I snort, picturing just how much pleasure he’d take, but that would only poison relations between Crows and Fae. I stride around the embankment toward Tavo’s bobbing boat. “Antoni’s new house. Where is it?”
“Next door to the Acoltis. Would you care for a ride?”
“No. We’ll—”
“We’d love a ride.” Phoebus sets his palm on the small of my back. “I’m not risking walking through streets filled with haters and getting socked by a cauldron brimming with animal guts, or dead birds, or Gods only know what else they’re stockpiling in their homes.”
I blink up at him. Although it’s me the people despise, their abhorrence is so vast that it encompasses all those close to me. “I’m sorry, Phoebus.”
“Boat. Now.” He shoves me forward. “And you havenothingto apologize for. All you did was scratch at the pretty veneer that’s coated Luce for far too long. If anyone should be apologetic, it should be our new leader who let this”—the hand not on my back shoots out toward the little blue home that used to be my safe haven—“thiscarnagehappen.”
“Careful, Acolti.” Tavo puffs warm air onto a steel dagger before polishing the pewter blade unhurriedly against the fine burgundy of his jacket. “Your words could be construed as antagonistic, and you know where dissenters are sent.”
Into Filiaserpens, the lair the serpents established in the fault line that stretches between Isolacuori and Tarecuori. The place where Fae have disposed of their enemies for centuries.
I watch the dagger, wondering how fast I could disarm Tavo and thrust it through his rancid heart.
He must sense the direction of my thoughts because he stabs the blade back into his baldric and keeps his palm glued to the hilt. “Don’t think for a second I’d hesitate to toss you in as well, Fallon.”
I raise a harsh smile. “Are you really threatening me with a swim in Mareluce?”
He returns an even harsher one. “I hear corpses sink, not swim.”
Shall we find out?Smoke coalesces between the remaining puffs of clouds, ridding me of my smile.
Lore, no!If he kills Tavo, war will break out and lives will be lost on all sides.
Dante’s friend cranes his neck and yells at his men to arm themselves with obsidian.
Go. Please, Lore. You’ll only make this worse. Please.
The canal begins to churn and bubble, multihued scales slashing the water.
Suddenly, the warmth of Phoebus’s palm vanishes, and he gasps.
I spin to find a soldier holding a steel blade at his throat.
Not just any soldier, though.
Black-haired, tawny-eyed Commander Dargento. “Call off your pets or your little friend perishes, Signorina Rossi.”
Nineteen
Cold sweat drips down the runnel of my spine and Mamma’s stone slips from my fingers. “Stop! Everyone, lay down your weapons! STOP!”
The black smoke splits into five puffs. If I had any doubt that Lorcan was present, they’re gone, for only the Crow King can divide himself into five different entities. Where two of his crows remain poised over Tavo’s gondola, the other three carve the air toward me, swirling around my chest, neck, and head, all the weakest spots on my body.
“Release Acolti, Silvius!” The voice that fills the air is one I haven’t heard in days, and although it no longer strums my veins, it snips the pressure squeezing my lungs.
“Dante,” I gasp as Lorcan’s cool smoke keeps stretching frenziedly over my skin.
My former champion stands astride another military vessel that shines like a jewel against the murky-blue canal. The sunray crown shimmers atop his brown box braids that lift from the speed the air-Fae surrounding him are using to propel his ship toward us.
“You heard your king,” Tavo barks. “Release the pureling, Dargento.”
The commander’s nostrils flare out twice before he shoves Phoebus forward so hard, my friend loses his footing and flails forward. His face goes as white as spilled milk as his body tips over the embankment.
I stride forward to jump in after him, but Lorcan’s crows hold me back.
