“I’ll keep you safe, Daya.” I wait to feel magic cuff my bicep, but Lorcan doesn’t add the magical binding words. Cautious man. I’m about to ask him for one, when he leans over and murmurs, “It’s about Kanti.”
Chapter 59
Zendaya
The foliage in the Chayagali is so dense that it traps what little moonlight trickles from the crescent brightening the sky.
“What about Kanti?” I ask Lorcan the second he’s in skin.
“You know those listening sigils she drew in Tarespagian homes? She also painted some here. One of them, inside the Kasha. There could be more. If I were you, I’d have the entire castle swept for hidden ones.”
After balking, my jaw clinches.
“Anyway… Antoni came to me with something he’s overheard. Something which he wants to use as a bargaining chip. Something about my people’s curse. I cannot afford to give that male a bargain, Daya. I worry he’d use it to harm my people. I imagined Cathal would know, since he’s been assisting you, but he claims the Cauldron told you that there existed no remedy. I’m not sure who to trust. This is why I’ve brought you here—where no one can eavesdrop—to ask if the Cauldron has offered you a solution to aid my people, or if Antoni’s trying to fool me.”
Though I hear rustling nearby, I cannot seem to care. I loathed Kanti before, but now…now I want to pitch her into theMahananda and implore it to keep her there for putting my child in danger.
“There is a solution, isn’t there?” Lorcan is inspecting my face. Perceptive male that he is, he adds, “It involves Fallon, doesn’t it?”
“Please don’t ask me.”
“If there was a solution to keep your Serpents safe from that chemical that closes off your airway, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to know?”
“Not if it meant harming someone I love.” My heated murmur rids his complexion of color.
“Fallon is my mate. If the Cauldron’s solution harms her…”
“It does,” I say just as a growl sounds beside us.
Lorcan’s outline trembles. One of his crows must break away from the others because I suddenly hear a wet snap followed by a muted whine. And then the man is back in sharp focus. “Spare me from accepting Antoni’s bargain.”
“Then strike one with me. Right here. Right now.”
“Fine. Zendaya amMeriam, Queen of Shabbe, I?—”
“There’s a way to break our curse?” The feminine voice that rings out through the jungle is soon accompanied by the shape of a body.
Twobodies.
I should’ve known our flight out of the Vahti wouldn’t go unnoticed.
“Mádhi?”
I glower at Lorcan for having opened up a box that was safer left sealed.
“I’ve a right to know,” Fallon says, her boots crunching over the silty soil as she moves closer. “Especiallyif it concerns me.”
“You said there was no solution, Daya.” Cathal’s arms are crossed in front of his breastplate that gleams black like his eyes.
“Before you accuse me of keeping secrets from you, know that it was your idea that I strip the Mahananda’s words from your mind.”
“My idea?” Though I cannot make out his features in the obscurity, I picture him frowning. “Why would I ask you to mess with my mind?” His tone rolls with so much anger that I must be wrong about the frown.
“Because you were afraid Lorcan or Fallon would eventually steal itfromyour mind,” I say between barely separated teeth.
“If Antoni knows, others will, too, so please just tell us before he uses it to hurt me or Lore,” Fallon beseeches me.
I close my eyes. When another guttural growl resonates nearby, I almost turn and walk straight for the tendu so he could steal me away from the Crows. But I’d only be delaying the inevitable. “Your Crow magic, Fallon. That’s the Mahananda’s price. You’ll lose your ability to shapeshift, to fly, to communicate?—”
