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While I fed, I was aware of the car door opening. Frank helped Gina out, then Carys. I felt Ezra and Daire hovering nearby, covering our approach to the house. Guillaume got out of the car and waited for me to lick Rik’s throat clean before offering me a hand. Though with Rik plastered to my back, he basically just lifted me out to G, who set me on my feet.
When he turned toward the house, I blew out a low whistle. He’d buckled on his sword, and the sight of my Templar knight stopped me dead in my tracks.
Guillaume always wore at least a dozen blades on his body. Some visible, but mostly hidden beneath his clothes. Tonight, he wore jeans and a simple long-sleeved baby blue button-down shirt like usual. Over the top of his clothes, a long sheath was strapped to his back by a chest halter. The hilt rose over his right shoulder so he could easily grab it. Another strap steadied the heavy blade around his waist like a belt.
Pausing, he looked back over his shoulder, eyebrow arched. “You’ve seen me carry a sword before, my queen.”
“Not that one.” I didn’t know one sword from the other, honestly, but his stance was different. I could hear the faint jingle of chainmail. The clang of swords, the screaming neigh of his warhorse. The way he carried this sword revealed the true core of his knight’s honor, honed to a brilliantly sharp edge. The former Triune Executioner, assumed dead and lost after his former queen’s death. Now fully healed and leading the charge to war once more.
Turning back to me, he drew the long, heavy blade in an effortless glide of steel that made me shiver. He lay the sword across his other hand and dropped down to his knees on the sidewalk, holding it up to me. “This sword was never used in Desideria’s service. Now, Your Majesty, this blade is yours.”
I traced one of the channels in the shining blade. “Is it real? I mean, the one you carried to other crusades?”
“Absolutely. I carried it for centuries before I was imprisoned by King Philip. It only ever knew the honor of a Templar knight. In fact, I only re-acquired the blade recently and restored it. That’s why I was so close when you called me to Kansas City.”
Deliberately, I nicked my thumb on the blade and smeared a long line of my blood down the steel.
His eyes flared and he pressed his forehead to the leather-wrapped hilt. “This knight is at your undying service for all time, Your Majesty.”
“Then I have a request to make of you, Sir Guillaume de Payne Isador.”
He lifted his head, his eyes clear, hard, and cold. Ready to kill. “Anything, Your Majesty.”
“When you first came to me in Kansas City, I asked you to swear an oath to never kill any of my Blood. If any of us are contaminated by Thierry, I release you from that oath. I ask that you dispatch us with this beautiful sword.”
His brow furrowed ever so slightly. “Of course, Your Majesty. Rik already asked me to bring the sword for that reason.”
There was almost always a loophole with blood oaths if you were clever enough. It all came down to what you believed, wholly and deeply with your entire will.
He’d sworn to never kill any of my Blood, current or future, directly or indirectly with intent to harm. A mercy killing to avoid any of us suffering like Thierry would be a blessing, not harm. We’d already had discussions like this, hence his confusion.
Here, then, was my real command. I cupped his cheeks in my palms and stared deeply into his eyes. Imprinting my will on him, powered by my blood. “If a single drop of the Dauphine’s power gets inside me, I ask you to kill me so she has no claim on any part of me. Once that’s done, carry me to Centralia, Pennsylvania and walk into the fire like my mother did so we can all be together once more.”
“You honor me beyond all reckoning, Your Majesty.” He swallowed hard as I pressed a kiss to his forehead. Tears of blood dripped from his eyes. Tears I captured on my fingertips and tasted with a delicate shudder. “I will carry you safely to the other side of the Veil.”
25
SHARA
I paused outside the open library door, waiting for Rik to settle the Blood where he wanted them. I couldn’t even see Thierry between Sekh and Guillaume facing off across from Lew.
“The items you asked for are on a tray just inside the door, Your Majesty,” Magnum called softly.
She stood with Gina, Carys, and Frank a few feet behind us in the hallway. Close enough to offer suggestions—but hopefully out of the danger zone. Itztli and Ezra prowled back and forth behind Rik, shifted to their beasts, ready to protect our backs just in case something managed to sneak through the four aerial Blood.
“Thank you. Did he threaten you at all before you called?”
“No. I heard a scuffle when the security guard tried to stop him, but he didn’t hurt anyone. He just wouldn’t leave.”
I pierced my skin above the scarab marking on my wrist. As before, I held the blood inside my body, but instead of just covering the small puncture with a plug of power, I wrapped my entire body with a protective layer. Pulling it tighter against my skin, covered head to toe. Maybe too securely, since it dulled my senses. I couldn’t even feel the heat of Rik’s body behind me, and he burned like a furnace.
I didn’t want to deaden sensation. Only protect myself from the taint.
Letting some of the magic sink into my skin helped, making the shield thinner. I’d have to play around with it until I honed the right amount of shielding.
:Whatever you’re doing, I approve,: Rik said in the bond. :It feels like you have a layer of flexible armor over the top of your clothes.:
:Good. I don’t want any openings in case anything crawls out of him.:
