“Yes. No one would want me then, and I could go live a very happy and boring life.”
He cupped my face, forcing me to look at him. “You could purge every drop of magic from your blood and I can guarantee I’d still want you.”
Who the hell talked like that? I wanted to groan in misery, because I knew at that moment I was utterly sunk. Any resolve to not sleep with him melted like snowflakes in the boiling heat of his stare.
He reached out and wrapped his hand around mine, towing me to him like a rudderless boat that didn’t have an oar of its own.
He dropped my hand, but I didn’t move away.
He moved his fingers to the waist of my shirt, dipping underneath it and grazing the skin of my back and waist while his mouth hovered so close to mine that we breathed the same air.
“You have no idea how much I want you.”
His words anchored me to him when I knew I should’ve been walking away. My brain still screamed to leave, but my heart and body held the majority vote, and they weren’t going anywhere. He smoothed his hands up my ribcage, dragging my shirt with it, and I lifted my arms to help him along.
His hands froze. “Something really strong crossed the outer ward.”
I didn’t know if I was worried or relieved.
Thirty
Sneak was running up the path as we were heading down.
“Who’s here?” Ryker asked as soon as we got close enough.
“The Queen of Cacoy is on the eastern border along with some others.” Sneak rested his hands on his hips, and his cheeks were flushed. It might’ve been because of who was here or because he ran most of the way to find us. Either were possible.
He couldn’t have really said Queen of Cacoy, could he? “The Queen of Cacoy?” I asked, as if there might be another.
Sneak nodded. “Says she wants to talk to you two.”
“The one who wanted to kill me with her fake bean now wants to chat?” I didn’t need a strong survival instinct to know this was bad.
“Yes. The Queen of Cacoy wants to speak to you. Am I going to have to keep repeating everything?” Sneak asked.
I let his snippiness go. It was clear his heart was pumping overtime, and I didn’t think the sweat that clung to his shirt was entirely due to the jog over here.
“How many are with her?” Ryker asked.
“She’s got about fifty Wyrd Blood in tow. Some heavy hitters are with her.” Sneak sucked in a breath that hollowed out his throat.
Fifty? Not good, but we had more than that here. We could take them, maybe. If hers were all high level, maybe not. Easy, calm breaths. We could do this. And even if we couldn’t, I didn’t want to die looking like Sneak did right now. That would be way too embarrassing.
“Who?” Ryker asked.
“New King of Bedlam, one of the royals from Burrunda. Remember the weirdo from Villoy?” Sneak asked.
“Strange hair?”
“Yep. That one.”
“Not the worst,” Ryker said, shrugging and heading toward the border.
I wasn’t sure what would constitute “bad” if fifty Wyrd Blood marching on you didn’t.
We hit the bottom of the path, and he stopped. With a hand to my back, he tried to steer me in a different direction. “Go to the grove and wait there.”
I turned myself back around. “I’m not going to the grove. I need to see what she wants.”
“What she wants is to kill you,” he said, as if I should’ve remembered that very obvious point.
I shook my head. “She wouldn’t have shown up at the front door if that was her plan. She doesn’t hit straight on, and she wouldn’t do it herself.”
“She’s got a good point,” Sneak added.
Ryker took one of those long, calming breaths he’d been doing more and more often, while looking off at the distance. After a second of regrouping, he said, “Fine. But can you do one thing I ask and stay within arm’s reach?”
“Not a problem,” I replied. Especially since I’d been planning to anyway. Sometimes he acted like I had a death wish.
I knew what arm’s length entailed as well. We might need some more burial holes later. I’d dig them myself, but that queen was definitely not getting buried near Dez. I’d dig a hole over in the forest, outside the valley. Maybe in a bog. That was the best she’d get.
The closer we got to the border, the more Wyrd Blood I noticed heading in the same direction, and the more dulls heading in the opposite. It was a smart move. This wasn’t their fight.
Burn came running over to us. “I’ve got every abled Blood heading over.”
“Good,” Ryker said. “You and Sneak make sure they stay out of range.”
“Got it,” Burn said, and the two of them took off, trying to organize.
Ryker and I walked side by side, a path clearing for us up ahead. With all the Wyrd Blood standing together, it was hard not to feel the power pouring out around us. Most of them were low level. If I’d walked among them a year ago, I might’ve killed them. Now I recognized most of their faces, and when they looked upon me and Ryker, striding out to confront the queen, pride shone in their eyes. We must’ve had a hundred on our side, all nodding as we passed, looking ready to back us up any way needed.
Sneak and Burn were walking a line in front of them on either side, warning them to keep their distance.
Ryker’s hand found mine, and I held on to it. I felt the magic from the other group before they came into view. There was no denying they were stronger, but I wouldn’t trade sides for the world, even if it meant death.
There were four people that stood front and center, but one who stood out the most.
“Is that the Queen of Cacoy?” The first thing that hit me was how smooth her skin was, how lush her brown hair. A white fur trailed down to her feet, hiding any chance of seeing a marking. From her looks alone, she might’ve been under thirty. Her reputation told me she was probably much older, but the stronger the magic in her blood, the less she’d age.
