Annalisa’s squeal tore my eyes away from Rosaline. She held up a golden pendant of the House of Thornebow emblem—a fox in an oval frame.
“Look, Sera!” She held the pendant flat on her palm and thrust it under my nose. ‘Annalisa Thornebow’ was engraved at the bottom of the oval. She dropped the pendant into my hand. “And he sent me a letter with it!”
She held up the fine parchment and proudly read: “Happy twenty-second birthday, precious. I wish I could be there with you, but wear our crest over your heart and know that you have my heart no matter where I am. F.W.A.B.Y.B.T.M.”
I furrowed my brows. “F.W.A…what? What nonsense is that?”
Annalisa rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed on. “An acronym for Grigory’s special phrase for us—‘fate will always bring you back to me.’”
She pressed the parchment against her heart and squealed. She lovingly placed the note on the table and spun around, holding her curls on top of her head to expose her neck. “Put it on me! Put it on me!”
The pendant was surprisingly heavy, but I wrapped the chain around her neck and opened the clasp. I glanced back to the couch, but Merri and Rosaline had silently left the room.
As soon as my fingers left the back of her neck, Annalisa ran toward her dressing table and sat in front of the mirror to admire her new gift.
I smiled. Riyan had told me Grigory used to be a heel with women, but as the new Madame Thornebow looked at her reflection with stars in her eyes, I was sure he had changed his ways.
A flash of black flew in the open window. Annalisa screamed and whipped around.
A raven with another roll of parchment on its leg stood on the windowsill.
Shit, I had forgotten to explain the ravens to Annalisa.
I ran up to the raven. “What are you doing here?”
Annalisa got up from her dressing table chair. “Are you talking to that thing?”
It was all too much to explain. I had never mentioned my brothers around Annalisa, or even told her their names. “Yes. I…I grew up with a love of ravens.”
Not a lie.
I turned to the raven and dropped my voice to a whisper. “You could have come when I was alone, Endre!”
The bird growled. Wrong—I was definitely speaking to Erik.
“Do not get that tone with me,” I whispered. “I cannot tell you two apart!”
Annalisa stood next to me, looking between Erik and I. “This is by far the strangest thing you have ever done, Sera. The bird has a name?”
I sighed and gestured to my brother. “This is Erik. I know another raven named Endre and even though they look identical, they get testy when you mix them up.”
Annalisa scoffed and looked down at Erik. “I understand, I have a twin brother.”
She walked over to her easel in the corner, which she never tidied. She picked up a brush out of her jar of dirty oil and a small pot of pink paint. She quickly dried the brush on the side of her nightgown and dipped it into the paint.
She walked over to Erik. “Mama did this to me when I was a baby. Derrick and I looked indistinguishable as bald little infants when we had gowns on, so she put a drop of paint on my head.”
Erik hopped away from the incoming brush.
“Hold still!” Annalisa commanded. “If you cooperate, I will share my breakfast.”
Erik stood still as Annalisa painted the top of his beak pink. I could not believe my eyes, but seven years of being an animal must have made him never refuse the opportunity for food.
Annalisa returned her paint supplies to her art corner and then sat down on her couch in front of the breakfast tray. She patted the armrest to her left and Erik flapped over and perched on it.
Annalisa held a grape between her fingers and extended her arm toward Erik. He snatched the grape with his beak and Annalisa flinched. “You greedy thing!”
I smiled, picturing tall and stoic Erik in human form taking a grape out of Annalisa’s hand. I walked over to Erik as he ate and untied the parchment from his leg while Annalisa poured herself a cup of tea.
