Probably because he was all out of sounds.
Softly, and in Crow, Aoife whispers, “Cian asked our king to make him a forever-Crow after he releases his mate’s ashes into the stars.”
I sensed that would be his wish, but hearing Aoife confirm it rips open my chest.
“Fallon? Is that . . . you?”
I blink out of my thoughts and up at Reid, whom I haven’t seen since I was taken into the obsidian tunnels. I’m uncertain why my surprise is so great. Now that the wards are down, many will be sailing home. I suppose the romantic in me had secretly hoped he’d have reconnected with my Faerie mother. Perhaps he did?
Maybe Nonna and Agrippina are home as well. I went to find Justus when I left my bedroom earlier, but Lazarus told me he and Meriam were sleeping. Yes, the sorceress has been brought into the Sky Kingdom after she undid her wards. Lore’s idea. He prefers to keep an eye on her and her magic, and since his castle prevents blood-casting, he deemed it the safest place to stow her until we fly to Shabbe in the morning, and he hands her over to Priya.
I stroke the facets of my pink diamond, finding comfort in their smoothness. “How was your stay in the queendom, Reid?”
His eyebrows rise. “You speak our tongue now?”
I nod.
Sybille leans into Mattia’s chest and proclaims with great sisterly pride, “She can even shift into a crow and cast spells with her blood, so you better not annoy her anymore, Reid.”
The Shabbin sun has threaded the young Crow’s light-brown mane with strands of gold and burnished his pale-brown skin. “I’ve certainly missed a great deal.”
“Sit, my friend.” Phoebus pats the chair next to his. “I’ll fill you in.”
Reid drops down as though the voyage across the Southern Sea has drained him of all his energy.
“How is my— How are the Rossi women?”
“They’ve settled in well. Your grandmother has taken a great liking to the matriarchal society.”
Of course my strong-willed grandmother would love a land where women and round-ears aren’t considered second-class citizens. I start to smile until I think of Cato. I asked Lore earlier whether I could fly him down to Tarecuori myself now that all of Luce is ours, but he told me to wait until things have settled. Hasn’t Cato’s family waited long enough, though? I ended up penning a letter to his parents and entrusting a fellow Crow with his homecoming.
“Has my Faerie family returned?” I ask, still caressing my ring.
“No.” Reid’s attention has ventured off me and is now firmly planted on the abdomen Sybille is stroking, which does seem to have grown in the last day.
“Was Agrippina happy to see you?”
The mention of my Faerie mother tears his gaze off Syb. “Why would she be?”
I frown. “I thought—I thought the two of you—Bronwen mentioned the two of you knew each other.”
He crosses his arms. “Is that all Bronwen mentioned?”
I sigh, wondering why my questioning is making him so prickly. “My Faerie mother kept your love stone on a shelf in her room.”
His thick eyebrows jolt, getting lost under a tousled lock.
“I pocketed it when I returned to the Fae lands. If Antoni’s old home in Tarecuori hasn’t been looted, it should still be there.”
Reid doesn’t speak.
“Once Lore allows me to venture into the Fae lands, I’ll go find it and bring it back to you, so you can—”
“She doesn’t fucking remember me, Fallon,” he snaps, “so there’s really no point in dredging up a past that will only give her more anxiety.”
Perhaps Reid isn’t all bad, but he has yet to win me over. “You mustn’t have loved her all that much if you’re giving up so easily.”
His charcoal-lined gaze tapers. “Perhaps you shouldn’t judge something you’ve no knowledge of.”
