SHARA
Using Thierry’s memory, I envisioned the ancient tree in House Delafosse’s garden. Long, sweeping branches stretched out barely three feet above the ground. Thick with hanging moss, creating a natural living curtain against the outside world.
As if I’d been there myself and could describe every detail, Leonie’s nest filled my mind. Hundreds-year-old brick cobblestones formed a patio area beneath the ancient oak. Black wrought iron table and chairs. Bright orange and blue cushions in the seats. The peach stucco house I’d associated with the Dauphine for months rose in my mind.
Welcoming. Open. To me.
There was no warning tingle of another queen’s blood circle to make us pause.
This blood circle was already mine.
Because it’d been the Dauphine’s. What was hers, now belonged to me. Whether I wanted it or not.
This time, I welcomed ownership of the nest. Though I’d been fully prepared to ask Sekh to bring the circle down.
Xin slipped into the nest, his nose hard at work to identify any possible scents we could track. The rest of the Blood went in as Rik ordered. Normal-ish winged Blood in the air, high enough to avoid human sightings if possible. Leonie’s house was on a well-trafficked street with large houses on either side as well. We could have waited for darkness, but that would only help disguise the Dauphine’s traps and allow thralls to attack the nest.
Before I touched the nest, I wasn’t sure if the blood circle would even still be up. Hopefully that meant Leonie was still alive.
Sitting on my shoulder as his blue and red bird, Thierry led us to a low stone basement entrance beneath the house. Ancient bricks slowly crumbled and sank into the soft, wet ground. The thick oaken door was so heavy it took both Llewellyn and Sekh to force it open. Rusted hinges groaned and squealed as they pushed the door inward. Thick muck immediately oozed outward over the uneven paved walkway.
And the smell. Goddess. Worse than death.
“Smells like your toilet, Leviathan,” Sekh said.
Mehen grinned, showing all his teeth. “Not even after a thousand years did my toilet smell so bad. Though it does rival your breath.”
I closed my eyes, trying not to breathe, but goosebumps raced down my arms. Just as thick and foul as the mud, power oozed out from the dark space below the house.
The Dauphine’s power.
Now mine. The power I inherited by killing her.
Built not just on blood but raw, abject, endless suffering. A queen’s power, warped and leeched from her over years. Decades. Chained in darkness and filth and misery. Enduring the madness of burning hunger and helpless rage. Knowing there was no escape. No end for the torture. Every agonizedbreath and scream only added to the brutal power siphoning into the mud and house above for its new queen.
Even past her death, the Dauphine still hoarded unholy power in this mire of torture and madness.
I didn’t even have to draw my blood to feel the power writhing up out of the pits with ecstasy. Reaching for me. Eager to be used by its queen.
My stomach clenched so hard I almost heaved. Rik’s palm rubbed against my back, and he drew me against him. Letting me ground myself in his rock-steady body. His scent of rain soaked stone and distant, rumbling thunder.
“You don’t have to go into the pit to rescue her yourself, my queen. Let us?—”
“Yes, I do.” I drew a shuddering breath. “She endured this torture since before I was even born. The least I can do is use the power that trapped her to free and hopefully heal her.”
Though how could anyone hope to heal the mental trauma that she must have endured? Trapped, chained, suffering in darkness. Could this level of torturous madness be soothed with just her freedom?
Gwen took my hand firmly in hers. “We will heal her. Together.”
I gave her a grateful nod. “I hope so.”
:It’s mostly swamp in here.:As his wolf, Xin lightly leaped from one wooden plank to another, traversing the darkness toward the central pit Thierry had shown me. The deep hole had once been a cistern beneath the old house. Now it crawled with the Dauphine’s leeches and foul mud. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted Leonie to still be alive—buried in that filth—or if I’d rather know she was finally dead and beyond suffering.:The walkways are partially rotted, so watch your step.:
:Any sign of the Dauphine’s Blood?:Rik asked.
:Not yet, but I can’t smell anything but the stench of this place.:
:How about in the house?:
