Page 54 of Queen Takes Triune

Drifting on a red sea of pleasure, I found the lost, trapped queen again. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to warm her icy skin.

“I will find you,” I promised her softly.

“I’ll be dead before you do.”

She felt so real against me, shivering and miserable and scared. As my wolf had sensed earlier, her skin smelled like warm apple pie. Was I really here? Or was it only a blood-drunk vision? Did it matter?

“Taste my blood. It’ll strengthen you and help me find you.”

“I can’t,” she whispered. “He’ll only find you and drag you here too. Then who’ll save us?”

“Where is here? Who is he? How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know. I only know that he’s so powerful that even the gods fear him.”

Ragnarök, the end of the world. Evidently I needed to read up on my Norse mythology. Hopefully there was a book in the library.

I turned my senses outward, searching for anything I could use to pinpoint our location.

Darkness. Complete and utter darkness. It enfolded me in eager arms, thick, dark violet power begging to be used. I just had to figure out thebestway to use it. I could tear down the thick walls I sensed around us, but what else would that allow in? Something worse than the creature who’d taken her? I didn’t dare expose my presence until I knew how to bring her back to her brother. Eivind had hinted she wasn’t even in our world any longer.

Her voice broke on a sob. “I’m so alone.”

I opened my mouth to insist that I wouldn’t abandon her, when I felt something in the darkness stirring at her words. Thick shadows swirled closer, but I didn’t sense danger. It—they—wanted to be used. By her, not me.

My dark power slithered in my mind like black silk heated by my Bloods’ bodies, carrying me their intention.We. Come.

Tohercall.

“You’re not alone,” I whispered against her ear. “Call them. Your Blood wait in the darkness.”

“My Blood? Here?”

My body weighed heavier, dragging me down as if I slipped down the side of a cliff. I saw her face peering down over the edge, her hand reaching down toward me. Her stunning blue eyes shining in the darkness.

“They will come,” I mumbled, trying to hold on to the vision.

“Who, my queen?” Rik asked, gathering me closer.

“I saw her.” My head lolled to the side, my muscles limp and unresponsive. Though I could feel his arms around me. He carried me. Somewhere. The garden party must have ended.

My Blood. Wounded and bleeding. They probably needed me to heal them. I fumbled around inside my head, trying to call forth my power.

“Shhh,” Rik murmured, setting me slowly into scalding hot water that told me immediately where we were. “All is well.”

My grotto. Goddess above, it felt so good. I wanted to close my eyes and sink beneath the surface, drifting into darkness. Maybe I would find her again.

“No one needs healing, my queen. Your pleasure and blood already did that work for you. Just rest.”

“But she needs help. She needs her Blood.”

“Then they will answer her call, as I answered yours.”

Floating in the water with his arms around me, I stared up at the moon shining low in the sky. Gloriously bright, so close that I swore I could reach up and touch it.

“Call me,”something whispered.

Rik didn’t turn his head or ask me who had spoken. Maybe he didn’t hear it.