I bite my curling lip.So predictable, Dádhi.
“If the Cauldron had found him unworthy, Lore, it wouldn’t have filled the talisman with magic.”
While my father scoffs, not even bothering to mask his disdain for the thief of my mother’s Crow magic, one-track minded me asks, “Do we know where and when I murder the undead sister?”
“In Glace.” My father’s cheeks hollow as his gaze drifts toward the skylight. “During winter.”
“Thiswinter?” I ask.
“You know prophecies aren’t blueprints,khráach. All we know is that it would come to pass once you reached adulthood.”
“Which I have.”
“Presumably.” Dádhi adds a wink, and though I grumble, “Low blow,” I’m glad for the levity it injects into the atmosphere.
“Speaking of prophecies, tell us more about Behati’s mate one,” he says.
With a sigh, I summarize it for them. “She said that if I didn’t go to Glace tonight and cross paths with him, he’d perish.”
One of my father’s black eyebrows wings up. “And you believed her,why?”
“Her eyes went white.” I shrug.
“Perhaps it was a new vision?” my mother suggests. “Perhaps Isla trulydoesmeet her mate tonight.”
When my father’s eyebrows snap into alignment, Mádhi not only laughs but also stands from the tufted bench and walks over to him, forcing his legs apart to slot herself between them. “My love, Isla was never ours to keep for always.”
He harrumphs, clearly unwilling to accept that having me didn’t come with exclusive ownership rights.
“I’d love a sibling,” I call out as I stand and head toward the door, imagining Naeva must be pacing like a cagedtendu, having expected me quite some time ago. “Perhaps now’s the time? I wouldn’t want the two of you to grow bored if there’s any truth to Behati’s prophecy.”
After murmuring that growing bored with my mother would be a feat, Dádhi asks, “Where are you off to?”
My mother turns in the snare of his arms, a smile still tickling her cheeks.
“Naev’s room. She mentioned Asha packed her several extra dresses, and that?—”
“She mentioned?” my father bites out. “Naevaknewyou were coming?”
I spear my fingers through my hair, which my impromptu spa session has left a frizzy disaster. “I told Lach when I was on my way. This trip wasn’t premediated.”
“The sky was black…” my mother muses, reminding my father that this isn’t the trip where I get Glacin blood on my hands.
Khráach, don’t tell Naeva or Lachlano oranyoneabout the prophecy. Not until I understand whether Konstantin suspects his sister is alive or is fully oblivious, all right?
I nod.
“Let her go now.” Mádhi kisses the corner of my father’s tense mouth. “Naev’s room is two doors’ down from ours, laenath. Right beside the portrait of…”
I turn the knob. “The dead sister.”
“Do I keep a portrait of Costa Regio in my home?” I hear my father gripe just as I shut the door behind me and start down the hallway.
“Isla?” My maternal grandmother’s voice has me looking away from the broad skylights pelted by snowflakes that resemble down shaken out of a giant pillow.
I join her beside a door identical to the one I’ve just closed. “Hi, Taytah.”
Her lid-to-lid black eyes snap toward my parents’ suite before returning to me.
