Stealing is bad.
You were borrowing them.
For?
For nothing.He wraps me up, and it feels as though I’ve fallen facefirst into a vat of churning ice-cream.Hold on to me.
Is this my gelato dream? I really enjoyed that dream.
Lore’s shadows morph into feathers. He flaps his great wings and carries us up. Or tries to. My cage gets stuck on a sea fan.
Pitch away your snare, mo khrà.
My . . . snare?Though my lids feel hooked to anchors, I manage to bat them up and stare around me.
The underwater world comes into sharp focus. Well,blurryfocus. I suck in a breath except it’s not a breath; it’s scalding, salty water.
Lore flaps his great wings, but my chain must’ve gotten stuck because we don’t rise. Instead, we bang into a rocky outcropping.Fallon, drop the damn snare.
I give it a hard tug but it’s stuck around my neck.I can’t.Put me down. I’ll unravel it.
Though he growls and grunts, he sets me down. Lungs burning with a need for crisp air, I dig my unsteady fingers into a knot, attempting to pick the various chains apart. And I almost manage but get distracted by the sight of the cage swinging toward Lore’s crow.
Merda.Lore!
What?!
The cage!
We both stare as the rusted netting skims the head of the coral that’s keeping his crow from plummeting to the very bottom of the ocean. I yank on the chain, and the cage twirls, the opening aligning with Lore’s crow.
My fingers freeze.
One foot. That is all that’s keeping the cage from snagging Lore’s crow.
One measly foot of chain.
Before Lore or my sanity can stop me, I spring off the ledge.
The cage drops, slamming down against Lore’s crow.
The shock dislodges the coral head.
I jerk my body and kick my legs to stop sinking.
The cage pivots.
The coral rips, then lists and tumbles.
And so does Lore’s crow.
Fifty-Eight
Isink back down. Even though the water is scalding, I pitch my lids wide and watch in trepidation and awe as the iron crow settles inside my cage.
Fallon!Lore’s talons snare my arms. The second they click, he hisses and lets go.
My blood boils like when Meriam released my power.
