“I See him arriving in Paris with the other Blood,” Sekh said quietly.
My heart weighed so much it felt like it was crushing me. “Thierry was in a nearby tree and never knew they were so close.”
Sifting through the residual magic, Shara found the arrival of the last two Isador Blood.
“Lucian. Zharr.”
I didn’t realize I’d fallen to my knees until her arms wrapped around my shoulders. She held me against her chest while I sobbed. I clung to her. Not caring the rest of her Blood saw me weeping. Silently, I dared any one of them to lose their queen and this family and not fall to their knees in agony.
Even the motherfucking dragon wisely kept his mouth shut.
“They’re in a group of five arriving in Rome around the same time,” Sekh said.
Her fingers stroked through my hair. “That tracks with what Esetta told me. How did they get here?”
The sphinx was silent for a few moments. While we waited, I fought to bring myself back under control. Listening to the steady, strong thump of Shara’s heartbeat against my cheek. The sounds of the swamp around us. Birds and insects. Quiet plops into the water. Frogs and other chirps I couldn’t identify. I hoped my friends had been able to listen to the natural creatures around them and found some comfort during their imprisonment. Some small joys. Even while they lay trapped and rotting, waiting…
I shuddered.
Waiting for us to find them. And put them out of their misery.
“Exact dates and times are harder to pinpoint, but I See the two of them going together to Valois recently. In the past year. They almost immediately departed again for New Orleans and entered the Delafosse nest.” Sekh was silent for a moment, and Icould almost hear the whizzing of time forward and backward as he scanned. “After Thierry was released from here.”
Shara’s arms tightened around me, her voice deadly even and calm. “Were they sent to Valois before or after I was called to Rome?”
“After, my queen.”
Now she leaned on me, a fine trembling spreading through her body. “Then I could have saved them. If I’d only known they were there. I could have brought them out of Rome before the Dauphine could hurt them. Goddess. Marne stood there and demanded I take a Blood from her house, even knowing she held five former Isador Blood. She could have given them to me then, and I would’ve gladly taken them. Even if they carried her blood. She…”
Her voice broke, but when I tipped my face up to look at her face, she didn’t cry. Her eyes burned with the same anger choking me. “She deliberately kept them from me. Then sent them to hell.” She laughed, a harsh, ragged sound that stilled the swamp around us. “That’s why Byrnes called Gina. She wanted me to know she’d exchanged Blood with House Valois, as if she could just wash her hands of the matter. It’s notherfault they ended up here in the swamp.
“But it is. It’s absolutely her fault. She could’ve told me. I could’ve?—”
She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking.
“You couldn’t have changed any of this,” I told her gently. “None of this is your fault. This was all set into motion before you were ever born.”
She laughed again, a wry, exhausted, furious sound devoid of any amusement whatsoever. “I’m so fucking tired of these fucking games. Fucking up people’s lives. Sending them to death and torture as if they’re not real people. Just pieces on a board. And for what? To keep me from ‘winning’ five Blood shedidn’t want me to have? To keep me from having any more of my mother’s blood brought back into my house?”
A strident caw jerked her gaze up to where Nevarre circled. I watched as her lovely face hardened into a visage I knew and loved well.
So very much like her mother.
“Yes, Nevarre. It’s time to purge the old blood.”
47
SHARA
Shaking. So fucking angry. And we hadn’t even seen the four Isador Blood trapped in the trees yet. After seeing Thierry’s memories, I thought I was prepared for how awful it would be.
Newsflash: I’m not.
“Let’s start with the two newer ones,” I said. “Maybe there’s some hope I can save them.”
No one objected, not willing to be the one to break my fucking heart. I knew it was too late. As soon as the contaminated leeches were put into them, their fates were sealed. But for a few minutes, I had hope.
Lew and I held each other, and Rik held us both, while Guillaume used a heavy kukri to hack open the cypress cage trapping Zharr. To try and temper my fury, I focused on Lew’s bond, picking up snippets of his memories of the other Blood. Zharr had been able to transform into a raróg, a giant fiery bird like a phoenix. Though his flames had been pure fire, not sunfires. As he flew, he spawned whirlwinds and tornadoes beneath his wings, whipping up his flames even more.
