I’d known Rik and Daire had left Skye’s court in search of a lost queen, and that Skye had expected them to reel me in for her to expand her power base. But I hadn’t realized that Rik had actually been afraid of her.

My big, bad alpha Blood. Afraid.

That told me all I needed to know about Keisha Skye. Flames licked through my veins, stoking my rage. No one would ever hurt or scare or threaten any of my Blood ever again. So help me goddess.

“You should be out searching the nest,” Rik said to Daire, but without the ring of an order behind it.

Daire gave a little toss of his head that sent the tawny fall of his hair rippling down his back. Now well past his shoulders, his hair made me want to wrap my fists in it and haul him close.

Padding over to me, barefoot and shirtless but with jeans on, he dropped to a crouch so he could drape himself in my lap, pushing his head under Rik’s arm that I’d hugged to me.

“There’s nothing to find yet,” he replied. “Nevarre is still scouting from the air and his bird vision is way better than any of ours.”

I combed my fingers through his hair, listening to his purr. Waiting. When they were ready, one of them would tell me what Keisha Skye had done that left them both so scared.

“I can confirm some of the basic facts,” Gina said slowly, as if hesitant to speak. “Keisha Skye did have a child almost one hundred years ago. It was a big deal at the time, enough that my grandmother made a note of it in her personal records. Breeding queens are rare in this day and age, but queens able to successfully conceive and deliver a child are even rarer. No queen in several centuries had managed to have a child and she was rightfully lauded for it. Other queens were quick to ask her what she’d done to conceive, but she was very closed mouthed about it. Grandma said that could only mean one thing.” She dropped her voice even more and whispered, “dark magic.”

For vampires that reveled in blood, I was almost afraid to ask what would make Gina whisper. “What’s that?”

“Dark magic requires the death of something to raise the power.”

“An unwilling sacrifice,” Rik whispered, though with his rock troll’s graveled rumble.

“She prefers women,” Daire said. “Always has. But a queen needs a male alpha to sire a child. The more powerful the alpha, the better. So she always has plenty of alphas in her stable, so to speak, and she… uh… tests them.”

“She tortures them,” Rik growled so deep and low that my cup rattled on the table.

“Deep down, she hates men, I think,” Daire said softly, rubbing his head on Rik’s arm to soothe him. “She takes pleasure in hurting them under the guise of testing to find the best alpha to sire a child. When she finally did conceive, she coincidentally killed the alpha in the process.”

My mouth fell open. “She killed him?”

“So they say.”

“But she lost this child? How?”

“She had a daughter, yes,” Gina answered. “Tanza, I believe, though I’d have to check our records to be sure. The whispers started right away though that the child wasn’t… right.”

“She was gone before Rik and I came to court, and Skye cast a geas to keep anyone in her court from talking about her.” Daire said. “But they still whispered about her in hushed, general references. I don’t know how many of the stories were true, but if even half of the nightmares they told us actually happened, then I can only say it’s a blessing the child died.”

“Grandma wrote that the child was possessed,” Gina admitted, still whispering, as if we were all afraid that Keisha would somehow sense that we were talking about her. “That she carried a demon in her. The queen went a little mad when she lost her child. To my knowledge, no one outside of Skye’s court knows exactly how she died, either.”

“She went a lot fucking mad,” Daire corrected. “She’s still unstable, to be honest, but supposedly better now than she was even fifty years ago. Though she’s still obsessed with conceiving another child.”

“No one sane would torture people like she does.” Rik’s voice still rumbled, his muscles rock against me. “She’s the one who carries a demon.”

“She only tortures alphas,” Daire’s voice broke and he turned his face deeper against Rik. “I lived in dread that one day he’d get called up to join her Blood. She burned through the alphas much too quickly.”

Rik dropped his other hand on Daire’s head and leaned into me harder. “There were plenty of alphas in their prime ahead of me, but I was relieved when she finally allowed us to leave.”

I closed my eyes a moment, fighting to regain my composure. My eyes were hot and burning, but I wouldn’t cry. Not now. Maybe later, when it was just me and him and I could hold him tightly against me, I’d cry at how close I’d come to losing him before he could have ever found me. “How did you end up in Skye’s court in the first place?”

