I knock my knees into Naeva’s and raise a brow. Her mouth thins.
“Will Enzo be joining us?” I ask, since the bench seat could easily accommodate one more.
“He’s waiting for his mate,” Antoni replies.
Just as we take off, Katya bustles up the stairs with her twin brother, Alexei. I wonder if being in Glace feels like a homecoming for the Serpent twins. After all, they grew up inthe land of ice and snow, only arriving in Shabbe when Taytah decided to expand her shifter clan twenty-five years ago.
Ilya drapes his arm on the back of our shared bench and sprawls, having no issue with making himself comfortable. He might not be king, but this is his home…and his sleigh.
“How do you feel about snow in July, Miss Ríhbiadh?” he asks.
I tilt my head and close my eyes. “It feels like a gift from the sky.” Feather-soft flakes nip at my lids, nose, and curved lips.
“Can we swap places?”
I hinge my neck and grin. “I’d accept, but I doubt my father, or your brother, would appreciate the trade.”
He joggles his head. “I suppose you’re right about Lorcan. Not to mention he’s a tad frightening.”
Ilya’s too polite to mention that Konstantin would surely feel the same about hosting a Crow—aside from Aodhan. Since the latter is his brother-in-law, though, I doubt he has much of a choice in his company. Not if he wants to keep Izolda around.
My mind whirs over a sudden realization: if Konstantin Korolisa closeted antimorph, will he toss his sibling and her mate out of Glace?
“I can’t decide who you take after.” Ilya tilts his head to the side. “If I squint, I see Lorcan; but if I don’t, I see Fallon.”
“Definitely my sister,” Naeva says, her shoulders rigid beneath the cashmere stole, whose burgundy hue matches her dress.
“And you…” He squints at Naeva as though it’ll help him match her features to her genitors’.
“I personally see a lot of Cathal in Naev,” I offer. “Especially in the personality department. Wouldn’t you agree, Antoni?”
Her nostrils flare with annoyance that I’ve asked for his opinion. One he ends up not giving anyway.
“Might want to hold on.” Ilya says, a second before the sleigh tilts upward, almost pitching me onto Naeva’s lap. “The hill can be quite steep.”
“So, this is summer in Glace?” I muse.
“Did you pack a lot of swimwear?”
With a smile, I tell Ilya that I didn’t pack. That I forgot.
“How does one forget?” he asks, seemingly amused and confused.
“When one decides to undertake a journey on a whim.”
He laughs before informing me that the Jubilee party is headed to Voshna in the morning, a city teeming with better wares than those in the capital. “I believe your uncle opened a boutique there recently. I hear his two-piece bathing costumes have become all the rage amongst the hot-spring lovers.”
“Phoeppa’s bikinis sold out in Luce as well,” I tell him.
“Phoeppa?”
“That’s what we call my uncle—a mix of Phoebus and Appa. Elio came up with it.” I grin. “According to my mother, Zia Syb was positively livid that her son had a name for Phoebus, especially since he’d yet to say ‘Mamma.’”
“She refused to speak to Phoeppa for days,” Naeva intones.
Ilya chuckles as the sleigh rights itself and comes to a standstill. “After you, Antoni.”
The blue-haired Serpent swings himself down, then waits, and not because he doesn’t know where we’re going, considering we’ve glided right underneath an overhanging roof supported by thick wooden beams. I think he’s debating whether to offer his assistance.