“Yes,” Ryker said, confirming it.
“Who’s the guy beside her?” He was a few inches shorter than her. Black, crisscrossing marks covered both hands and climbed up his arms.
“Never seen him before, but from the markings, I’d say the new King of Bedlam. At least one thing now makes sense. It wasn’t a revolt. It was a takeover.”
I didn’t need him to tell me who the other two were. One of the men didn’t have normal hair but tufts all over his head that stood straight out for a few inches each. Markings wove all around the rest of his scalp. That meant the other person was from Burrunda.
Ryker kept moving forward, and I followed his lead. We didn’t stop until we were closer to the enemy than our people. Good thing I didn’t mention anything about digging those holes out loud. There were a lot of potential dead bodies here. This was quite a commitment.
The Queen of Cacoy broke from the group, walking toward us. Her companions took a step to follow. She raised her hand without looking back, and they all stopped like well-trained dogs.
She continued until she was standing a few feet in front of us. Her eyes skimmed me, pausing on my torso, as if she already knew who I was. The way they dropped to my pants and the boots I wore, that was an altogether different message.
“What brought you slinking all the way over here today?” Ryker asked.
If I did love Ryker, it was because of moments just like this.
She pursed her lips for a second. “We need to talk.”
“Then talk,” Ryker said.
“Are you going to let me in, or are we going to stand out here and create a spectacle?” If she’d given my dingy clothes a disgusted look, it was nothing compared to the way she stared at Ryker.
“We’re going to stand out here,” he said jovially, smiling.
I feared if the queen kept insisting, he might actually laugh. He truly seemed to be enjoying thwarting her.
She crossed her arms. “I could force the issue.”
“Mut
ual destruction? Go ahead. You should let your dogs know too,” he said, waving his hand toward her entourage.
She swallowed so loudly it was audible, and the little vein at her temple started to throb in the worst way, ruining her perfect complexion. “I’m doing you a favor coming here before your plans ruin us all. I suggest you invite me in and hear me out.”
“A favor? You mean like the bean that would’ve killed her?”
“No matter what you believe, I’m not stupid enough to walk into your country intending to kill her.”
Damned if I didn’t want to hear her out. It was clear I might’ve been the only one. Ryker seethed hatred from his pores. The lines of Wyrd Blood behind us were nearly showing their canines.
I looked beyond her to the Wyrd Blood she’d chosen to bring. I reached out, feeling their energy, drinking up their magic. None of them met my eyes; their magic pulled away from me. They weren’t here to fight. Would they under the right circumstances? Probably, but that wasn’t the plan. They were as much an adornment as the fur she wore.
That was it. I had to know what she’d come for. Considering everything, we couldn’t let hatred blind us.
“We should let her in and hear her out.”
Ryker snapped his gaze to me, and his lips parted as if he were holding back from calling me crazy in front of the queen.
“Only her. The others stay behind,” I said, trying to sound saner than he was giving me credit for.
“Fine. They’ll stay,” she said, without a care. Proved she didn’t need them. They were here for show only. I would’ve been happier about being right if it hadn’t made her scarier.
Ryker wasn’t budging. I squeezed his hand and tilted my head, hoping to get him moving.
His eyes kept insisting I was crazy.
I tilted my head again, ignoring the silent comment.
It was clear he was going to relent as soon as the smile completely disappeared from his face.
“We’ll let you in, but only because she’s taking pity on you.” Ryker stepped toward me, making a clear path for the queen.
She sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. Her eyes narrowed, and the little vein in her temple was near to bursting. She straightened her shoulders and walked past us as if we were invisible.
With a nod from Ryker, Burn stepped in front of her, leading her toward Ryker’s, as we followed. Every Wyrd Blood in the valley looked on as she passed, gawking like they were watching the devil walk into heaven. The way she strode through the throng of condemning eyes made it clear the devil didn’t think she was a sinner.
“Thank you,” I said to Ryker as we followed her toward his place.
“Mark my words, you’re going to regret this,” he replied.
A few minutes later, Burn pushed Ryker’s door open and stepped aside.
The queen walked into Ryker’s place while Ryker paused by Burn. “Anyone makes any moves…”
“I’m on it.”
She was already seated at the table when I walked in. I could feel her power but also her control. Her magic was locked down the way Ryker’s had once felt to me, before things had gotten all tangled up between us.
I moved to the other side and sat across from her. I didn’t care what title she gave herself. We were equals. Ryker pulled out a chair and sat beside me. United, if only for now.
He shook his head, as if he’d rather have killed her than what we’d come to, sitting civilly across from each other. It was clear I was going to need to take the reins with this meeting.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She didn’t hesitate to get right to the point. “You need to stop gathering stones.”
I let out a huff. “So you can have all the power?”
“You don’t tell us what to do regarding the stones,” Ryker said. “People have been trying to get them for decades. You expect me to sit back and let someone else collect them and then beg for their mercy as they rule this world? Never going to happen. As it was, that nut Harvo from Bedlam had already managed to seize one. Mushroom Man had gotten another. This was happening whether you wanted it to or not. I got an opportunity and I took it before things went to shit.”
