I wasn’t sure who came and went the first few hours. Daire picked me up at one point and they changed the sheets on the bed. I was too sleepy to look, but I figured after I’d fed and fucked so many of them, the entire room probably would have glowed like a nuclear detonation.

Rik pressed a glass to my mouth and I drank it all. Then I drank from Mehen and Xin while Daire and Rik wolfed down some sandwiches. Rik tried to make me eat one too, but I didn’t want food.

I had what I needed.

They all fed me again in the wee hours of the morning. It was a strange feeling, this hunger. It tormented me in my sleep, but I was too tired to even consider sex or biting one of them. I kept wandering in my dreams, searching for one of my Blood, my fangs throbbing. It was horrible. Like dreaming about trying to find a bathroom all night, only to finally wake up and realize your bladder was about to explode.

I woke again when they switched guard rotations. It felt painfully early and my body was still heavy and sluggish, but I made myself get up.

I had too much to do to lie around in bed all day. Though Rik glared at me as I shambled around the room, trying to find my other shoe. That I was already carrying in my hand.

“Even you are not invincible. The stronger you are, the more energy you expend, and you’ve completely depleted your reserves. You need to rest and feed and rest some more.”

“I will,” I insisted, holding on to Daire’s shoulders as he helped me pull on a pair of jeans. “But I’ve got to learn as much as I can about court life before this trip.”

“Etiquette lessons won’t help anyone if you’re falling down into a faint because you’re too weak.”

Goddess, he was so sexy standing there, frowning so fiercely. My big protective alpha. He’d completely depleted his reserves last night, too. All inside me. I could still feel the hot splash of his semen deep inside me. Maybe he was right. If I took him back to bed…

My stomach growled and that decided it for him. “We’ll get you some breakfast and talk with Gina for an hour. Max. Then you really should take a nice long nap if you can.”

“Deal. And a bath, if we can find a tub big enough.”

He tugged on some pants and then tucked my arm through his. “I’m sure we can find something big enough for at least two.”

I barely recognized my own property when we stepped outside. A massive oak tree with sweeping branches sat just off the path to the main house. Roots had pushed up through the ground in places and though the branches didn’t have many leaves, I could easily imagine the shade in the summer. The bare limbs were heavy with a large murder of crows. Nevarre’s friends, I guessed. “Good morning,” I said to them with a nod. I didn’t know if they could understand me, but what would it hurt? “Thank you for your help last night. I hope you enjoyed the feast.”

One of them opened its wings and hopped off the branch to glide down toward me. I didn’t move or duck, but it did freak me out a little. I’d seen what these birds were capable of and I didn’t care to have my eyes gouged out…

But the crow settled on my shoulder and squawked.

“Hello.”

It hopped up my shoulder, closer to my head, but I didn’t get any bad vibes from it. Its talons tangled up in my hair and then it nestled in close to my neck. “Aw, look. I made a friend.”

Daire snorted. “Wait until it craps all down your back.”

The bird on my shoulder didn’t move or make a sound, but half a dozen up in the tree suddenly dive-bombed at Daire. Wings flapping, talons reaching for his hair. He waved his arms around and yelled until they settled back on the branch above, but he kept a wary eye on them.

The crow on my shoulder was surprisingly heavy. Its talons dug into my shoulder, though it made a low chirp and rustled its wings in apology.

:Nevarre, can you talk to the birds?:

:On my way, my queen.:

I hadn’t meant to order him back from his duty, but I was interested in what the crows had to say. Or what they wanted, if anything. They were on my property now, in my nest, and after they’d helped me, I felt responsible for them. If they were hungry… I needed to know what kind of bird seed they’d eat.

As we reached the back door, Nevarre swooped down still in his gigantic raven form. He cocked his head to the side, lifted a wing, then the other. His tail feathers flipped up, down, in a complicated greeting. Or maybe that was their language. I wasn’t really sure.

:She’s the equivalent of their queen.: Nevarre finally replied in our bond. :She likes you.:

“Aw, I like you too.” Gingerly, I reached up with my hand, not wanting to frighten her. I stroked my index finger over her wing and she made that soft chirp again. “Are they hungry? Do they need us to build birdhouses or anything?”

:They’re not hungry and appreciate the offer of a house, but they much prefer their own nests. They’re building new ones now. She will swear her clan to you in exchange for a token.:

I’d always heard that crows liked sparkly and shiny things. I didn’t have much in my bag that might interest her, other than my pocket knife, and I didn’t want to give that up. Though I would if that was what she wanted.

:All she wants is some of your hair to line her nest. She believes it will protect her eggs and help her hatch healthy babies in the spring.:

“Of course. She can have some hair.”

He cawed a fairly long bird sentence and she sprung up into the air, the sudden flap of her wings startling me. She yanked out a few strands of hair and flew back up into the tree.

“Hey,” Daire yelled after her. “You hurt her!”

“It’s all right.” I rubbed the stinging spot in my scalp. “I told her she could. Let’s eat. I’m starving.”

As if he heard me coming, Winston opened the door. “That’s music to my ears, Your Majesty. I’m glad to see you up and about so early today. I’m hoping that means you’re recovering from your ordeal quickly?”

“He’d be better off asking if we’ve recovered from helping her recover,” Erza muttered. Daire poked him in the ribs. “What? We all gave her blood twice already. I’ve never seen a queen drink from seven able-bodied Blood twice and still need more.”

