Page 56 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
I wanted to be on my feet too. At that thought, Marcus took one of my hands, and Sunzi the other as they helped me stand. I kept their hands in mine, even though they were still Soldiers of Light. Their skeleton forms didn’t bother me, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted the other queens to know they had other forms yet.
They had been amazingly helpful. Helayna had opened her home to me. Shara had come to her aid without hesitation and stood by my side despite Sepdet’s nasty words. But trust didn’t come easily to me. Neither did allowing my emotions to show on my face. I could only hope that they wouldn’t take my reserve for distrust, and that the Aima queens didn’t plot and scheme among themselves as much as the Soldiers of Light evidently had done in Heliopolis.
“Let me introduce you to my consiliarius, Kevin.” Shara turned to a young man, a human, I thought. He had an easy smile and bright, curious eyes that didn’t seem to miss a thing. “I know you’ve both been through a great deal of trauma and might not have resources immediately available to help you establish your nests or gain the help you need. If we can be of assistance in finding your own consiliari or staff, we’re happy to help.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Helayna replied. “My Blood aren’t of this world, so we’ve been struggling to figure out how to stock provisions.”
Shara nodded. “And with a golden lake outside your nest, you’re going to have a lot of media attention right now.”
Helayna’s eyes flared with dismay. “I didn’t think of that. Humans will be flocking here for a chance to take away even a pebble from the beach.”
Inwardly wincing, I glanced back at where the lake had once been. The golden lake was solidifying into a giant, shimmering plate of gold that gleamed in the afternoon sun. If humans loved gold as much as Ra had, she wasn’t going to have a moment’s peace.
Unless…
I faced the lake. Closing my eyes, I focused on the burning sun inside me. The gold had come from somewhere. From me, my power, evidently. So I should be able to call it back, the same as I’d called my blood back to me.
Heat rose within me, but it wasn’t the punishing, blistering heat of retribution this time. I felt the golden rock softening into a puddle once more. Sunfires poured through the air, a shimmering blaze of fiery gold. They swept out over the lake and dived into the gold, bathing and splashing in it like birds. Drinking it. Coating their burning forms in pure gold.
They swept back to me, dancing across the sky on sunbeams and light. At the head of the group, Quasar galloped like the lead stallion of a herd of wild horses. His coat burned almost completely red now rather than the blackened char, though the tips of his horns and his hooves were coated in gold.
A hole opened in the sky. I could see House Sunna in the distance. They already knew my nest as their home.
They galloped and flew through the portal, leaving only a few puddles of gold in the dried lakebed. With some interesting hoof prints and other shapes that would be difficult to identify.
Helayna laughed softly, shaking her head. “I can take it from here. Water is my specialty.”
“Are you rested enough, my queen?” Dörr asked, wrapping his arms around his queen.
Closing her eyes as I had done, she leaned back into his arms. “Yes. With your help.”
Tingles raced down my arms as she called up her magic. There was an easy peace on her face. The look of an artist doing something she loved. A gardener growing her favorite flowers. Or a queen, caring for her nest, using her magic as it was intended.
Water bubbled up from the earth, quickly filling the lake once more.
As I turned back toward my Blood, I happened to catch Shara’s gaze. Her eyes gleamed like deep, bottomless wells. Secret places. Old magic. Dark, wet rocks and roots winding through the earth. Trees standing as sentinels while sand blew through the night beneath a shining full moon. In the distance, I saw a pyramid, though this one wasn’t solid gold like Ra’s. A gentle breeze brought a sweet flowery scent to my nose, along with the smell of desert sands and spice.
I blinked, pulling back from her gaze. She didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help but wonder what she had seen in my eyes while I stared into hers.
24
Eivind
Ifelt like an outsider in my own goddess-damned home where I’d grown up.
The Isador contingent had returned to their nest through the last Ironheart tree, except for the kilted man and the human consiliarius, who was typing madly on a laptop as Helayna gave him a list of things she wanted for the nest. Her three Blood stood around the room, silent gloomy characters, but at least they knew they were welcome and needed.
She never would have held the nest until help arrived without them.
Even Detective Harris sat at the table, eyes wide and mouth miraculously shut as they rattled off not just Ironheart business but general Aima court information as well. Evidently, they’d somehow decided he was part of all this fucking mess. I had no idea how he was going to explain what had happened to his commander when he returned to Chicago.
If he returned. Because honestly, I didn’t think he could ever go back to his human life. He knew too much now. Maybe that was why Helayna didn’t mind him listening in. She had already accepted the fact that I’d have to dump him in a ditch somewhere.
:Don’t be an idiot,:she retorted in my head.:You’ll do no such thing.:
:He knows too much. What are we going to do with him?:
:That’s for you and Karmen to work out. It’s not my concern.:
