Dark Queen’s Knight
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS BOOK 33
I. T. Lucas
Also by I. T. Lucas
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS
1: Goddess’s Choice
2: Goddess’s Hope
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS
Dark Stranger
1: Dark Stranger The Dream
2: Dark Stranger Revealed
3: Dark Stranger Immortal
Dark Enemy
4: Dark Enemy Taken
5: Dark Enemy Captive
6: Dark Enemy Redeemed
Kri & Michael’s Story
6.5: My Dark Amazon
Dark Warrior
7: Dark Warrior Mine
8: Dark Warrior’s Promise
9: Dark Warrior’s Destiny
10: Dark Warrior’s Legacy
Dark Guardian
11: Dark Guardian Found
12: Dark Guardian Craved
13: Dark Guardian’s Mate
Dark Angel
14: Dark Angel's Obsession
15: Dark Angel's Seduction
16: Dark Angel's Surrender
Dark Operative
17: Dark Operative: A Shadow of Death
18: Dark Operative: A Glimmer of Hope
19: Dark Operative: The Dawn of Love
Dark Survivor
20: Dark Survivor Awakened
21: Dark Survivor Echoes of Love
22: Dark Survivor Reunited
Dark Widow
23: Dark Widow’s Secret
24: Dark Widow’s Curse
25: Dark Widow’s Blessing
Dark Dream
26: Dark Dream’s Temptation
27: Dark Dream’s Unraveling
28: Dark Dream’s Trap
Dark Prince
29: Dark Prince’s Enigma
30: Dark Prince’s Dilemma
31: Dark Prince’s Agenda
Dark Queen
32: Dark Queen’s Quest
33: Dark Queen’s Knight
34: Dark Queen’s Army
PERFECT MATCH
Perfect Match 1: Vampire’s Consort
Perfect Match 2: King’s Chosen
Perfect Match 3: Captain’s Conquest
BOXSETS
The Children of the Gods books 1-3: Dark Stranger trilogy
Includes a bonus short story:
The Fates take a Vacation
The Children of the Gods Mega Boxset 1: Books 1-6
includes character lists
The Children of the Gods Mega Boxset 2: Books 6.5-10
includes character lists
TRY THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS SERIES ON
AUDIBLE
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Copyright © 2019 by I. T. Lucas
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Dark Queen’s Knight is a work of fiction!
Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations and/or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
1. Mey
2. Yamanu
3. Kian
4. Ella
5. Mey
6. Yamanu
7. Lokan
8. Carol
9. Yamanu
10. Mey
11. Kian
12. Syssi
13. Mey
14. Yamanu
15. Mey
16. Yamanu
17. Yamanu
18. Kian
19. Yamanu
20. Mey
21. Yamanu
22. Lokan
23. Yamanu
24. Kian
25. Mey
26. Yamanu
27. Lokan
28. Kian
29. Mey
30. Yamanu
31. Anandur
32. Mey
33. Brundar
34. Yamanu
35. Mey
36. Kian
37. Yamanu
38. Mey
39. Yamanu
40. Annani
41. Yamanu
42. Losham
43. Mey
44. Yamanu
45. Mey
46. Yamanu
47. Mey
48. Lokan
49. Mey
50. Kian
51. Annani
52. Yamanu
53. Mey
54. Yamanu
55. Mey
56. Yamanu
57. Mey
58. Yamanu
59. Mey
60. Yamanu
61. Kian
62. Mey
63. Yamanu
The Children of the Gods Series
The Perfect Match Series
FOR EXCLUSIVE PEEKS
1
Mey
Could life be more full of surprises?
As Mey finished getting dressed and glanced at the mirror, the same old face that had been staring back at her for years suddenly seemed different.
Except, nothing had changed about her. Not physically.
Not yet.
That would come later when she transitioned, provided that she did. There were no assurances of that, and the only indicator that she was a possible Dormant was her bizarre ability to retrieve echoes of conversations from the walls. Except, regular humans could have special talents as well, so that wasn’t a guarantee.
But if she turned, would anything change about her appearance or the kind of person she was?
Hopefully not.
The last thing Mey wanted was to grow even taller. Yamanu, Alena, and the rest of the team were all statuesque. And now that she knew that they were immortal, she wondered if there was a connection.
With the mountain of mind-bending information that she had yet to process, it hadn’t crossed her mind to ask Yamanu about that. The thing was, the more she thought about what he had told her, the more questions she had, and the list was growing by the minute.
