Page 4 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
I looked around briefly at the other nine men who’d joined me.
Marcus Antonius. Geronimo. Leonides. The Scotsman. Kuros. Chak Ek’. Miyamoto Musashi of the double swords. Vlad the Impaler. Hannibal Barca. Formidable men of warfare and strategy, famed through the ages for their battles, fearlessness, or savagery. Only one thing had brought us together in this hellhole in cooperation despite the risk to our immortal souls.
If Ra found out she carried a child, possibly his heir…
We would very likely never see her again. He would lock her here, or in some other unknown prison, until he could strip the babe away from her. Then…
She’d be useless to him.
The Scotsman climbed to his feet, his sunfire looking even dimmer. “Well, then, it’s a fine time we get her the fuck out of here. I’ve set the portal to return her to the mortal world, though I’m not sure of the year or country. There should be other queens there who can help her until we can follow.”
“No matter,” Antonius said. “We’ll find her anywhere, in any dimension. Right, boys?”
The two sundogs wagged their fiery tails and would have howled with glee at the thought of a hunt if they weren’t muzzled.
Kneeling beside her, I checked her pulse. Her skin was still cool to the touch and she didn’t move or respond, but she was still alive. Barely.
I lifted her carefully, discarding the golden cloth I’d wrapped her in before. I hated sending her away without even a robe, but I didn’t want anything of Heliopolis to go with her. For all I knew, one of the other sunfires might have the ability to track items from this cursed city.
The Scotsman’s rune burned brighter, making the stone beneath it shimmer and then turn transparent. I couldn’t see anything on the other side. No sound passed through. No light. Good. Perhaps our queen would know darkness for the first time in centuries.
She deserved it.
“Stay alive,” I whispered hoarsely.
And then I dropped her through the hole. She was gone in an instant, this woman who meant more to me than any honor or title I had ever been given. Yet I didn’t even know her name.
The gleaming rune rose into the air, losing its shape as it melded back into the sunfire who’d created it. The Scotsman let out a pained grunt, as if someone had punched him in the stomach with a flaming spear.
Yes. I felt the same way. We all did.
Two long, burning swords extended from Musashi’s hands. “Let us raise some havoc and mayhem in her honor.”
The Carthage general’s war elephant trumpeted in agreement.
My sunfire opened the obelisk back to the main pyramid’s courtyard, but I didn’t pass through. “Go, see what you can learn about this new woman. Await my signal.”
“And you, Tzu?” Kuros demanded. “Where will you go?”
He may have suspected that I might depart Heliopolis in search of our queen immediately. I was tempted, surely. But to follow her now would mean her certain death. I certainly wouldn’t abandon my allies to champion my own future with her.
My first instinct was to be insulted and furious. But anger wouldn’t serve our cause. Though we knew our adversary all too well, none of us truly knew the others. We’d only ever served together in this hellscape, where a single whisper of truth could snuff out the flicker of life we still carried at a moment’s notice.
So I didn’t retort. I didn’t even give him a harsh look of warning.
“I go to create havoc as Musashi recommended.” I paused, giving the former samurai a salute, my sword arm crossed over my chest. “I’m going to release the unattached sunfires to the mortal realm.”
The Impaler laughed, a deep belly chuckle completely at odds with his fierce reputation. “I love watching the world burn.”
1
Karmen
Watching the car speed away, I drew a deep, shuddering breath. Eivind the wolfman was gone. A fragile, delicate sprout of what could have been between us quickly withered in the barren, blasted depths of my heart.
It shouldn't hurt so much to let him go. I didn't know him. Not really. A stranger who'd given me a lift and spent a few hours in a car with me. He’d helped me in the alley by calling a friend, but we both knew that wasn't why he'd been there. Everything inside me insisted that he was mine. That I should claim him. Take him. Regardless of what he wanted.
Which was exactly why he needed to drive away. Now. Before I did something stupid and made a terrible mistake.
