Cian raises his grim eyes to mine. “Yes.”
Fifty-One
Iflatten my palms against the table to steady myself. “BronwenforesawJustus staking Lore?”
“She foresaw Lore turning to iron on the battlefield, and us, to stone.”
My head spins from Cian’s avowal. “Did she foresee all of you turning back?”
“She foresaw Dante dying at your hand.”
“Except Dante dying breaks Meriam’s curse, not the Crow’s. Unless he’s the key to yours as well?”
“She sawyoukill Dante after our fall, Fallon.” Cian repeats as though I’m daft. “That means you don’t turn to obsidian. That means you live. If you live, so do we.”
“No. That meansDantedies. Perhaps I kill him by crushing him beneath my obsidian body.” My jaw’s wedged so tight, my words lack volume but not punch. “Admittedly, if he dies, the Shabbin wards come down, so you’ll have your pick of saviors.”
Imogen snorts. “He’s a Faerie. Obsidian doesn’t harm the Fae. Not even a well-placed obsidian beak.”
Though Lore doesn’t utter a word, smoke twists off his hazy figure as though he was on fire.
“Bronwen also foresaw Gabriele dying before the last full moon, and he’s still around, so excuse me if I don’t eat up her prediction.” I scrape my chair back, the wood shrieking against the stone.
Iona expels a snort. “I believe I was wrong about Fallon not inheriting anything from you, Cathal. She seems to have gotten your temper in spades.”
“I don’t suppose you have a mate, Iona.” My mood turns my tone tetchy.
Her slender eyebrows slant. “I do not, but I don’t see what—”
“If you did have a mate, you wouldn’t tolerate anyone so much as alluding to staking him.”
She presses her lips together. “It’s for the greater good, Fallon.”
“Driving a blade through Dante’s heart is for the greater good; driving a blade through Lore’s isn’t.” I wait for Lore to ask me to show his Siorkahd member the respect she is due, but he doesn’t seem to object to me voicing my opinion. “I’m ready for that swim.”
“Perhaps, but Daya isn’t.” My father scrutinizes his talon-tipped fingers. “She only left Tarespagian waters last night. She won’t reach Tarecuori for another day, and that is, if she doesn’t sense you here and linger in the Southern Sea.”
I blink at my father, surprised that he refers to Minimus as Daya, surprised that he’s wrapped his mind around the fact that my mother is a serpent, while I’m still grappling with the revelation.
“You’ll either dive with her, or you won’t dive at all, ínon. Understood?”
“We’re wasting time, Dádhi.”
“We’ve time aplenty, Fallon.”
I sigh. “Fine.”
I start to sit down when my father nods to the double doors cut into the far wall. “Your friends have been waiting for you inAdh’Thábhainsince daybreak.”
Daybreak?Even though Syb is used to waking early, what with working atBottom, Phoebus is not a fan, which says a lot about his desire to see me.
“And while you’re there, eat copiously, since clearly, you haven’t been doing much of that in the last month.” He levels a resonant glower Justus’s way.
The former Faerie general neither flinches nor does he justify his reason for depriving me of food.
“Give me your skirt before departing.”
My eyebrows knit.
