As Cathal morphs, Justus leans toward my other cheek, bringing his mouth right up to my ear. “I’ve tried. I cannot feel her.”
Except he mustn’t have tried well enough, since the Mahananda instructed me to claim my bargain, andhiswas the only one I had.
We exchange a weighted look as he moves toward Agrippina.
Tell your father that you’re so glad he came to check on you and walk to your bedchamber with him. Once you’re out of earshot of the guards and behind closed doors, let me know.My eyes track up the corded length of Cathal’s neck which snaps with heartbeat after heartbeat.Enzo, go with them.
Once they both retreat, albeit reluctantly, I ask Cathal in Crow, “You leave immediately or have time for drink?”
He crosses his arms. “It’s seven in the morning.” At my frown, he says, “I don’t day-drink.”
“I mean coffee. Or tea.” I riffle through my mind for the word for juice in Crow, but it doesn’t come so I say it in Shabbin.
“I’m not thirsty. Besides, I’ve a job to return to.”
Annoyed, I don’t even bother using Crow. “I’m sure Lorcan will understand if you took ten minutes off to visit with me.”
He smiles, but it isn’t good-natured. “Nah. He wouldn’t understand,” he replies in Crow. “We don’t have time for idleness back in Luce.”
My eyelid twitches at his underhanded insult. “And yet you had time to carry Justus over,” I snipe back in Shabbin.
He answers in Crow: “Yes, which was very inconvenient, but my job’s done and now I must fly back.”
I pursue in my mother tongue: “Do I get to learn the reason you’re acting so brusque with me?”
He dips his chin. “Well, let’s just say that I’ve met someone.”
My heart goes so still that I think he’s scooped it out of my chest with his iron talons.
“Isn’t it brilliant?” he asks, that false smile digging into his bristly cheeks.
No, it’s not brilliant. It’s the opposite of brilliant, actually. With a start, I realize this is the reason Fallon has been acting so odd each time I’ve asked after her father. Because she knew that he’d moved on and didn’t dare tell me.
I rub the scar around my neck as though a new vine were choking me. “Is she Crow?” I ask, even though what I want to ask is: “Can you penetrate her mind?”
“I never aired out my private life before and have no intention to begin now.” Smoke bleeds from his pores. “Anyway,I’m needed back in Luce, so”—he raises two fingers to his temple and flicks them in my direction—“alvee,Rajka.”
I don’t know what his gesture means, or why he switches to Shabbin to say, “goodbye, Princess,” the same way I don’t know why I’m dwelling on either. Because it’s taking my mind off the news that I’ve been replaced?
He springs upward. As I track his departure, my pulse grows mute. Glum, I dive into the Amkhuti and swim. I don’t surface when Enzo tells me that my grandmother demanded they all join her for breakfast. I merely wallow in scales. When the sun is high, I finally climb out and traverse the gardens.
Are you back in your chamber, Agrippina?
Her voice immediately brightens my mind, but unfortunately, not my mood.Yes.
With Justus?
Yes.
I head there, my ribs cinched so tight around my lungs that by the time I reach her wing of the palace, I’m wheezing. Which of course leads Abrax to trot up to me and ask if I need him to call the healer.
I doubt a magical crystal exists to heal a broken heart, so I shake my head, and then, before crossing the threshold, I thank him for looking out for me. I’m about to tell him that I don’t want to be disturbed when I think better of it. After all, nothing will kindle suspicion more than a command to stay away.
So I walk into my Serpents’ quarters, as though I was here for a simple visit, and amble down the long common area roofed with a sky light as broad as the Kasha’s. Unlike my wing, this one’s made up of a dozen apartments that vary in size and configuration.
“You should go home, Abrax. You look worn out.”
“I’m fine.”
