Never as much as I’ll love you, my Serpent.
Chapter 61
Zendaya
Day, we have volunteers!Enzo’s voice jolts me awake.
The light that seeps beneath my curtains is watery and gray. I roll onto my back and stretch to realign the bones and muscles I strained making love to Cathal multiple times after we knotted. I smile at the memory, then twist to locate my mate but he doesn’t lie on the other side of the bed.
Day?Enzo says again.
I’m awake, Enzo.
Reid’s about to fly me and Agrippina up to the beach. Aoife’s waiting there with Asha. Come on!He sounds giddy, like someone about to go on some great adventure.
I toss the sheets off my legs and jump out of bed, calling out my mate’s name aloud. The only sound is the skitter of claws against stone. I must’ve awakened Cruaih. Sure enough, the tiny feline comes pouncing down my hallway, meowing as she wraps her body around my ankles.
I scoop her up and kiss the top of her head.Cathal?
I’m outside your door with Erwin, mo Sífair.
Unlike my Serpents’ voices, Cathal’s resonates not only in my mind but also in my blood. It tightens my abdomen and spurs my pulse. I wonder if it affects him the same way.Apparently, two volunteers have arrived.
I’ve heard. Get dressed. I’ll fly you up to the beach.
I forgo my usual dose of flakes—I’m at twelve now, and barely have any reaction—and dress in a bathing suit, then slip on a robe as pink as my hair and cinch it closed with a belt made of golden pearls. Enzo’s excitement must’ve rubbed off on me because, after replenishing Cruaih’s water bowl and making sure she has plenty of what Asha calls kibbles, I all but skip out of my bedchamber.
My excitement takes a slight nosedive at the tension wreathing my mate and Erwin. “What is it? Did something happen to Liora? To Lore?”
“No, Sumaca.” Erwin smiles and though it looks genuine, it’s not quite as bright as I’d like. “Everyone’s just fine. Even the injured.”
“Then why do the two of you look so fretful? Is it because volunteers finally showed up? Are you worried about me expanding my den?”
“Of course not.” Cathal shakes his head, winding his arm around my waist and pressing a kiss to my hairline, which is crown-free this morning, as it is most mornings.
Though I like my crown, it isn’t the most convenient accessory. “Must I keep making guesses or will one of you spit it out?”
“Erwin was saying that there have been other volunteers, but most of them have drowned before making it to Samurashabbe. They’ve been collecting floating bodies for days now.”
“Humans tried to swim across?”
“Most humans do not know how to swim.” Cathal slides his jaw from side to side, making it pop.
“Cathal, please. Just tell me everything,” I all but growl.
Their boats have been sinking.He gestures to Erwin. “Lore sent a few Crows to survey the waters to find the culprit. We assumed it might be the former members of the Akwale, but it’s not; it’s the serpents. They’ve ringed Shabbe and have been splitting every hull that tries to come through with their tusks.”
I gasp. “Serpents have only ever saved people. Since when have they become homicidal?”
“We believe it’s either some side-effect of that Nebban-made toxin,” he says. “Or some collective decision to keep foreigners out of Shabbe to stop its spread.”
I frown. “I thought it was no longer being manufactured and poured.”
“It’s not”—Erwin scrapes a hand through his orange hair—“but the waters around Eponine’s shores and around Isolacuori are still depleting themselves of salt and underwater life. No solution to counteract the toxin has been found yet, even though Arin believes we could try and combat it with clay.” The blood must leach from my cheeks because Erwin says, “We’re just about to start trying it, Sumaca.”
I mull all he says over. “The boats that were sunk…did they all originate from Nebba?”
“No. From all over the realm. The twins I collected from the surf and dropped off on your shore were sailing in from Glace. Mórrígan only knows how they managed to ford the Northern Sea on their bonafide raft, but where there’s a will, there’s a way, I suppose.”
