara Isador, last daughter of Isis. I will gladly serve your house and yours alone in any way that you direct. I will protect your legacy and house with my life and every skill the goddesses granted me.”
Smiling, I nodded, and he dipped his head down to my blood.
Power flowed through me, bubbling up like a pure, sweet spring from the depths of the earth. My bonds shimmered, the scent of my blood stirring my Bloods’ beasts.
Purring, Daire pressed against my left knee. “Long live Shara fucking Isador.”
“Long live our queen,” Rik murmured against my ear.
As Kevin swallowed my blood, I sank deeper into him, infusing him with power. His mind was like a formidable computer, lightning fast and so incredibly organized. Maybe it was the anecdote he’d told me earlier about color-coding the spreadsheet that flavored my impressions, but his brain seemed to naturally group things into unique segments that at first glance didn’t make sense.
It was as if Carys had re-shelved the library by the color of the books’ spines rather than their genre, title, or author. You’d never dedicate a shelf just to red books, regardless of what they were about. But that was exactly how Kevin’s mind worked.
I touched one section and found memories of his childhood, but there were holes in those memories, sometimes years apart. A section right beside it also had memories of his childhood. It took me a moment to figure out that these memories were organized by location.
All the memories of his Grandad’s office were here. These other memories were somewhere else. I flickered through them, watching just enough of each one to pinpoint where they took place.
