As we rise, I keep my gaze on the ocean, on the winding serpent bodies and the approaching vessels that look no bigger than the model ship we built with Phoebus when we were children, the one Tavo knocked off our shared desk and crushed beneath his shoe.
Not that I was beginning to appreciate the male, but the memory burnishes my dislike of him and reminds me to warn Dante against making him part of his new regime.
I search for the prince amidst the line of bodies darkening the cliff’s edge, my eyes widening when I find him tucked in the shadow of a giant male garbed in black robes.Is that—is that Lazarus?
It is.
What is he doing here?
He brought you my last crow.
How on earth did Bronwen sway him?
It doesn’t take much to sway a man whose ruler killed his lover.
Killed his . . . his lover?
Andrea Regio.
Oh. Wow.I wonder if Dante’s aware.
He isn’t, and Lazarus would appreciate it to stay that way.
I won’t speak a word of it.
Sybille’s sudden howling of my name interrupts the chat I’m having with Lorcan in the middle of the sky. Her cheeks are shiny with tears that she keeps swatting away.
Antoni has one hand on her shaking shoulders while Mattia and Riccio stand behind them, eyes on the sky, on us. Syb yowls that she’s done being my friend.
I smile because I know she doesn’t mean it.
Lorcan flies us a little to the right of the group, toward a wider area shaded by a single tree. I brace myself for impact, but our landing is gentle. Still, when my bare feet touch the ground, pain flares along my side, and my knees buckle.
Lorcan tightens his talons around my biceps, as though sensing my lack of strength, and eases me onto all fours before releasing me. I hunch over, glad for the firmness of dry land, glad that this endless day is almost over, because all of me stings, chafes, and spasms.
The pain worsens when Syb barrels into me, girding my crumpled body in an embrace. “Don’t you dare tell me how to handle my friend, Lorcan Ríhbiadh! She was stuck in that ship because of you! She almost drowned because of you!” Although her voice hurts my ears and her hugs hurt my skin, I don’t push her away. “I don’t think you understand how many years you knocked off my existence with that stunt!”
I smile into her neck, breathing in the sweet scent of air that forever lifts off her skin. “I’m sorry.”
She snorts as though she finds my apology ridiculous, but then she’s crying again.
“Not to interrupt,” Tavo’s voice grates my eardrums, “but Marco’s boat will reach the bay any second, and you still have one crow to go.”
I pull away from Sybille and follow his nod to something wrapped in several layers of jute and fabric, then look beyond Tavo’s legs at the titanic healer, whose ears gleam red and blue and green from all the earrings fringing the tall shells.
“Lazarus brought it. He arrived just as the wave—” Her lips wobble. Although she snags it with her teeth, a soft whimper drops out.
I cup her wet cheek. “Look at me. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look horrid. Like you wrestled a boulder and lost.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. “Thanks for the kind words, Syb.”
She grins.
“And for your information, although I didn’t wrestle any boulders, I did tussle with a giant wave before being impaled on one of Lore’s friend’s beaks, and then a sea serpent took a liking to me.”
Her jaw drops open. “Oh my Gods,” she whispers.
