Rik

At long last, we were able to give our queen the restorative rest that she needed so badly. As the days passed, we kept everything quiet, easy, and as low-key as possible. She slept for hours at a time, only to wake up, enjoy a good fuck and a deep feeding with whoever was in her bed, and go right back to sleep while Mehen droned on and on in French. We brought every imaginable food to her so she could feast without even getting up. As when we were in Kansas City, we had picnics in her massive bed, only instead of takeout pizzas, we devoured aged cheeses, delicate fruits from all over the world, the finest wines, fresh bread, antipasto platters, muffins, cakes, bagels…

Nevarre even made her Scottish scones with clotted cream, which she loved so much her eyes rolled back in head and she came. Though Daire was busy between her thighs at the same time.

When she finally caught up on her sleep and restored her reserves, we switched to watching movies. Winston had a stadium-sized television screen installed in the bedroom, and instead of movie-theater seating, she lounged on us. The bed finally arrived, and it was even bigger than the two kings pushed together. Bonus—it didn’t slide apart when we got too energetic.

Most importantly, we made her laugh, and we never once talked politics. She didn’t even ask to see the legacy, as if she wanted no part of new powers. Yet.

Marne’s mirror never chimed, or if it did, we didn’t hear it, since Shara had buried it in both salt and ground coffee. She’d also surrounded it by an extra salt circle to be safe. Mayte’s bond remained quiet for the most part as she hunted for a new consiliarius. Ra didn’t attack us. Keisha Skye was a distant memory.

I held Shara’s bond in the forefront of my mind constantly. I was in her mind and body and spirit. While she definitely healed and restored her energy, she was preparing, both mentally and spiritually, for war.

My queen was planning something, but it was so deeply buried and convoluted that even I didn’t fully understand what she had put in motion. We sat on planet Earth whirling at thousands of feet per second, but couldn’t feel a fucking thing.

Until we screeched to a crashing halt with a few simple words.

“I would like to go to New York City.”

Without batting an eye, Gina pulled out her phone. “When, my queen?”

“Next week. Could we go to Broadway? I’ve always wanted to see a live musical or play. Anything is fine.”

“If you wait until February, you could also go to New York Fashion Week. That would be a fantastic way for you to meet some designers…”

“No. I need to go next week. Any day after Sunday should be fine.”

Gina slowly lowered the phone, realization dawning on her face.

Sunday…? I tried to do calendar math in my head, but my skull felt like it’d been stuffed with cotton.

“Holy fucking shit,” Daire breathed, his eyes flying wide.

“What?” Mehen retorted.

I could only stare and hope my tongue wasn’t lolling like a dog’s. My brain shut off out of necessity. All the blood in my body had raced south. Already, I felt the surge of hormones in answer to the promise of her need for me. My nostrils flared, seeking her scent, eager to detect the slightest change in her body temperature or readiness.

“Her period,” Daire choked out. “She’ll be breeding.”

Eight Bloods’ heads swung my direction.

“You’re shitting me,” Mehen replied. “Next week? And you’re going to travel into Skye’s territory, rather than holing up in your nest to fuck your alpha’s brains out?”

She huffed out a soft laugh. “Don’t I always fuck all your brains out? I don’t need to stay in my nest to do so, either. But yes, next week I should start bleeding, and I must be in New York City at the height of my period.”

Gina got up and hurried out. “I’ll be right back. Let me get my tablet. It’ll be easier to plan on.”

I cleared my throat so roughly that it felt like I’d swallowed razor blades. Yet I could only manage a garbled, “Why?”

“The power, surely,” Guillaume said with a grimace. “Though I’d rather you not expose yourself when you’re vulnerable like that. Rik won’t be at his best.”

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Rik will be at his absolute best. He’ll be obsessed with me. Wholly focused on me and pumped with alpha power. I will be stronger, but that’s not why I’m waiting to challenge Keisha Skye until next week.”

“It’s a message,” Daire said.

Even though she only wore one of my old soft cotton T-shirts and a pair of panties, she tipped her head up, her shoulders back and proud, and I could see the fucking crown on her head. “Yes. I can breed. I don’t need to resort to dark magic or torture to try and have a child. I care so little about having an heir that I’m not even staying home in my nest, but traveling to my enemy’s territory for some R&R.”

Gina came back in and sat down beside the bed. Typing rapidly, she was quiet for a few moments and then looked up at Shara. Her eyes flashed, her mouth a hard line of determination. If our queen was going into battle, so was she. “I’ve got my immediate staff online and ready to implement your plans immediately.”

“Thank you. Can they hear me?”

Gina nodded and turned the tablet around to show Marissa and Angela pressed closely to the camera, waiting for their orders.

“We’re going to New York City because I want to see a musical or play. Hamilton would be great, but if we can’t get tickets…”

Angela looked away, typing rapidly. “I can get them. No problem. How many?”

“Fourteen.”

“Done. Best in the house.”

Gina whistled softly, and the other woman stared at her with her mouth hanging open, shocked that she’d gotten Hamilton tickets so quickly. Angela chuckled at their reactions. “I have a friend who owed me. Big time.”

