If you’d told me the truth, if you’d explained it to me . . . Gods, I feel so stupid.
You are anything but.
I press my palms against my ears. “Stop. Just stop!”
“Is he trying to feed you more lies?” Dante’s question slips through the web of my fingers.
My throat stings from the tidal wave of anger mounting within me. Slowly, I lower my palms. “Tell me. Tell me everything about Lorcan Ríhbiadh and his Crows.”
You realize he will tell the Fae version of our story?
I’ll take the Fae version over the fake version.
Fallon . . .
Don’t.
If Dante wasn’t trapping me in the saddle, I would jump off and pace the drenched sands of Selvati until my rage subsided.
“Once upon a time, when Luce was still divided between warring tribes, one of the mountain clans struck a deal with a Shabbin demon to become more powerful than all the others. To become unkillable.”
Morrgot—I mean,Lore—growls,That wasn’t—
Don’t.
Dante’s long braids tinkle as we ride, the gold beads slapping against one another. “The demon demanded payment, and against many of his clan’s wishes, Lore paid. And dearly at that.”
“With coin?”
“No, Fallon, with something even more precious. He paid with his humanity. With his people’s humanity.”
I frown. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”
“They gave up being men. They gave up being men and accepted to become monsters, mammoth birds with weaponized extremities that can be turned to stone or iron but cannot be killed.”
“So Lore was once a man?”
Dante tugs on Furia’s bridle, angling the stallion toward the south. “Lore isstilla man. One who can shapeshift at will into a hideous crow or into a puff of noxious smoke that can choke pure-blooded Fae.”
My skin prickles. “And his master? Can he also . . . shapeshift?”
I feel the curve of Dante’s mouth against my temple and hate that he’s getting a kick out of my naivety. “The sky king answers to no one, Fallon. He has no master.”
Lore’s golden eyes spark behind my lids. I remember thinking how they looked strikingly like Morrgot’s. Oh, the irony. They weren’t similar; they were the same eyes! Eyes in front of which I paraded around naked.
My embarrassment is flattened by fury.You’re a man?
I never hid the fact that I was male, Fallon.
No, just the fact that you’re a two-legged one!I seethe.This may be a joke to you, but it isn’t to me. How dare you, Lore?I choke out, on the verge of a meltdown.How dare you?
It’s not a joke to me, Behach Éan.He may have softened his voice, but it doesn’t soften me.
“Do you understand Crow-tongue, Dante?”
“I’m familiar with their dialect. Why?”
“What doesBeyockeenmean?”