No wonder that the woman in the mirror had an uncharacteristically awed expression on her face. Her eyes, which usually seemed knowing and a little secretive, now looked shell-shocked. Uncertain.
Who was she?
Mey’s self-perception had been blown away by Yamanu’s revelations. Everything she’d believed about herself had been wrong.
Was she even human?
Even before discovering her ability to listen to walls, Mey had always felt like the odd peg that didn’t fit into any of the pre-drilled holes. But then that wasn’t unusual. Most people had some oddities about them that made them feel different. Except, the vast majority of those quirks were on the normal human spectrum, while hers were not.
“Are you about ready?” Yamanu rapped on the bathroom door. “Alena and Arwel are waiting.”
Mey glanced at her watch. It was lunchtime, and Alena had probably ordered room service.
Except, who could think about food at a time like this? Her stomach was tied in such tight knots that she felt nauseous.
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
These people who she’d thought she knew weren’t human. They were the descendants of the freaking gods, who apparently had been real. Would knowing that change the way she talked to them? The way she regarded them?
The friendship she’d formed with Alena had been based on lies. On both sides. They would have to sta
rt from scratch and reintroduce themselves to each other as the people they really were.
Not only that, there were going to be questions about her talent, and talking about it with anyone other than her sister was going to feel strange, frightening and liberating at the same time.
With a sigh, Mey pulled the brush through her hair, then twisted two strands and pinned them up. Glancing at the lipstick in her makeup pouch, she debated whether to apply it or not.
It was funny how she suddenly felt the urge to dress up. After all, her new friends had already seen her in everything from her photo shoot fancy outfits to her plain T-shirts and yoga pants. Except, this time she was going to enter the living room as Mey the Dormant, a future member of the clan, and not Mey the human who’d been just an acquaintance.
That’s why Mey had put on one of the new outfits she’d bought the day before, and why she’d fixed her hair.
But perhaps putting on lipstick was a bit much.
She wanted to look put together, not like she was going out on a date.
It was better to play it cool and not assume an outcome for which there were no guarantees. If it turned out that she wasn’t a Dormant after all, she would look like an idiot for making premature assumptions.
Yamanu had never heard of talents like hers or Jin’s. None of the immortals in his clan could listen to echoes embedded in walls, or touch people and create a link to them, or anything even remotely similar to that. Which could indicate that the source of her and Jin’s abilities hadn’t originated from the same godly genes as the clan’s.
Perhaps she and Jin had gotten their abilities from a different source?
Now, that would be a big surprise, and not one Mey would be happy about. She wanted a life with Yamanu, and there was only one way she could have that—transition into immortality and become a member of his clan.
Smoothing out a crease in her new blouse, Mey took a deep breath and headed out with her head held high and her shoulders squared.
As soon as she opened the door, Alena jumped up from the couch and ran up to her. “I knew there was a reason I liked you so much.” She pulled Mey into a crushing hug. “It’s the affinity immortals and Dormants feel toward each other.”
Mey hugged Alena back. “So, it has nothing to do with how amazing I am or how absolutely fabulous you are. It’s all about the genes?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” Alena let go. “You are an incredible woman, and I’m happy to have you as my friend.” She kissed Mey’s cheek.
Tears stinging her eyes, Mey glanced at Arwel. “What about you? Did you feel anything special toward me?”
He shook his head. “I should have felt that there was something different about you. I’m starting to think that my senses are failing me.”
Mey frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Arwel is a powerful empath,” Alena said.
“Oh.” Mey tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is an empath?”
Taking her by the hand, Alena led her to the dining table. “Arwel can feel other people’s emotions and intentions. Even those of immortals, which is a rare ability. Most of what we can do works only on humans.”
“Do you have a special talent?” Mey sat down on the chair that Arwel had pulled out for her.
When Alena made a face and shook her head, Arwel chuckled. “She has the most valued ability of us all. She can make babies.”
That was a weird thing to say. “Aren’t most women capable of that?”
Yamanu pulled out a chair for himself and sat next to her. “Our conception rate is minuscule compared to humans. Our females are lucky to have one child, and many don’t have any. Alena is a miracle. She has thirteen.”
Mey’s jaw dropped. “No way. How?”
Alena laughed. “Do I need to explain about the birds and the bees?”
“I meant that you don’t look like you have had even one. But thirteen?”
