Page 48 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
20
Karmen
Isat upright, suddenly wide awake.
Sunzi immediately sat up as well, wide awake and alert, though I suspected he had never slept. “What is it, Your Majesty?”
On my other side, Marcus sat up as well, though he didn’t relinquish my hand. Once I’d adjusted to the small, innocent touch, I found that I quite liked the physical connection and comfort. Enough that I had asked him to lay with me too, just so he could hold my hand while Sunzi hugged me.
I had never felt safer in my entire life. Even when I’d been locked in the fire-proof safe room in the wine cellar as a child.
“Something’s happening with the sunfires.” Closing my eyes, I listened to the glowing power flowing through me. It was definitely agitated, sparking with fire bursts that popped and sizzled. I could feel a bone-deep tug in the pit of my stomach, urging me back.
Back to Helayna’s nest. Where Sepdet waited. Of course it was high noon as well.
I swallowed hard and opened my eyes. “What do I need to know about Sepdet before we go back?”
Marcus grunted with disgust. “The fucking bastard was a nightmare before Ra passed. Sorry, my queen.”
I wasn’t sure why he was apologizing. As soon as the thought flickered through my head, he grinned and gave a little nod.
“Got it. Colorful language doesn’t offend you.”
“Not at all. I can’t remember when I had the chance to talk to anyone. Your words will never offend me.”
“Sepdet delights in torture, Your Majesty,” Sunzi said quietly. “He will not be pleasant to you. Seeing him will very likely trigger memories that you’d rather forget.”
Something stirred deep in my memory like a horrible spider awakening because a fly landed in its web. I tried to push it away, but it refused to slide back down to the forgotten depths of my mind.
Ra generally only allowed his spawn to fuck his non-solar queens, and even then, only when he had already tried them himself. But he had given me to Sepdet once to punish me for screaming too much.
Sepdet was the one who’d left the scars on my back. He loved to drip sunfire acid on his victims.
I never screamed again. No matter how much Ra hurt me.
Breathing hard, I leaned against Sunzi’s shoulder. I breathed in his scent. Wrapped my fingers in his hair. His arms locked around me, holding me tightly. Marcus pressed our clasped hands to his chest beneath his other hand, letting me feel the solid thump of his heart.
And it worked. The ugly memory disintegrated, burned away like a scrap of parchment tossed into the boiling sun that flowed through my veins. For once, the raging sun didn’t scare me. I welcomed its heat. Its anger and endless fury. It yearned to blast Sepdet with every ounce of molten solar energy fueling my rage. I would burn him with fire so hot that nothing would be left. Not even a pile of ash to blow away in the breeze.
I embraced the boiling sun. I would need all that rage if I was going to defeat him.
Sunfires rippled through me, carrying me bits of information in flashes. People looking out at the lake. Helayna, her Blood. Another woman, a queen, and men I assumed to be her Blood. Mythological creatures flew overhead. A dragon. Others I couldn’t identify.
Eivind. The wolf king had come back to his sister’s defense. A man stood with him who was vaguely familiar. It took a moment for me to place him as the man who’d found me in the alley after Eivind had called for help. A cop? What could a human cop do about a molten lake of sunfires raging for their freedom?
“The wolf king returned.” Sunzi’s voice was mild, as if he couldn’t care less, but I sensed a deep pulse of resolve between him and Marcus. An unspoken message of solidarity and possibly even revenge. “Will you want to take him as your Blood, Your Majesty?”
Slowly, I shook my head. “He was afraid of me. He doesn’t want to belong to any queen, let alone me. I have more than enough Blood now. I don’t need him.”
“Very good.” Marcus’ voice rumbled with an edge that made chills trickle down my spine. “We shall convey your wishes to him, Your Majesty.”
I focused on images of the lake, watching the swirling sunfire energy. They rushed in a circular pattern around a dark center. Sepdet on his web, waiting to catch his fly. “Why does he want me? Does he know about the heir? Would the sunfires have told him?” A jolt of red-hot lightning tore through me, making me catch my breath. “Evidently not.”
“They see you as their savior, Your Majesty. They will never betray you, especially to Sepdet’s ilk.”
In the safety of House Sunna that didn’t exist any longer, I braced myself to look deeper into the darkness at the center of the lake. I needed to see him. I needed to know how badly I might react now, rather than being blindsided out in the open with strangers watching my every move.
Thick, dark shadows swirled around him. No, they flowedfromhim. He was the darkness, even with the blaze of sunfires flying around him. He held them, pulling them closer to him. As I watched, the ones on the inner path closest to him dimmed. He drained them as easily as I’d drained my Blood when they’d just been Soldiers of Light, but he didn’t take sunfire essence into him like I had. He merely stole their energy. Every time he pulled another pulse of energy from them, the shadows thickened like massive roiling tentacles.
