When another body thumps into mine, I shove it aside with a fury that burns hotter than my lungs.
The second Cathal’s wound seals, I ask him if he can shift.
Silence.
I swirl around to find his lids closed, his neck curved, his mouth parted. He’s lost consciousness. He needs air. I snatch him around the waist and kick, my dress tangling with my feet and slowing me down but not stopping me.
What does stop me is the sight of long white hair slithering around an apathetic body. I gape at Behati. How come she’s still down here with me? Shouldn’t she be up there with the rest of her vile coven?
Of course.It mustn’t be her. It must be some unsuspecting soul magicked to look like her.
Aodhan…
It must be Aodhan!
My anger weighs so heavily on my soul that, again, I sink, our bodies wedging through a cloud of stiff silver fish. But then, I recycle this anger, converting it to adrenaline. I bend my knees and undulate my legs as though I’d grown out my Serpent tail.
Bend. Flick. Bend. Flick.
Through the throng of silver scales, I spy the surface, and beyond it, a sky veined with lighting. I pray the storm is Lorcan-made, because I don’t think I can fight a blood-magic war on my own.
One more kick and Cathal will be able to breathe.
Bang!
My sight goes momentarily black. My ears ring. And my skull…it thuds.
Keeping one arm locked around Cathal, I reach up with the other. My trembling fingers meet what feels like smooth glass.
The fucking sorceresses warded the Amkhuti!
They’ve locked us in!
Chapter 69
Zendaya
Amidst the slow bend of my pink hair puffs inky black. It settles between my upturned face and the magical wall overlooking my queendom. My hammering heart holds still. Could it be a Crow? Could Cathal have managed to break into shadows?
I call to him.
Silence.
Another blot of ink lifts and glides along the warded surface. I comb my fingers through it, realizing it’s viscous like?—
I touch two fingers to the top of my head. They come away slick and black with my blood.
I expect it will wash away like Shabbin blood but it lingers.
My spine tingles as I carry my fingers to Cathal’s throat and draw stripes on either side. When the sky flares, the stripes are gone. Because my blood washed away, or because it penet?—
Daya?Cathal rears his head so fast that it knocks into my chin and clicks my teeth together.
I can bloodcast underwater.
I feel like weeping.
I feel like fighting.
