“If you’re trying to widen the cut, Soorya, I’ve tried, but the skin doesn’t tear.” Cathal’s complexion is as pearlescent as the inside of an oyster shell. “Not even with obsidian.”
He’s used the dagger on himself asecondtime? How foolish is this male? I might not have been part of the Two-legged world for long, but it strikes me as absurd to employ the cause of the issue in the hopes that it’ll have an adverse effect.
The Shabbin healer swipes her thumb over a serrated link in her chain, then draws a line down the blackened skin with blood; it doesn’t penetrate. Tongue tucked in the corner of her mouth, she widens the gap in the leather sheathing his thigh and paints a noose around the black veins.
“The blood’s not penetrating,” Fallon murmurs, coming to stand beside me. “Put some on his wound.”
He hisses as Soorya presses her cut to his, which makes my teeth grind and my feet itch to squeeze in between them.
Soorya studies the circle of blood. “The blackness hasn’t receded.”
“Maybe it takes time?” Fallon proposes.
We wait, and wait. It feels like an entire day has come and gone before anyone speaks again.
“Perhapsyourblood will work on him, Your Majesty?” Lazarus suggests.
Fallon grabs a napkin from the table, saturates it with water, then wipes down her father’s skin. And then she pricks her finger on her neck ornament and circles the wound. Her blood, like Soorya’s, sits atop Cathal’s skin like wet sand. Mouth twisted, she touches his cut. Another hiss drops from his mouth.
She cranes her neck, tipping her face toward his. Though I can only see the back of her head, I’ve no trouble picturing how tormented she must feel. My abdomen hardens until it’s become as tight as the fingers I’ve balled at my sides, fingers that grow infinitesimally tighter when Soorya glances over her shoulder at Priya. Although they don’t exchange words, the apprehension sizzling between the two females bites my spine like an icy current.
“A trip to the Sahklare it’ll be,” Kanti chirrups, as though alluding to an exciting jaunt instead of a last resort.
“Can you fly, Dádhi?” Fallon asks.
“I’m not infirm,” he grumbles. “Besides, it’s my leg. My wings are fine.”
I think of the Crow from the vision the queen showed me before Fallon went inside the Mahananda—the one with the arrow protruding from its wing. Canitstill fly?
As father and daughter shift, I take a step toward them, desirous to accompany them in case…in case my fellow serpents prove unkind or uncooperative.
“No, emMoti,” the queen’s voice is low but resonant.
I’m about to beg her to allow me to join them when a gust of air streaks across my cheek and kicks up the ends of my hair. By the time I’ve spun back, Fallon and Cathal have departed.
Without me.
I grind the ivory inside my mouth, wishing I had wings instead of fins.
“Good evening, Zendaya.” The mammoth Faerie, who accompanied Soorya, is staring down at me with a kindly smile.
Although it doesn’t completely blow away my annoyance, it does appease it.
“I hear you’ve mastered shifting from beast to human.”
I tilt my head, unsure how to answer since it isn’t a question.
His amber gaze roams over my face, lingering on my retracted tusk. “A serpent shifter.” He shakes his head, still smiling. “In my long years, I’ve never seen anything quite as surprising as you. The Cauldron’s magic is truly astounding.” He speaks of the Mahananda with stars in his eyes.
It may have split my scales, but it doesn’t only produce miracles. Though, admittedly, if the serpents manage to heal Cathal, I may admire it once more.
“I’m curious.” Lazarus tucks a long, silver strand behind his pointed ear that shines with a dozen golden hoops embellished with Shabbin crystals. “Can you communicate with them?” At my frown, he adds, “The serpents.”
A slender hand winds through mine. I know it’s Priya’s before I even spot the blood-coated ring gracing her index finger. She says something to Lazarus in his tongue before switching to Shabbin. “Will you be returning to Luce with Lorcan and Fallon, Lazarus?”
“I was hoping you’d allow me to stay in Shabbe, Sumaca. I do not have anyone to return to in Luce.”
“Ah, yes. Forgive me for forgetting about your loss. You’re welcome to stay for as long as you wish. I hear you and Soorya are getting along swimmingly.”
