My loyalty lies with you, Day. If you don’t believe me, then I’ll swear an oath?—
I trust you.And so I tell him about my conversation with the Mahananda and of its advice to find Meriam. I also explain that it led me to Agrippina.
The Mahananda told you to make her a Serpent?
It told me to find her, but yes, I imagine it intended for me to save her life by transforming her into a Serpent.
Well, fuck me…
While Enzo whirls on himself at the sound of Agrippina’s voice, I fall silent and hunt the Amkhuti for blue scales.
You can hear us?he exclaims.
Yes, Seaweed. I can hear you just fine. No need to shriek.
I was right. My Serpents’ minds are all linked when in scales.
Enzo grumbles beneath his breath.How long have you been eavesdropping?
I wasn’t eavesdropping. I went for a swim and happened on your little exchange. Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are that we’re conversing right now.
How much have you heard, Agrippina?I ask, putting an end to their bickering.
Just that you called my father so that he can lead you to Meriam because she’s the key to our immortality.
ToDay’simmortality,Enzo says.
Though she has no shoulder to shrug, I can picture her shrugging.I imagine that once our maker’s immortal, we will be as well, since that’s what happened to the Crows.
I ferry the question to the Mahananda, but it affords me no answer.
I must miss a part of their conversation because Agrippina is hissing at Enzo that if he ever calls her Pee again, she will throttle him with her tail to which he says,You call me Seaweed. Only fair you get a horrid nickname.
And then he shoots off and she gives chase, and although they’re acting like wayward children, a sense of serenity drapes over me. One that falters when I spy the large black bird cresting the glittery fortifications, an orange-haired rider on its back.
My Serpents must sense my elevated pulse through our bond because they’re suddenly both surfacing and shifting, both carving across the dawn-lit water toward the vine ladder. Enzo flicks his head at Agrippina to go first, then climbs up after her. Wet fabric, turned sheer from their swim, clings to their skin. Where Enzo nervously wrings out the hem of his tunic and draws it over the bulge between his legs, Agrippina doesn’t bother plucking the fabric off her slender curves, not even when she catches his gaze on her peaked nipples.
“See something you like?” she taunts him.
“Go-Gods, how old are y-you?” He shakes his head, springing droplets off his green hair that has grown the length of a knuckle since he first arrived in Shabbe.
“Almost two centuries older that you are, Seaweed.”
He glowers at her and crosses his arms before muttering into my mind,Does Justus know what he’s coming to Shabbe to do?
Yes.To Agrippina, I repeat Enzo’s question and my subsequent answer, followed by a command not to speak of anything out loud.Anything you both want to say, you speak it into my mind from this moment forward. Nod if you both heard me.
They nod. Though repeating everything individually wouldn’t have been the end of the world, my voice broadcasting into both their minds at once is a boon.
The Crow’s broad shadow drapes over us as it swoops low. Though my entire focus should be on Justus and where he’s about to lead me, it isn’t; it’s on the male who carried him here. He may still be in feathers, but I’d recognize Cathal Báeinach anywhere.
Chapter 43
Zendaya
“How exactly are we going to go about this?” Justus murmurs as he leans in to kiss my cheek in customary Lucin fashion. “I don’t even know where she’s being kept.”
I frown before remembering the circle inked on his palm. “You must use your connection to her.”
