“Mayte,” Shara whispered softly. “My first sibling.”
“The New York City queen wanted her. Badly. But so didshe, if only to destroy the young heir before she could rise in power.”
Outwardly, Shara only nodded, but her heart panged at the thought of any harm coming to Xochitl. “Go on.”
“Another younger queen who disappeared. She took over that House in case the queen came back. I distinctly remember her saying, ‘If she dares return to take a seat at the Triune opposite me, she’ll live to regret it.’”
Shara’s eyes tightened slightly. “A younger queen who disappeared, who’s strong enough to take a seat at the table. That sounds like Helayna Ironheart or Karmen Sunna to me. Karmen’s older, but she was taken too.”
“It does indeed,” Guillaume confirmed.
“We know Ra took Karmen to Heliopolis as a child. Could the Dauphine have been involved in Helayna’s kidnapping? Sekh?”
I gave a slow blink, shaking away the thrall’s past to focus on my queen. “I’m sorry, my queen. Who?”
A face appeared in my queen’s mind. I would have described her as a young queen—not even two hundred years old—before meeting Shara. Dark eyes with hints of green. Short brownish-red hair streaked and tipped with black, awkwardly cut and jagged about her shoulders, some areas close to her scalp. A sprinkling of freckles across her pale cheeks.
“Helayna Ironheart,” Shara replied. “Can you See when she was attacked?”
Through Shara’s bond, I Saw her at House Ironheart’s cabin with the other queen and three strange Blood the likes of which I’ve never Seen before. I couldn’t See when they first arrived at the small cabin north of here. My queen didn’t hold that circle.
I flicked back through time, scanning for the queen’s face, and found her decades ago near a deep lake. She ran from a nest down a sloping hill covered in trees toward the shoreline with another queen.
“Pause,” Shara said.
I held the other queen’s image. She wore a white sleepinggown and robe. Her hair hung down her back in a thick blonde braid.
“That’s Illa Fólkvangr. Her hand and tongue are upstairs in one of the drawers, and she’s at the bottom of that lake I see behind her in your vision. Switch back to Helayna and See who took her.”
I focused on the other queen following a small white fox through mud and broken trees. There must have been some kind of natural disaster. The little fox disappeared beneath a fallen tree, and she rushed forward, crawling underneath the branches of a massive pine tree.
In a flash of brilliant emerald light, she was gone.
“I’m sorry, my queen. That’s all I can See.”
“So something magical interfered with even the All Seeing, Never Sleeping General’s ability. That could have been the Dauphine, but something tells me it wasn’t.”
“I agree,” Leonie said. “The flash of green doesn’t feel like her.”
Nevarre’s giant raven cawed overhead.:When I remained behind in the Ironheart nest, Helayna admitted she thought her sire might be Loki.:
“Of course,” Shara whispered, nodding. “Another god to sire a queen when they were few and far between. He’d certainly be capable of such magic. Though why would he kidnap and torture his own daughter? No matter. I have to warn her. If she goes to House Fólkvangr, she may very well encounter one of the Dauphine’s thralls lying in wait.”
Gwen pulled out a cell phone. “I’ll tell Kevin and he’ll warn them. The Ironheart consiliarius has talked with him already and has his information.”
“Thank you.” Shara came back toward me. “Can you still See if I’m feeding on you?”
“Of course.” Though she knew that was a stretch, so I amended my answer with, “I’ll try.”
She lay her head on my chest, her arms around my waist. My heartbeat quickened, eager for the prick of her nails. Though she only laughed softly, drawing my gaze down to her legs. The dragon wrapped his tail around her ankle and tugged, as if he could convince her to move to him instead of me. Irritation flashed through me but I refused to give him the pleasure of a retort.
“I have need of my general first. But perhaps you could snack on the thrall until it’s your turn, my dragon. I’m finished with him.”
:I can always snack, my queen. As long as I’m next.:
12
SHARA
