Do you have a better one?
Yes, actually, I do. I make us all invisible. We storm their ship and find the stone, toss Diotto overboard so the serpents can deal with him, and then we book it home.
Fine.
Fine what?
I like your plan.
I’m so shocked by his admission that I blink at all three of his crows.
But you’re not getting on that boat.
That’s a rather pivotal part of the plan.
You’ll paint the invisibility sigil on all of us, but you’ll stay with Aoife in the air.
Lorcan’s refusal to let me take part on the action shouldn’t surprise me. If it were up to him, I’d be locked in an iron bubble.
I scan the endless carpet of blue beneath us.Do you think they know we’re coming?
We saw their ship, so odds are, they saw us.
They may not know that Alyona gave them up so easily . . .
One of his crows slants me a look. One that says that they’ll know we broke Alyona’s silence. I suppose there’s little a murder of Crows cannot break.
My thoughts drift to the princess then. To the news that, someday, a child of mine will sail across this sky to Glace and spill her blood. Will it be premeditated? Will it be in self-defense? I glance over my shoulder at the white continent that gleams like a milk spill.
What will you do to my child, Alyona?
The sky growls, ripping me away from the future and hurtling me back into the present.Don’t we still have hours of flight?
We do, but I want them to know we’re coming. I want them to taste my wrath; feel it needle their skin and turn their stomachs. I want them to rue the day they decided to become our enemy.
The clouds rush in from every direction, settling so thickly underneath us that they obscure the sea.
What if they throw the stone overboard, Lore?
There are no maritime trenches in these parts. Even a Crow will be able to dive to recover it. But they won’t. It’s their last defense against Shabbe.As darkness slowly drapes across the sun, weakening its reach, he adds,Why do you think Diotto took this mission upon himself? Why do you think he didn’t entrust it to his soldiers?
Dread begins to pool in my belly. I imagined this would be a painless recovery mission, but something so precious is bound to ignite a battle that will cost lives. May the only ones to fall be our enemies . . .
I’m still clutching on to that little prayer when, not even an hour later, Colm’s Crow releases a gut-wrenching caw and stiffens. Color leaches from Gabriele’s face and his wide, haunted eyes meet mine a second before his obsidian steed plummets through the clouds, rider still on his back.
Seventy-Two
Iscream as Colm and Gabriele fall, then scream again when Fionn plunges after his mate, surely sealing his obsidian fate.
Lore?I shout as Aoife beats her great wings to ascend higher into the sky.
My mate does not answer, and when I stare around, the only Crows I see suspended in the air are Cian and the male carrying Justus.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I shout my mate’s name into the bond again, and again, I get no answer.
“Aoife, I’m going to make us invisible, all right?”
She turns her head toward me, her black eyes gleaming with anxiety. I raise my shaking hand to my necklace and prick my finger, then tunnel my fingers beneath one of my sleeves and draw the sigil on my forearm.
