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Shaking my head, I could only laugh. “All I really care about is my nest here.”
“But you hold New York City, the largest city in the United States. You could also potentially claim ownership of Mexico City via your sibling relationship with House Zaniyah, which would give you claim to all of Mexico. There are other queens in Central and South America but they’re not strong enough to dispute the matter. You certainly have grounds to make such a claim, but we’d need to file a formal petition with the Triune.”
“I want as little to do with the Triune as possible.” Just the thought of voluntarily reaching out to Byrnes, House Ceresa’s primary consiliarius, made me want to hurl, even though he was Kevin’s grandfather. “So two if not three of the Skolos Triune queens are meeting just a few hours away. Why? Are they planning some kind of attack?”
Gina grimaced and picked up her cup. “We have no idea why they’re meeting, especially so close. House Gorgos came from the Mediterranean and Kijin from Japan. If they’re meeting here to avoid Undina’s notice, it’s possible they’re conspiring against her rather than you.”
:My queen.: Okeanos’ touch in my head was hesitant, a feather-light brush of his tentacle. :Forgive me for accidentally eavesdropping. I felt my mother’s name echoing in your mind.:
:All my Blood are welcome in my mind any time,: I assured him. :Especially ones who’ve faced my cobra. Are you able to join this conversation?:
The door opened and seconds later he stepped into the breakfast nook. His dark hair was slicked to his shoulders and his jeans clung to his thighs, as if he’d pulled them on while soaking wet from the grotto. Since facing the cobra, his eyes had changed. Rather than the lovely blue green of a secret lagoon, his eyes burned with the neon-green acid of my venom.
Without hesitation, he came to stand between my chair and Gina’s. “How can I help, my queen?”
“Do you know if Undina has any property she might use in the Houston area?”
“She doesn’t have any human-type holdings in cities but uses reefs and islands cloaked by her magic. When we were in the Aegean, fishing ships could pass right by the nest without noticing anything amiss.”
“If she doesn’t have human property, then my team can’t confirm she’s present based on what we have access to,” Gina said.
Okeanos’ eyes flickered, the green giving way to inky black. Then he focused back on my face, blinking away the darkness. “She’s much closer than before, due south of here.” He pointed in the direction I’d felt the queens gathering. “I’m not skilled at estimating land distances though.”
Oh shit. Of course. It hadn’t dawned on me he’d always be able to feel where his mother was. He still carried her blood, even after she basically sold him to the queen of Rome.
My stomach clenched, and for a moment, I feared I might lose the pancakes. I set my fork down and leaned back in my chair, letting the whirling thoughts tumble through my head. Queens often placed their own Blood in other houses so they had eyes and ears inside. But also for situations like this, where Okeanos would have a sense of where his mother was at all times. I’d been so worried about being spied on, but it actually went both ways.
“Have I betrayed you?” He asked hoarsely.
I jerked my attention to his stricken eyes. “No. Not at all. In fact, you’ve helped me understand one benefit of having Blood from other houses here to share information with me. She’s not trying to contact you, is she?”
His shoulders sagged with relief. “No, my queen.”
“Though she could,” I said slowly. “And you could contact her if you wished.”
When Kendall had come to Kansas City to attempt to strong-arm me into submitting to House Skye, he’d tried to use his blood bond with Daire. My bond as his queen had been strong enough to block Kendall out, but even Rik had felt the man’s attempt to communicate through that prior bond. Using those bonds, Kendall had known exactly where to find us.
Itztli and Tlacel still had a strong familial bond with Mayte, but then she was also my sibling and carried my blood. Guillaume’s former queen and her entire house were dead. Vivian’s parents were also dead, though she carried her sunfire, and Smoak shared a single consciousness with all the sunfires.
If I needed to reach Karmen, Smoak could make that connection, even though we didn’t share blood. In a way, we each had a spy in our Blood. A link. Even though I had no idea where she was.
I touched Rik’s bond. :Do you, Daire, or Ezra still have any blood bonds strong enough to converse with House Devana?:
His big palms gently kneaded my shoulders. :My connection to House Devana was through Daire, but I do still have bonds with my mother and a few sibs in Hyrrokkin.:
Daire rubbed his chin on my thigh. :In addition to my mother’s bond, I had several minor sibs throughout Devana, but only two or three that might be strong enough to tap for communication. Though right now, I can’t even feel them beneath your bond.:
I wrinkled my nose, resisting the urge to get huffy that they still had blood bonds with other Aima. They had family long before I called them. They’d had to survive for decades—centuries—before I could call them.
But I hadn’t grown up in a nest, or even known what we were, for that matter. I’d never fed on blood until Rik and Daire found me. I’d had no idea how it was all supposed to work.
I certainly didn’t carry any matriarchal bonds. My heart ached with an empty hollowness. I would never know such a connection.
:I still carry Wu Tien blood,: Xin admitted. :My former queen dissolved her Blood bond, but I have living siblings who returned to China with her I could contact if you wished.:
He’d been alive for much longer than Rik or Daire, so his bonds should be easier for me to visualize. I slipped deeper into his bond, closing my eyes. :Show me what those bonds look like.:
Cool fog parted in his mind, revealing the silent, silver wolf staring back over his shoulder at me. Eyes shining like quicksilver, he lifted his nose, scenting the air, and then he loped along a rocky path through a chill, wet forest of tall, ancient trees. Dripping with fog and moisture, the air was heavy and cold in my lungs. The path steepened, a rocky snake winding along a treacherous cliff on one side, and a sheer wall of icy gray stone shooting up into the clouds on the other.
