“What did Meriam know?” I hear Izolda enquire as I swarm toward him, half-flesh, half-shadow.
His silver eyes glint, casting tinsel over the soft line of his mouth. Is he smiling? Illogically, his placidity ticks me off further.
“Don’t leave us hanging,” Sofiya says. “Friends tell each other everything. What did your great-grandmother know?”
Their nosiness sloughs off a morsel of my moodiness. “That?—”
Konstantin cups the back of my head and slants his mouth over mine, snuffing out my reply and blanking my thoughts.
I link my arms around his neck and sink into our kiss. But then my mind revs right back up.You don’t want them to know that we’re mates?
I want the world to know.His lips move over mine in a devouring caress.I just felt like kissing you first, Little Witch.
57
KONSTANTIN
As we emerge into a valley, underneath a sky that flashes but no longer slings hail, Colm, Fionn, Isla, and Aodhan shift into their Crows. I start toward one of the males.
Isla’s voice halts me.Where are you going?
I can be flown now.
I know.Thus, my interrogation.
I was about to climb on a Crow. You know…to do that thing that I can now do.
Even though she’s in bird form, I sense her raise an eyebrow at my snark.Here I assumed you would enjoy riding me best, Mr. Korol. Sexual pun, intended.
What wit, Miss Ríhbiadh.I pivot and start back toward her.
She laughs. The sound of her joy is so beguiling that it makes me gaze up in wonder at the majestic beast. No, not beast…beauty. Isla is only beauty, even with talons and a beak that could rip me from one world and pitch me into another.
Are you certain I won’t be too heavy for your back?
Certain.She crouches and stretches out her wings.
I wince as my boots crush her feathers.
I swear it doesn’t hurt. In truth, it feels rather nice. Like a massage. I love massages, by the way.
My grimace transforms into a smile as I swing my leg over her back and knead the feathers at her neck.Noted.
Best grip them for now. If it gets too blustery, lean in and circle my neck with your arms. And to set your mind at ease, it won’t choke me.
To think I’d dreaded getting a mate and had prayed to the Gods not to give me one. How lucky I was that they hadn’t listened. Or rather, how lucky that my prayers reached themafterthey’d already sealed my fate.
To think she was mine at birth…
Even though I’m a tad irritated with Meriam for having concealed our bond, I’m also greatly relieved not to have crushed on a babe. Or however long it’s been since the Cauldron selected her for me.
Her wings lift and slam low.
My heart ascends in time with our bodies, scaling up the taut walls of my throat. I’m flying.
Flying.
As the ground grows farther away, and the summit of my mountains, nearer, my trepidation is replaced with a thrill that throttles my heart.
