AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The knight clenched scarred fingers around the slim blade in his hand. “Thousands, my queen. Desideria amassed such power that even if a goddess exacted retribution, it was negligible. She was so powerful no one could stand against her.”
“No one but your mother,” I whispered softly. “For you. No matter the cost.”
* * *
SHARA
I’d killed a powerful queen—Keisha Skye in New York City. I’d taken over her nest completely. What recompense had her goddess demanded of me? Wouldn’t I know?
A tumultuous mix of regret and guilt rushed through me, making it hard to breathe. The memory of her death surged through my mind. Xin materializing behind her on the dais, pinning her in his arms. Holding her still for me. I’d struck hard with my cobra-like fangs, drinking her down.
I drank a powerful queen. To death. Her blood. Her power.
The thundering winds of a hurricane. A million volts of lightning, like the flash in her court earlier when she’d tried to strike me down.
In that moment, I’d made the deliberate choice to kill her, rather than pull her back from the grave. I could have made her my sibling and forced her to her knees in her own tower in front of her entire court. Instead, I’d chosen retribution. For all the alphas she’d killed. For the pain she’d caused Rik and Ezra to suffer in her daughter’s tainted blood circle.
What cost did I pay for taking Scáthach’s daughter’s life?
The clang of metal on metal rattled through my head. Screams. War chants. Pounding drums. Heavy grunts of effort, sweaty bodies straining against each other. The dead littered the rocky ground, the sickly-sweet smell of rotten death thick in the air. Ravens cawed, hopping from body to body, eating the choicest bits.
:No cost, daughter of the Great One. Death and war go hand in hand for me.:
I blinked, focusing back on my Blood before me.
“Not all goddesses will be as forgiving,” Guillaume warned. “The more powerful a queen, the more likely it is for her goddess to demand retribution for her death.”
“So if I’d killed Marne instead of enduring that ridiculous tea party…”
He huffed out a sharp, grim laugh. “Without a doubt, Ceres would have stripped you of one of your greatest powers. The cobra queen, for example. The wyvern or winged jaguar. The life of one of your siblings. She’d have made the blow deep and personal to you.”
“The child I’ve seen in your memories,” Llewellyn added. “The young princess will be very strong one day with a jaguar god as her father, especially since you named her an Isador heir. What better way to strike a blow against your entire House than demanding the life of your first and currently only heir?”
My stomach churned on Mehen’s spicy blood, and I suddenly regretted feeding so deeply without any food in my system. I’d thought the worst thing Marne could do to us would be to simply kill us all. Not leave me alive—with the knowledge I’d brought endless sorrow to Mayte with the loss of her child. Or dishonored my goddess by losing one of Her precious gifts She’d instilled in me.
“Killing us all would have been way too easy, and sometimes you won’t have the choice.” Guillaume paused, his gaze flickering over my shoulder to Rik and then back to my face. “By your leave, alpha, I’ll go to the kitchen and fetch our queen something to settle her stomach.”
Rik’s bond felt heavy and cold like granite in my mind. The muscles of his chest flexed against the back of my head as he nodded, but he didn’t say a word.
I turned in his arms so I could see his face. His jaws could crush marble into dust, and he glared at me with a hard, fierce look that took me aback.
“I’m—”
A rumble thundered from his chest like an earthquake. “Don’t you fucking dare apologize to me, Your Majesty.” Llewellyn quietly pulled back to follow G, and Rik’s gaze snapped to him. “You never leave our queen when she has need of you.”
“How may I be of service, Your Majesty?”
Rik didn’t give me a chance to answer. “You can start by looking me in the fucking eye when you’re taking my orders.”
Llewellyn’s red-gold eyes narrowed to slits but he stared back at Rik levelly.
Anxiety fluttered through me briefly, but I made myself breathe deeply, willing my body to remain relaxed. When I’d first called Blood to my side, I’d been worried that one of the older, more experienced Blood might challenge Rik for his place as alpha. I hadn’t meant to weaken his position with my questions. But I didn’t have a single doubt in my mind.
Rik’s my alpha and always will be.
I will it to be so.
“Would you like to feed on him now or later, Your Majesty?” Rik asked.
