Deliberately, I used our bonds so the thrall wouldn’t know my command.:Throw the water in his face.:
Without hesitation, Tlacel dumped the bucket over the thrall’s head. Spluttering and spitting curses, the thrall shook like a dog. Then he laughed. “Maybe if it’d been holy water that might have had some effect on me.”
Mud still streaked his face.:I hate for anyone to touch him, but I need his face cleaned off completely.:
Tlacel tore his T-shirt down the middle and used it as a ragto wipe the thrall clean, ignoring his snapping teeth. He moved gracefully, his hair gliding down his back, swishing almost like his sinuous feathered serpent. The tattoos across his chest glittered even in the fading daylight.
:Way to figure out how to take your fucking shirt off in front of our queen,:Ezra muttered.
I suppressed a smile, even when Tlacel winked at me over his shoulder.
With the thrall’s face clean, I laid my right hand on Sekh’s arm.:This nest is mine now. This circle is mine. I command my All Seeing General to See when he arrived and what he did inside before we came.:
:Absolutely.:He let out a rumbling lion purr.:It’s a pleasure to serve, my queen.:
11
SEKH
With the thrall’s face fully revealed to my All Seeing eyes, his recent movements played out in our bond like a movie.
As she asked, I started with when he arrived at the gate. Days ago, before the Dauphine had even been killed. He moved with purpose, bypassing Leonie’s former Blood without hesitation. He knew they were shells.
Instead of going into the house, he went straight to the basement door and threw himself into the pit. But he didn’t move toward Leonie right away.
Leeches swarmed him. Enough that he howled—until they tried to get into his mouth. Then he just moaned and twitched in the mud while they fed. Fat, stuffed leeches fell off. More took their place. Until finally, he rose from the pit. Covered in mud, but empty of any queen’s blood. He sat on the concrete ledge doing nothing.
Until the Dauphine began to scream in agony as my queen’s poisoned blood spread through her body. He howled with her. Writhing on the ledge. Tearing his own flesh with his nails and fangs. Then he raced out into the city and began feasting.
Contaminating himself with human blood. Creating as many thralls as possible before dawn, when he returned to the nest. His eyes bloodshot, his teeth blackened and stained. He dove into the pit again, and this time, he moved to lie in wait beneath the trapped queen.
“Of course,” she whispered, nodding. “The leeches fed until all her blood was gone. But why?”
“So there was nothing remaining that you might be able to compel,” Guillaume replied.
“But she was still alive when he first arrived.”
I nodded. “I don’t see her in the nest, so she must have left for Galveston already. This was her contingency plan. If she survived, she could simply give him her blood again.”
“There’s something we’re missing. Something she left that makes them appear as blanks.” She shook her head, tightening her fingers on my arm enough that her tantalizing nails pricked my skin, though sadly not enough to feed. “If it’s not her blood or magic?—”
“Magic doesn’t have to be blood,” Leonie said. “Weuse blood because that’s where our easiest, more natural magic lies, inherited in our bloodlines from our goddesses. But not all magic works through blood.”
“Very true.” Gwen nodded, her mouth twisting in a grimace. “Look at Arthur’s ability to gather souls for millennia, making himself stronger and stronger. It was done through a simple ring.”
From the deeper shadows beneath the tree, her dark fae Blood clicked his razor teeth. “There was nothing simple about a ring forged in Tylweth Teg.”
Without our queen making any further request, Tlacel picked up the bucket and ran off to gather more water, while his brother and Llewellyn began stripping the snarling, snapping creature for a thorough examination.
“Where are his thralls?” Shara asked softly, turning her headto look up at me. Her lips curved as if she had a delightful secret. With a slight push, her nails slipped into my skin. Her pupils dilated, turning her shining eyes almost black. Her nostrils flared. She licked her lips as if she could taste me directly on her tongue.
I willed my blood to pour into her. Fill her up. Overflow. Let her taste me for all time. While I allowed the thrall’s movements throughout the city to play in her bond. He might have only had a single night, but he’d created dozens of pockets of ravenous thralls in his wake.
Abandoned warehouses along the river. Boarded up houses that had never been repaired or inhabited after the last devastating hurricane. Hunting in dark alleys. Slaughtering and turning humans all night. His army of thralls waited only for the sun to set so they could attack.
She marked the locations in our bonds, using the rolling tapestry in her mind to show us exactly where the nests of vermin awaited.
:Your queen holds your bond. Harm no innocents. Otherwise, anyone who wishes to feast, go. Fill your bellies with my enemies.:
