My body flushes with anger. How could Justus Rossi betray me like this?
Because I told you, Fallon, he isn’t your friend, the little devil on my shoulder whispers. I should be alarmed that I’m hearing voices, but since this is the voice of reason, I welcome it.
As I glower at the general, I wonder when he’ll betray the other secret he knows about me. When will he inform Dante Regio that my blood holds magic?
Sixteen
For an endless stretch of time, no one speaks. Neither Dante, nor the duplicitous general, nor I. All of us exist quietly, absorbing the secrets we keep from each other.
“How long have you known?” Dante’s question shears the thick air.
Since I imagine he’s asking Justus, I keep quiet, taking the opportunity to seethe some more.
“I’ve only just figured it out, Maezza. Her mother’s eyes whitened the night we ambushed her in the Temple, right before we succeeded in immobilizing her mate.”
My eyebrows begin to furrow. I snap them straight before anyone can catch my frown. Is this truly how Justus believes mates communicate with one another or is he covering for me? Why am I so adamant at finding a spark of goodness in Justus? His soul is surely as murky as the Racoccin canals and just as foul.
“I thought obsidian blocked Crow powers.”
“Matehood is not a shifter power. But worry not, sire, for obsidian blocks their mind link.” Justus’s eyes are as cold as chips of ice. “That’s how Bronwen managed to separate Fallon from Lorcan to bring her to us.” He raises his chin a notch, looking down his nose at me as though to prove himself endowed with superior intelligence. “Right, Fallon?”
“I don’t know why you’re seeking confirmation, Generali. You’re obviously plenty knowledgeable on the inner workings of supernatural powers.”
“Even though the walls will mute their connection, would you like me to have some obsidian ground into her food as an added precaution, Maezza?”
Oh, the desire to eat iron is strong in that one . . . I picture myself plunging the ruby-encrusted sword into his neck.
“You chose Lorcan as a mate?” Dante’s voice has dropped in volume, yet I don’t miss the emotion limning his tone.
“They do not choose—” Justus begins, but I speak over him, “Yes. I chose him. And I will always choose him.”
Shadows slither over Dante’s already somber expression, blackening his mood. He squeezes his lips together, thinning their fullness, and his throat bobs as he swallows the news Rossi has just fed him.
After another long stretch of silence, he says, “I suppose that explains why the Bird King is said to have gone mad and is being abandoned by his own people.”
Although Dante delivers his words without a bleep of hesitation, I was just there, in the Sky Kingdom, with Lorcan’s people, and though my vision was contained to the tavern, my mate didn’t seem like he was down any loyal shifters.
I tilt my head to the side. “Abandoned, you say?”
“Crows are flocking to Shabbe because they don’t trust their leader’s judgement.” Dante seems only too content to share the news. The same way he was only too glad to inform me that Gabriele had injured my mate.
Since that was a lie, I fathom this avian exodus is, too. “Have any Crows joined your ranks, Dante?”
“Like I’d share this with a woman whose mind is linked to my enemy’s.” Dante adds a derisive snort that tells me everything I need to know, for only a male caught in a lie would need to put on such a production.
“You know something else you should really not do with a woman whose mind is linked to your enemy’s?” I keep my tone sweet. “Force her to marry you.” I pause for dramatic effect. “How do you think my mate will react once he learns you took what’s his?”
Dante grins, and although his violent temper has scared me in the past, the fear I feel in this moment is tenfold stronger.
“Your mate will soon be reduced to nothing more than an animal, and though I’ve heard some women grow disconcertingly attached to their pets”—he casts a look Justus’s way, surely alluding to Xema and her parrot, rest his rotten soul—“a pet cannot plant an heir inside your womb. A pet cannot offer you all that a man can.”
He better not be thinking of planting anything inside my womb.
“Do you understand why I don’t fear Lorcan Ríhbiadh coming after me? By the time we emerge, your feathered king will be reduced to a dumb little bird with not a speck of iron or sentience, and the rest of his revolting breed of half-humans will become the animals they already act like. Poof.” Dante flicks his thumb over his middle and index fingers, making them click. “The Crows will be gone for good, and Luce will be, once again, safe.”
The only thing that’ll go poof and be gone is this man’s head from his torso.
For the first time in forever, I don’t shudder at the idea of a decapitation. Then again, I’ve pierced a man’s heart. Yes, in the dark, but I felt those squishy organs and taut sinews. I felt that body give beneath my blade. I felt Dargento’s breath leave his lungs and the beats leave his heart.
