The guide stopped, turning his mount to face us. He glanced at each of us and finally settled his gaze on Gina, who’d arranged everything. “There are two approaches, depending on which side of the mountain you would like to see.”
Rik nudged his horse forward and the others moved out of the way so we could get closer to the split trail. “Which way, my queen?”
I closed my eyes, listening with my whole body. Trying to sense a pull. Some hint of where Leviathan was. I didn’t feel anything myself, but the horse whickered softly and turned its head toward the left path.
“Is there a waterfall that way?”
“Yes,” the guide replied. “The closest one is not far. The other path has a waterfall too but it’s at least a two hour ride to get there.”
“Then let’s go this way. I know I need to see a waterfall.”
With a nod, he guided his mount past us to the left and we followed closely. The rest of our party trailed along behind. The further we rode, my urgency increased. I wanted to yell and race up the trail, even though I had no idea where we were going. Or how hard it’d be to ride at such a break-neck speed.
My scalp prickled, nerves screeching. Even my heart seemed to pound heavier, harder. Telling me to hurry. I still couldn’t feel Leviathan. At all. Were we already too late?
“Can we go a little faster?” I finally said.
“Yes, some.” The guide looked at me doubtfully. “But it won’t be a comfortable ride. Very bumpy.”
“Please. I can deal with bumpy.”
He signaled his horse and we started trotting and bouncing up the gradual incline. “We won’t be able to go all the way like this, but some.”
“Okay.” Jounced back against Rik, I didn’t try to say more than that. I didn’t know if all horses had such a hard gait or if we were just unlucky.
The trail steepened, sometimes running us so close to the cliff that I could reach out and touch the stone. Although it was December, it was seventy degrees and sunny, though it was almost dusk. A huge change from the chilly Kansas City temps. Moss and plants grew out of the stone, clinging to rocks. Water trickled down the rocks, creating a moist, green living carpet.
Our guide slowed his mount to a walk and I ground my teeth. Fuck. I was going to lose my mind. If I’d been on my own horse, I probably would have kicked it in the flank and galloped ahead.
Which I knew was stupid. Though the trail was easy to follow and clearly marked, I had no idea what pitfalls might lie ahead. It’d help nobody if I accidentally broke a horse’s leg in my rush to find the waterfall I’d seen in my dream.
As the horse worked harder, scrambling up a steeper section of trail, I understood why he’d slowed our pace. We had one scary moment where the horse’s hooves slipped on rock and we started to fall backward. Rik stayed calm and gave the horse his head. With a hard lunge that threw me back against Rik’s chest, we finally made it up to a relatively flat section of dirt trail.
“Here’s the waterfall, ma’am. Is this where you needed to go?”
Rik guided our horse around on the left to give me a good look. I wasn’t sure, honestly. It’d been just a glimpse last night and it’d been dark.
:I’m not sure,: I said to Rik. :I can’t feel him anywhere.:
He swung down and reached up to help me dismount. :Walk around a bit. See what you feel.:
The rest of my Blood fanned out, taking up protective positions down the trail and up ahead, in case anyone came down from the top. Gina stood talking softly with Dr. Borcht and Frank’s team. I turned back to the water splashing on the rocks. I tipped my head back and marveled at how tall the waterfall was. I couldn’t even see the top.
Closing my eyes, I laid my palm on the wet rock. I pulled up the surrounding tapestry in my mind and searched for anything that might confirm this was where I needed to start. My bonds all glowed, bright and healthy and strong, even my two humans. After giving them some of the golden energy last night, their faces glowed and everyone’s moods today had been positive and warm. No signs of anything negative at all.
Trying to block out those shining bonds was difficult. I finally managed to dampen my awareness of them somewhat. I didn’t feel anything shadowed approaching, even though dusk was falling fast. Chills rippled up my spine. I hadn’t been outside, at night, in days. My period was still flowing but had slowed considerably. I’d used a tampon for the trip, so hopefully my scent was well contained at the moment. I didn’t know how many thralls might be in Venezuela but I didn’t want to find out if I could help it.
