Page 35 of A Game of Queens
Me, the wolf king who'd roamed the Americas free and wild for centuries. I wasn't afraid of a slip of a queen left for dead in an alley. I locked my sweaty palm around the doorknob and pushed my way into the dark room with all the confidence of an emperor entering a peasant's hovel.
Only to draw up short. Stunned. Unable to move. Breathe. Or think.
On her stomach, she sprawled on the bed, one arm hanging down over the side of the mattress. Her hair gleamed in the bit of light shining through the door. Red and gold, a shimmering, fiery waterfall of silk that fell to the carpet. She didn't move despite my abrupt and forceful appearance, ruining my fearless entry.
For a moment, I actually thought she was dead. She'd been so weak in the alley. Maybe whatever the doctors had done in the hospital had been just enough to get her on her feet, but without blood...
My blood...
But no, my wolf ears picked up the faint but steady beat of her heart.
Quietly, I shut the door, blocking off the light shining into the room. She'd been so adamant about the sun and the monsters she feared. I wouldn't take any chances. If I could get her to Helayna's nest without some kind of attack, then I'd be free of her. I wouldn't have to fight my doubts about any of her claims. I'd be done. Free of her. I could return to the wilds and never look back.
I refused to consider that niggling bit of guilt deep in my gut. She was not my queen. I didn't have to fight—and die—for her. I didn't have to be caged.
I scanned the room, eager to look anywhere but at her. She'd broken the mirror and placed shards all over the room. An interesting defense system that I couldn't quite figure out. Sure, the shards were sharp and would cut, but I didn't think that was her intention at all.
Reluctantly, I turned my gaze back to her. Unable to avoid looking at her, I studied her while she was unaware. Curiosity only, I told myself. I took note of the golden hues in her red hair, trying to place her linage. Her hair was striped, not merely highlighted by the blonde tones. Even in the darkness of the room, the golden strands seemed to glow with the lingering hint of sunlight that had seeped through the door with my entry.
A fire goddess? Or solar? I didn't know the houses well enough since I'd stayed out of politics as much as possible. Helayna might know, or she'd certainly be able to reach out to some of the other queens and find out if any young queen had been stolen as a child. Surely that would have been noted by the Triune, especially as rare as children had been for the last few centuries. Could she be that old? Two or three hundred years old? More?
Then who could have held her for so long and nearly killed her? An Aima queen should get stronger as she aged.
Something didn't seem right with her skin. It was bumpy and thickened in spots. I moved closer, allowing my wolf eyes to home in on her back. Scars. Almost as if she'd been whipped or burned. Over and over, so deeply and badly that even her powerful Aima blood hadn't been able to heal it completely without a scar.
Chilled, I sank down in the rock-hard chair next to the bed. Maybe she really was in danger. My stomach tightened withdread. Not because of a fight or even war. I'd love a good bloody battle.
No, I didn't want to be compelled to join her fight. Though I did twist the chair around to face the door. Just in case.
8
KARMEN
Idrifted in peace, a heavy sleep that I'd been denied for most of my life. Blissful darkness and shade from the merciless sun. Cool, easy darkness on my skin. Nothing tormented me. Nothing burned me. Nothing hurt, except for the ache in my fangs. I knew what they were now. In sleep, my body remembered. My instincts awoke. My blood remembered sparking with magic, though it was dead and cold in my veins now.
I walked a dark landscape that billowed like black velvet clouds and waves of softness around me. No sharp edges. No spark of fire or light. Such bliss. I couldn't remember not hurting. I couldn't remember a soothing night breeze rustling my hair and kissing my skin, wiping away the burns. Cool like water, soft like feathers, sweet like flowers. The gentle gust flowed over me and words flitted like small dark birds.
"The choice is yours, daughter."
I didn't recognize her voice despite the reference to me as her child. The girl who’d climbed the olive tree tipped her head, listening to the words, and didn't recognize her mother's voice. Her words sparked in the darkness with soft pearly light that didn't harm me at all. Slowly, it dawned on me that this mightbe a goddess. The wolfman had insisted we were descended from Gaia's daughters.
"Who are you?" I asked softly.
The pearly sparks swirled around me like bright moths dancing in the moonlight. "You know me primarily as Sól, but some know me as Mani. I am both sun and moon."
I'd heard those names before as a child, especially Sól. Everything related to the sun was familiar. The sunfires, the gold palaces, the blazing sun...
WasI descended from that burning madness?
"The god of light ruined many of our ancient lines. You are not only the last Sunna, daughter of my line, but the last queen claiming any drop of solar power. Ra destroyed every other solar house in existence."
I shuddered. Ra. Yes. I remembered. No wonder my prison had been a golden pyramid with an open roof so his blazing symbol in the sky could perpetually punish all of the people living in his city.
"The choice is yours," She repeated in the same gentle, soothing voice. "Embrace my sun, or my moon, or neither. You will still have great gifts. You are still my daughter."
"What gifts?" I asked hoarsely. "I don't have any power left. It was burned out of me long ago."
"The magic still lives in you, daughter. The power has always been yours. You only have to take it back."
