Page 21 of Queen Takes Sunfires 1
My whole body felt cold and numb with shock. I'd expected a great many horrible things to happen to me once Ra's minions caught up to me. But I'd never expected this.
"Stupid bitch. No wonder..." His breath caught on a low curse and he jerked me closer to him. I pulled back, leery of his blazing sunfire that usually hovered over his shoulders like a glowing red mantle he'd worn to battle. Only the burn didn’t come. No sunfire hovered around his shoulders. "God above, he did it. You carry his child. A solar queen carrying an heir to His Imperial Majesty. Ra's glory lives on in you."
"No," I rasped. "Never."
Ignoring me, he whispered low, vicious words, each one wounding me. "They will devour that child you carry. You do realize that, right? They'll rip it from your belly before it can be born. Then they'll eat what's left of you. No wonder they rushed to this realm as soon as the gate failed. I thought they came for you, but they scented the very thing they've feared all along. Why else would Ra want a queen of his own line so badly? Only solar blood can command the sunfires. He needed a female heir to carry his gift. The Eye of Ra, blessed by the Great Goddess, Wadjet. His Eye lives on in you."
Aurelianwent down on one knee before me. My brain skittered away in terror, laughing like a mad woman.
"I'll help you subdue the sunfires before they can devour you or the precious child you carry." He took my hand in dead, bony fingers, ignoring my automatic attempt to pull free of his iron grip. "Karmen Sunna, accept me at your side. Use my sword to defend Her Imperial Majesty, heir to Heliopolis."
My ears roared with the sound of rushing wind. No, that was my thoughts, swirling frantically. I now had confirmation, however unwanted, that the human doctor was right. I was pregnant. Not just with any heir, but Ra's heir.
The very reason he'd kept so many queens captive in Heliopolis over the centuries. That I also descended from a solar house only made this unborn child all the more dangerous.
All of Ra's blistering solar power, mixed with whatever gifts I had inherited through House Sunna before my power had been burned out. Would this child inherit her father's insatiable thirst for power? His dark lust for the pain and suffering of others? Could any child formed through an eternity of torture ever be normal or safe to bring into existence? Was she doomed to be as vicious? Insane? Violent?
Did I dare risk bringing such an unknown force to life?
Ra had always wanted a Helios queen, and now, I had the ultimate power to deny him. He was dead. Gone. Nothing could stop me from ridding myself of this burden before it was too late. In fact, the world may very well be glad if this future queen winked out of existence before she could carry out Ra's ultimate destruction.
Eye of Ra indeed.
A lifetime of keeping my feelings and thoughts hidden came to my aid automatically. "What are you offering?"
"I will smash anyone who stands against you beneath the legion's boots. Sol Invictus will swear an oath to protect you."
I didn't need a goddess's power to hear the words he left unsaid. "Until Ra's heir is delivered. Then I’m useless to you."
He pressed the sword blade to his mouth and held it over his heart. "I'll swear any oath you wish, my queen. Bring the sunfires back under control, and the Soldiers of Light will swear allegiance to you and your daughter."
I closed my eyes a moment, letting the peace of darkness fill my mind. His words reverberated through me.
Bring the sunfires back under control.
Most of them have abandoned their carriers.
That was why his sunfire hadn't burned me when he pulled me close.
He'd lost his demon.
He still had power and formidable strength, so I wasn't safe by any means. The molten gold of Ra's power burned in his empty eye sockets. But how long would that power sustain him with Ra dead and gone? How long before the shining armor dulled? Until the brutally white bones withered into dust and blew away on the sands of time?
No wonder he wanted to serve me.
Not because he wanted to protect me or make amends for all the pain and suffering he'd caused. Not even to protect this child I carried.But to preserve his own goddess-cursed existence.
I opened my eyes and weighed the power blazing in his eyes. "How long do you have before Ra's power fades and you turn into a pile of rotted, broken bones?"
He hissed, squeezing my hand brutally. "You forget yourself. You need protection. You need help. Have you forgotten the agony of a sunfire's embrace?"
Ignoring the pain in my hand, I leaned forward, holding his gaze. For the first time in my life, I allowed my hatred and rage to burst forth from inside me. My eyes burned with emotion. "Have you forgotten how many times you tortured me?"
He jerked slightly, as if my words actually caused him pain. Not from guilt—but from the power behind each word.
My power. Denied to me my entire life.
"Did you honestly think that I would go back to Heliopolis?" I lashed him with my rage, relishing the way he twitched and quivered with each word. "Withyou? You were as bad as Ra. Worse, actually. He at least gave me a rare moment of conversation. You only ever treated me like trash. Is that why you threw me out of Heliopolis?"