I looked deeper, searching under our bonds. I felt the prior bonds Daire and Rik both had with the Skye court. Though I’d killed Kendall, they had other connections that Keisha would be able to use against us. Though hopefully she’d learned her lesson.
But nothing felt like Leviathan. No scales, no claws, no snake scent, no rumbling beast hidden deep in the ground.
I shivered, hugging myself. Maybe I was too late. Maybe the king was dead. I didn’t know what that would mean going forward. If Isis had sent me here for a reason, then Leviathan was important. Why? Why did I have to find him?
“There’s a legend,” the guide whispered, his tone reverent. “Some believe there’s a portal here that takes you to another world.”
“Here, at the waterfall?”
He shrugged. “No one knows for certain. Most say it’s at the top of the tepuy, but people have disappeared from this area for centuries.”
Had they disappeared… or had Leviathan eaten them? If there was some kind of portal or gate here, it might need magic to open.
Which for me, meant blood.
I didn’t want to flash fangs and scare the guide away. Before I could even think, Guillaume stood beside me, a small blade in his hand. Unobtrusively, I swiped my left palm across the razor sharp edge. Blood dripped down my fingers.
I heard him inhale. All my Blood did. Their bonds sharpened. Rik’s molten lava flowed brighter. Daire’s warcat prowled in his bond. Guillaume’s hoof beats rumbled like thunder on the horizon. Xin’s wolf paused and looked at me, a silver flash against the darkness.
No snake or dragon or monster.
My blood plopped onto the ground, and suddenly my ears roared like I’d stepped into a wind tunnel. A gust blew my hair back and water sprayed me.
Wind… from the waterfall.
“It’s true,” the guide whispered, his voice shaking. “You opened the portal.”
I couldn’t respond. Too many emotions and sensations pounded through me. They weren’t mine, though I felt them intensely.
Rage, despair, hatred, desperation, agony. But most of all, glee. I had come. Exactly as he wanted.
Leviathan was pissed, hungry, and so fucking strong. Not weak or failing. Certainly not near death. At least it didn’t feel like it.
In fact, I was pretty sure there was no way in hell I’d be able to get anywhere close to him without dying.
“Then you won’t get close to him,” Rik retorted.
“I must,” I replied softly.
“I thought you said he was dying.”
I could only shrug. I’d felt urgency, yes, but maybe I’d misinterpreted it. Maybe it was my human upraising that had leaped to the conclusion that only I could save him. That he’d die without me.
Oh, the arrogance. The stupidity. He wanted me here for one reason only.
So he could wreck vengeance on the world and destroy what Ra had wrought. And nothing was going to get in his way.
Especially me.
26
Shara
Rik grabbed my arm and pulled me against him. “Don’t do this.”
I was scared. Sure. I was probably going to fail. But the hell if I’d stand here and let him tell me what I could and could not do.
No matter how much I loved him.
He pressed his forehead to mine and held me tightly. “I know,” he whispered. “My queen.”
Daire pressed against me too, wrapping his arms around u
s both. “At least allow us to go with you.”
“There’s no way I’m letting you die too. Besides, I need someone to protect our friends if something happens to me.”
“If you die, we die,” Rik replied, his tone as even and emotionless as if he’d said the sky was blue. “We won’t survive your death.”
I forced my voice lighter, brighter, as if I wasn’t scared to death. “Then I had best not die.”
He pressed his lips to mine in a soft, gentle kiss. He could have thrown me over his shoulder and hauled my ass back down to the cars. Or he could have tried to use my passion against me. He could have taken my mouth deep and hard, stirring my desire, or even nicking himself to tempt me with his blood.
But he did none of those things. For being so big, my alpha could be especially tender.
I kissed Daire and his rumbling purr made my eyes burn. I turned to Guillaume, my grim, silent knight. He shocked me by sweeping me up into a fiery kiss, his tongue twined with mine. He pulled me up against him and then twisted to the side over his arm, like an old fashioned dip.
