I amsoexcited! Is it a boy? A girl?
My father shakes his head. Although his beak cannot curve, I sense his smile through the bond connecting us.We’ve decided not to find out this time. Hopefully, no prophecy will spoil the reveal.
The mention of the divinatory spoiler uproots my excitement.Here I was genuinely worried she was angry about the betrothal deception.
His wing tip brushes my cheek.She’s the opposite of angry, Isla. She thinks it’s brave of you to stay in Glace—in spite of the fact that it’s unnecessary at the moment…Oh, the side-eye I receive.
I know you want me to go home, but now that we know who I kill, I want to help find her. And her father.
You’ll find the father in the castle morgue.
He’s dead? Does Konstantin know?
According to Vance and Imogen, yes to both.
Hurt. That is the sentiment my father’s news provokes within me. Konstantin and I are supposed to be a team.What about Mestyla?
She’s truly missing. Caught any interesting chatter off the sigils you and Naeva have been painting around Voshna and the capital?Is he asking to reorient the conversation, or to remind me that I, too, keep secrets from Konstantin?
Aren’t you well informed?I grumble as we swoop over a plaza cloaked in snow and hemmed in with stone dwellings swathed in eternal frost roses—Konstantina Roses. They’re the only variety that can strive in this ice-bitten land.
According to Izolda, my fount of knowledge on all things Glacin, Vladimir had this floral genus bred in one of the Glacin greenhouses in homage to his late wife. He’d never grown any for his second wife, but she and Ilya were working on having a variety made for their mother’s upcoming one-hundred and fiftieth birthday. To think Milana was younger than her stepson…
With a sigh, I say,Only what we already know. That they hate our kind. Konstantin thinks only the poor are antimorphs, but the rich really aren’t fans of us either.
Dádhi twirls over the square, which should really be called an octagon considering it’s shaped like my ring. Which I recently learned isn’t a coincidence, since Konstantina grew up in one of the manors below.
Come back to Luce with me,he says.
Don’t tempt me…
Vance and Imogen will stay. They’ll help Konstantin find Mestyla and uncover who’s blowing up his train tracks.
You have hard evidence that these are premeditated attacks?
Yes. Colm and Fionn found a Zaslofsky-made bomb strapped to the rails. They managed to pull it off the tracks and toss it into a ravine before it detonated.
People are disgusting,I mutter right before dissolving into my shadows.
Although the courtyard is large enough for us to land in Crow form, Glacins get spooked when they see us plunge toward land.
“That did away with my appetite.”That, and Konstantin’s secret-keeping.
“Well, I’m starving,”he says as he weaves into his two-legged shape. “So, tell me about this fine establishment.”
I look up at the two-storied stone edifice that’s almost as grand as Zia Syb’s restaurant back in Isolacuori. “It has a superb view on the bay.”
“Naturally, the reason you chose it.” Could he sound anymore caustic?
“Naturally, not.” I wind my arm through my father’s and rest my cheek against his shoulder. “The owner—Mr. Morozov—didn’t attend the Jubilee. I thought that if he saw us eat like regular people, he’d realize we are regular people.”
“Are you saying I can’t use my talons as utensils?”
I laugh. “You’re terrible.”
A brazen smile kinks the corners of his lips.
As we start up a set of curved stone stairs, I ask, “If it’s a boy, do you think he’ll be able to bloodcast?”
