I slide my lips together. I understand their logic, but am I still annoyed to have been forced into a magical union with a lunatic? Fuck yes.
“Plus, we couldn’t risk him dying on anyone’s blade but yours or the Cauldron will never forgive Meriam and remain shut.”
“Shut?”
“Did I fail to mention that the Cauldron was so furious that it sealed itself off fromeveryone?”
“Um, yes.”
“I heard you wished to lift the Crows’ obsidian curse, Nipota. Only the Cauldron has the power to do that.”
“Are there any secrets in Luce that haven’t made it to your broad ears?”
He smiles.
“You should leave, Justus.”
“Even if I hadn’t sworn an oath to Bronwen to keep you safe, I wouldn’t leave you, Fallon. You may not be my flesh and blood, but that’s never stopped me from caring. From afar and in silence, I’ve watched you bloom, and I couldn’t be prouder of the tenacious woman Ceres has raised.”
My chest heats and beats. “Many would argue I’m useless.”
“Useless? You stole through the kingdom with an army at your heels and not only made it out alive, but also victorious.” His eyes twinkle like the ocean’s surface at sunrise.
“You didn’t look all that proud when I showed up at Marco’s revel.”
“I was panicked Marco was going to murder you,” he hisses, twinkle gone.
Who’d have thought Justus Rossi was so in touch with his emotions? Not me, and certainly not Nonna, who painted him out to be such a callous man that I wonder if she ever saw this side of him . . . but she must have. Why would he show it to me and not to the woman with whom he founded a family?
Like the peeling bark of a sapling in the throes of spring, the years of hatred I cultivated toward General Rossi slough away. “One more question. Where is my mother hidden?”
Justus’s neck suddenly straightens and he takes a step away from me. It’s only then that I sense a nearby heartbeat. I peer into the entryway of my cell, spotting a shadow lapping at the stone floor like spume.
“Since you’re here, Lastra”—Justus tilts his head to the side, his face wiped clean of our conspiring—“make yourself useful and weave Fallon a ladder so she may return to her cage.”
“No cage, please, Generali. Lock the cellar door.”
“Back in your cage.Now!” His breath is so harsh that it flutters a piece of my hair, but his eyes are soft and pleading.
His volatile attitude grooves my forehead. I’m guessing he must be worried Lastra will report his odd behavior, but locking me up is next-level.
He seizes my arm and tugs me close as the soldier concentrates on growing his vine ladder. In my ear, he murmurs, “It’s powerproof.”
Right.Cato mentioned that.
“Carry her mattress back up, Lastra.”
The man nods and heaves the flaccid excuse for a bed up his little ladder.
“See that she receives no food and no drink for she deserves to ache for what she’s done.”
What a brilliant actor my grandfather is. He’s even gotmeconvinced that he despises me. “If I die of starvation, I won’t be of much use to the cyclops king.”
Justus strikes me with an incendiary stare. “Do not speak of your husband in that manner!”
I try to communicate through my stare my thorough displeasure at how seriously he’s taking his role as my torturer.
“Inside your cage. Now.”
