They remain ice sculptures until I decide to thaw them.
Even Crows?
Yes.
Ho. Ly. Skies.
His throat bobs.I can now protect you, Isla. I can now protect my people.
You could already do that.
“I can do it better,”he rasps, drawing my hands off my mouth.
“Do you also transform into a yeti, Lore?” my grandfather deadpans.
“Nota yeti,” Konstantin grumbles, which makes a startlingly wide grin flock to my grandfather’s mouth.
“Is your father about to laugh?” Elio whispers to Naeva from right behind me.
“I think he might be,” she murmurs. “I’m alarmed.”
“Don’t keep us hanging, Lore,” Bisnonno chides him. “What present didyoureceive?”
My father ambles atop the Cauldron’s now-impenetrable surface. “Crows were granted a new—as my mate calls them—party trick.”
When all he does is stare adoringly into my mother’s eyes, I snap, “My love for suspense is only equaled by your appreciation for snow, Dádhi.”
He grins…just fucking grins.
I’m about to hiss at him when Shoshair asks, “What did the Cauldron give us,mach?” It might very well be the first time I’ve ever heard her call himsonin public.
“We can now transform willing participants, or unwilling ones, I suppose—let’s just call themdeservingparticipants—into Crows.”
Gasps and low, awed murmurs surge from the many observers.
“How wondrous…” Shoshair’s chest dips, while her gaze takes on a faraway gleam.
Is she thinking about my grandfather, my mother, or about the lines of volunteers that will form once Dádhi’s new power is made public?Willthere be volunteers? I suppose Taytah did have a few. And then I wonder if my mate can make more Ice People?
The Cauldron didn’t tell me, butI’m guessing I will need to earn the gift of making others,Konstantin says.I imagine that our children will possess my power, though.
The Cauldron told you that we’ll be able to…to…?I lick my lips.
His palms, that are marvelously cool now, settle on the small of my back, atop a sprinkle of rhinestones.I’m no longerjusta Faerie and you were neverjusta Crow.
“How do we do it? How do we make others?” Jaytair is no longer grinning like a sprite with an unattended treasure hoard. “Tell me we don’t need to lick anyone…”
Agrippina rolls her onyx eyes. “We lick because our tongues have healing properties, Cathal. Not because we have a passion for lapping blood.” With a smirk and a toss of her long blue hair, she adds, “Well, most of us.”
“Who the fuck has a taste for blood?” my grandfather growls, seemingly primed to pitch that Serpent out of Taytah’s den and possibly into the Cauldron.
“Agrippina…” Taytah sighs, wresting a startled Cruaih out of Jaytair’s arms and setting her down. The feline scampers straight toward her second favorite person—Naeva. “Must youalwaysrile him up?”
Oh, the joy that seizes Agrippina’s face…
“So, how’s it done, Mórrgaht?” Imogen asks.
My father’s initial happiness declines. I only understand the reason for this when he says, “By mixing our bloods, once a person’s heart has stopped. Blood and heart must remain in the body, though.”