“I’m a very old immortal. In fact, I’m the oldest in the clan.”
It didn’t take Mey long to realize what Alena had just revealed. “You are the goddess’s daughter?”
“I’m her firstborn.”
Mey felt like moving her chair back to put some distance between her and Alena. The woman was the daughter of the freaking goddess? No wonder everyone was deferring to her and treating her like a princess.
Suddenly, the puzzle pieces realigned themselves. “Oh my God. The very important person who you’ve been alluding to is the goddess, and your enemies are the Doomers. That’s who you need to hide from because they mean you harm.”
Alena clapped her hands. “I knew you were smart. You get an A on the test.”
“Unbelievable. A few moments ago, I thought that there could be no more surprises for me. Boy, was I wrong.”
As the door opened and the butler rolled in the cart with their lunch, Mey remembered her strange dream.
Leaning toward Alena, she whispered in her ear, “Is he an immortal too?”
“You could say so. He can’t die, but that’s also because he isn’t really alive. Ovidu is a bio-mechanical entity made to resemble a human.”
Yamanu had told her that the clan had advanced technological knowhow and that they had been dripping it to humanity at a rate that made it look like natural progress.
It made perfect sense for them to keep some of those marvels for themselves.
“How many of his kind do you have? Does everyone in the clan have a servant like Ovidu?”
It was so cool that they could make such lifelike cyborgs.
Alena shook her head. “There are only seven Odus in existence. Originally, they all belonged to my mother, but she gave one to each of her kids.”
“Why only seven? Can’t you make more?”
“We can’t. We don’t know how.”
Ovidu bowed. “May I serve lunch, mistress?”
“Please.”
2
Yamanu
“Why the questions about Ovidu?” Alena asked.
Yamanu had wondered the same thing. He’d erased the memory of the conversation Mey had overheard about Ovidu’s indestructibility, but apparently she still found him fascinating. Then again, she’d just learned that he was a marvel of engineering, far more advanced than anything current technology could produce.
Mey shrugged then glanced at the Odu. “I had a strange dream. I’ll tell you about it some other time.” She rolled her eyes, indicating that she didn’t want to talk about it with Ovidu listening. “Just one more thing in the smorgasbord of weirdness I’ve been served in the last two days. There are so many things I don’t understand, while others make so much more sense now.”
“Like what?” Alena prompted.
“I get now why everyone on your team treats you with such deference.” She winked. “Other than your fabulousness, of course. But what I don’t get is what are you doing here? After giving birth to thirteen children, you decided one day that it was time for a mommy makeover and some much-deserved party time?”
Laughing, Alena leaned and patted Mey’s shoulder. “I love how direct you are. So, first of all, I didn’t need a mommy makeover, but I got one anyway because my sister thought that I looked 'quaint'.” She shrugged. “I like long, loose dresses in pastel colors, and I don’t like fussing with my hair and think it looks awesome in a braid. But anyway, the purpose of this gig is to flush someone out. That’s the reason for the elaborate makeup Eva applies to my face. It’s to make me look like the person he misses.”
“I told Mey about Areana,” Yamanu said.
Alena waved a hand. “Oh, okay. Areana, who’s my mother’s sister, has a son who ran away many years ago, and she wants to find him. The makeup makes me look like her. We hope that once he sees his beloved mother’s face on the side of a bus, he will get c
urious and try to make contact.”
Mey cast a sidelong glance at Yamanu. “Why did he run away? Maybe it’s not a good idea to flush him out?”
“You are smart, my lady Mey. Kalugal, the guy we are looking for, is Areana’s son with the leader of our enemies. He ran away because he either feared his father or didn’t agree with his agenda. We don’t know what his exact motives were. The thing is, his mother asked her sister for a favor, and let's just say that our Clan Mother couldn’t refuse the request. The why of it is a long story for another time. Right now, we need to focus on getting you out of here without alerting your watchers. We have some logistics to figure out.”
Alena arched a brow. “I thought that you and Kian had figured everything out and that you were taking Mey to the village?”
Mey nodded. “I thought so too.”
“It shouldn’t be difficult to sneak Mey out of here,” Arwel said. “Ragnar’s limo has darkened windows, and the last time I checked, the only cameras in the parking garage were ours.”
“Check again.” Yamanu reached for a bread roll. “And also check the footage of the last couple of days. See if anyone's been doing anything suspicious down there.”