But—No. That’s impossible.I try to shift onto my back but my body won’t roll.Bronwen said you’d lose your humanity.
Animals are capable of love, too, my Little Bird.
I know that, but— Why did you say that?
Spread your wings and meet me where the clouds roll over the horizon and the stars are at their brightest. The sky, like my kingdom, is yours.
Mine?What? Lore, you’re not making any sense. Did we marry while I was unconscious or something?
His cold breath fans across my cheeks, before billowing away like wind-buffeted mist.Remember me.
Lore?
Nothing.
Lore?!My throat burns like my eyes. I scream his name.
“Fallon, wake up.”
I’m shaken so hard that this time, when I will my eyes open, my lids spool right up.
Cato clasps my shoulders, his hands as icy as the sweat coursing down my nape. I stare wildly around me, and although I loathe every millimeter of this prison, I’ve never been so glad for the sight of so much obsidian because so much obsidian means my conversation with Lore never happened.
Unless . . .“Is Dante alive?”
Cato’s eyes are the gray of storm clouds. “Since when do you speak Shabbin?”
I blanch. “I—I don’t.”
“I may not understand your mother tongue, but I know what it sounds like.”
I was sleep-talking in Shabbin?Merda. I glance around to see who else may have heard and find twin sets of beady eyes glaring at me.
“We should inform the king,” hisses the sprite with the bangs that gobble up half his head.
At least that answers my earlier question about Dante’s state of being. If he’s alive, then my mate is as well. Thank the Cauldron it was only a nightmare . . .
“I’llbe informing our king when he awakens. For now, no one is to disturb his rest.” Metal clinks and hinges groan as Justus Rossi unlocks the cellar door.
I’m as glad as I am disappointed to see him, for if he’s back, then that means Lorcan’s sentries have yet to uncover Costa’s stronghold. My nightmare wallops me upside the head, knocking sense into me.
Actually, scratch that.
I amextremelyglad Justus wasn’t spotted for if Lore knew of this underground fortress, he would probably find a way to raid it and murder all those involved with my disappearance, and though I’d be fine with the slaughter of most of my jailers, I cannot have him kill Cato, Justus, or Meriam.
“You three go get some sleep.” Justus nods to my guards while I roll myself into sitting. “I’ll take over.” He runs his hands through his mussed, rust-colored hair, then thumbs the purple pockets rimming his eyes.
“Are you certain, Generali? You look—”
“Go.”
The sprites don’t waste a single second.
Cato, on the other hand, stops and starts, stops and starts. Before stepping over the cellar’s threshold, he asks, “Does the king still desire an audience with me?”
“No. I’ve promised him that no one besides Meriam and the healer were involved in the attempt on his life, so you’re in the clear, Brambilla.” When he still doesn’t leave, Justus huffs. “Are you daft or deaf?”
The white-haired Faerie lingers, his gaze fastened to me. “You’re not—”
