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Shaking her head, Undina laughed again. “The game of queens is not for the faint of heart, Shara Isador. We play with the kind of power that could destroy the world and all life in it.”
“It’s not a game to me.”
Her head tipped, her eyes flashing in the sunlight. “Then perhaps that’s why you play so well.”
We started to walk again but I smelled blood. I whirled around so fast that the hell horse’s head jerked up, his eyes alert, his ears flickering back and forth searching for danger. He walked beside Rik and seemed fine, but it was Guillaume’s blood that I smelled. “You’re bleeding. What’s wrong?”
He blew out a breath and relaxed enough to bump me with his muzzle. :It’s a small thing, my queen.:
I sank into his bond and felt pain in his right front hoof. :Show me.:
Lipping my hair, he obliged by lifting his front leg, curling it back toward his stomach so I could see the underside. A slash bled in the soft inner part of his hoof.
“I didn’t think to warn you,” Undina said. “We’re on a living coral reef I’ve fashioned into a floating island over many centuries. The coral can be treacherous.”
“Go shift back into my knight.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead, laughing as he playfully butted me with his soft, velvety nose. :I may need your sword more than your hell horse, anyway.:
:Kevin has my bag.:
“Is there a place he can shift in privacy?” I asked Undina, motioning Kevin closer. I touched Xin’s bond, checking on his pads.
:I’m much lighter than the hell horse and not on the sharp path.:
Her eyes narrowed but she pointed over my shoulder toward a cave in the opalescent pink hump of coral. “He must be accompanied by my Blood until he returns.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
Three of her mermaid Blood surged up out of the water, their tails flowing into legs. Genitalia swinging without a care in the world. I quickly focused on my hell horse. I didn’t want other queens looking at my Blood—so it seemed only fair to avoid looking at hers. Not that I wanted to anyway.
“No weapons, Sir Guillaume,” Undina said. “I know your reputation all too well.”
:Then I can’t take my bag.: He snorted, giving his head a toss, making the Templar sheath I’d looped over his neck bump his legs. :Though I wouldn’t need steel to kill them.:
Not something I cared to say aloud in a potentially enemy queen’s nest with two more queens on their way.
:Oh for fuck’s sake.: Leviathan dropped down beside us so quickly that Undina recoiled a step and her Blood bared their vicious teeth, dropping to a crouch before her. :I never thought the king of the depths would be called upon to act as a motherfucking privacy curtain.:
Laughing, I stepped back, giving the dragon room to lift his mighty wings and hide Guillaume while he shifted and dressed.
:Keep that fucking sword to yourself, knight,: Leviathan growled.
:This sword would cleave you in two, dragon.:
Undina gave me another hard look that I couldn’t decipher. “I didn’t realize the infamous executioner was so modest.”
Damn it. Now my cheeks were heating. “He’s not.”
Her eyes narrowed, dropping to give me a quick once-over in my scandalous bikini. “You don’t appear to be modest either.”
My cheeks reddened even more, and I fought the urge to shake my hair forward to cover up. “I’m not. Usually.”
She must have said something in her bonds because her Blood grinned and relaxed their defensive poses. One of them made high-pitched barks and squeaks like a dolphin, and the rest laughed even harder.
:Do I want to know what they said?: I asked Okeanos.
Even his bond rumbled with laughter. :Probably not, my queen.:
Fucking great.
