Page 90 of Queen Takes Triune
A pearly silver glow brightened the chamber. For a moment, I saw Esetta’s face, so like mine. Her smile of pride made my heart swell and ache with longing. My mother. I wished I had known her.
I hovered closer to the shining object. It was small. Maybe a foot tall and slightly rounded. A statue, I thought. But I couldn’t make out the details.
Something pulled me back. Dragging me under, hauling me through water and vegetation. Toward the sun. Life. My Blood.
Yes. It was time.
Esetta’s voice carried through the water to me.You were sworn to all three Triunes—so you could choose.
An image filled my head. I stared up at my mother’s face. Two others stood on either side of her. A sharp prick on my heel made me wail, but she soothed me. Her whispers rocking me to sleep.
By her blood, Shara Isador is sworn to the Triune. By her blood, Shara Isador is sworn to Skolos. By her blood, Shara Isador is sworn to Triskeles. By her blood, last daughter of Isis, Great One, She who is and was and always will be, Shara Isador will choose her path with all the love in her heart.
Choose, daughter of mine, and know that I will always love you.
28
Shara
Before I opened my eyes, I heard Ezra grumbling.
“Now we’ve got land, air,andsea covered. But fuck me sideways, is he uuuuuug-ley.”
The sound of a fist landing on a hard body made me sit up. Mehen growled, “What makes you think we’re ever going to have a battle at sea, you stinking pile of fur?”
Something was wrong with my neck. My head was ridiculously heavy and twisted around funny. It took way too much effort to hold my head upright.
I didn’t realize the heavy crown had slid down, tangled in my hair, until Rik pulled it free and set it in my lap.
Naturally, he had me tight against his body, his one good arm wrapped around me. He’d been worried about me first, despite the spear still embedded in his shoulder. I turned in his arms and eyed the spearhead that protruded from the front of his body by a foot. They’d skewered him good. Fucking bastards.
“Can someone break the shaft and pull it out?”
Itztli immediately grabbed the tail-end and Tlacel the front. He held it steady while his brother cracked the thick shaft in half like it was a piece of kindling. Rik didn’t even groan as Tlacel pulled the splintered wood out of his shoulder.
I drew Rik’s head down to my throat and he had his fangs in me before Marne could stop him.
“You can’t access your power,” she retorted. “You can’t heal him.”
Calmly, I looked up at her, letting her see the flat, dead look in my eyes that promised I was beyond pissed. I was ready to hand out retribution all around. “You never said I couldn’t feed, or that my Blood couldn’t feed.”
“Your blood is a weapon,” she gritted out. “All queens’ blood is dangerous. How dare you utilize such a weapon inside my nest?”
I shrugged. “You should have been more specific in whatever spell you laid on your circle. I won’t use my power against you, but goddess help me if I’ll sit by and allow my alpha to suffer when a few swallows of my blood will heal him.”
“Besides, you did tell her to take a Blood, Your Majesty,” Gina said in her most business-like voice. “She can only comply if shefeedssaid Blood. So this isn’t expressly forbidden by the constraints you laid upon House Isador before we entered your nest.”
A tentacle slithered closer, reminding me of his presence. He didn’t touch me, but I knew what he wanted. What he needed.
Rik lifted his head, allowing my blood to drip down my throat. I stared up at the kraken’s giant shape, amazed and yeah, a little repulsed, but he was also fascinating. His head was a weird arched hump at the end of an oblong body. His mouth and head were outlined in smaller tentacles, almost like a living, Medusa-style beard or mane. A spiny ridge lined his back, and thicker, longer tentacles sprouted from his base.
In broad daylight, he was a dark purple-gray with pearly soft lavender suckers on his tentacles.
Hesitantly, he reached out one of those tentacles, watching my reaction as it lightly tickled my arm. He’d already touched me with them, and I hadn’t run screaming, but evidently, he was worried about how I’d react now that I saw him fully.
“Duuuude.” Drawing the word out, Daire shook his head and laughed. “She freed your miserable ass from the bottom of a fucking koi pond. I think she’s gonna be fine with what you look like.”
“Feed, my Blood. I want to see you and know your name.”
