She dips her chin, nostrils flaring delicately yet wildly. With a breathy grunt, her fingers snap shut and her fists jounce, and then her eyes roll back into her head, and she buckles against Justus’s legs. He sinks down and catches her before she can flop sideways and crack her skull against the esplanade’s hard floor.
The world goes so still and quiet that when my father asks, “Did it work?” his rasp wobbles the very air.
It isn’t Meriam or Justus who answers him; it’s the earth we stand upon and the oxygen we breathe. Both shudder with a tremor so violent, I think it may crumble Monteluce.
As the columns shake and the mountain stream gushes, my father’s riotous stare touches mine, and I can read inside his fathomless pupils the fear that bubbles there. Did Meriam bring down the wards, or did she bring down Luce?
Eighty-Eight
As suddenly as it began, the tremors halt. I stare at Justus, who blinks bloodshot eyes my way, as Aoife voices the question on everyone’s mind: “Are the wards gone?”
Erwin spins toward Lore, whose shadows now envelop all of me. “Call to the rest of our people, Mórrgaht.”
My mate firms at my back and then his mouth moves over the magic spell that awakened me mere hours ago.
Though I’m not locked in stone, I feel the incantation spill into my veins and galvanize my blood. I feel it crackle against my heart and prickle my skin. If the wards are down, the Crows locked in Shabbe will feel his spell as well.
A tenuous smile rises amidst the wiry hairs of my father’s beard. “Ready to see Aodhan’s ugly face?”
Lore snorts, curling me deeper into his body.
Why does the name Aydawn sound familiar?
Because I mentioned him the day I broke the news of our mating bond to your father.
Ah. . . I remember now. When he spoke the Crow’s name, my father’s complexion had purpled.
He’s a terrible flirt with a penchant for disregarding direct orders.His pulse is steady against my spine.One of the only Crows I find more agreeable in obsidian form.
Though my heart is heavy, Lore’s dark humor snags it like a fishing hook and reels it a little higher.Would you like me to stake him for you?
Hmm. Tempting.He brushes a kiss to my temple.
My father, along with several other Crows, bursts into feathers and soars over the Sky Kingdom. For a long moment, only the wind buffeting the columns of the esplanade and my mate’s breaths stir the air, but then caws echo, their chorus so raucous that I spin in Lore’s arms.
“It worked?”
A smile teases the edges of his mouth. “Shift.”
I do.
And then his skin darkens and swells, transforming man into beast.
Together, we rise into the blush of dawn where thousands upon thousands of beating wings paint the horizon black, and my mate’s eyes, a smoldering shade of gold.
Eighty-Nine
As Lore greets the returnees, I retire to my bedchamber for that much-needed soak. My muscles are so riddled with exhaustion that I almost give up unhooking my armor and rolling off my clothes, but the reek of death that clings to them spurs me on.
Naked, I glance at myself in the mirror, horrified by my tattered state. Instead of a bath, I elect to take a shower and scrub so hard at my skin that I anger the puckered seam on my thigh. My scab splits anew and weeps blood.
As I lather my hair, I watch the ruby droplets fork down the side of my leg, the last mark Dante will ever leave on my body. The sight carries me back to the cave made of hard ice and chilling screams. How is it that I escaped yet still feel trapped?
I flatten my hands against the wall, shut my raw eyes, and press my forehead to the stone.
My sorrow and exhaustion are so loud and ugly, they echo over the spray and buckle my knees, driving me down to the floor where I curl in on myself like the shell around my throat.
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