Glad to hear it, but I’ll be even gladder once you tell me where your missing crow fell.
We’re going back.
What?
Show your mother the spot where Cathal dropped you off.
What?!
Is my voice not reaching your ears, what with your hundreds of new reptilian friends?
I give the cheek of a little serpent who managed to squeeze his head between Zendaya’s makeshift fence a quick pat before pushing him away so his neck doesn’t get crushed.What the underworld are you going on about?
My crow cannot be retrieved at the moment. Once we free Shabbe, we’ll get Priya to help.
How can my great-grandmother help but I cannot?
Because, Fallon, she knows many spells. Perhaps she’ll know one to make iron rise to the surface.
How deep did you fall?
Drop it.
I will absolutelynotdrop it. I didn’t come all this way—
We came. We saw. And now we’re leaving.
I leap into his head and catch the vision a second before he pitches me out.
Don’t even think about it, Fallon.
But just like the day I freed his last crow from the galleon, I do more than think about it. I call to my mother with my eyes, but she’s too busy fending off her brethren to take notice of me.
Even if your clever gills hold, the heat will melt your skin.
You don’t know that.I kick up and seize her tusk to tip her face toward mine. The second I have her attention, I pour the image of the crevasse upon which Lore teeters—the one spurting so much steam that the waters surrounding it tremble.
Why do you think no serpents have fished me out?
Because they’re no fan of warm baths. But guess what? I am. The steamier the better.
For a moment, I think I’ve convinced him because he says nothing, but then he inserts himself between my mother and me, a scowl carving up his shadows.We’re not fucking talking about a trip to the Baths, mo khrà.
I bite my lip. Lore’s battering pulse calms. He must assume I’m rethinking my decision of approaching the submarine volcano, but that isn’tat allthe direction of my thoughts.
I kick up and out of my mother’s scaled eddies, then grab ahold of the Queen Mother’s extra large and pointy marble ear and hang there a moment. I’m still unsure how deep Lore’s crow rests, but if I follow the hot stream downward, I’m bound to come upon it.
Hand over hand, I scale down Mamma Regio’s face.
Fallon?
Yes?I snap up walls around my plan and focus very hard on the ledge below the one I’m dangling from.
You wouldn’t be thinking of defying me now, would you?
I snort, which flings little bubbles into my eyes.Of course not. I’m just enjoying the view of so many jewels. Is that a pearl necklace?
I shoot to the next ledge toward the glimmering strand of white beads wrapped around a sea fan that is, in fact, a gorgeous pearl necklace. I unwrap it from around the purple fan, careful not to injure the coral, and then I wrap it around the strap of my bodysuit for safekeeping.
