Sybille flicks his bicep, shooting him a scowl that drags my mind off the war. “I offergreatcounsel, thank you very much.”
“I’m so glad Defne and Marcello are safe.”
“Not only are they safe, Fal, but they’ve also”—her throat must grow tighter because her voice drops in volume—“they’ve also forgiven us.”
My ribs loosen at the news. I imagined it was a matter of time, but still, the relief I feel is as sweet as warmed honey.
“I’m so happy for your sister.” I reach out and link my hand through Syb’s. “You were right to trust Eponine.”
“I’m almost always right.” Syb’s grin develops, lifting her cheeks to great heights.
“Don’t stroke her ego, Picolina. It barely fits through the hallways of the Sky Kingdom, what with Mattia’s constant stroking.”
I laugh. Gods, it’s good to be back with these two. “Whereisyour dashing sailor?”
Smile fading, Sybille casts her gaze toward the hatch where dots of azure prick through the steely white. “Blasting through the tunnels, looking for Antoni.”
The mention of Antoni constricts my stomach. “He won’t find him in the tunnels.”
Syb’s gaze veers back toward me.
Sticking my hands between my thighs, I add, “Not anymore. We got out together.”
“If you got out together”—Phoebus tilts his head, which makes his blond hair frolic around his face—“then how come he isn’t here?”
“He chose to stay in Tarespagia.”
“I need to tell Mattia.” Sybille lurches out of her crouch and bounds toward a freckle-faced Crow, probably to ask him to carry the message down to her mate.
“You were in the tunnels together?” Phoebus murmurs.
I nod. “Dante held him prisoner.”
I must start shaking because Phoebus retrieves my hands from where they sit buried in the gap between my thighs and clasps both between his large, warm palms. “That bad?”
“Worse, Pheebs,” I whisper hoarsely.
He squeezes my hands. “We don’t have to talk about it now.”
I’m not sure I’ll want to talk about it later. I may have saved Antoni, but I no longer trust him. He wants my mate dead and knows a fuck lot about Crows. “Phoebus, I heard there was a hidden staircase that leads out of the Sky Kingdom.”
“Yeah. The entrance was up there.” He nods toward one of the cubbyholes that peppers the ten-story rock facade. It sits on the third level of the younger Crows’ housing. Oddly enough, it’s only then that I notice the many sets of charcoal-darkened eyes staring down at us from the indents in the rock.
“Does it still exist?”
“No. It’s been destroyed. Why?”
“Because Antoni knew about it,” I reply softly.
One of his eyebrows hooks up.
“Antoni wants Lore dead, Pheebs.”
Though his hands don’t fall away from my own, his grip slackens. “But he fought so hard to bring him back.”
Dante’s salt-interrogation floats back through my mind like a cloying drift of incense.
“Are you certain?”