“My parents served as sibs in Jarnsaxa’s court. She had a long-standing relationship with House Skye to exchange young Aima to keep the blood fresh in both courts. No one outside of Keisha’s court knew exactly how bad it was, especially for alphas, and when I did realize how dangerous it was for me, it was too late. It would have shamed both my parents and my mother’s queen if I broke their agreement, and so I endured to the best of my ability.”

“That’s what we do,” Daire said softly. “If you don’t have a queen of your own, you endure, and hope for the best court possible. I guess we were lucky not to go to Marne Ceresa’s court.”

Rik grunted softly. “I don’t know anything about how she runs her Blood but surely it wouldn’t have been as bad as Skye’s.”

I could feel dark spots in Rik’s bond that echoed with pain and fear. Memories of things he’d seen, that he tried to shield me from. He didn’t want me to know exactly how terrible it’d been for them both, but him in particular.

Part of me wanted to know, so that I’d be sure and not do anything like it.

He turned to me so fast that I flinched back a little at his intensity before I could catch myself. “You’d never do anything like it. I have no doubt of that at all. If you want to see the torture she inflicted on her Blood, my mind is open to you. It always is. But I’d rather you not see and fear the same way as we do.”

I reached up and stroked the hard marble planes of his face until his fierceness eased. “I’ll take your word for it. I don’t want to see, unless it’s something I need to know to beat her.”

“You’ve already beaten her.”

“Actually, yes, you have,” Gina said, her voice trembling with worry. It made me turn away from Rik to see her face. Her eyes were big, dark, shimmering with fear. “You’re able to breed. That means you’re able to conceive. From everything I’ve read about her in Grandma’s notes, Keisha Skye will hate you for that reason alone. It’ll make a political fight personal for her. In fact, her obsession is probably eating her alive already, wondering how on earth Selena could have conceived you with a human. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s kidnapping human men off the street now to try and conceive another child.”

“Would it be better or worse if she knew the truth?”

The truth was so much more difficult to believe, even as outlandish as the thought that I might have been half human. The people who’d raised me until their deaths weren’t actually my parents. Selena was my aunt, and Alan had no blood relation to me at all.

My mother and Selena were both Aima, a powerful line of vampires descended from the ancient gods and goddesses. My family in particular descended from Isis.

My father…

A long forgotten god. Typhon, the father of monsters like Cerebus. And me. Though I didn’t have three heads, I could transform into both a cobra and a wyvern so far.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’ll matter much,” Gina replied. “You can breed, so you’re a threat to her personally. The other queens will definitely be more wary if they know you’re not half human, but for Skye, it won’t matter.”

“Let’s handle this one problem at a time, then. Keisha Skye is my problem right now. She’s planning an attack on the nest, something that no one’s heard of before other than Mayte Zaniyah, since she sent the warning. What goddess is House Skye descend from?”

“She’s several generations removed from Scathach, the legendary warrior maiden associated with the Isle of Skye,” Rik replied. “Though she isn’t known for being a warrior like her ancestor. The only power I’ve ever heard associated with her is controlling the weather, especially storms.”

I frowned. “Then what power does she have that might affect or come from the ground?”

“None that I’m aware of. I’ve never seen her display her power, though, and since we weren’t Blood, we didn’t feel her directly.”

Gina typed on her laptop a few moments and then said, “According to Grandma Paula’s notes, the hurricane in 1938 marks the death of Tanza. Over six hundred people died.”

I didn’t try to think of a solution exactly. I just let ideas well up in my head. Options. Possibilities. Until something crystallized.

I stood and immediately everyone stood with me. “Go ahead and get the trip set up as we planned.”

Gina nodded, but her brow was creased with worry.

“Thank you, Winston. That was a delightful breakfast, er… very late brunch.”

He inclined his head. “You’re most welcome, Your Majesty.”

“Shara, please. I don’t want there to be formality in my house. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all family.”

He blinked and pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief to dab at his eyes. “It’s an honor to serve, Shara.”

I gave him a quick hug and then Gina. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to protect my nest the best way I know how.” I smiled and her eyes flared, one brow arching with curiosity. “I’m going to bleed.”