1
SHARA
“Look up.”
The voice was familiar—but impossible. I opened my eyes, looking up at the high, lofted ceiling of my bedroom. A white-headed blue bird with long red tail feathers hung upside down on a beam. Thierry, or more accurately, his spirit bird.
My mother’s former Blood had been cursed by the Dauphine into a horrible zombie-like thrall creature. I’d pulled his spirit out of his rotting body and sent his spirit to fly free to Esetta once I killed the Dauphine. But he hadn’t gone to my mother as I intended. As soon as we returned from Galveston, I’d seen him in my heart tree.
He let go of the beam and slowly drifted down toward me. Growing, swelling larger, his blue wings shifting to his Greek siren, half man, half bird. Then melting fully into the man, smiling back at me.
We floated on a black, gentle river, just me and him. A part of my brain recognized that it was only a dream, but I was too happy to see him healed and whole to care that it wasn’t real. My dreams were always powerful and often contained messages from beyond.
He looked exactly like the painting in the Park Avenue house with short blond hair and sky-blue eyes. No lingering taint marred his clear skin or his scent. Rather than the rotting stench of death, he smelled like an island beach. Salty air, sand, and fresh, ripe mangoes and coconuts.
“It’s an honor to serve House Isador again.”
Lightly, I pressed my palm to his cheek. “You were supposed to fly to Esetta.”
He grinned, rubbing his cheek against my palm. “I did. I am. But I’m here too. I’ll always be with you now, just as she is. Though I’m easier for you to see and converse with outside of Her domain. There aren’t any constraints placed upon me to keep me from your side. Since we didn’t know when you might return to New York, she wants you to know there’s a gift from us both in your hair.”
When I’d visited the Park Avenue house, I’d managed to see Esetta in the room where she’d delivered me. The entire house was connected to Isis’ pyramid, and I’d been able to talk to my mother. Touch her. Taste her. In that dream, she’d given me her magical hair. Incredibly long and heavy, laden with her power and all her secrets.
The black river flowing around us parted to reveal one of Thierry’s blue feathers.
“I gave her a siren feather before she broke my bond and sent me to New Orleans. She says my miracle lives on in you. Think of my feather, and my gift is available to you.”
His miracle was the ability to stop time. If he hadn’t been able to touch me inside the Dauphine’s blood circle and stop time while the blood poured from the Skolos Triune table… I might not still be here.
The black river flowed back over the blue feather, keeping it safe. “Thank you, both of you.”
“You’re welcome, my queen. If I may, I have a request to make of you.”
“Of course. What is it?”
“When I first went to House Delafosse, the Dauphine threw me into a pit beneath the house. Leonie is still alive down there. I promised her that House Isador would come back to free her.”
My eyes widened, my mouth sagging open for a moment. “She’s still alive? Goddess. Of course. We’ll head to New Orleans immediately. Do you know what the Dauphine did to her to keep her trapped?”
“She cut off her hand, cut out her tongue, and fed on her through her foul leeches, keeping her weak and chained in a muddy pit beneath the house, while she sat on Leonie’s nest like a fat spider, stealing her house and incapacitating her Blood. When the Dauphine threw me in with Leonie, I started killing the leeches and taking back the blood they stole. I fed a lot of them to her too, trying to make her stronger so we could escape. Thousands of leeches, my queen, if not more. I don’t know what happened to her after I was taken to the swamp, or how long that was.”
My stomach churned. “I could see why the Dauphine might cut out her tongue to silence her, but why take her hand?”
“When I first met the Dauphine pretending to be Leonie, she sat writing a letter. There was something strange attached to the pen. It looked like a dried-up chicken foot, but then I realized it had five digits.”
I shuddered, my stomach heaving so hard I had to close my eyes and will it to settle so I didn’t throw up in my sleep. “So she could write like Leonie. Talk like Leonie.”
Thierry nodded. “The two Blood I met at the blood circle didn’t act like normal Blood. I suspect they were spelled like Basilia’s Blood at Undina’s nest. The blood circle was still Leonie’s—but the Dauphine must have put her mark on it somehow. She saidourblood circle.”
My mind raced. The Dauphine was dead, but if the blood circle had been Leonie’s originally, it could still be active.Getting through it wouldn’t be an issue. Either Xin could use his gift, or Sekh could tear it down. I hated to kill Leonie’s Blood if they were still there, but we might have to. Unless I could think of a way to undo the leech the Dauphine had planted in their skulls. Leonie probably had at least one leech in her too. After so many years… it would be as big as the eels in Thierry.
It’s my power now.
Ugh. My stomach quivered with dread. Bile burned the back of my throat.
I jerked awake and covered my mouth, trying not to throw up. Rik swept me up and carried me to the bathroom, holding me while I heaved and wretched over the toilet and keeping my crazy-ass hair out of the way. Blood splattered the porcelain, which oddly steadied me. It wasmyblood. My power. Though my forehead was clammy, my head ached, and my stomach still felt fragile.
For the first time in my life, I was in a place that was safe for me to bleed. Plus the Great One’s words whispered in my head.Your blood will always be your greatest weapon.
