Alexei and Katya. Those are the names of my new Serpents. Where in skin they looked nothing alike, in scales, they are one and the same—aside from their proportions. Katya remains markedly slighter than her brother.
My heart brims with relief and admittedly, a little bit of awe as they acclimate to their new bodies in the loose fence Agrippina, Enzo, and I have woven around them with our own bodies. Their scales shimmer like their human eyes used to—a grass-green edged in cocoa-brown.
I suddenly wonder if the next generation of Serpents will have black scales or if they’ll inherit their parents’ coloring.
Almost ready to shift back?Cathal asks as his winged shadow drapes over the water.
When I changed forms, he’d hooked my robe around his torso like a sash and shifted, drawing circles with Erwin, detracting serpents from coming too close with shrill caws that resonated inside the ocean and sent any wanderers scuttling away.
I still can’t believe they would’ve murdered people.No one else is even a little bit alive?I ask my mate.
They’ve yet to find a single person with a pulse.
Not even a Faerie?
We’ve only come across half-bloods and humans. If there were any Faeries, they must’ve swam back to Luce.
I concentrate on my Serpents.How about we pursue this swim in the Amkhuti?
Alexei curls his tail into his body, then stretches it back out.How do we shift back, Your Highness?
Please, call me Daya. As for how to shift back, you must visualize your human form.
You know what just struck me?Agrippina asks.Deia in Lucin meansGoddess. It’s not spelled the same, mind you, but still…I think it’s the perfect moniker. Mare Deia—Goddess of the Sea.
Agrippina, the children.I nod toward the two dappled Serpents.Let’s give them our full attention.
Katya morphs almost instantly, but then she starts flailing her arms and sinking.
I think it’s because her tattered wool dress is weighing her down, but then Alexei yells,She doesn’t know how to swim!
I snatch her with my tail and propel her to the surface, passing her over to Cathal who carries her back to safety.Head to the beach before shifting, Alexei.
Once we’re all back in skin, sister and brother embrace and whisper animatedly in Glacin, before twirling toward me and sketching reverential bows.
“There will be none of that,”I tell them out loud, in Serpent.
Their eyes round. Either they’re surprised to realize that our mind-tongue can be spoken out loud or they’re surprised that they’re fluent in it.
Aoife flies both children back to the Vahti where Asha welcomes them with open arms and a breakfast table laden with delicacies. I’ve realized that Asha is a nurturer and that her love language is food. That’s how she won over Enzo’s heart, or rather, stomach. Though I consider her my friend, he considers her the mother he never had. I wish he’d consider me that way, as well. Perhaps if I plied him with bowls of fried dough…
The children eat very little, picking at the heaps Asha has ladled onto their plates. Though they promise the food is tasty and express their gratitude multiple times in Serpent—a language Asha understands rather well thanks to Fallon’s dictionary—she side-eyes their clavicles like the salient bones are personally affronting her.
“Their stomachs have probably shrunken from years of stinted rations,” Agrippina explains. “It was the same in Luce. I used to smuggle bags of grain to Rax, and they would last certain families months, whereas those same bags would be used up in mere days in the Fae lands.”
Ceres, who’s joined us at the breakfast table, side-eyes her daughter. “You smuggled food to Racocci?”
She pats her mother’s hand. “Pappa’s secrets are a little more shocking, wouldn’t you agree?”
Ceres squeezes her lips. I imagine that, yes, she does agree, though I also imagine she’s not done discussing her daughter’s parallel life.
“Can you show Katya and Alexei to a room and find them some clothes to wear, Asha?” I ask in Serpent, so that my words aren’t lost on the twins. “And organize a fitting with the seamstress after they’ve rested.”
Their eyes widen.
“Tomorrow, we begin swimming lessons.” Before they can assume these lessons will be taught in scales, I add, “In skin.”
Color leaches from their sunburnt cheeks.
