Chapter 28
Cathal
Zendaya’s beautiful face tilts toward the sky. Toward me.
The anger, which had rushed over me when Fallon’s voice resonated through our people’s mind link, crackles through my bones, making my wings feel crafted from pure iron.
I will not lose her again.
The Shabbin Queen stares up as well, her white hair snapping behind her like those flags which are brandished when one surrenders. Except, in Priya’s case, she’s just declared war. As her sorceresses bloody the deck with sigils, I dive toward Daya. My claws knock against something solid…something that repels me. Priya’s warded the ship!
I screech with a fury that must skip over the ocean because Lorcan’s voice lights up my mind.
Cathal?
I dive again. Again, I hit a translucent wall. I roar.
I will speak with Priya. I will get her to see reason. Come home.
Not without Daya,I growl.
He must understand it’s nonnegotiable because he doesn’t reiterate his command to turn back.
Fallon, can you penetrate your grandmother’s wards?I ask without tearing my gaze off the ship and the pink-haired woman whose hands lay flat against the bench beneath her. Is she trying to stand or keep her body steady?
Can’t get past them, Dádhi,Fallon says.
Then we sink the ship!Since everyone aboard is Shabbin, they’ll manage to swim.Lore, we need a storm.
Daya wriggles on the bench. Though I cannot hear her, I see her mouth round around shouts. Sheistrying to get up! Sheistrying to get to me!
What I wouldn’t do for you, brother,Lore murmurs as a thunderous peal resonates through the darkening sky.
Those sigils they painted are for speed!Fallon exclaims.
Sure enough, the boat is surging toward the ramparts at impossible velocity, one that even I, however fast I beat my wings, cannot match.Waves, Lore! We need waves,I yell.
I’m hoping that if salt water connects with Zendaya’s skin, she’ll be able to shift and rid herself of whatever spell her grandmother cast to keep her from diving overboard.
Even though our king’s still in Nebba with Justus, he manages to stir the ocean into a frenzy. Foam webs the ashen-sapphire swells, sending Priya’s small ship rocking, and everyone—save for Zendaya—skidding across the deck.
On a scale of one to ten, how high are the chances that the Cauldron will seal itself off from our people?Fallon asks.
This fight is between your great-grandmother and me. It has nothing to do with the Cauldron.
In other words, we may have a chance it’ll allow Lore to dip a toe in once it recovers?
I cannot think of this now, though as Lorcan’s general, I should. I pledged to put our people first, but I cannot think of our people. Not when my mate is being stolen from me.
As I soar faster, the sky flares with lighting that catches on her forehead. Though she’s still in flesh, her tusk is lengthening, and her skin, coloring. A wave claps the hull of the boat and closes over the deck. When it recedes, my mate is fully shifted and slithering away from the blasted bench.
Abrax throws himself on her. Asha, as well, but however hard they clasp her, her slick body glides out of their arms and plunges past the railing into the ocean. Her grandmother shrieks. Asha jumps in after Daya.
Lore, Daya broke free,I tell him as my fellow Crows catch up to me.Stop the storm so I can track her.
A handful of minutes later, my friend clears the sky and settles the ocean. Priya’s boat has stopped barreling toward Shabbe and is turning at such a sharp angle that its mast brushes the flat surf.
A moment later, Asha’s head pops out. “I don’t see her, Sumaca!”
