“Shesavedher.” Cathal’s tone is so abrupt that it draws our daughter’s eyebrows low.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way, Dádhi.”
“Dádhi?” The pearl above Agrippina’s nose dips as she lowers her frown to my abdomen.
My jealousy dwindles, for she doesn’t remember the child my prior self nested inside her body for safekeeping.
“What the holy fucking Mahananda is going on here?”
Air funnels past my lips, because I’m almost certain her mouth didn’t move. Not to mention she used the Shabbin term for the source of all magic instead of the Lucin one.Agrippina, can you hear me?
Her eyebrows slant as she whisks her stare back my way.
I’m speaking inside your mind.
Her lids reel up so high that her lashes smack her browbone.How?Her word, though noiseless, detonates inside my skull.Did you draw a sigil on my forehead?
I can no longer bloodcast, the same way I can no longer understand Lucin. It’s a very long story that involves my demise and the Mahananda. I swear I’ll tell you everything, but first you need to understand something about yourself. You’re no longer…
Her body shimmers, expands, transforms.
Even though what she is no longer is evident, I finish my sentence anyway:A Faerie.
Chapter 38
Zendaya
The soldiers gasp and so does the crowd they’re keeping at bay with magic.
I stand. As I approach, her forked black tongue unspools from her mouth, and then she’s writhing, banging her tusk into the wall.
I kneel and seize her tusk.Shh,I whisper into her mind.You’re all right. I’m right here. Shh.
Her lids come up and down in rapid succession.What’s happening to me?
You shifted into a Serpent.
A Serpent?she screeches.
Though I shouldn’t smile, I do. “I’m sorry,” I murmur out loud. In Serpent, then in Shabbin, and then, in Lucin. I learned the word from Enzo who says it much too often.
Enzo, who isn’t my mate.
His hurt face brightens the backs of my lids, injecting my heart with pain. I call to him. When there’s only silence down our bond, I assume my voice mustn’t carry so far. How far does Lorcan’s mind link to his people carry?
Is this a spell?Agrippina asks.
No. Like I said, I can no longer bloodcast. My mother…she ended up killing me and transferring my soul into the womb of a serpent—a real one. I grew up as a serpent. Two lunar cycles ago, I was dipped inside the Mahananda and reborn a woman with the ability to shift.
Her slitted nostrils flare.How much Faerie wine did I ingest?
You aren’t inebriated, Agrippina.
Asleep. I must be asleep. This must be a nightmare.
My fingers tumble off the ivory and knock into my knees.Nightmare?Enzo had been so excited. How naïve I was to assume that becoming a Serpent would thrill everyone.
Who’s Enzo?
