Fire rippled over us again, sizzling the blood on my scales.:She’s not dead,:Shara said.:I don’t think cauterizing the wounds helped.:
:I ate her fucking heart.:Furious, I grabbed one of the hydra’s front legs in my jaws and ripped the limb off.:So how the fuck is she still alive?:
Sekh grunted with disgust.:Does she have more than one heart?:
:Basilia’s still alive,:Shara said.:Xin took her head but it didn’t make any difference. We need a plan B.:
I wasn’t sure what she meant until I felt her approaching us.
Oh fuck no. Not my queen. Not anywhere near a hydra we couldn’t kill. No guarantee even the Eleusinian Mysteries would protect her from a hydra, especially since the Dauphine had set the trap.
Even Sekh roared with fury, trying to crush the hydra beneath his massive weight before our queen could be endangered.
More heads sprouted out all around his paws. A nest of tiny writhing snake heads—quickly growing bigger. All with poisonous acid and death stare eyes.
Fire wreathed around us, wave after wave, trying to slow theregeneration. Striding through the flames and smoke, my queen walked head high. Unhurried. Without an ounce of fear.
Because she walked in a dark shield of power.
I couldn’t see her face. At first, I thought she’d wrapped a shirt or something around her head, but as she passed toward the cave, it looked more like thick shadows. Darkness. Despite full sun overhead.
Even though she couldn’t see, she walked confidently toward Xin in the cave, using his bond to guide her steps.
One of the snake heads snapped at her back, whipping so fast it blurred in the smoke. I twisted around and snagged the neck, ripping the head off. Uncaring it meant more heads immediately started growing. If one of them touched her…
The fucking wake of devastation I’d committed through every Gorgon house was nothing.
I would fucking destroy this entire fucking world with my wrath.
45
SHARA
:Thank you, Son of Morrigan,:I told Nevarre.:Using your Shadows to cover my eyes was a great idea.:
His crow cawed.:My pleasure, my queen.:
Shielding the rest of my body with power, I used Xin’s bond to guide me into the cave. I didn’t need my eyes to see. Not when I had such deep Blood bonds. Clanging blows bounced off the rocky walls as he hacked at the adamantine chain, trying to break Basilia free of the tetradrachm. Despite all the tugging and fighting going on outside, the coin had barely moved, as if it outweighed them all.
I didn’t think removing the chain would be enough to let Basilia die, though it wouldn’t hurt anything to try.
Correction. I heard metal shatter. It would hurt Guillaume’s sword.
:It’s not my Templar blade,:he assured me.
Once inside the cave, I pulled the Shadows from my eyes and used them like a curtain against the jagged rocky entrance, just in case the hydra managed to get one of her heads past the rest of my Blood. Moving quickly, I dropped to my knees beside Basilia’s body.
She lay crumpled at the base of a large statue of Medusa. The chain was deeply embedded into her leathery skin, as if it had become part of her body. Xin had severed her spine, but dry, woody tendons were re-attaching her head, pulling her body back together. Just like Leonie, her eyelids and mouth were sewn shut. Basilia looked more shriveled and drier. Maybe it was the climate? Or something to do with her power?
She looked more like Huitzilopochtli before I resurrected him.
Power filled me, simmering hot and ready to be used. I allowed a small drop of blood to well up from the puncture I’d made on my wrist so I could shield myself as I walked past the spitting venomous heads. Swiping my finger through the blood, I touched a dainty heart-shaped lock holding the chain to the silver disk, willing the lock to melt away.
Hissing like a living serpent, the chain slipped off her body, tearing away pieces of dried skin. Not just the lock but the entire chain began melting into smoldering puddles of metal.
But I could still hear thuds outside.
Both Sekh and Mehen roared and bellowed. My dragon had taken several deep slices and bites, and while he wasn’t exactly endangered, he was taking on damage.