“Do you understand what happens when you gather these stones?” she asked, eyes narrowed on us.
“We’ll have more magic than you,” I said. There might’ve been a little gloating involved, but the woman had tried to kill me.
She stood, her palms on the table. “You little idiot. You’re going to ruin us all. I was running half the world while you were playing in caves.”
She hadn’t pulled that out of the air. This woman knew something about me, about my past, and wanted me to know it. Her eyes burned hot as she looked back and forth between us.
Ryker remained relaxed but his tone was glacial. “Take it down a notch with the theatrics or this talk is over. You’ll be out wandering the field again.”
She swallowed back her pride but was choking while she did. When she sat down, the table had scorch marks in the wood where her palms had been. I had a bad feeling she could light this place up in a second if she wanted. No one should have to worry about being burned alive twice in one week. It was redundant.
“What do you know about my history? It’s clear you’re dying to share.” I’d lived through it, so if she thought the retelling was going to rattle me, she was delusional. She better have something I wasn’t aware of.
“Which part would you like to know? The part where your mother poisoned you? Or the part where she sold herself to the Debt Collector? Or how your flake of a father sold that info to the slavers to buy his freedom and that of his floozy?”
I knew enough of the details for her story to ring true. But she’d filled in a crucial part of the picture. That was how my mother had gotten me out. She’d poisoned me so that I’d be tossed out with the dead. Then sold herself to save me. Once my markings had started to show, it would’ve been that or hand me over to the ruling house of Crisp. Remembering what I did, I would’ve done the same.
It would’ve been a good plan if my father hadn’t botched it. I’d already known he’d walked away from me, and I’d walled off any hurt.
Ryker reached under the table, giving my thigh a gentle squeeze, supporting me without letting the queen know her words might’ve stung.
They hadn’t. This woman couldn’t touch me, not where it counted.
“Anything else?” I skidded my chair back a couple of inches and then kicked my boots up on to the table. Let her highness look at my muddy soles.
“Unless you have more than a history lesson, we’re done here,” Ryker said, standing.
“The stones you’ve been gathering aren’t just stones,” the queen said. “Have you ever heard of the Black Abyss?”
Why did that name sound familiar?
Ryker didn’t move, didn’t change his breathing or say a word. But deep within, where I could feel the place our magic connected, I felt the beginnings of a tidal wave.
The queen looked at him. “I see you recognize that name?”
“Might’ve heard it mentioned before,” Ryker said, and it was clear he’d more than heard of it. He knew exactly what she was talking about.
“What is it?” I asked Ryker. After all, I was the person who’d been collecting the stones. Details would be nice.
“It’s legend that there was a place deep in the mountains that was the origin of the magic wave that spread across the world,” he replied. “That there were miners who accidentally broke into this place called the Black Abyss. Once that chamber was opened, it released a surge of the magic into the world. That’s where the stones originated, from a larger one that was in that chamber.”
The queen leaned forward. “It’s not a legend at all, and you know it. I lived at the foot of that mountain. I was a young girl, a normal human then, before the magic flooded into me. I saw the things that came out of the Black Abyss before the miners sealed the chamber up again. Over the course of just weeks
, my town was destroyed by dragons and monsters you’d never seen the like of.”
“Wait a second—if the chamber was sealed up again, how did we get any of the stones in the first place?” I asked.
The queen looked like she was thinking back to another time altogether. “To see the original stone was to know its power. Before the chamber was sealed, pieces were chiseled from the larger stone in secret. No one knew what happened until the people who’d stolen some of the stones heard whispers in the night, calling to them, as if they were being haunted. Asterol, they named this invisible creature, knowing and fearing it was some sort of manifestation of the stones dark magic. No one would risk reopening the chamber, and the stolen stones couldn’t be destroyed. They were broken down as small as possible and separated for a reason, sent to all different parts of this world on purpose, never supposed to come back together. Most were warded by the first Wyrd Blood.
“But even then, we could feel the magic trying to unite itself. The magic wants to come back together, and now you’re helping it.”
Ryker scoffed. “But it was okay for the Mushroom Man to have it because he was another one of your pets?”
She slammed a hand on the table. “I had that under control. Before you, I’d never had to think of those dark times. Every time you collected another stone, you put another piece of the dark evil back together, fed its strength. It might already be too late if it can get the stones on its own. Damned if I’ll be destroyed because of you two.”
She thought it only wanted the stones. It didn’t. It wanted something within me as well, and something inside Ryker. I hadn’t shown up on her doorstep looking to share, and felt no urge to do it now.
At least I knew why she wanted me dead. I wasn’t sure I could blame her, either. I might’ve killed me too. “Is that why you tried to kill me? Bought my life from the Debt Collector?”
“Of course. Do you think I would’ve cared about your life otherwise? Bothered with that freak of magic? I’ve hated him for centuries. I’d kill him again if I could.”
“You killed the Debt Collector?”
“The Debt Collector sold me a bad soul I couldn’t collect on. Once you merged with him, the contract was worthless. His death was a magnificent display when he died, let me tell you. Sorry you couldn’t be there.” She smiled.
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 18
