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“The bar,” she whispered, nodding. “In Kansas City. Something was there.”
“It was close enough to see you. To almost touch you. Then you would not have been here, in this moment, no matter how strong you or your Blood were then. But for me, the most impressive thing I Saw you do was sit on a bench in Cairo as dawn broke the sky and allow an Aztec god to kill you.”
The alpha’s fingers tightened on her shoulder, reflexively pulling her back against him. Trying to protect her even now, when he’d been denied then. She’d had no one with her other than the god. No one to shield her.
What had happened on the other side… I could not See.
But I knew all too well the horrors spawned by millennia of Ra’s unfettered arrogance and depravity. I could imagine what fate awaited the young, beautiful daughter of his most hated enemy.
She shivered with the memory. “Dawn waits for no queen.”
“You could have stopped him, struck him down with your power, but you didn’t. You had a purpose, and nothing could sway you from your goal. You allowed him to drag you through the obelisk portal to a place worse than any hell humanity has ever imagined, and I despaired. I grieved for this world and all it had lost. As my infinite days unfolded, I’d watched you grow stronger, and I’d allowed myself to hope. Not that you would call me, which hadn’t even occurred to me as a possibility. I’d hoped the goddesses were at last reclaiming this world. So to lose you…”
I leaned forward, holding her gaze intently. “I am All Seeing, so hear me when I say that without you, all will be lost. This world is being devoured by madness. My watch will end, because there will be nothing else to See. The Great One walks the earth again through you, Your Majesty. Other goddesses awake from their long sleep. They see what Isis wrought in you, and they’re regenerating their lines with fresh, new blood. Now, more than ever, this world needs you. It needs you alive and more powerful than ever. More vicious. Harder. Meaner. Bloodier. With all the teeth and claws and fury of creatures born to dance in blood like She who created us.”
She stretched out her arm and took my hand in hers. I clasped both hands around her fingers, squeezing too hard, I knew, but unable to ease my fierce grip. “Your hunger matches mine. You revel and dance in blood. So use me, Your Majesty. Dance in mine.”
* * *
SHARA
He knew without asking that Mom had been my aunt. He could describe the home of my childhood as if he’d seen it with his own eyes.
He had. He saw everything.
“Did you see my mother? After she had me?”
His eyes unfocused, the gold darkening to bronze. Long moments passed, and my heart sank. She’d sacrificed so much to have me, yet I didn’t even know what had happened to her after she left me with her sister. No one did.
She’d died alone. Without the child she’d given up everything to have.
Esetta Isador deserved so much more than ending up lost to all living memory.
“I See her,” Sekh whispered hoarsely. “At least I think it’s her. She looks like you. Or what I would imagine you to look like if…” He blew out a long breath and focused on my face. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Wordlessly, I nodded, clutching his fingers.
“She’s pale, weak, and very thin in spirit, as if she’s already stepped partially into her next life. Crying. Bleeding. She has no power remaining, and while her will is as strong as ever, her physical strength wanes.”
His voice cracked with emotion, as if he felt what he was seeing. Or maybe he felt mine. Tears streamed down my face.
“She walks down an abandoned highway that’s cracked and falling apart. Colorful graffiti’s been painted on the remaining sections of asphalt. Steam rises from the broken road. It’s hot beneath her bare feet, blistering her skin with burns. Yet she trudges on.”
Lew’s gryphon howled with agony. I tugged on his bond, willing him to come to me. So we could hold each other. The two of us who’d loved her, even though I had never seen her face outside of his memories or brief visions.
Pausing, Sekh waited for the other Blood to reach me. Lew dropped down beside me and buried his face in my lap, his arms locked around me.
“Gryphon, of course.” Sekh nodded to himself. “The highway leads to Centralia, Pennsylvania, a mostly abandoned town still burning from a coal fire deep in the mines. She walks into darkness, disappearing beneath the ground. Smoke. Fumes. So hot. Smiling, she walks into the flames.” Sekh exhaled heavily, his eyes refocusing on my face. Now back to gold. “And so she passed from this world.”
I dripped tears on Lew’s head, stroking my fingers through his hair with one hand. Still clutching Sekh’s hands with my other. “She didn’t leave. She’s still here. Waiting, for us.”
“I told you she would be sure to destroy her physical body,” Lew ground out, his shoulders shaking. “At least we know how and where.”
“She hid well,” Sekh replied. “She was beyond my sight until the very end.”
I swallowed the aching lump in my throat. “Because she used the last of her power to ensure she hid my birth. So Selena could get me to safety.”
Ezra set a plate stacked high with cold fried chicken and potato salad in front of our newest edition. “Eat up, man. You’re going to need it in this nest.”
