Page 92 of Queen's Crusade
This vampire fortune bullshit never ceased to amaze me. “It’s a literal palace.”
Magnum’s lips quirked. “Not quite but you can see Buckingham Palace from the garden, and it’s in one of the most prestigious and exclusive areas of London.”
“And we live there? I mean, my family?”
“Queen Selena held court in London at that very house until she ended her rule and gave up her power. Her… there was another…” Her face tightened with frustration. “I can’t remember the details.”
“I understand. I’ll ask Lew when he’s free later.” I moved down to the next painting and my heart clenched so fiercely I couldn’t entirely hold back a gasp of pain.
Mom—and my mother, her sister. Two beautiful queens dressed in formal gowns. Mom in her favorite color, lapis lazuli, her eyes shining like magnificent sapphires. Esetta wore blood red, so deeply saturated it was almost black in the shadows. They both wore crowns, Esetta the horned one with the red disk, and Mom’s had sweeping wings that hung down on either side of her head, framing her face. Heavy jewels on their ears, around their necks, and on every finger of their hands. Esetta lounged on an antique velvet chaise, and Mom stood behind her.
I recognized her—but she was also a complete stranger. This woman had raised me, changed my diapers, held me when I cried, and taught me how to read. We’d lived a simple, quiet, isolated life in Kansas City. Granted, the house had been nice, but not a palace, and we’d lived in obscurity. She must have been accustomed to a life of servants and imminently gifted and talented “get-it-done” people like Gina and Magnum her entire life. Blood who’d worshiped the ground she walked on. But I’d never seen that side of her life.
I vaguely remembered sitting on the porch steps in the summer, while she and Dad sat in the porch swing. Drinking sweet iced tea or enjoying some ice cream. But that all ended when Dad was killed by the monsters after he took me to the park.
We hardly ever went outside after that, certainly not after dark. I went to school until she decided to keep me home. No family vacations. No sleepovers. No one ever came over. It was just me and her until the monsters got her too.
It didn’t dawn on me it wasn’t normal to never see any other living person except Mom. We didn’t have neighbors to come check on us. Surely Gina must have been stopping by when I was gone, or at least driving by to see if we needed anything, but I’d had no clue this life existed.
“Sister queens,” Magnum whispered. “I knew them both, I’m sure, but I can’t remember her name. Only Queen Selena’s. Though I traveled with her sister back and forth to London quite often.”
Even seated, Esetta radiated a quiet, magnetic power, her eyes like sparkling black holes that would pull you under and never let you go. A soft, small smile curved her lips, a smile that said she knew all your secrets—and fully intended to use them against you when it suited her.
Mom—Selena—smiled but it didn’t carry the same power or emotion. There was faint tension around her eyes, a tightness in her jaw, that told a different story. The first time I’d gone to Isis’ pyramid, Mom said she’d hated being a queen. Having to manage her Blood and power hadn’t been enjoyable for her at all. She’d given up all her power for my human father who’d helped her raise me. The first time she’d been truly happy.
Until she took me in. And the monsters started to hunt us. Killing them both.
Selena didn’t play the game of queens.
While Esetta reveled in it.
:I did revel in the game,: Esetta admitted in my mind, though I didn’t see her. :But don’t be fooled by my sister’s role. She played a different game, but it was still very much a part of mine, and ultimately, our goddess’ plans for our House.:
We walked down the hall to the next picture. This one made me smile though tears filled my eyes. Esetta still lounged on the chaise, but Lew stood behind her, his hands gripping the wooden back, his sleeves rolled up to bare the veins and tendons in his forearms. A bite dripped blood down his wrist.
Golden-haired, blue-eyed Thierry knelt beside her. Shirtless. His head tipped back in invitation, leaning toward her. Offering himself to her.
A tiny drop of blood glistened on her lip, so real it looked fresh and wet still on her mouth.
“How many Blood did she have? Do you remember?”
“House Isador had ten Blood,” Magnum replied.
My eyes flared and I pulled my gaze away from the painting to look at her face. “They shared their Blood?”
She inclined her head to the opposite wall, leading me over to a similar picture with Queen Selena. A man stood behind her, mirroring Lew’s pose. A man I recognized as the man who’d killed her and hunted me mercilessly. Greyson. The same long, silver hair and courtly old-fashioned clothing.
“Queen Selena and her alpha, Lord Harrington Greyson.”
I could only laugh and shake my head. “I was just thinking he looked like some kind of lord.”
“His family held the earldom of Irgeli. He was hers alone, but the rest of the Isador Blood flowed between the two queens. Primarily… the sister. But the Blood shifted back and forth between them regularly.”
Lew said he’d been with both of them. I hadn’t known they’d shared the rest of the Blood too. Except Greyson. Maybe that was why he’d come after her for so long. He’d been unable to leave her side.
:The Blood hierarchy is determined by the alpha’s relationship with his queen,: Lew said in the bond. :Because I was mated to House Isador, the rest of the Blood were similarly shared unless the queen wished otherwise.:
So Mom had wanted Greyson to herself.