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Catching my worried look, he grinned and shook his head. :It’s good enough for now, my queen.:

Meaning he still had some pain he wasn’t telling me about. :I expect you to feed deep and long once we return home, my alpha.:

:I can’t fucking wait, my queen.:

As I stepped closer to the pool, tinkling bits of glass fell out of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Obsidian shards, embedded in the veil. Disturbingly similar to the pieces of glass I’d seen Kora throw at Marne Ceresa and her Blood.

As they fell onto the stone, they melted and flowed back toward the pool, rejoining the other black fluid that had originally been in Tanza’s blood. Had Kora’s glass melted like this to rejoin its source? Marne had shouted a warning about her before she died.

Kora will kill us all with her madness.

Her Screaming Madness? Could she be tainted like Tanza?

Only time would tell.

I stomped my foot down, blocking one of the blobs before it could flow into the others, catching it on the edge of the pool. Squatting closer, I slipped my left hand under it, scooping it up onto my palm. Rik inhaled sharply, not liking it so close to me, even with the shimmering veil’s protection. Which I got. Absolutely. But I needed to see it. Study it. So I could learn from it, the same way it learned from us.

:This one’s dead,: a metallic voice said in my head.

The brittle screechy sound made me wince, as much as its words. I thought it meant me, until I remembered I still wore Keisha Skye’s face. Hopefully it didn’t know my face.

:What do you want?: I asked.

:Feed us, Mama. Hungry. It’s been so long.:

:How did you get here?:

:Pain. Suffering. Agony. Opens the door. Lets us in. So many pains in your world. So delicious. So hungry.:

:You’re not welcome here.:

The blob stretched up and down, not leaving my palm but changing its shape. Almost like it laughed. :Then stop letting us in.:

:You need to go home now.:

:This is home.: The upper part of the blob twisted, almost like a head cocking with interest. :Your home is ours now. It’s just a matter of time. Shara Isador.:

I flinched, tossing the blob into the pool so I could wipe my palm on my pants. Even with the veil, I could almost feel its oily surface on my skin. I planned to burn the pool with my blood, but I really didn’t want to risk exposing a bite here. So close to the pool. Not if it already knew my name.

Shudder.

Though what did I expect? I gave it my name when I entered this space.

:Your Majesty?: Warwick asked, startling me enough to flinch again. :Sir Guillaume thought I may be of assistance.:

Reluctantly, I raised my gaze to his face. Trying not to remember the vision from the Screaming Madness. The accusation and condemnation on his face while I chowed down on his entrails. My stomach heaved at the memory. :How?:

Holding his right arm out over the pool, he sliced a deep cut in his forearm with a short blade. His blood poured into the black liquid, making it roil as it fed on him. Like a pond teeming with starving catfish flocking to the edge. Or the Dauphine’s leeches swarming to my blood beneath Leonie’s house.

Swallowing hard, I willed his blood to catch fire.

The dark pool didn’t squeal or pop like the leeches.

It screeched and flailed like Thierry, dangling from his ankles while gigantic black eels poured out of him. Wailing and screaming in a child’s voice. Terrible things meant to wound me.

“You failed her!”

“You killed her!”