My mate turns in my arms. For a moment, we hang there, suspended, our hearts and stares pressed against one another.
Can you shift?I finally ask him.
When he vanishes, another wave of relief dashes against me.
He knits back into flesh.They painted a fucking ward!
I nod.
He must catch sight of my bleeding skull because his livid gaze tapers there.Your head?—
Is fine.
It’s not fucking fine. It’s bleeding. You’re bleeding. I will fucking eviscerate?—
Voices ring out nearby.
Don’t let go of my hand.I dip my fingers into my blood and paint the invisibility sigil on Cathal’s brow, then sketch it on mine.
The voices grow louder. I pick out Kanti’s, Soorya’s, and Rosh’s.
I hear Kanti saying, “Did you really have to kill Antoni, Soorya?”
Their footfalls resonate against the ward as though they were traipsing over it. They are!
“Fallon likes the guy and so do you.” The Shabbin wearing my daughter’s face shrugs. “I felt that if Zendaya would try to heal anyone, it would be him.” She shrugs as she steps right over us.
“She probably would’ve if her little Crow hadn’t been so fucking suspicious,” beautiful, blonde Rosh adds. “Can you get rid of Fallon’s face, Soorya? It looks too much like the Naaga we banished.”
Cathal’s nails must be morphing into talons for I can feel their cool, hard shape digging into my skin—not hard enough to stab but hard enough to dent.I knew that wasn’t our daughter…
May our child be safe.
May she be with Lorcan.
Kanti stops walking. When her pink eyes lower toward me, I think that my invisibility sigil mustn’t have worked.
Can you see me?I murmur through the mind link.
No. Can you see me?
No.
Cathal’s body suddenly jostles mine.What the—is that Behati?
Aodhan,I say.
Aodhan?
I imagine the real Behati’s up there with them. I imagine they made him look like her.
Cathal’s quiet for an instant.He would’ve shifted when he fell if it had been him. Not to mention, he wouldn’t have gone along andactedlike Behati…
Unless he turned against us.
He may be arrogant but he’s still a Crow.
Andwhat? Your people cannot be traitors?
