My hand sinks into her fur. “What about after you eat?”
“Zendaya”—my name on his lips has never sounded so gentle—“I’m staying.”
Chapter 51
Cathal
“Who knew your grandmother was such a hoarder?” I ask.
Amongst the piles of documents Zendaya unearthed, there were many interesting edicts and land divisions as well as correspondence with kings of old and random foreigners, most of them with titles preceding their names. I even found a letter that Lorcan penned to Queen Mara—or Mórrígan as we call her—six and half centuries earlier asking her if she could send a few more Shabbins to help combat the Fae and their endless supply of obsidian weapons.
Zendaya smiles from where she’s reclined on the cushion beside mine, Cruaih curled atop her chest, snoozing away. My little stray, who likes no one save for myself and Fallon, is completely enamored by the Serpent Queen. My cat isn’t alone. Even when I believed Daya harbored feelings toward her fellow Serpent, my bruised heart never quit thudding for her.
“How does a big, growly Crow find himself in possession of such a tiny, sweet creature?” she asks, languidly curving a finger up and down the purring furball’s spine.
“I was visiting Rax when I found her. She was pawing at a burlap sack which contained…” I roll my neck at the sordid memory, my nails hardening into talons as I picture what I will do to the callous murderer if our paths ever cross. “Which contained the rest of her family.”
Daya’s chest lifts with a gasp that disrupts Cruaih’s nap, but only for a moment. After ascertaining that all’s well and that I haven’t abandoned her, she slips right back into slumber. “Some people don’t deserve to live.”
“I agree.” For a long moment, I stare at her elegant fingers tracking across Cruaih’s fur. Her nails are long and painted the same shade as the velour she lounges on. My mind suddenly places them onmybody, on a part of me that is at present growing so heavy and long that I have to readjust the way I sit.
“I’m sorry the seating is so uncomfortable. I’ll order chairs before the day is out and loftier feet for the table. Hopefully both can be manufactured quickly.”
When the seam of my leathers keeps guillotining my cock, I decide to stand, with my back to Daya, and stretch my legs.
“Even if you don’t stay.” The words bluster out of Zendaya’s mouth, as soft as the patter of my cat’s feet. “Since I can read now that my Shabbin side has been unbound and everything…”
It’s so unlike her to mumble that I stop fidgeting with my trousers and turn, erection be damned. “What part of,I’m staying, didn’t you understand, Príona?”
Her eyes don’t stray off my face.
“Sorry…Sumaca.”
Her hand promenades up my cat’s back twice before she finally says, “Well, you didn’t exactly mention untilwhen.”
“Until you form your new coven or government, or whatever you intend to call it, I’ll be at your side.”
“That might take a while.”
It certainly will, since I’ll be dragging out the process.I smile. It must be an alarming smile because the pulse at the base of her neck flutters her scar. Unless alarm isn’t the sentiment I’m coaxing from her…?
When her throat moves over a swallow and she licks her lips, I consider adopting my bird form to cool off, but not only would shifting inside the throne room spook Cruaih, it would also confound Daya, so I stay there, bulge in perfect relief. In truth, what point is there in trying to conceal the effect she has on me? It isn’t as though she’s unaware of my feelings toward her.
“Are your living quarters to your liking?” she asks, pulse still thundering beneath her honeyed skin. What I wouldn’t give to stroke it.
“Yes, though I doubt I’ll be spending much time in them.”
She blinks. “You’re thinking of living elsewhere?”
I tread right up to the back cushion upon which she’s pillowed her head, pinch the seam of my trousers to transfer it to the side, and crouch. “I didn’t only come back to advise you. I also returned to protect you.”
Her chest is lifting and falling with brisker breaths. Is it wrong of me to appreciate how I affect her? “I have blood-magic, Cathal.” Her hoarse voice tightens my balls some more. “So do Agrippina and Enzo.”
“Fallon mentioned it.”The first male with blood-magic. Though, admittedly, I was glad to hear it, it’d be a lie to say that it didn’t irk my already tender ego. The male was already so special to Zendaya. Did he really need an added advantage over me? “But the people who want the crown torn off your head also have blood-magic.” I flatten my palm over Cruaih’s fur. When the side of my pinkie grazes the side of Zendaya’s thumb, her breathing grows even more ragged.
“I’m immortal,” she murmurs.
“So are the people who want the crown torn off your head,” I repeat.