“Shit, G,” Daire finally said. “You’ve been holding out on us.”
Guillaume smiled against my lips and pulled me back upright. Breathless, I stared up at him, shocked as much by the twinkling light in his eyes as the dramatic show of affection from the normally stoic man.
“I expect more kisses like that in the future.”
He inclined his head. “It will be my pleasure, my queen.”
I turned to Xin. He took both my hands in his and kissed both my cheeks. “We all hunger for your blood, and he will be no different. But remember that your blood is also a weapon, my queen. You have magic that he will not be able to withstand.”
His words reminded me that my hand was bleeding. Might as well make use of it. So I lifted my palm to his mouth. His eyes darkened, his nostrils flaring, but he only took a quick swipe with his tongue. “Thank you, my queen, but save it. I have a feeling you’ll need every drop to bend the king to your will.”
If that was even possible. It has to be possible.
I hesitated, trying to think of anything I could do to better my chances. Salt and iron weren’t going to help bring Leviathan to heel, not that I’d brought any. Absently, I patted my pocket, felt the small knife there.
Guillaume snorted. “I need to give you a lesson in knives when you establish the nest.”
“I’d like that. And a forge for Rik so he can make some ketars for me.”
“Done,” Rik said. “I’ll hold you to that promise.”
The ground rumbled beneath my feet. I thought it was his rock troll, but he shook his head slightly.
“If that was an earthquake, we need to get down off the mountain,” the guard said. “Now.”
Turning toward the waterfall, I took a couple of deep, centering breaths. “I’ll be as fast as possible.”
He rushed toward me, his hand out like he was going to touch me. Rik growled and stepped closer, protecting my back as always. I don’t think the man meant me any harm. He just wanted to escape landslides or whatever destruction might happen if we were up here when an earthquake hit. Rather than let him grab my arm, I stepped into the waterfall.
Cold water splashed down on me, stealing my breath, but with another step, I was through. Absolute darkness closed in. With the roar of the waterfall behind me, I couldn’t hear what they were saying outside. If I was still even in our world. In my head, my bonds still gleamed, but they felt… stretched. Less substantial somehow. Almost like I was looking at a reflection of them through water.
Hands outstretched, I felt around until I found the side of the tunnel. Just as in my dream, it led downward, though it felt wider and definitely steeper. Water trickled down the walls and the floor, making the rock slippery, and this time, I didn’t have a golden ball of sunlight to light my way. I thought about calling a fireball, but I didn’t want to flash a lot of power. Ideally, I’d keep him guessing about how strong I was. I really had no idea how my power would hold up against something thousands of years old, but I had a feeling I’d be able to hold my own. I was well fed, and he surely wasn’t.
Though now I was kicking myself for giving him power last night.
I slipped and fell on my ass, bruising my hip.
:My queen.: Rik’s bond vibrated with concern. He hated being left behind. He hated my back unprotected as I approached danger. A little bit of my pain had him standing at the edge of the waterfall, ready to shift and come after me.
:I’m fine. Just slipped.:
The further I went, the harder it was to stay on my feet. My thighs and heels ached from keeping my weight shifted back as much as possible, and my palms were raw from the rock side. I had no idea how I was going to climb out of here.
:I’ll come get you.:
A sense of space opened up in front of me, though I couldn’t see anything with my eyes. I eased my foot out and felt the edge of a drop.
Crap. I had no idea how far down it was. I listened a moment, trying to hear the chains or deep, rumbling sounds of the beast’s breathing, but all I heard was the heavy pounding of my own heart and the steady drip of water.
He was close, though. He had to be.
I lifted my injured hand and willed a small ball of fire to fill my palm. Golden flame instantly glowed in my hand. Golden, like Ra. It made me shiver. How much had his power changed my own? Was it enhanced… or twisted? Tainted? I had to admit that the brighter flame made it easier to see. I sent the small ball out into the void and slowly brightened it.
