Page 52 of Queen Takes Blood
I seized a handful of his hair and tugged his head back, straining his throat in an arc. “We never imprisoned young queens in a subterranean prison and raped them until they carried our young.”
I expected him to struggle or deny the truth of his crimes, but he surprised me. His face smoothed out with resignation and his shoulders relaxed. He sat back on his heels and simply looked up at me. “I committed violence against Her Majesty Citla Zaniyah in this very room. May her goddess forgive me.”
I slit his throat, leaning his body forward to spill his blood onto the floor with mine. The torch dropped from his fingers, spluttering and dimming but still lit. “Your goddess may forgive you but mine won’t.”
Our blood mingled on the dusty floor, shimmering with a deep red glow that flowed into defined lines and curves before my eyes. A crudely drawn symbol in blood but easily recognizable. Two snakes facing each other, their noses pressed together. Two hands pressed heel to heel beneath them with the fingers pointing outward.
Coatlicue’s sigil. Tears burned my eyes, imagining Mama as a young girl, barely sixteen years old, traumatized, terrified, and desperate to escape. Drawing our goddess’s symbol in her own blood. Calling on the Mother of the Gods to save her.
I shoved her rapist’s limp body aside and dropped to my knees beneath the goddess’s hands. “Coatlicue, Teteoh Innan, Mother of the Gods, please hear my plea as you heard my mother’s, Your daughter, Citla Zaniyah.”
27
ITZTLI
The jaguar panels began to move. Tails swishing, ears flickering, their obsidian eyes flashed in the sputtering torch. Two cats jumped down from the wall, growing into huge jaguars, one black and one gold. Crouched down on the opposite side of the symbol, they stared at me. Pressure built inside my ribcage as if a mighty hand squeezed around me. Weighing my heart and judging my sins.
And finding me lacking.
Throat tight, I bowed forward and pressed my forehead to the floor. I knew all too well how tainted I am. I’d seen the darker side of my true nature tonight. How that thirst for pain and blood could be corrupted, turning me into a man like my sire. I’d rather slit my throat now than ever be like him. The only thing stilling my hand was my desire to see my brother safe first.
A deep, resonant voice came from a distance like the rumble of thunder. “Son of Zaniyah, I hear your plea.”
Heart pounding like a mighty drum, I slowly lifted my head. Two glowing wispy blood-red snakes wavered in the air before me, growing larger and more substantial like the jaguars until they formed the back of a massive throne. As the goddess’ form began to materialize, I dropped forward flat on my belly. “Thank you, goddess. I’m not worthy to see Your face.”
“You are more worthy than you realize, son of Zaniyah. Rise and let me look upon my obsidian blade.”
I’d forgotten all about Zuma’s cursed blade. Scrambling up to my knees but keeping my head bowed, I laid the knife on the ground between Her sandaled feet.
“That’s not the blade of which I speak,” She chided, lightly touching the back of my head. “Youare the obsidian blade of Zaniyah.”
My jaws clenched and I lifted my head slightly though I didn’t dare look into Her face. Red and jade snakes swirled around Her thighs, some lifting their heads to look at me while others curled around Her legs. “I’m hewn from the black blood of the Flayed One.”
She hummed softly but so deeply that the floor of the palace rumbled beneath my knees. “And Tezcatlipoca. They’re both aspects of the same darkness revealed through different facets. But you’re also a twin to Quetzalcoatl, twin sons of my line, which makes you closer to Xolotl than the Flayed One. Will you accompany your brother on his journey through the underworld?”
“Without question. I’ll find him without delay and bring him to safety.”
“Your brother burns in the Tocatl realm.” Her voice weighed heavier with grief, and I heard the soft lilting lament of a wooden flute in Her words. The two jaguars pressed closer to Her knees. “Even if I open the way for you to reach him, you may not be able to save him. You may both perish in my sister’s fury. Not only has she lost her queen but also the last sons of her beloved gods.”
“If there’s any chance at all that I can save him, I beg that you send me to the Tocatl realm and let me burn in his place.”
She sat in silence for so long that I finally dared to lift my gaze to Her face. Her skin was blue, Her eyes both dark and bright, a night sky shining with a multitude of stars and colorful streaks like blazing comets. Mother of the Gods, Mother of all, She had born many children—and watched them die. Oftentimes at Her own hand. She embodied both creation and destruction. “What price will you pay to save your brother?”
“My very life,” I said without hesitation. “I beg you to save him and let me die before I become a monster like my sire.”
Her head tipped to the side, Her hands stroking over the jaguars’ heads. “For every light there is darkness. For every morning there must be night.”
Shame choked me, my words thick with pain. “I don’t want to be a darkness he must endure. He’ll never have a decent life because he won’t leave me, and I dare not swear to any queen.”
“You are both destined to be a queen’s Blood. You in particular carry many gifts your queen will need, and he balances you perfectly.”
Shuddering, I closed my eyes. Trying not to remember what it’d been like to taste a woman’s blood during sex. How crazed it had made me. How vicious. It’d taken Tlacel and all of Grandmama’s Blood to pull me off Anacaona, and she hadn’t even been a queen. “I dare not risk it.”
“You would refuse a queen’s call in her hour of need?”
I couldn’t breathe, torn between pride and horror, lust and fear, honor and desperation. Every young Aima warrior dreamed of becoming Blood to a powerful queen. If I dared allow myself to dream of hearing a queen’s call, I could see myself as her alpha. Big and strong enough to quell any disagreements. Vicious enough to kill her enemies without pause. Dangerous enough other queens’ Blood would fear my wrath.
Unable to taste her blood without wishing for pain too. Hers. Mine. Unable to trust myself to touch her, even to protect her. If I were her alpha, who’d be able to stop me if I lost control?
