Page 15 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
My head throbbed. Maybe I’d been injured more than I thought. My ankle definitely hurt, and I could barely put weight on it. I had to have imagined it. I didn’t have a blood bond with anyone. Let alone Soldiers of Light.
:War didn’t mean to bite you. Though I can’t say that I regret it. You carry sunfire essence now. They assure me you’re hearing my words. You must come to us, Your Majesty. We will protect you. But first, you must call your blood back to you. I see it burning like a beacon. We all do. Worse creatures will be on the hunt, if they’re not already on this plane, following your trail.:
I pressed a hand to my forehead, my fingers trembling. Sunfire essence inside of me? Was I possessed by one of the demons, then? Would it kill me? Devour me from the inside out?
The baby…
Ra’s baby. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to keep it yet. If I wanted to extend his brutal legacy in any way, shape, or form. Even if it was half me.
Swallowing hard, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to feel anything inside me. Anything that didn’t belong. But my ankle burned too much, a throb that pounded with my heartbeat. The pain was up to my knee now. What would happen if it reached my womb? My heart?
“How do I call my blood back to me?” I whispered, not opening my eyes. I didn’t want them to see the fear spreading through me as quickly as the sunfire essence.
“Tell it to come to you,” Helayna replied. “Will it so. You’re queen. You command the power in your blood. You can pull it back to you with a thought.”
I wasn’t sure that I believed her, but Mryk’s breathing was more labored. My blood was burning him, spreading, evidently as badly as the sundog’s bite had poisoned me. My thoughts were too chaotic to focus, but I had to try.
Keeping my eyes closed, I stretched my hand toward him, palm out. I could almost feel the heat of my blood rising into the air. Humming and buzzing with a static, low roar.Come back to me.
Pellets hit my palm, spreading like a warmed oil. Otherwise, I didn’t really feel anything. No spark or burst of power. I opened my eyes and looked at my palm in the muted light, but I didn’t see any blood.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Mryk said, his voice softer, his breathing normal. “The pain is gone.”
They were all watching me, weighing my every word and action. There was so much I didn’t know. If I messed up, betrayed myself somehow… Who could I turn to for help in this strange world? “I’m sorry it hurt you. I didn’t know.”
I took a step to gain some space from their scrutiny, but my leg buckled, almost dumping me to the floor. Mryk steadied me, helping me to sit down on something in the darkness.
Helayna looked up at Dörr for several long moments, giving me the impression they were having a silent conversation. Like the man, the soldier, talking in my head. I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it. Ra had done a lot of fucked up things to me, but he’d never taken possession of my head. My thoughts had been my own. I could wish him dead for what he’d done to me, but keep the vacant, pleasant look on my face.
Finally, she stepped closer and dropped to her knees in front of me. “Let’s see this injury.” The big man glared at me like I’d called his queen a horrible name. “Maybe it’s something I can heal.” He made a low, vicious sound, and she quickly added, “Without giving you blood. As I said, Karmen, I have no intention of forming a sibling relationship with you. Not unless or until you’ve learned all you need to know about Aima politics. But that does limit how much I can help.”
She transferred the glowing ball of light to Mryk’s palm, who cradled the sphere like a newborn kitten. When she touched my ankle, we both winced. “Oh, dear. I feel the heat in your skin already. What can you tell me about sundog bites?”
I gritted my teeth as she pulled the torn material up my calf. “Not much. I think it infected me with sunfire essence.”
“Like a poison?”
Her hands felt like ice against my skin as she touched up to my knee, testing the soreness and heat. “I don’t know. I think it may be more like a… a… possession. I could hear the soldier from outside in my head.”
She chewed her lip in thought. “Dörr, remember when I fed on you the first time? You called it essence too.”
He grunted an acknowledgement but didn’t add any words that I could hear. By the way she nodded, he spoke directly into her head.
He didn’t trust me. Why should he? That was one thing proven to me a million times in Heliopolis. I had no one to help me. No one to trust.
:Trust me.:The voice came in my head again.:We’re free, now. Free to protect you.:
Now. As opposed to when Ra had been alive. Bitterness stiffened my spine. I didn’t know if he could hear my thoughts or not, but I retorted in my head.:I don’t need protection from men who stood by and watched what Ra did to me.:
“I don’t know that it’s the same,” Helayna mused. “Their essence empowered me, even better than blood I dare say. It didn’t hurt me, and this is obviously hurting you. Let me see if I can draw it out.”
I nodded, not sure what that involved, but I was game.
She lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit herself, deeply if the instant flow of blood was any indication. Eyes wide, I watched as she transformed. Her short, choppy hair suddenly flowed down her shoulders, waving as if a gentle breeze ruffled the strands. I smelled a forest, only that didn’t capture the grandeur and scale at all. A cathedral of nature, a secret sanctuary of giant trees, whispering in the wind. A deep murmur just beyond my understanding.
Her eyes deepened to a deep, greenish black, ancient bark covered in moss. She held her bleeding wrist out toward me, her fingers a handspan from my face. So close, her blood made my mouth throb, but it was distant compared to the blaze creeping up my leg.
“It’s not poison.” Her voice echoing even though she spoke softly. “I see life. It lives in you.”
