Page 40 of A Game of Queens
Hating me for all time. As I'd hated Ra. As I'd hated Aurelian.
"I'm fine." With Ra’s spark inside me, I could feel the rest of the legion closing in outside the hotel. Not nearly as many as their numbers had been in Heliopolis. Maybe some had defected already. Or their sunfires had killed them. Or they'd been trapped in Heliopolis. I didn't really know, nor did I care. "We need to go."
"We can't go back down the hallway. The flames are in the floor above. The whole thing's going to come crashing down any moment." He watched as I stepped over the soldier's remains toward the window. "Was that one of the skeletons?"
"Yes." I looked out the window, watching the skeletons close in. They knew exactly where I was. Like Aurelian, they went down on one knee, only they bowed their heads and bent low, bracing their left fists on the ground. None of them carried the telltale signs of flame around their bones.
Their sunfires were gone.
"What happened to him?" Eivind moved to the window and blew out a curse. "Fuck."
"Open the window and I'll show you."
I had to admit that once he actually believed me, he was a man of action. He smashed the glass with a careless slam of his elbow and then helped me climb outside. He didn't ask questions. He didn't grunt with disgust or hesitate. Maybe I was making progress with him. Not that it mattered in the end.
He'd made his feelings perfectly clear in that regard. He would never drop down to a knee and offer his protection as Aurelian had done.
"Princess," the nearest skeleton said as I neared.
Without pausing my step, I drew on the golden power I felt inside him. Inside each of them. It was like taking a drinkof honeyed mead from a crystal chalice. It made me shudder, though I didn't hesitate to drain every last bit of their power. I needed it, even though they tasted like Ra.
Liquid sun tasted like sickening sweet honey. Cloying. Overpowering.
I would much rather have the taste of a wolf's hot blood on my tongue.
Eivind's step faltered a moment as the skeletons began to crumble, but he didn't say anything until he opened the car door for me. "That's what you were so afraid of?"
"No." I looked up at the sun, tipping my head back so its rays warmed my skin. Solar energy danced inside me, relishing its heat. Wishing it was summer. Longing for a long hot afternoon basking in the full blaze of the sun. My fingers knit back together under that power, though I still longed for his blood. "Those were some of Ra's Soldiers of Light. The sunfires are still out here somewhere, and they won't be as easy to kill."
I didn't tell him what Aurelian had said. Mainly because I didn't—couldn't—believe him. Not yet.
A man who'd relished torturing a woman couldn't be trusted. His word was highly suspect and his honor nonexistent despite his fame as a Roman soldier. Perhaps the sunfires would obey my command—or they very well might devour me as I suspected. He'd threatened both options. Until I knew for sure...
I would protect myself the best I knew how.
9
EIVIND
Idrove like demons were on our tail. For all I knew, they were.
Fucking hell. Skeleton soldiers weren't something I ever thought I'd need to know about. Given the attack, I couldn't doubt Karmen's worry about the sunfires, even though I wasn't clear about what they were exactly.
"The Soldiers of Light are made up of the most famous warriors across all the ages." She sounded like a weary preschool teacher trying to explain why the sky was blue for the millionth time. "They’re not sunfires, but they did carry them."
"Carry how?"
"It's kind of like a possession, I think. I'm not sure how it started, though. If Ra assigned a sunfire to each soldier, or if the sunfire chose a soldier to ride. But they attached themselves to the soldiers, so they would have a physical shape. Most of them are more like... shadows or ghosts, but substantial. They mimic other creatures, but I don't know what their true shapes are. I've seen sunfires that looked like warhorses, for example, while others just looked like giants. They can change their shape at will, too, which makes it hard to describe what they are, because they easily look like something different when needed.Aurelian's sunfire always hung about his shoulders like a long red cape, but it could slide down his arms and send long tendrils out past his hands that he used like whips."
"The scars on your back."
I didn't ask, exactly, but she nodded, turning to look out the window, probably so I wouldn't see the slight quiver in her chin. "He was the worst, other than Ra."
"The god of light. Your captor."
"Yes."
I didn't doubt her, but I couldn't keep the incredulity out of my voice either. I couldn't comprehend the things she'd seen or endured. Blazing sun demons. A giant god of light. Who was miraculously dead, even if she could only shrug when I asked how someone had managed to kill a god.
