Page 45 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
Everything I believed about my family was based on a lie. Why hadn’t they just told me why my father refused to let his wolf run free? Did Helayna know? Had she kept the truth from me all this time?
Afraid that the one person I had depended on might have allowed me to believe lies our entire lives, I hesitantly touched her bond. I needed to know. Even if it would kill me.:Did you know about House Skye?:
Through the bond, I could feel her bone-deep weariness. Only pride kept her on her feet. She didn’t want to appear weak before this Triune queen who’d come to her aid.:Skye? Is that the queen of New York City? What about her?:
:Our mother was her sibling. They had a very interesting arrangement.:
She was too tired to try and hide her emotions from me. All I felt was confusion from her.:Mother swore us to Skye? When?:
:After my birth.:
:Wouldn’t I have known? Or felt it? She never said a word.:
I stared at the thick parchment, hating it. Our mother. Our father. For not telling us the truth.
But most of all, I hated myself for all the lies I’d made up in my head, about the very people who’d silently put their lives on the line.
So that I could remain free.
19
Eivind
Tail between my legs, at least metaphorically, I slunk back to join the Isador group with my sister. We had too much to do to save our nest for me to worry much about why Shara Isador had thought it important for me to know that tidbit about Ironheart’s arrangement with Skye. Or even how it would change things going forward.
Was my father still alive? He’d been alive when Helayna was taken, but I hadn’t seen him since. I certainly hadn’t looked for him.
As I approached, I heard the low, fierce words the biggest Blood whispered to my sister. “You must feed again. You can hardly stand.”
Her jaw tightened and she gripped his arm, though she refused to look at him. I didn’t hear her response, so she must have retorted through their bond. But I agreed with him. She didn’t look good at all.
“You need more Blood,” I said as I joined them.
Her head whipped around, her eyes flaring wide. “I’d have to go back to Hvergelmir.”
“Never,” one of the other Blood hissed out, his black eyes glittering like obsidian shards. “We barely got you out last time. Besides, they’re all the same as dead. I don’t know that you could wake them.”
“There aren’t… uh…” I started to saynormalBlood she could call, not dark alfar, but I caught myself before I could say something offensive and stupid. She loved these Blood, and I couldn’t fault them in the slightest for the way they’d cared for her. We just needed more of them if she was going to be pulling this kind of energy going forward to protect the nest. “More of you? Here?”
If he suspected that I had meant to insult him, the alpha merely shook his head. “Our kind only dwell in the realms of Hel. We dare not take her back.”
Shara Isador stared out over the dried up lake bed, seemingly oblivious to our discussion. A glittering dome hung over the nest, some kind of shield, I guessed. Balls of fire dropped from the sky and rolled away from the cabin and Helayna’s last beloved tree.
Shara’s eyes were unfocused, as if she conversed with another, or saw something only visible to her. When I’d first met her in the woods of Arkansas, I’d thought she was dangerously powerful.
But that power was like a drop in the bucket to what she carried now. The air around her was thick and heavy, so laced with magic that it was nearly impossible to breathe. My wolf’s ruff stood on end, tail alert and fluffed with nerves. She only wore regular clothes, like my sister, but she might as well have been wearing a crown and full court regalia. You couldn’t feel that much power and not know what she was.
Unstoppable.
If she decided to take me, there was absolutely nothing I could do to prevent it. Or if she decided Helayna had to become her sibling before she would help us. For the first time in my life, I fully understood what it meant to be helpless.
And that was only a fraction of what Karmen had suffered in Heliopolis. Guilt strangled me. I had to find her. I had to find a way to help her.
“Show me again what you saw,” Shara said, her voice detached and distant. I wasn’t sure if she meant me, when I’d seen the soldier skeletons, or Helayna… But evidently, she meant the phoenix, because she lay her hand on Vivian’s shoulder and stood silently, reading whatever the Blood showed her through their bond.
“My queen.” One of the other Blood dropped down to one knee before her. “If you’d care to show the others, you can use my eyes.”
“Yes, of course.” Smiling, Shara cupped the man’s cheek. “Thank you, Llewellyn, for reminding me of your gift. Show them what you saw.”
