Chapter 16
LEONIE
Simply saying my gift out loud after so long made hairs on my nape prickle. Goosebumps raced down my arms. My ears picked up a high-pitched ringing that no one else seemed to hear, even my new queen.
Whispers I could almost hear. Spirits longing to talk to me. Desperate to be heard. Soon, I promised them.
“Can you tell me about your power?” Shara asked.
“My goddess, Oya, stands at the gates of the dead and ushers them across the river to the afterlife. My great-grandmother’s line has been gifted with the role of guardian of the dead, while her sister’s line inherited Oya’s storm and wind gifts.
Once my mother moved us to New Orleans, our practice broadened to include aspects of Vodùn and Haitian Vodou, which have many similarities to Yoruba.
New Orleans was a melting pot of peoples and religions, and House Delafosse acted as one of many cauldrons.
We embraced it all, even the human traditions, and reveled in the practice that became known as New Orleans Voodoo. ”
“Before we left your nest, you said something about cleansing it. What did you mean? It felt fine to me. Your blood circle was still there underneath Jeanne’s.”
:Please pardon the interruption, my queen,: one of the Blood said in her bond. :But the Dauphine’s blood lay beneath Leonie’s, hiding beneath the true queen’s protection in case anyone who knew what to look for might notice.:
“That’s Xin, my wolf,” Shara said out loud. “Can you join us and explain what you mean?”
I heard no one approach. I saw no one. But suddenly a male Blood stood beside his queen. My hand trembled enough to clatter the cup against the saucer.
The Blood bowed, his jet-black hair slipping over his shoulder. “My apologies for startling you, Your Majesty.”
“Xin’s gift of invisibility has saved me numerous times,” Shara said. “He also has the ability to slip into other queens’ blood circles.”
Yikes. Combined with his invisibility, he must be quite the stealthy assassin. Adding him to the Triune Executioner…
My new queen had several killers at her side.
I’m proud to be counted as one of them.
“When a queen lays down a blood circle, or adds to her circle, I can smell the various layers and even judge how old they are. Itztli can too, or any Blood with a more sensitive nose. It’s a subtle thing but I wanted you to understand how powerful a trick she pulled off in case you ever need to do it too.
The Dauphine’s lingering blood scent was beneath the oldest, original blood circle ever laid by a Delafosse queen.
It was like she peeled back each layer, slipped her blood beneath it, and then allowed her blood to inherit all the layers above it.
She didn’t even have to walk the circle.
A drop or two of her blood was enough to encapsulate all the previous queens’ layers—and also control them.
Anyone who knew what a Delafosse blood circle smelled like wouldn’t notice anything amiss, unless they, too, peeled back each layer to discover what lay beneath, or took the time to analyze every single scent layer. ”
“That sort of goes along with what I meant about cleansing,” I said. “Her magic touched mine. It’s a subtle thing, but I can still feel the contamination, almost like a compulsion to bathe repeatedly to remove the residue.”
Winston returned with serving bowls and fresh plates.
For a few minutes, the silence was filled with the clinking of spoons and shuffling of dishes as we passed bowls of pasta salad, slices of warm, tender roast beef, toasted baguettes, and fresh fruit around the table.
Though I couldn’t help but notice Shara didn’t serve herself.
Silent, she appeared deep in thought, staring out the window into the night.
Her alpha gave a nod to the other Blood, and Xin deftly prepared a small plate for her, even cutting the sandwich in half as if that might entice their queen to eat.
She’d said she was hungry. Carefully, I used her bond to check her body as stealthily as her Blood had approached the table.
Her stomach rumbled faintly, her nose picking up the tantalizing scents of food around her.
But her mind was far away, and in a very dark place.
As dark as the world outside her window.
Contamination. I’d described the Dauphine’s magic as something that I wished to cleanse off my nest and my magic. Never thinking about how Shara might hear those words.
Now that she carried the very same magic.
Hands trembling, I braced my fingers on the table, prepared to push my chair back so I could kneel beside her. Hoarsely, I whispered, “Your Majesty, please forgive me.”
Startled, she jerked her head around, saw me pushing away from the table, and quickly dropped her hand on one of mine, stilling me with a single touch. “There’s nothing to forgive, Leonie.”
“You are not contaminated. That was a poor word choice on my part.”
A sad smile twisted her lips and she shrugged.
“In a way, I am contaminated. We all are contaminated by the choices we make, and we must live with the consequences. I was envisioning what it would feel like if Jeanne had managed to steal my blood circle like she’d done to yours.
If her blood soaked into the earth where my grove grows.
Her blood creeping up their roots, contaminating even my heart tree, where I lay pierced by its thorns until I died.
“That was my suffering. My blood. I gave it willingly to grow Morrigan’s grove once more.
The hot spring in the grotto, contaminated by her blood.
The Deep Blue beyond. It would have even reached the Triskeles Triune table.
And all I could feel was a sick sort of relief that I’d never actually ingested her blood.
Not directly, at least. I’ve fed on Sekh since he disposed of her body, so I suppose… ”
“Her blood was obliterated inside the stone sphinx who stands guard for all time,” Sekh called from somewhere behind us in another room.