A cave loomed straight ahead, with both the ceiling and floor widening into a dome. The drop was only ten feet, but the bottom was littered with bones as if all the graveyards of the world had been dumped here. It was too far for me to make out the details. Some of the bodies looked like animals, but there were definitely human skulls jumbled among the bones. How long did he have to wait for an unwary tourist to wander into his domain?
“The last was two years ago.”
I jerked my gaze up to the opposite side of the cave. Eerie green eyes glittered at me from a shelf about two stories higher.
Now that he had my attention, Leviathan made a great show of coming out of his den. Wings outstretched, he glided toward the bone yard below in a slow spiral.
No chains. That was the first thing I realized. He wasn’t chained at all.
And fuck, he was big. Long, sleek green-black body, four legs with powerful rear haunches, sinuous neck, and spiked tail. My tiny fireball floated down his side and he gleamed like an iridescent oil slick in the faint light.
Circling around toward the floor, he didn’t even look in my direction. Wary of his teeth and claws, I should have been watching his tail. It crashed into my ankles, wrapped around both legs, and dragged me off the edge. I didn’t even have time to grab for the side or duck.
He landed and swung me around in front of him, dropping me with an oomph in front of two giant clawed feet.
“Shara.” He drew out the first syllable of my name in a hiss. “So kind of you to visit me in person this time.”
Bones poked me in the back. I scrambled up, trying to get to my feet, but he casually planted one big foot on my stomach and pinned me to the ground.
Six-inch long claws dug into my belly, pricking my skin. His threat was clear. With a twitch of his foot, he’d eviscerate me before I could scream.
Time seemed to slow. Or maybe my mind was firing super fast. I thought through my options. Whether I should blast him with a giant fireball now—though fire would be pretty useless against a fire-breathing dragon. Or use Rik’s troll strength to push him off me. Or Xin’s ghostly invisibility. I was pretty sure I could make myself disappear, but I’d feel pretty stupid if it didn’t work.
On the other hand, Leviathan wasn’t hurting me. He hadn’t even let me bang too hard on the ground. The skeleton had hurt my knee and ankle way more than his tail had. He’d scared me a little. That was it.
So I’d
play along. Let him think I was as scared as he wanted me to be. Other than what he’d gleaned from my dreams, he had no idea what kind of power I had, or what my personality was. Whether I’d fight, or surrender. Plot his demise, or capitulate at the first sign of force.
I forced some smart-alec bravado into my voice. “Seems as though I forgot the key for your chains. Oh wait…”
He lowered his giant head and let out what I thought was a chuckle, though it sounded like a bear waking up after a long winter of hibernation. “That was a nice touch in your dreams, wasn’t it? I thought you might feel safer approaching me if you thought I was bound.”
The strong musk of his snake scent filled my nose. My spine itched and my fangs ached, like the cobra wanted to slither out of me and roll in his scent. I shuddered, fighting down that thought. No cobra. Though the massive fangs that had left fist-sized wounds in Rik’s stomach might be a nice weapon to use against Leviathan.
He lowered his massive head closer. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for you?”
“It couldn’t be that long. I’m only twenty-two.”
He snarled and snapped his teeth close to my ear, making me flinch away. “Not you in particular, but any Aima queen stupid enough to try and free me.”
“So you don’t want to be free?”
“Not if my freedom comes with the kind of hooks that queens try and put into me. I’d rather be here than chained to obey like those morons you call Blood. I don’t live to serve. I don’t live to protect. I don’t give a fuck about you.”
Yet he’d been so careful so far. He hadn’t even scratched me. “Fair enough. I don’t give a fuck about you either. I already have Blood to feed and protect me.”
“And fuck you.”
“Of course. So if you don’t want your freedom, I’ll be on my way.”
“I want my freedom more than anything, but I won’t trade one prison for another.”
“I wouldn’t—”
He threw his head back and roared out blistering-hot flames that crackled to the cave’s ceiling. “Don’t lie to me. You would. All queens would.”
Queen Takes King Page 17
