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“Queen Nefertiti called me.” He watched my face for my reaction. “Though she could only call a fraction of the legion.”
“Why did she want the sphinxes?”
“She and her pharaoh were determined to convert Upper and Lower Egypt to a monotheistic religion.”
:Fuck Ra,: Vivian retorted in our bonds despite being on patrol.
Sekh nodded. “Though he was known as Aten, then, or at least that was the part he played in the world. It was his first attempt to eliminate all others—especially the goddesses—and be worshiped as the sole creator of the world. He only needed the right people in places of power to attempt the change, but they couldn’t possess enough power to overshadow his own pompous radiance. Queen Nefertiti carried enough of Sekhmet’s blood to bring me to her side.” He laced his fingers together loosely on the table. “But she could not hold me.”
As I suspected. I fought to keep my features as smooth and as easy as his without betraying any of my doubts and confusion. “Was she a vampire queen like me?”
“She was a vampire queen, but not like you. She didn’t revel in her hunger or embrace her gifts. She hid what she was and lived as a human queen with her royal husband. Perhaps if she had more magical experience, she could have strengthened her gift and used me to guard their dynasty, as her goal. Instead, the sun god’s influence soured the people’s beliefs, and the Eighteenth Dynasty died with Tutankhamun, though he at least managed to return Egypt to our goddesses before he continued his journey beyond.”
“If Ra was influencing them, it makes sense she had to hide what she was.”
“The goddess’ blood was thin even then.” Sekh lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. “It took every drop of Sekhmet’s sacred blood to bring me and twenty sphinxes to her Call. Queen Nefertiti only managed to hold us for three days and nights before we returned to our eternal watch.”
Stunned, I leaned my head back against Rik. He kneaded my shoulders soothingly but didn’t say anything. None of them did.
I had to let it all soak in. Even though my brain rebelled.
An Egyptian queen millennia ago—a direct descendant of the goddess who’d created the sphinxes—had only been able to call twenty of them. It’d taken every drop of Sekhmet’s blood to hold them. For three fucking days.
I’d called three thousand, and I wasn’t even descended from Her line.
Three days. Could I make arrangements to go after the Dauphine so quickly? But why did I need thousands of sphinxes to take care of one vampire queen? Sure, she was Triune, but I didn’t think the legion cared whether I brought her to justice for what she’d done to Mom.
I shuffled the pieces of strategy and ideas around in my head, but nothing went together yet. I had too many pieces on the board, especially with an entire legion. I couldn’t even voice a clear plan to Carys to get her probabilities.
I must need them, but for what? The storm Undina had warned me about? I didn’t even know what the Screaming Madness was yet.
I blew out a shaky breath. “What the fuck am I going to have to do to hold you for longer than three days?”
A harsh, rasping croak escaped his lips. Another. He leaned forward, dropping his head onto his forearms, his shoulders shaking.
I honestly thought he was crying. Though that made about as much sense as using a legion of sphinxes to tear New Orleans apart looking for the Dauphine.
So if he wasn’t crying, he was fucking laughing at my very justifiable worry. Drumming my nails on the table, I waited for him to contain his mirth.
“Goddesses above and below.” Wiping his eyes, he finally lifted his head. “Forgive me, Your Majesty.”
A wide, warm smile and blazing golden eyes softened some of my frustrated wrath. It was impossible to stay mad at someone with such a generous smile. I didn’t know him at all yet, but everything I’d seen so far told me his true smile was a rare and precious thing.
“Now that I’m here, you need do nothing to hold me. In fact, I dare you to try and make me leave.”
17
SEKH
I could drown in the infinite expanse of her midnight eyes.
“But… You said…”
I shook my head in a slow, deliberate denial. “You have me in a headlock as surely as if your alpha was still choking me with his impressive biceps. I’m not fucking going anywhere.”
Doubt still flickered in her eyes, streaks of confusion to cloud the stars, which I could not abide. “I Saw you. Not from the beginning, of course. Your mother must have worked some impressive magic to hide you as long as possible. Red brick house with a square tower in a little, abandoned town called Stuller. Your room was at the top. Always dark, no windows, to keep the monsters away. But I could still See you.
“I Saw you flee the house when your aunt was killed on the street. You got on a bus and left everything behind. I Saw you on the run, always looking back over your shoulder, terrified of the things hunting you. Because you were hunted, Your Majesty. Not just by the monsters you knew of but others. Blank spaces of evil always searching. Even after the first two Blood came to you, a blank space almost got you.”
