Since the pileup was my fault, I mumble an apology she may very well not understand and pluck at my shirtdress to unglue it from my drenched skin before attempting to wring some of the reddish juice out.
A heavy bolt of fabric drops over my shoulders, startling me out of my rigorous squeezing. I start to say thank you, but my gratitude withers on my lips, because, of course, who should come to my rescue but the king himself.
I grip the edges of my newfangled cloak.
Please keep it on. It may be dark but Crows have unparalleled sight. I’d prefer to be the only man familiar with the shape of your body.
Too late for that.
His pupils constrict.
Dante is well acquainted with every millimeter of my body.
Lore’s outline flickers as he heaves fumes that thicken to the point where I hold my breath to avoid suffocating on him.
As briskly as it rushed out of him, his smoke retreats and reshapes his too-near and too-large body.I was going to go after your princeling’s throne last, but you’ve convinced me to start with his.
I wheeze out the dwindling air in my lungs, then suck in a fresh lungful.You may gain a throne, but you’d also gain an enemy.
When you have as many enemies as I, one more matters not. Now please, come to the table. Mother is waiting.
I don’t want to dine with you, Lore. I don’t want—
Before I can finish my sentence, Lore shifts into his Crow, snatches me, and carries me into one of the dwellings, startling a half-naked male off his mattress.
Eleven
Lore must tell him to scram because the boy nods, shifts and soars right out of the small grotto-like room that contains one bed, one desk, one chair, and one closet.
I stumble away the second heuntalons me. “What is wrong with you?” I screech at the monstrous bird just as a loud bang echoes through the air, followed by flashes of light and a rumble that vibrates the very stone.
Has Lorcan created the storm? It is one of his many powers after all.
He fractures into smoke before knitting back into flesh. “You want your freedom, fine. When the sun rises over Mareluce, I’ll fly you out of my dreadful home and let you get back to your beloved Dante and your beloved profession. Perhaps you’ll even get lucky and receive a visit from your princeling. That is, if he isn’t too busy fucking every female with a pulse. After all, heisking now. Everyone wants to bed a male in a position of such power. I should know,” he adds with a curl of lip that chills my blood. “All I ask in return is for you to put aside your rancor and dine with my mother. Do you think yourself capable of that?”
Thunder claps Monteluce anew, quickening my pulse and my breaths. I try to space out my inhales but it’s of no use. “Will you be attending this meal?”
His nostrils flare with breaths as shallow as my own. “My mother would worry if I left after I promised I had time to sup with her, so yes, Fallon, you’ll have to endure my presence.”
“And you truly will fly me out of the Sky Kingdom in the morning?” The wine-soaked fabric flutters against my prickling skin.
“I may assign the job to another Crow, but yes . . . you’ll be escorted out of these walls.”
“Phoebus, too.” My voice is thin, but unlike the rest of me, it doesn’t tremble.
“If he wants to leave, he’ll get an escort.”
If he wants to leave . . .What if he prefers to stay? The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.
Do we have a deal, Fallon?
One dinner against a lifetime of freedom . . . “What’s the catch?”
“The catch?”
“Your bargain sounds too good to be true.”
“I’m no Faerie. I do not bargain.”
