Page 50 of A Game of Queens
:Show me,:reverberates through my mind.:Show me where you are.:
I’m lying on a thin, narrow cot in a large room. A gymnasium, maybe? The sounds of breathing and snores echo in the largechamber. There are other people nearby. I’m not alone—but I don’t know any of these people. Though for a moment… I’m startled that they’re actualpeople. Recognizable to me as humans, even if I don’t know them.
I don’t know what that means. Have I been somewhere… where there weren’t people?
:What’s outside? What does it look like?:
I don’t sit up or move but suddenly I’m standing outside on a street. It’s nighttime. Parked cars line the road. There’s a single streetlight on the corner. More people huddle along the exterior of the buildings along the street. Bundled against the cold. Some sleeping. Some shuffling along the sidewalk, headed… somewhere. I don’t know.
An aching well of sadness spreads inside me. I was lucky tonight. I got inside the building and have a roof over my head. They didn’t.
:Look at the street sign. What does it say?:
The white metal sign with black writing flashes through my mind, but I can’t read the symbols.
A sound clashes through my mind. It takes me a moment to recognize it as the sound of his teeth grinding with frustration.
:Do you remember anything in particular about this city? Any unique buildings? A bridge? Anything?:
Bridge. That word dings inside my head.:There’s a river.:I point toward the ragged trail where people are walking.:Down there.:
:At least I know you’re back on the human plane.:His breath sighs out, ruffling my hair.:I will find you, love. Even if we must search every city in every country of the world.:
Back on the human plane.Those words stir dread in my stomach. That means I must have been on aninhumanplane. A place of chaos and pain so intense that I don’t feel as if I’mwhole. A shattered chalice, chipped and incomplete. Barely held together with a bit of weak glue.
Deliberately, I focus on him. The heat of his body against mine. The strength of his fingers on my throat. The taste of his blood in my mouth. Not icy slush now but rich and complex on my tongue, like a chilled thousand-year-old wine of night and shadow.
I don’t want to remember what came before.
Before I was sleeping on a cot in a shelter in some nameless human city.
I relax all the muscles in my body, drooping in his grip. “Make me forget.”
“No.” His eyes glitter with snow blown by blizzard winds. He lifts me higher in his arms, cradling me like precious cargo. “But Iwillmake you remember.”
3
We don’t move but reality shifts around us. Pitch black changes to a thousand shades of ebony, storm clouds and raven wings and the darkest violet of midnight. Vague shapes loom around us but nothing I can identify. Nothing that I remember despite his words.
He sets me down on my feet and turns me away from him. “Look upon your kingdom, love.”
My kingdom? My heart patters against my ribcage, my eyes straining to make sense of the shapes cloaked with shadow. “Isn’t there any light?”
“You’re the light.” He presses an open-mouthed kiss to my throat with the confidence of a man who knows exactly the right place to suck and nibble to make my knees weak.
My knees tremble, my body softening and drooping against him. My head automatically tips to the side, inviting his mouth to roam. His hands glide over me in a firm, possessive, knowing touch that melts my muscles and softens my bones with molten heat. His fingers knead that heat deeper, his mouth hot on my ear. His breath heavy, his teeth teasing over the shell of my ear.Back to my neck. Gripping the corded ligament in his teeth in a teasing bite that lights my entire body up.
Does he have fangs too?
Is he going to feed on me?
Why does the thought of his teeth in me make my core burn with need?
“What are we?” I whisper shakily.
“We’re gods the world forgot, love. Keep your eyes open. Watch your light spread.”
His palm slides down my throat and over my shoulder in a slow, deliberate stroke. All the interconnected strings of nerves, muscles, and ligaments quiver, turning my body into a musical instrument that shimmers beneath his plucking fingers. Over my rock-hard nipples. A hard tweak on that tender flesh makes me jolt against him.
