“You should be,” she mumbles while Enzo stares at my arm.
Present from Erwin?
I nod as Asha explains, “Once struck, you can call forth a bargain from anywhere in the realm, so even if you—let’s say—went to Luce to cure the others”—she slants me a look to tell me thatyes, she heard me discuss healing them with Erwin—“she could make it impossible for you to dart your tongue out and risk your life.”
Note to self, never strike a bargain with Taytah.“My life wasn’t in danger.”
“Perhaps not, but what of your health? What if this begins to chip away at your body and mind?” Her hands come apart so fast that her serpent-in-progress sails into the pearlescent moat. “Your convalescence took twice as long as last time, Day. Twice. That cannot possibly be a good sign.”
I pinch the miniature paper tusk, tuck it into the top of my bathing suit, then seize the rungs and climb. Asha’s gaze draws up and down my figure. “You’re wasting away.”
My stomach has become a little concave and the bones in my thighs do jut out. Even my breasts seem to have lost some of their bounce. “Nothing a few meals won’t fix. I’m rave…” I frown as my neck tingles from the weight of someone’s gaze. I twist around, coming nose to fabric with a robe that Enzo is holding out to me. When I don’t divest him of it, he takes my hand and guides it through the wide sleeve, then repeats the process with my other arm, before belting it around me with the care of a parent.
A twig snaps. I see nothing yetfeelsomething. Someone. A creature or a human?Both, my mind says.
“You owe me a new uniform, Day. I had to do a ton of stress-eating while I waited on the two of you.” Asha gets to her feet, tugging on the hem of her red tunic that creases around her ample bosom.
Enzo stutters that he thinks she’s never looked more beautiful, which makes a grin reshape her face.
My guard juts her chin toward me. “I’m mad at her. Not at you,abi.”
Again, my nape prickles. I squint over my shoulder but the slap of sandals against stone coupled with the sound of my name being trilled through the brightening air redirects my attention toward the palace path.
My grandmother’s eyes glisten like rubies as she closes in on me, casting her honeysuckle scent far and wide. I’m ready for a sermon but what I receive instead is a silent, bone-crushing hug and a susurrated, “Please don’t do this again, emMoti.”
Once she releases me, she moves to Enzo, frames his face and bends it toward hers. She murmurs a, “Thank you for stayingwith my child,” then kisses his retracted tusk, a habit she fell into almost naturally.
The queen asks for breakfast to be served immediately, then steals my arm and turns me. But not before I catch a shadow breaking away from a tree and streaking upward before solidifying into a Crow. If my grandmother notices the lurker, she doesn’t mention him or her. Probably Erwin or Imogen come to check whether the slumbering Serpent has risen. Although, wouldn’t Erwin come over and talk to me?
I think of the bargain he owes me and how best to go about collecting it. I realize I could ask him to bring me an almost-dead body, but what if the person doesn’t deserve a second chance at life? Also, Enzo should have a say.
As we walk toward the courtyard, Taytah fills me in on all the unrest in Luce and how the death toll is mounting. She says this with so little emotion that it feels as though the loss of life doesn’t disturb her all that much.
I stop walking. “That’s terrible, Taytah.”
“They had it coming.”
“The Crows were immobilized for five centuries. How exactly did they have it coming?”
“The Fae are the ones dying. They kept humans practically enslaved and treated half-bloods so poorly for so many centuries that it’s only natural revenge is being sought.” She lowers her voice to add, “Some of these attacks are done with the Crows’ consent.”
My eyebrows quirk because, although I don’t doubt the Crows are not fans of all Faeries, last I heard, Lorcan was trying to achieve peace. Encouraging upheavals seems counterintuitive. “And you hold this news from which source? Have you visited Luce while I slept?”
“Kanti arrived two days ago when news reached her of what you’d done and that you weren’t recovering.” She says thissternly, as though to impress upon me her discontent. “She was worried.”
My tail, she was worried.Kanti was probably on the first ship—or Crow—over to check on my vitals. Even when I could barely understand Shabbin, her desire to succeed Priya never eluded me.
Before my grandmother can catch my hostile thoughts, I take her arm and start walking. “Isn’t Justus Rossi a High Fae? Doesn’t the slaughter of pointy-eared people disturb him?”
“He works for Lorcan.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“That a general obeys his ruler, otherwise, they lose their position. Or their life. Fallon may consider Justus a grandfather, but he isn’t. If he doesn’t prove his allegiance to the Crows, his blood will color the canals of Tarecuori just like the former Regio supporters.” She pats my hand. “Order will come, but it will not come overnight. And yes, it will bear a high cost. Such is the fate of a divided empire.”
When we reach the dining table, it’s already laden with every dish imaginable, and set for many. In spite of our dismal conversation, my stomach rumbles. “Are we expecting others, Taytah?”
“Kanti will be joining us.” To a guard, she asks if she’s been awakened. The guard nods.