:You’ve never seen a queen build Morrigan’s grove before either.: Nevarre didn’t sound angry in the bond, but the raven hopped toward the big man and flashed his pointed beak. It reminded me of the way Guillaume always had a blade ready in his palm when he needed to flash a threat. :My mother had a dozen Blood and she barely survived. You arrived after our queen’s suffering. So count yourself lucky you only felt a fraction of what she endured.:

“Even more impressive, this is America,” Mehen said with a sour twist of his lips. “A land so far removed from Celtic magic, that they can’t even say it correctly and named a basketball team after them. There are barely any ley lines to pull from, and certainly no Stonehenge or standing stones of any significance. This was all blood. All Shara. And if she needs to drain us all three or four times a day, then I’m game.”

Ezra huffed. “I wasn’t complaining.”

Mehen snorted but thankfully let it go. These two were going to drive me nuts if they didn’t stop harping at each other like two old men, fighting over their prized secret fishing hole.

“I’m moving a bit slowly this morning,” I told Winston as we entered. “But I’m grateful to be up. Is Gina here yet?”

“She’s on her way,” Winston replied. “She called a few minutes ago. She’s bringing some pastries and fresh bread from a bakery in town.”

My stomach rumbled as loudly as Rik’s rock troll and Ezra’s grouchy bear combined. Rik hustled me to the table and Daire brought me a cup of coffee while Winston started pulling food out of the fridge. “Sorry to drop in on you so early today.”

“Not a problem at all, Your Majesty. We’ll always have plenty of prepared food for your Blood, even if it’s just sandwiches.”

“These sandwiches fucking rock,” Daire said around a mouthful. “I should know. I’m the sandwich king.”

“Knock, knock,” Gina called from the front door as she came inside. “I’m glad I stopped for some more of those chocolate croissants.”

Rik set a bowl of fruit salad before me and I stared at it a moment, my eyes burning. It was the same as yesterday… except Winston had removed the cantaloupe. He’d noticed how I’d picked all them out yesterday and immediately adjusted it. I flashed a wobbly smile at him and picked up my fork as Gina set a croissant by my cup. “You guys. Thank you.”

Winston bowed slightly, his cheeks pink and eyes sparkling. “Our pleasure, Your Majesty.”

“Shara.”

“Of course, Shara, Your Majesty.”

“Give up,” Gina patted my arm as she sat down beside me, her leather satchel bulging with all the things she needed to go over with me. “He’s a stickler for propriety. Most Brits are.”

“I thought of a whole list of things I wanted to ask you last night. Hopefully I can remember everything.”

“We have plenty of time.”

Anxiety tightened my stomach despite the delicious breakfast. “Not really. Not considering how much I don’t know.”

“Again, don’t worry about all the formalities. Zaniyah’s court won’t be nearly as formal as Skye’s, let alone the Triune. Look at this as practice. She’s inviting you, and she’s not known for that. She’s the one who needs to impress you.”

We spent two hours going over general Aima formalities. A queen rarely ever did anything herself, and it took skill to read through all the intentions and meanings behind something as simple as who sat by whom at the table, or who came to greet us at the airport. The more I learned, the more I realized how much Keisha Skye had insulted me when she’d sent such a low Blood to me. She’d completely misjudged my strength, for one thing, and she’d compounded that mistake by sending someone so weak on Skye’s prominence ladder to represent her entire court’s interests to a new queen.

It was a major lesson for me when I thought about my Blood and how I would send them, if needed, to communicate with another queen. I would have considered only their personalities. Like it’d be stupid to send Ezra on a political mission. He’d only piss everyone off and end up causing a war. So would Mehen. But worse, Mehen was known for his destruction and hatred. So if a queen saw him innocently standing outside her nest…

She would assume I meant to raze her court to the ground.

And if Guillaume went…

Her Blood would react like Rik had the first time Guillaume walked into my house in Kansas City. He’d be sweating, expecting his head to roll.

Even more care would be going into the seating arrangements on Zaniyah’s side.

“I’ve already sent a brief listing of our party, including each Blood’s name,” Gina said, her brow crinkling. “I hope that was all right?”

It made me a little twitchy to know the complete list was in another queen’s hands. They had to know about Guillaume now after that television footage, but did they know about Leviathan, king of the depths? Or Xin? All Zaniyah’s consiliarius had to do was pick up a phone and call the Triune. “I trust your judgment.”

“It’s polite to do so, but not required from a guest. Our list lets them plan better, but negates your ability to surprise them with who’s on your Blood already. I thought it would establish open communications up front if we exchanged our full list without any secrets, so they can fully prepare for your arrival.”

I could see how showing up with Mehen in tow without preparing them might cause a bit of a scramble. Incredibly old and powerful, he’d be hard to match up with another Blood, unless Zaniyah had a few secrets of her own.

“She will have secrets,” Gina agreed. “No one knows much about Zaniyah. She’s worked hard to remain cooperative to an extent—but completely unknown. She might be significantly more powerful than anyone’s giving her credit for. She may have a hundred Blood for all we know.”

“Or an equally old and pissed off Blood like Leviathan,” Daire added, winking at Mehen, who stood glaring at the room in general.

“Maybe I should fly over for a reconnaissance mission,” he said.

Gina winced and shook her head. “That would be highly rude and suspicious of us.”

“And your point is…?”

“Do we even have a map of her nest?” Rik asked, giving a quelling look at the older Blood. “We should have our own exit strategy in place in case things go south.”

He and Guillaume studied the maps Gina spread out on the table. “Nothing of her direct court, but we have the general area.”

By the time they were done asking for emergency cars stationed down the road and horses in case we had to go cross country, my eyes were getting heavy. I forced them open, surprised to find Mehen carrying me with Xin and Daire on either side. “Where…”

“Shhh.” Still holding me, he lay down in front of the fireplace on a bunch of pillows and blankets someone had tossed on the floor. A warm, cheery fire crackled in the stone hearth. With Xin’s arm around my back and Daire cuddled against Mehen’s side so I could feel his purr, I drifted off to sleep on my dragon’s chest.