“Whew,” she laughed, squeezing my hand and then releasing me to pick up her fork.
“All her blood is mine, now, but that doesn’t mean I want it mixing with mine.
I’d like to resolve the situation in the swamp and free Basilia, but then I’d love to help you cleanse your nest. I’ll make sure to eliminate every last drop of her blood that might lie beneath your blood circle. ”
“I would love that as well, my queen, but I also use non-blood magic to help remove the imprint of her energy in my personal space. For instance, I’ll sprinkle coffee grounds over the floors and methodically sweep every room on every floor of the house until I reach the front door and knock all that bad energy outside.
Cut onions and bowls of salt can also help. ”
Winston quietly placed small bowls of au jus beside each plate and then slipped away. I dipped my sandwich and took a bite, fighting the urge to moan at how delicious it tasted. Real food. Well prepared. So good.
Though it made me yearn for Addie’s fried chicken something fierce.
“Oh, that’s so interesting. We used coffee grounds to shield a mirror gifted to me from the queen of Rome.”
I nearly choked on the next bite of my sandwich. I swallowed hard and then took a sip of tea to wash it down. “Coffee alone won’t lock her out.”
“So we learned. That’s also why we’re very careful not to say her name anywhere she might be able to listen.”
“There are some wards we can make that would help add an extra layer of protection. Queens like her tend to dismiss folk magic but it can be very effective simply because Aima queens won’t expect it and rarely understand it.”
“How about garlic?” Gina asked. “They always use that in movies.”
“Absolutely. We always kept a braided strand of drying garlic hanging near the back door.”
From the surprised look on her face, she might have meant the suggestion as a joke, but she nodded thoughtfully, not dismissively.
“There’s always a hint of truth behind such traditions, especially when an amulet or gris-gris is blessed by a powerful practitioner.”
“When I was on the run, I always kept salt handy to line the windows and doorways to keep the thralls out,” Shara said. “They also didn’t like iron, so I kept a board with rusted nails as a weapon in my cleaning cart.”
Rik rumbled a sound like the earth tearing apart. “It’s a miracle you managed to survive for five years until we could find you.”
“Lots of nasty creatures are repelled by salt and iron,” I agreed lightly. “Add a few more ingredients, and you’ve got quite a volatile curse or protection spell, depending on your intention.”
“It could be nice to have something handy in case we’re ever in another situation like Rome, where I can’t use my blood to protect us.”
My eyes widened. “It sounds like you’ve had several interesting run-ins with the queen of Rome.”
Shara’s lips quirked. “You could say that. Right now, she’s terrified she’s next.”
“Speaking of which, I did hear from Byrnes again today,” Gina said. “He was much more like his civil—which is to say, pompous—self.”
“What did he want?”
“I’m honestly not even sure. He kept hinting around in a vague manner as if I would immediately understand, but I have no idea what he needed. I asked Kevin about it and he didn’t know either.”
“Hmm, what did he say?”
“His queen and Rosalind Valois exchanged more Blood to promote collaboration among their Houses. Why we needed to know, I have no idea, especially since he said it happened over a month ago. Unless he might be hinting that she wanted to exchange a Blood with you too? Though you made it very clear when we were in Rome that you weren’t interested in such an exchange. ”
Shara grimaced, shaking her head. “Absolutely not. I refuse to allow a single drop of her blood to enter my nest.”
One of the other Blood—I couldn’t remember his name—stuck his head into the room. “What about the other Isador Blood in their courts?”
“My mother sent two of her Blood to House Valois and five to House Ceresa before she dissolved their bonds,” Shara explained to me. “Lew is my mother’s former alpha.” Then she called back to him, “I have a plan for them, Lew. They’re coming home with us.”
He didn’t question her—a testament to his trust in his young queen, despite serving his mother before her. “Where did Esetta send him?”
Shara’s jaw tightened. “House Skye.”
“Ah.” I didn’t have to ask another question to know any alpha had not fared well in Keisha Skye’s court. Let alone a former Isador Blood.
“Did you know my mother? Or did you only know her name?”
“Mostly I saw her from a distance, but she was always cordial. We were both invited to Keisha’s annual Christmas Ball, even before she started construction on Skye Tower.
Though she never hesitated to brag about how tall and impressive the skyscraper would be.
I think she meant to intimidate us with a bold, grand display of power, but Esetta could never be intimidated, let alone by her. ”
Lew came closer to the doorway. “You’re absolutely correct, Your Majesty.
Esetta refused to participate in Keisha’s not-so-subtle fuck-you competition.
That’s why she built the Isador House nearby—seemingly in the shadows of the tower.
Not as grand. Not as formidable, on the outside, at least. But I guarantee Keisha Skye never dared step foot inside our court. ”
The ghostly whispers increased in my head, mostly murmurs too low for me to understand without fully welcoming them to speak through me. But I caught the gist. “Oh. Keisha and Tanza are both dead. I didn’t know.”
Shara’s lovely face smoothed into a grim, hard look so like her mother’s formidable visage that I could only stare, fighting the urge to slip to my knees and swear fealty again. “She tried to take my Blood from me, so she was the first queen I killed.”