I can’t. Not yet.
“What else did you fucking tell her, Behati?”
“Great Mahananda, you have no manners.”
“For fuck’s sake?—”
“The last thing I told her was that she didn’t have a dead sister. I don’t know why she’d even ask me that. Didyoutell her she had a sister?”
“Leave,” Cathal growls.
“Pardon me?” Behati wheezes.
“Please. Please leave us.”
The cushion beneath me shifts. “Zendaya, would you like me to stay? Because I will if you don’t want to be left alone with Cathal.”
I’ve neither enough air to breathe out an answer nor enough energy to shake my head.
“Zendaya?”
“She and Fallon are my only reasons for existing, so if you think I’m going to harm her, then?—”
“I do not stay because I fear you will harm her, Cathal. I stay because I worry you’ll take advantage of her.”
The silence that ensues is so terrible that it makes my lids snap up. Although Cathal’s hands are on my body, his incendiary gaze is on Behati.
“Planning on draining me of blood, Crow?”
“Leave,” he says. “If you ever imply that I might take advantage of Daya, so help me Mórrígan?—”
“Mara,” Behati snaps. “Not Mórrígan. And I’ll leave only if Zendaya wants me gone, otherwise?—”
“Go, Behati.” My voice is as thin as a sea fan. “I no want anyone get hurt.”
Cathal’s next breath is abrupt.
“I don’t fear him, Zendaya.” She tries to reach for my hand but retracts her fingers when she encounters smoke.
“Thank you for truth, Behati, but you go now. I deal with…mate.”
Her lips purse while Cathal’s part around a sigh. It’s almost as though the word has tugged at some thread keeping them stitched shut.
Behati stands, smoothing her robes. “Walk me to the door of your chambers?”
I look up, and then nod. My legs prickle as I stand. Cathal must sense it because his grip on my arms tightens.
“Alone,” Behati says.
“Is this some trick?” Cathal glares at my grandmother’s advisor.
My flesh and blood grandmother…
“No. We Shabbins don’t trick people. Unlike the Faeries. Unlike thenon-Shabbins.”
The accusation—unlike you—glimmers in the air between them. I suppose Cathal does merit this, for he did trick me, but didn’t they all in some way?
“It’s my only condition for leaving her here alone with you.”
