Page 30 of Queen Takes Blood
“Would it help to talk about it?” Brigid asked.
Weary in my soul, I turned around and sat with my back against the tree. “My family is directly descended from the Morrigan through my mother, Queen Muirín. When I was three years old, she moved our family home from Ireland to Fortingall and tended a grove of magical trees given to us by the Battle Goddess Herself.”
I paused, waiting for her incredulous questions and rightful doubts. My kind had been careful to keep our existence a secret to the humans populating the world. We moved among them when necessary—but kept ourselves apart as much as possible. Surely my claim to be a child of the Morrigan would earn Brigid’s skepticism.
Yet she didn’t look at me with doubt or concern for my mental stability. “I’ve never heard of Queen Muirín, but I’ve seen the trees, from a distance, of course. Every practicing druid in the land has probably quietly crept as closely as possible to see such a marvel. She moved here when you were only three, yet those trees are thousands of years old. How is that possible?”
One corner of my mouth twitched toward a wry grin. “I’m not so old as that but I’m definitely older than I may appear to your eyes. Though the trees have not been here that long.” I caught myself with a grimace. “Rather, theyhadnot been here that long. They sprouted in a matter of hours and bore the markings of living thousands of years because they were magical.”
“Are you saying your mum was somehow able to grow a thousand-year-old tree overnight? Not just one but many? How is that possible?”
“Sacrifice,” I whispered, remembering her screams. “She gave the trees her own blood and grow they did, thousands of years in a matter of hours. She tended the grove, and in exchange, the trees protected our family.”
“How long had your family lived in Ireland then?”
I slowly shook my head. “Thousands of years. We… we live a very long time, Brigid.” I braced for her reaction. “I’m not… human.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “So I gathered, sir. No other laddies be running about claiming to be born of the Morrigan.”
“Nevarre,” I said firmly. “Not sir.”
She held out her hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Nevarre.”
I took her hand and bowed my head, pressing her knuckles to my forehead. “You’re an interesting lady, Brigid.”
A blush bloomed on her cheeks and she pulled her hand back, primly clasping her hands in her lap. In the face of such beauty, I couldn’t help but feel a lightness spreading through my chest. If she hadn’t happened to walk past that spring this morning…
Would I have found a way to join my mother on the other side of eternity?
“What happened to your grove?”
An avalanche shifted inside me, bulging with the surge of rage and regret boiling inside me. Most likely, she wouldn’t understand much of anything if I told her. She had no idea Aima existed, let alone what it meant to be a part of a house or court. Yet it would be a relief to tell someone the truth, even though there was nothing I could change now.
“My mother never had an heir, a daughter, who could inherit the Morrigan’s legacy. While the grove protected our family home, we were slowly dying out. When she died, there’d be no one left to tend the grove. The trees need a queen to power the magic. My blood would do them no good, though I would have given them every single drop.”
I sighed, aimlessly smoothing the plaid over my knees. “Mother decided a move was necessary to ally with another court. She pledged me to Queen Elspeth to unite our houses.”
Brigid’s eyes narrowed. “Another so-called queen I’ve not heard of before.”
“She’s reigned over her court near Edinburgh for over a thousand years and her family founded an important academy that many of my kind go to for training.”
“This is so fascinating. What kind of training? What’s the name of the academy? Would it be a name that’s familiar to me?”
If Mother was still aware in the afterlife, she was probably horrified that I was sharing so many Aima secrets. I honestly didn’t care. I had nothing left to lose. “We trained to be guards in service of our queens. I doubt you would know it, but among my kind, it’s known as the Academy of Blood.”
“Blood,” she whispered, her eyes getting that soft, distant look again. “Of course. You said sacrifice before.”
“I served as Queen Elspeth’s Blood, her guard, only a short while. She released me from my oath and took back her bond when we lost the grove.” My lips twisted into a grimace. “I wasn’t worth keeping in her court without the magic of the grove behind me.”
“Were you there?” Brigid asked softly.
My eyes closed, my throat tightening. “I was in Edinburgh at my queen’s court. Mother called me home as quickly as possible. The grove was under attack. But I couldn’t leave without my queen’s approval, and Elspeth…”
I quivered, shimmering with the tension between honor and duty, family and love. “I swore a blood oath to obey my queen’s every command. Yet I couldn’t obey the most important one. She never forgave me.”
“What command?”
My shoulders drooped and I opened my eyes, meeting the clear blue sky shining in Brigid’s gaze. “To love her as much as I loved my clan and the grove. I couldn’t. I served with honor, but I couldn’t love her. When she wouldn’t release me to go to my mother’s call…”
