That must be the reason for Zendaya’s whimper: because she recognizes his bracelets’ provenance. I want to rip them off his arms.
“Can you fly her back to our ship, Cathal?” Asha asks, not bothering to answer the Glacin King.
I will fly her out of Filiaserpens, but not onto any vessel. I cannot risk her jumping into the ocean again. I don’t think my heart or lungs could take another fevered swim.
“Príona, get on my back and hold on to my neck,” I whisper into her ear.
Once she does, I allow my body to swell. With a snap of my wings, I soar off the ocean’s surface and past the gawping crowd.
Lore, please tell my daughter that I’m sorry for leaving.
Is everything all right?
It is now. Oh, and inform Priya that I’m bringing Daya home.
Which home?
Mine.
He snorts.Cannot wait for that conversation.
Daya is my mate.
Lorcan’s silent, but it’s a wrought silence. One that feels loaded with warnings not to get reattached. It’s too late for that. Our minds may no longer be linked, but Zendaya’s become the axis along which spins my entire world.
The metallic tinge of fear that washed over me when I realized the pink serpent was Daya… When her head vanished beneath the surface… When…
I beat my wings, hastening to outrun my fear, but it adheres to me like the woman on my back. When I feel her cheek press into my nape and her body relax against mine, my nerves stop crackling. Which isn’t to say I calm—because I don’t. As we crestover swamp, forest, and hill, tension bites at my marrow and nips at my muscles.
It’s only once I swoop through the northern hatch of the Sky Kingdom hours later that a sense of ease washes through me. My journey down the hallway is slow and steady, my transformation, on the other hand, is short and abrupt. The second I am flesh, I whirl and snatch Zendaya’s body before her feet can even graze the ground.
I thought she was sleeping but find her lashes lifted. I carry her over the threshold. I should probably set her down, but since she doesn’t ask this of me yet, I transport her all the way to my bed. My relief winks out of existence when I notice the black stain on her dress. I crouch and grow out my talons to shred the dried fabric and get a clear picture of what I’m contending with. My gums ache when I spot a deep cut on her upper thigh.
If only I could lick her wound clo— I raise my hand to her mouth, hoping that the Sky Kingdom’s walls won’t block her healing ability. After all, it doesn’t block Shabbin crystals. “Spit.”
“What?”
“So you can heal yourself with that extraordinary saliva,mo Sífair.”
Her cheeks pinken. I hope it’s because of my new nickname, and not because she’s embarrassed to spit.
“My tongue heal, Cathal. Not water in mouth.”
“Let’s try it anyway.”
As she props herself up onto one forearm, her cheeks hollow and she spits. I carefully drip the transparent salve into her cut.
I wait with bated breath for the skin to seal, but Zendaya’s saliva merely pools in the wound before dribbling out, carrying along a streak of her black blood.
“I tell you. Tongue. And I no can reach in this form.” She sticks out her tongue and hinges at the waist to demonstrate.
“But in your serpent form you could…”
“Yes.”
“Do you need water to shift?”
She shrugs. “I need ocean, I think. I no turn Serpent in bath.” She must sense my reticence to carry her back out of the castle and into the sea, because she grazes my cheek. “No hurt. I heal fast.”
