Behati glowers at the Crow King but doesn’t speak. Perhaps she senses that defending herself would only make her seem guilty.
Aza scoffs. “Our seer has never once deceived you, Ríhbiadh, for if she had, she’d have lost her gift.”
He grips his bent knee with one hand and the armrest of his chair with the other. “I’ve learned there’s always a first time for everything.”
The queen shoves back her chair so violently that the grind of its feet rivals Lorcan’s thunder. “You’re mated to my flesh and blood, yet dare question my intent?”
The sky flares with zigzags of lightning.
“Behati’s, actually,” Lorcan says with false calm.
My ribs clench as the monarchs keep glowering at one another, the rift between them widening. Unease lends every being in attendance glass-sharp edges that fray the tenuous relations between the shifters and the Shabbins. For several heartbeats, I feel as though I’m teetering on the brink of a war.
On what side of the battlefield would I end up? Beside the queen, or with the other creatures shaped by the Mahananda? But more importantly, did Behati deliberately betray Lorcan? Is that why I saw the queen stab Lorcan’s chest in her vision?
I yearn for Fallon and her father to return to restore the peace.
“How long will the Cauldron be out of sorts, Sumaca?” Erwin scrutinizes the trail of wine that’s yet to be sopped up by the attendants. It only strikes me then that most have scattered. Because of the tension, or did someone command them to leave?
The guards are still here, forming a loose circle around us. I catch Abrax’s stare, see his hand poised on the pommel of the sword belted at his waist, smell the fresh blood pooling off Asha’s fingertip. I’m not sure when she arrived, or why she’s on duty at the same time as Abrax, but her presence is comforting.
“Because you believe it will welcome you after the king questioned its keepers?” Priya shakes her head a great many times, dislodging strands from her intricate, braided updo. “Show yourselves out of my queendom.” And then she turns and hastens away.
My distress grows because I’ve never seen the queen rush anywhere. I almost go after her, but Malka is already out of her seat, fisting her long white gown to avoid tripping over it. Therest of the Akwale—save for Kanti and Behati—stand and glower at the Crows.
Kanti coils a lock of her straight black hair around her finger. “Must I still travel with them, Taytah?”
Behati disregards Kanti’s interrogation. “I saw snow fall on the obsidian bodies of your injured, Mórrgaht.”
“Because the Cauldron abandons us?” Imogen asks. “Or because it will stay sealed until the winter months?”
“I cannot tell.” Behati reaches for her cane, this one made of gold and embedded with pink rubies.
While I wonder what snow is, the black-skinned female Crow sighs. “So our injured have a month. Two, at best.”
“Kanti?” Behati stands, leaning heavily on her cane. Once her granddaughter has risen, she takes ahold of her arm. “Which one of you will fly my child out of Shabbe?”
The Crows exchange glances.
Finally, a pale-faced male with black eyes and no hair sighs. “I’ll take her.”
“Contain your excitement.” Kanti wrinkles her nose. “On second thought, I’ll sail there.”
“No. You’ll go with Naoise so he can help you get sorted and settled. And so he can introduce you to the Tarespagian governor,” Lorcan replies, just as Fallon and Cathal finally reappear.
“What’s going on?” The swim has wiped away every last fleck of black powder on her face.
On her father’s, too. Where her complexion is pink, Cathal’s is waxen.
“We were discussing travel arrangements for your cousin.” Lorcan nods to Cathal’s thigh. “Did it help?”
“The serpents wouldn’t approach.” Fallon’s shoulders are hunched, unlike Cathal’s that are as rigid as a pillar.
“So, only the Cauldron can heal us?” Reid’s grandmother murmurs, while Erwin says, “Ifit deems us worthy of being healed, Iona.”
My insides feel cold, as though I’ve gulped down one of those cubes of hardened water the attendants use to keep the fruit from spoiling.
“What if it doesn’t deem us worthy?” Iona murmurs. “Does that mean we’ve lost our immortality?”
