Page 37 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
Karmen
Iawoke, unaware of having fallen asleep. Unsure of my location, or if I was alone, I didn’t move or open my eyes. I listened, straining to sense something that would tell me where I was.
Breathing nearby. My heart pounded, but I barely breathed for fear of betraying myself. On the extremely rare occasion that Ra had fallen asleep after fucking me, the moment I moved, he would awaken too, and there would be no escape.
But the longer I listened, the more I remembered.
I remembered feasting on each of the soldiers who’d gained human bodies. One by one, I’d drained them to the point of weakness. Most of them had passed out on the ground. A pile of bodies at my feet, all unconscious.
While I felt better and better.
I tried to feel some remorse or dread at the memory, but each of them had begged me to take them next. Not one had hesitated. And I had not been able to resist. After missing out on feeding my entire life in Heliopolis, I had evidently decided to make up for lost time.
I didn’t open my eyes yet, but I scanned through my body, feeling for any injuries or lingering pain. Any spots of weakness. But I felt incredibly strong. Sunfire essence sparked in my veins, coursing through my body like liquid rivers of pure solar energy. Heat radiated through me. I wasn’t an empty burned-out shell any longer. In fact, it felt as though I’d swallowed a burning sun that hovered where my heart had been.
Helayna had tried to tell me that I was powerful and deep. Sinking into that liquid burning energy, I was starting to understand what she meant.
Immediately, I felt the presence of my new Blood. Touching that energy, I could feel and see and know what they knew without effort. Ten fiery ropes braided together inside that sun, fueling me in an infinite loop. Solar heritage from Sól, mixed with the galactic energy of a blazing supernova.
I didn’t recall much about my House, but I was sure that Sunna hadn’t been all that powerful. So where had all that solar power come from? Had I picked up some of Ra’s power that he’d stolen from all the other solar Houses? Or was it…
His tiny heir curled in my womb?
I would need to decide soon whether I intended to carry it or not. With this ocean of power flooding my system, it would be easy to simply absorb the clump of cells that Ra had left inside me. In fact, all this energy flowing through me might make it even stronger, quicker. If it started draining me, like I’d drained my new Blood…
It would become even stronger before it was born. I couldn’t wait too long, or it’d have hooks and claws in me that I might never be able to disengage.
Opening my eyes, I looked up at a white-washed ceiling and thick wooden beams that formed a vault overhead. I turned my head and saw an open window framed with painted sky-blue shutters. White curtains fluttered in a gentle breeze. Birds sang outside. I lifted my head enough to look about the room, finally placing it. My mother’s bedroom.
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this room had been destroyed when Ra took me. But no smoke or ash marred the perfect white walls and wooden beams.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Sunzi said, drawing my attention to a chair on the other side of the bed. “I hope this was an acceptable place for you to rest.”
I knew his voice, but his now-human image still startled me. His black hair gleamed in the light, spilling around his shoulders and down to his waist. He no longer wore the painfully bright armor of a Soldier of Light but instead wore a red tunic beneath a complicated crisscrossed harness of leather belts and chest plate. Simple leather pants and boots completed his outfit.
Not a single shining piece of gold anywhere.
It actually made me smile.
Which made him smile back, softening the harsh lines of his face. Lines creased his forehead and around his dark eyes. A neatly trimmed mustache framed his mouth and chin. I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed that he hadn’t smiled much even in his first life before Ra resurrected him.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, slowly sitting up beneath a thin cotton sheet. I’d burned my clothes off, and most of my flesh, I’d feared. Though looking down at my hands and arms, my skin was perfectly smooth and unscarred.
“I sent them downstairs so we wouldn’t startle you when you awoke.”
“How long have I been asleep?”
He shrugged slightly. “This is a place outside of the fabric of time as you know it. We could stay here indefinitely, or travel to any location that you wish. The Keys of Heaven allow any portal to be opened.”
“This place was destroyed long ago.”
He nodded. “But it still exists in your mind, Your Majesty. This place is fueled by your magic. Your power. Will something to be so, and it will be done immediately.”
“It would be nice to have some clothing.” I said it lightly, not really sure it would work. But I immediately saw a flash of gold beneath the sheet and felt the smooth silk against my skin.
The same hated robe I’d had to wear in Heliopolis. My stomach churned. Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed that robe away and burned in a fiery furnace. I hated everything it stood for. Everything it reminded me of.
I smelled smoke and opened my eyes, shaken to see a pile of ash on the floor, blackening the wooden plank. Shaken, both at how quickly I’d imagined the robe and its destruction, I carefully pictured the clothes that Helayna had worn, though sized to fit my taller body. Blue tight-fitting pants. A soft pink shirt. Better.
