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New siblings to manage. New threats to resolve. New people who might…

I avoided looking at the knight, keeping my awareness of him as closed as possible. Trusting Guillaume to see to him, until I had the mental space to sit down and listen and think. Gwen said he pinged for her, though he wasn’t her Blood to call. So there was more to his story that we needed to understand.

But goddess help me, I just couldn’t deal with one more issue right now. Let alone a centuries’ old plot that once again involved the Dauphine.

That bitch continued to be a thorn in my side long after her death.

Rik didn’t send anyone out of my sight as we moved downstairs. He kept my Blood around me, carrying me himself, even as he climbed down out of the destroyed attic space. Though as we returned to the library so I could deal with Charles Valois, I reluctantly asked him to put me down before we walked inside.

I didn’t want to appear weak or rattled in any way. Maybe the human was innocent. Or maybe he’d known exactly what waited for us in the chimney. Maybe—hopefully?—the sphinxes had gotten bored and devoured the man. It would save me some trouble having to figure out what to do with him.

“They wouldn’t fucking dare,” Sekh retorted, shoving the door open so hard it rebounded against the wall and slammed back into his hand. Without meeting my gaze, he strode into the room ahead of us.

Blood pooled around the human. Who was now missing an entire arm and most of his lower leg.

“What the fuck did I tell you?” Sekh whispered in a terrible, vicious growl.

Ini and Isesi sat on either end of the man, licking their claws one by one. Very deliberately not looking at their general or me for that matter.

Fully nude after losing his dragon, Mehen squatted by the unconscious human, his head tipped. “He’s still alive. Mostly.”

“Not for long.” Sekh took a step toward the nearest sphinx, his body changing. His head swelled larger, his jaws yawning open. Not to devour the human—but the recalcitrant sphinx who couldn’t quite manage to look meek. Let alone repentant.

“No, please,” I begged. “Don’t kill them. Don’t send them back.”

Snarling, he whirled to face me. Claws bared. His eyes blazing gold. His canines glistened. Rage pumped through his bond.

Not subtly, Rik stepped forward to stand between me and the general. More of my Blood quietly shifted around me, taking his normal spot of protection at my back. Pressing close to me.

“You undermine my authority with my own legion.” Sekh bit off each word with quiet, controlled fury. “I gave them very specific orders. Don’t eat him. How fucking hard is that?”

Mehen laughed. “Pretty fucking hard from the looks of it.”

Sekh let out a murderous roar and lunged for him, sinking his teeth into Mehen’s shoulder. Green scales boiled up out of him, his own teeth and claws sprouting. Mehen dug his claws into Sekh’s throat, gripping the front of his neck like he was going to try and yank his throat out. Blood splattered.

Rik did something in the bond I’ve never felt before. More than his alpha punch, the blow stunned both of them enough that they didn’t complete their shift. He snagged each man in one gigantic granite fist by their necks. Then he shook them. Hard. Rattling their teeth. Crunching the more delicate bones in their necks with warning. “I will strip your hides and feed you to the sphinxes myself if you upset our queen again. She’s been through enough today.”

“Fuck you.” Sekh twisted in his grip enough to clamp his jaws around Rik’s forearm.

A deep rumble rolled from Rik’s chest. The sound of an earthquake large enough to devastate this entire city. He gave Mehen a toss aside so he could free his other hand. He grabbed Sekh’s upper jaw and pulled. Forcing his mouth open. So he could free his arm and grab the bottom half of his jaws too. Straining his mouth open further. To the point of breaking him open. Cracking his jaws in half.

And Sekh let him. His throat was bleeding. From Mehen’s claws.

My stone general, impervious to Rik’s fists when he first came to me. Unmarked and unbothered by my largest, strongest Blood attacking him. Now he hung like a kitten in Rik’s big hands. Bleeding.

Rik turned to face me and threw him down unceremoniously at my feet. “If you’ve got a problem following our queen’s orders, say goodbye now, General Sekh. I don’t give a fuck what you can See, or how long you’ve been awake to stand guard. I’ll fucking put you to sleep forever.”

Shoulders shaking, Sekh lay face down on the floor. His bond weighed like a million tons of ancient, carved sandstone. Weathered by millennia of wind and rain, sun and drought, floods and famine. Nothing would ever shake him.

Or so I thought. Now he couldn’t even look at me.

In the silence, his voice rang like one of Guillaume’s swords slammed into the ground with all of Rik’s might. “Send me back. I failed you. I couldn’t do it.”

Couldn’t keep the sphinxes from eating Charles…? That was my first thought, quickly dismissed. This wasn’t about the sphinxes not exactly upholding his order, or me asking him not to send them back, or anything at all to do with Mehen’s snark or questioning Rik’s authority.

But everything to do with my last request to Sekh. Before the plague took me.

Tears leaked from my eyes again, making Rik’s face twist in a vicious scowl. I stepped closer to Sekh and dropped down to my knees by his head, gently laying my palm on his hair. “It’s alright, Sekh. We’re alive. That’s all that matters.”