Page 12 of Queen Takes Darkness: Helayna
Heat flared down my arms and spine, driving away the chill, damp air of this place. I took several more swallows, but then licked my punctures closed. I needed to be able to hold their friend, and I didn’t know what my capacity was. As I lifted my head, I opened my eyes and gasped.
I could see. Rather than endless black and vague shapes, I could make out shades of black, gray, and deep purple. I could see the planes of Myrk’s face. His skin was completely black and his eyes glittered like chips of obsidian laced with purple amethysts. I looked over at Dörr. He was completely black too, but his eyes sparked with a deep midnight blue.
“I can see you.”
He flinched. Mouth tight, eyes narrowed, he waited without answering.
He waited for me to turn away. Flee. Scream. Faint. All of the above.
Gently, I reached up and cupped his cheek. “I will never fear you.”
His eyes widened, flaring closer to sapphire than midnight blue. “My queen.” He swallowed hard, dropping his head, his shoulders sagging. “As much as I love your words, it cannot be. You deserve Blood that you can love. That will shelter you with their bodies and hearts.”
“You cannot?”
His head snapped up. “I can indeed, my queen. I would…” His shoulders shook, his jaws grinding as if he chewed on massive boulders, slowly breaking them down into gravel. “But you…”
“You think I cannot love you?” Deliberately, I waited for an answer, letting the silence weigh heavily between us for several long moments.
I started to shake my hair back over my shoulders, but felt instead the heavy flop of the braid down my back. Rage flickered through me. My hair. The bastard had touched my hair.
I didn’t even care that said bastard was a god. Nobody touched my hair.Nobody.
Jerking the braid around in front of me, I found the end and started working my hair free. It was coated in snake gunk and wet with goddess only knew what, which fueled my fury. “You don’t know me yet, so allow me to give you a word of advice. It’s never wise to tell any queen what she cannot do. Let aloneme.”
DÖRR
Ididn’t need to carry her blood inside me to know that she was angry. No, furious. Her fingers flew over the braid, quickly unraveling her hair while she muttered to herself.
“My hair. That bastard. Nobody touches my hair. Why the fuck would he braid it? I hate it. I hatehim.”
I didn’t know why it infuriated her so much. Her hands started to shake and her eyes glistened with tears.
Goddess above. She hadn’t cried inside the belly of Jörmungandr. She hadn’t cried as we’d pulled her through his guts. Or as her body tried to heal the damage done by his coils.
I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to help her. Hold her. But she’d clearly said that no one should touch her hair.
Her head jerked up and she whirled around, presenting me with her back. “Would you please help me? I want this fucking braid outnow.”
Reverently, I picked up the heavy braid hanging down her back. My fingers had never felt so huge and clumsy, moving with as much dexterity as a cold-stone gargoyle. But I worked her hair loose, carefully keeping the strands untangled until the entire mass hung free and unbraided. Even wet and sticky from being inside the snake, it was beautiful. I wanted to bury my face in her hair and breathe her in. Clutch her to my chest and swear that never again would anyone touch one precious hair on her head unless she willed it.
“Do it.” She looked back over her shoulder at me, her eyes flashing in the darkness like swords. “If you’re to be my Blood, I need to hear those words. I need to know I’m safe.”
My entire body trembled. I might be a giant compared to her, but she broke me apart with her words.
I ducked down low so I could press my face to her back, bracing my fists on the ground so I wouldn’t touch her accidentally. Her hair was heavy, wet silk and stank of snake, but I’d never felt anything so beautiful in my very long life. “As long as I live, no one shall touch another precious hair on your head, my queen. So I swear it on Yggdrasil.”
As she turned toward me, I started to rise back from her, but she touched me again, her hand on my chest. And I couldn’t find it in me to move away if she was willing to touch me.
“I have called the Blood that I need, and I intend to love you.”
I opened my mouth to insist that was impossible.
And froze when she pressed her mouth to mine.
I had never seen lightning but I imagined a massive bolt from Thunderer would carry such power. All that energy crashed into me, stunning me. Her lips tasted like sunlight and warmth. Love and hope. A shining light of all the living things in this world. Everything I had never seen or known.
She breathed heat into me. The darkness inside me swelled, eager to burst free and obliterate her. How could I possibly hold her, let alone love her, without destroying the very thing I treasured?
