Although the air is heavy with moisture, the clouds have scattered, revealing a moon as thin as a fingernail clipping.
Lore flies me down slowly, wings never once retracting. Although impatient to reach the white-crested ocean, I’m grateful for the gentle descent because I doubt my trembling arms would’ve survived a nosedive. Around us, other dark shapes eddy through the air. More Crows, I presume.
When we finally land, Lore dissolves into smoke. I shut my eyes, preparing myself for a faceful of sand, but all I get is a faceful of cool shadows that harden into a solid chest full of heartbeats. As I reel my lids up, I find I am standing with my face cradled in the slope of Lorcan’s neck, the tip of my nose against his pulse point and my cheek pressed into the hard ridge of his collarbone.
I arch my spine to pry my body away from his—well, as far away as his arms will allow. “You can let go.”
The breeze ruffles his black hair, tossing it into the golden eyes that are inspecting me, assessing whether I am, indeed, fit to stand on my own two feet. “And have a serpent swim away with you? I think not.”
I sink my teeth into my lower lip and glance over my shoulder at the ocean. “Do you really think they’d try to carry me down to their lair?”
“The only thing I really think is that this plan is madness and that I’d prefer not to have to wrestle you out of their hold like the last time one took a liking to you.”
I sigh, but it comes out all choppy because of my chattering teeth. “Fine.”
I pivot, forcing his hand off my waist and onto my elbow. Although I try my hardest not to put any weight on him, a bolt of pain shoots up my shin and thigh and does away with both my balance and breath.
Lore curses low in his throat, shifting his hold on my body. He’s so well acquainted with my injuries that he manages not to touch them. Another few strides and I am knee-deep in the ocean.
I hiss at the sting of salt, but push through the pain before Lorcan can decide to whisk me back to his bed.
The chilled seawater laps at my warm skin, needling goosebumps to the surface. I hold my breath as I stride in deeper, as the salt saturates the robe and chews into my injuries.
Lorcan is muttering something under his breath. Something about ridiculous plans.
“Has your voyage to Glace made you forget that they are my specialty?”
He grows quiet at my mention of Glace. Or perhaps it’s the memory of the cold front that settled between us the day he told me to stop playing games I didn’t know the rules to.
“You will never let that go, will you?” The salted wind snaps Lore’s black hair against the hard lines of his face.
I side-eye him. “I’m quite proficient at holding grudges.”
“You’re also quite proficient at forgiving men who don’t deserve your forgiveness.”
I press my lips together, returning my gaze to the ocean that is as agitated as I am. “I’ve not forgiven Dante.”
I take another step and another until the water rises over my chest and balloons my robe. I’m aware I will need to remove it so the serpents can have access to my wounds, but decide to keep it on until one arrives. The astral light may be thin, but Crows have exceptionally sharp senses, and even if Lorcan has seen me naked more times than I care to remember, I’d prefer not to flash him a nipple.
“Great Mórrígan, you are like nectar to them,” he murmurs.
“Beg your pardon?”
He nods his stubbled chin to the tusks slicing through the surface like shark fins. From the size of them, I take it I’m in the company of full-grown serpents. I drop my hands to the knot of my belt and untie it, then maneuver it off my arms with Lorcan’s help.
I slip it back on so that it now parts at my back and covers my front.
Lorcan’s long fingers glide up my long sleeves and wrap around my wrists. “May this work,” he murmurs, just as the beasts reach us.
Their black eyes rise over the waterline. I shiver for they are huge, and although I know they mean me no harm, it remains daunting to bathe with such monstrous creatures. Lorcan watches them, hissing when one attempts to nudge him away from me. His fingers tighten almost painfully around my skin as he stands his ground and growls at them to heal my wounds.
The serpent hisses, his long black tongue smacking Lore’s cheek.
I cannot stifle the laughter that rolls up my throat at the Sky King’s stunned expression, nor can I quit giggling as his gaze tightens on mine.
“Your mother would just love this.”
“Seeing you get assaulted by a sea creature?”
