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Blood streamed down his face, leaking from his eyes. Green mucus bubbled up out of his throat and dripped from his nose. He turned his head to cough the illness away from me. But he couldn’t stand.

My headless knight who couldn’t die.

Was actively dying in front of me.

25

RIK

The wail of agonized grief my queen made was the worst sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Worse than the sound of her screaming my name when Ra’s Soldiers of Light attacked us in Kansas City, when I’d been spelled asleep. Worse than the silence in my head when she shut her bond down in Cairo and allowed Huitzilopochtli to drain her to death.

Time barely moved, drawing the heart-rending scream out into eternity. I forced my body faster. Crossing the last steps to reach her. Wrapping them both in my arms as Guillaume slowly toppled.

“G. You can’t die. You promised.”

“Behold, a pale horse,” he rasped. Coughed. His breathing wet and heavy. “Death his name. Bringing pestilence. Hell follows.”

Itztli was barely breathing, each inhale a wet, thick sound like he was drowning. Now Tlacel slumped with him. Pustulant sores covered his arms, leaking and oozing. Lew was down too. The Isador spirit birds sat on his chest, curled up like they were roosting.

:Goddess forgive me,: Lucian wept. :I didn’t know. I thought it might be a future Blood. Not this. Not the end.:

“It’s not the end,” she retorted, swiping tears away. “As long as I’m still alive, I’ll fight. I’ll find a way.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

I would never lie to her. Even to give her false hope.

Because I already felt the strange sinking sensation flowing through my veins too. A fire, a fever, like Itztli said, growing brighter by the moment. In seconds, we were all sick. All incapacitated.

While I still had a bond, I used it to call the rest of her Blood to her. :Come now. We’ll all go together, as she swore to Coatlicue.:

“No,” she cried. She pounded on my chest. “You can’t die. None of you. This is not the time.” Then softer, breaking my heart into shreds. “Don’t make me be the last to die. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be without you. Not for one second.”

Thierry’s blue bird made a mournful sound like a dove as he landed on her shoulder.

“Hold time, Thierry. Hold it as long as possible. There must be a way. Why am I not sick yet?”

“Queen.” The word came out garbled, my voice choked. But she understood.

Queens were harder to kill, but as virulent as whatever plague this was, she would die. The same as us.

Even if Coatlicue decided not to uphold the bargain She made in Heliopolis and take us all.

This illness sealed our fate.

SHARA

Rik lay beneath me, his broad chest rising and sinking like the sea as he struggled to breathe.

Daire. Ezra. Arms around each other, unable to crawl any closer. In seconds, they were pale, shaking, and coughing. Blood. Pus. Sores blistering across their skin.

Yet they still came. All of them. Sekh wasn’t here yet since he’d been the furthest away. Vivian, Mehen, and Nevarre tore through the roof to reach me. Only to fall to the floor, unable to hold their beast.

Even my king dragon, who’d been unable to control his shift without me.

One by one, my Blood tumbled around me carelessly like lifeless dolls as their bonds thinned and shredded. Their strong, powerful bodies dying.

They clung to me. Even proud Mehen. His face pressed against my thigh. As if he could escape our fate if only he didn’t have to look. No last jokes. No threats.