“I would say so,” Gina drawled, shaking her head.

“Great. We’re going to see Hamilton, and as a courtesy, we’ll notify Keisha Skye, right?”

Gina nodded. “Yes. Typically, you would notify any queen in the home region if you wished to visit.”

“This is going to sound like a really weird and unconnected question, but what’s Winston’s story? Marne Ceresa said it was quite a coup that I’d managed to get him to come work for me.”

“Winston worked for your mother…” Gina paused, her face going blank.

Which told me she meant Shara’s real mother. The woman who’d raised her had been her aunt, but no living Aima could say Shara’s mother’s name aloud.

“Yes,” Shara said gently, prodding her to continue. “He worked for my mother.”

“In London, before you were born. We were all there. Winston could work for the Queen of England if he wanted. That’s how good his pedigree is. Instead, he chose to stay with House Isador, even when Selena left the nest. Other queens tried to hire him away from Isador, since there wasn’t any queen left, but he refused. You’d have to ask him why yourself, but I can only assume that he had decided to work for Isador, or no one.”

“Was Keisha one of the queens who tried to hire him?”

“Every queen tried to hire him, so yes, she did. He refused, as politely as he refused Marne Ceresa.”

Shara smiled. “I knew I loved that man, for many reasons, but this one takes the cake. Would he mind making a call to Keisha Skye’s consiliarius for us?”

Gina blinked rapidly. “He would do anything for you. But why…”

Shara smiled and it made the hairs prickle at the base of my neck. “She sent her lowest Blood to try and convince me to join her nest. She doesn’t know that I love Winston dearly, so I’m asking my butler to tell the queen of New York City that I intend to visit her town. After he refused to work for her.”

The last Templar knight smiled broadly. “That’ll fucking piss her off.”

Shara nodded. “That’s the general idea.”

Shara

The plan was starting to come together. It was strange, because I didn’t know exactly what I needed to do. It just was there, in my head, as if it was waiting for me to tap it. I had a feeling the goddesses had been busy planting seeds in my head while I’d been sleeping and making love with my Blood.

It’d been a delightful few weeks, but I couldn’t enjoy many more… until I dealt with Keisha Skye once and for all. Every day that I delayed in bringing her to justice was another day that a Blood suffered in her ruthless obsession to have another child.

Marne Ceresa hovered on the edge of my awareness, too. I’d have to come to some kind of deal with her eventually, but my war wasn’t with her. It was with Keisha, and then Ra. But I’d take the war to Rome if she wanted to fuck with me or my Blood.

Leaning back against Rik, I met each of my Blood’s gazes, and then focused on Gina, who’d pulled a chair up to the edge of the mattress.

“I need to know the implications of killing a queen. What happens to her Blood, nest, and sibs? Are there any repercussions from the Triune? Anything else along those lines that I haven’t thought of yet.”

“You can do whatever you want as queen, though there are always repercussions.” Gina leaned forward and took my hand in hers. “For all her faults, Keisha has a giant network of people who depend on her for their livelihood. Losing their queen will be a huge blow, both economically and socially. She’s a prominent member of society, both Triune and human. No offense, my queen, but you’re an unknown. They know nothing about you or how you’ll handle their businesses, problems, and families. Some of them may not have had much of a choice in the queen they serve.”

“People like me, Daire, and Ezra,” Rik said, stroking his big palms up and down my arms. “People sent by their queens, trapped by familial loyalty and treaties who would love to escape her, but can’t. They’ll be thrilled to be free of her, but they need to know what to do. Where to go.”

“If you get all of her sibs to swear to you…” Guillaume knelt beside the bed and held out his scarred hands to me. I slipped one hand into his but held onto Gina, too. With Rik stroking me, and them holding my hands, I felt grounded, steady, and focused. “You will rule America. You will be the American queen.”

“That’s not—”

“I know,” Guillaume broke in. “That’s not why you’re doing this. But maybe this is why your goddess set you on this path.”

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Gina added. “Killing a major queen of America’s largest city will create a massive vacuum. We can’t leave those loose ends dangling without a plan, or you may find someone even worse than Keisha Skye stepping in. Chaos would be worse than Keisha’s rule.”

Chaos. Mother had said I was to be controlled chaos in the world. Isis wanted me to shake things up—but remain in control too. Which to me, meant I had to have a plan.

I nodded, even though my stomach tightened with dread. Taking House Zaniyah as sibs had been one thing. Taking a house the size of Skye… It was terrifying and overwhelming. “How many people are we talking?”

“We haven’t been in her court for over a year,” Daire replied. “But I’m guessing she has at least a thousand sibs now. She’s been actively increasing her base for a very long time.”

Xin nodded. “She probably gained a hundred sibs when my queen left San Francisco.”

“That’s only sibs,” Gina added. “Like you, she has many humans and weaker Aima scattered all across the globe who work for her house in some way. She will have properties in all the major cities. She will have staff and offices that need to know who to report to and how. Plus, all her finances will need to be accounted for.”

My head pounded. Rik slid his hands up to knead my shoulders, easing the tension straining up my neck. “I don’t care about her money. I have more than I could possibly spend now.”

“Yet it will be yours. If you take the queen, you take her house. If you take her house, you take her legacy.”

“Legacy wealth—or legacy power?”

“Both, if her goddess finds you worthy.”

Rik made a low rumble like distant thunder. “Which She will, without question.”

“Who’s Keisha’s goddess again?”

“Scathach,” Rik replied. “She’s best known from the Ulster Cycle for training Cu Chulainn. She had a training facility on the Isle of Skye.”

“Keisha’s a warrior?”

Daire huffed out a laugh. “Not at all. She loves to watch fights, the bloodier the better.”

“Like duels? Or what?”

He nodded. “Mostly hand-to-hand combat. She even has a cage built in her nest like the Ultimate Fighting Championships.”

“I need to know as much as possible about her nest too. How many Blood does she have? What happens to them when I kill Keisha?”

“What do you want to happen to them?” Daire asked. “We know you’re not going to claim them all as yours, if any, so we’ll probably have to kill them.”

At first, I thought he was being cheeky, but for once, my warcat was actually serious. “I’m not going to kill them all. I mean, if they fight us, and someone gets killed as a result, that’s one thing. But execution? Just because they served Skye? I won’t do it.”

“Blood need a queen, or they’ll turn,” Rik said. “Remember Greyson? Even when a new queen is found quickly, the bond doesn’t always take. Sometimes it’s kinder to kill them all cleanly, and some may very well ask for death.”

My stomach quivered. I’d been fully prepared to kill Keisha, but I hadn’t realized I might have to have her Blood killed too. It seemed so wasteful and horrible. If I died…

“We would all be dead too.” Boulders crashed in Rik’s voice. “We would not allow you to die and still live ourselves.”

“But—”

“No, Shara. There is no other option. In fact, I’ll make the formal request. Guillaume, if the worst happens and our queen falls, yet I still live, I order you to kill me.”

“On my honor, I will do as you ask, alpha.”

“And me,” the rest of my Blood said one by one. Even Mehen. Though he scowled at me. “You’d best not fucking die, my queen.”

I swallowed the lump trying to choke me. “I don’t intend to anytime soon. How soon after Keisha’s gone will I have to find her Blood a new queen?”

“It varies greatly,” Guillaume replied. “Some, like me, have gone for decades or even a century and more. Others can’t make it a week. It depends on the Blood’s strength of will, how strong the old bond was, and how strong the future queen’s call is. Your call was so strong that I would have crossed oceans of time to find you.”

“She had twenty-six Blood when we left,” Rik said. “Twenty were female, six male. Ezra, what was the count when you left?”

“Wes was killed in the ring; the male alpha, Conall, was barely alive; and you know how Kendall ended.”

“That leaves twenty-two, assuming the alpha is beyond your healing,” Rik said. “If you’d even want or be able to heal him after what Keisha does to them.”

His tone didn’t change, but I felt his tension straining against my back. I still hadn’t asked him exactly he’d seen in Skye’s court. How did Keisha torture the alphas? Did I need to know in order to defeat her? I didn’t see how, and it would only upset him to drag out those old nightmares.

So, I changed the subject. “Should I assume that she knows how many Blood I have, and who they are?”

Gina grimaced and nodded. “I’m afraid so. Bianca betrayed us to Ra. We have to assume that she passed along other information, too, and she had full access to our guest list before we ever arrived. If Ra knows something that might hurt you, we have to assume he’d share that information with the other queens. He wants to sow chaos and discord among the Aima courts. If he can weaken you without striking you himself, he will.”

“She’ll know that I have Blood who are famous for killing other queens and alphas.”

“Which means if we do a formal procession, she would pair Xin and Guillaume with her best killers,” Rik said. “If she lets them inside at all. Honestly, she’ll probably refuse to let them inside her nest.”

I blew out a sigh. “That’s what I’d do if I were in her shoes.”

Guillaume didn’t move a muscle, but in our bond, I felt his hell horse pawing the ground and snorting flames. Blistering cold rolled from Xin, dropping the temperature around him enough that Nevarre shivered and rubbed his arms.

“So Mehen will probably be refused entrance too.”

“Fucking hell.” He threw himself down on the bed and glared up at the ceiling with disgust. “I was looking forward to spreading mayhem in New York City.”

“What about you, Ezra? Do you think she’ll let you back inside?”

“Definitely, because she’ll want to make sure I’m punished. Same with Rik and Daire. If she somehow manages to outsmart you, we’ll be made examples of.”

Even my rough and tough grizzly bear looked queasy.

Horrible images flickered through Rik’s head in rapid succession. A man, screaming, as he was slowly disemboweled. Castrated. Fingers removed. Hands. Feet.

I swayed. My face felt too tight, like the skin across my cheekbones had suddenly dried and shriveled up. Breathing hard, I pushed those images out of my head.

I pressed back against him and he wrapped me tighter in his arms.

:Sorry,: he whispered in our bond. :I would rather spare you the gory details.:

“How will you kill her, if you don’t have Guillaume or me to call upon?” Xin asked.

The trees whispered in my head. Blood. Fire. Blood. Fire.

My best weapons.