He turns his deep-brown stare toward me. “Ready, ínon?”
I roll my fingers into a fist, crushing the one and only other mark on my body. Though a feather on my cheek won’t cancel Dante’s brand, I cannot wait for the world to see which king I truly belong to.
Sixty-One
“Was it painful?” Phoebus asks, as he runs a wooden comb through my clean and heavily moisturized hair.
“Less so than your brushing.” I cannot tear my gaze away from the delicate feather Arin inked beneath my left eye. The skin is still a little puffy and red, but I can already tell it’s a work of art. I twist my face to the right to get a better view of it while Sybille struggles with the laces on the satin bodice of a violet gown.
“You know, Crows don’t marry in gold like Faeries; they marry in dark colors—black, sapphire . . . violet.” Sybille drops this in so nonchalantly that it almost sounds like a fact instead of what it is—a very obvious hint.
Phoebus rolls his eyes. “Subtle, Syb.”
“I’m just saying that if Fallon wanted to go all out, I’m sure no one would raise any objection to performing a second Crow ritual. I mean, everyone’s merry andhere.”
Nonna and Mamma materialize in the speckled mirror over Reid’s stone sink, and then they fade and Daya appears, in both skin and scales. “I’m not getting married without Nonna and my mothers. And Gia, and your parents. I’d really like for them to be present as well. Not to mention I want this”—I spread my fingers open and stare at the interlocked rings—“runegone.”
Sybille peeks at Phoebus through her lashes before sliding her lips together.
The look they exchange makes my heart stutter. “What?”
Sybille yanks on the laces of my dress, driving my breath from my lungs. “Nothing.”
“Come on. I may have been absent for a while, but I know the two of you, and that look clearly meantsomething.”
Sybille sighs. “It’s just that getting everyone together could take some time, what with Vlad making outrageous demands in order to give up his ward stone.”
“He’ll fold.” Phoebus gives my smooth strands another thorough brush. “Lore will make him relinquish it.”
Though I’ve no doubt my mate can bend the Glacin monarch to his will with a well-phrased threat or a well-placed iron talon, I assume Vladimir is his ally, and using force would work against this alliance. “What sort of demands?”
“Weapons, trunks of gold, a bargain from yours truly.”
We all whip our attention toward the entrance to Reid’s small bathing chamber that’s presently dwarfed by a very large male.
Lore leans against the wooden doorway, hair damp from a shower, arms crossed over a snug black top that makes his shoulders pop. “Vlad’s a king with a vested interest in remaining one. Since he knows we’d do just about anything for that stone, he’s decided our old agreement requires some amending.”
The sight of Lore makes my pulse hum beneath my skin, against my eardrums. For a moment, I even forget what we’re discussing, but then Sybille speaks Vladimir’s name, and it all rushes back to me. “Isn’t it in his interest to destroy the wards?”
“The bravest Faerie fears the weakest Shabbin. Your magic both intimidates and embitters them.”Lore drags his gaze down the violet silk I’ve been squished into, and the gold in his eyes churns approvingly. “Why do you think Pierre wanted a Shabbin wife so badly?”
“Does Vladimir want a Shabbin wife?”
Lore snaps his gaze off my dress and onto my face. “You’re taken. And not by the Regio rat scurrying beneath my kingdom.”
I roll my eyes. “I wasn’t going to offer myself to him.”
“You’ve done it before.” Sybille shrugs off my glower.
“Don’t you think bringing up Dante is a tad petty, Syb?”
“Oh, I was talking about Pierre of Nebba, Pheebs. Fallon suggested marriage against his assistance in retrieving Meriam.”
The comb drops from Phoebus’s hand. “You propositioned Pierre—the butcher—of Nebba?”
“Not only was I bluffing, but I was also desperate to locate Meriam.” I level a look Lorcan’s way. Though I don’t begrudge him his secrets, if he’d shared his theories on Meriam’s whereabouts with me, it would’ve saved us all a whole lot of grief. “I imagined she’d be the solution to all our problems.”
Lore unfolds his arms and pushes off the door frame, stepping deeper into the bathroom. “Could you two give Fallon and me a moment, please?”
