27. Zendaya

Chapter 27

Zendaya

I refuse to be gone.

I crack my lids open. Amidst the ashen veil shines twin spots of pink. The spots become brighter, clearer, until I recognize Taytah's eyes.

She strokes my cheek, my neck. My starved brain wonders if it's a dream, but then I feel the faintest trickle of air carve through my scales. Priya doesn't caress; she paints. I'm not sure what sigil she's used, but delicious, sweet oxygen suddenly streaks through my gills and fills my giant body, which lies entirely flopped and coiled on the emerald embankment.

"Shift," my grandmother whispers.

This time, when I call upon my other form, my scales split and my body shrinks. My lips come apart around a gasp that is so violent, it scorches my lungs. And yet I lap at the air, drinking it in tremendous drafts until my head spins from my immoderation.

"Easy, emMoti. Easy." Priya is still drawing on my neck.

My skin tautens, tingles. She must be healing me. My lids bloat with tears.

A soft cloth swooshes over my neck and chest. I turn my head to find Fallon mopping down my skin. The whites of her eyes are as red as garnets, which makes her irises appear luminescent like the algae in the Sahklare. The thought of it makes me ache for my homeland.

She gives me a watery smile that trips right off her lips and murmurs that she's sorry. I imagine for my predicament, for she's not at fault. Could this be my mother's doing? Could she have broken out of her prison and gotten past Behati and the members of the Akwale who stayed behind to guard her and the Mahananda?

I croak out Meriam's name, which makes Fallon's eyebrows wing up. Didn't she consider that this could be my mother's doing?

"No, emMoti. It's not Meriam's fault. Not this time." Priya rinses her hands in a bowl that Abrax has just set beside her.

Though he straightens, my guard doesn't move away. His soft-brown eyes shimmer with the same concern that warps Asha's face, as well as Aoife's, Sybille's, and Phoebus's. I squint into the bright sun, searching for my mate amongst the Two-legs ringing me, but he isn't there. A few Crows are treading the sky above us. Could he be amongst them?

"Lore and Dádhi flew to Nebba," Fallon says, guessing who I seek. The deep furrow that grooves my forehead leads her to add, "To have a word with Eponine since the toxin that poisoned you is produced— was produced there."

Phoebus snorts, repeating, " Have a word ." Clearly, he doesn't believe our mates' plan is to speak.

I rub my aching neck as Fallon expounds on the subject of this toxin. She tells me that the reason I couldn't breathe is because the Regios filled the Isolacuorin canals with it to keep serpents out.

"I'm sure it's no longer being manufactured," she says, her gaze flitting to the queen, who keeps rinsing her hands even though they're no longer coated in my blood. "You don't think Eponine lied to me yesterday, do you, imTaytah?"

My grandmother finally looks up from the basin and its soiled contents. "If she did, she better prepare for war."

My pulse strikes my neck and the fingers I still have wrapped around it.

"Did she swear an oath that she was no longer producing it, or merely uttered a vapid promise?" my grandmother asks.

Fallon twists her lips. I'm guessing there was no oath swearing.

Sybille says something that includes her sister's name, and then she addresses Aoife. After a rapid exchange in Lucin, the shifter grows out her feathers and crouches. Phoebus helps Sybille climb, muttering something that makes her swipe the back of his blond head.

As she and Aoife take off, he chortles, then ambles back toward us. The second his gaze touches my neck, though, his mirth wanes, and he grimaces. A glance at my filthy frock has my own lips coiling.

Asha crouches beside me. "You didn't suffer when we swam yesterday, did you?"

I shake my head.

"Then the substance must be contained inside these canals."

"How long have they been poisoning the water?" The queen's lips barely flex as she speaks.

"I don't know, imTaytah, but Eponine mentioned—the first time we spoke about it—that at the rate they were dumping it, Mareluce would be salt-free by Yuletide."

The queen goes so quiet that I can hear the Glacins' murmuring even though they stand at a distance from our little party.

"But they've stopped dumping it for at least a month, so?—"

"You do not know that, child!" Priya exclaims. "You and Lore have been in Shabbe. You weren't here."

Fallon stands, her expression tightening. "We might not have been here , but our people were. Justus was! Luce wasn't unattended , imTaytah."

My pulse harshens as the two females I love the most glower at one another. "No fight. Please. I alive." With the help of Asha, I stand, shearing off Fallon's line of sight to her great-grandmother. "Please."

"Let's go." Priya winds her arm through mine. "And, Fallon, send news with the serpents as soon as you have some." Her tone is so brittle, it scrapes through the air and chafes my wet skin.

She begins to tug me along but I plant my bare feet into the grass. "Where going?"

"Back home."

"Wait, Taytah. Cathal."

She whirls on me. "We are not waiting on that man."

"But—"

She slashes a finger across my mouth, silencing me with a spell. "His home is inhospitable to you, Zendaya." In a lower voice, she adds, "That's twice now, by the way. I'm keeping count."

My eyebrows dip.

"Twice that you almost perished because you couldn't manage to shift back. Twice that he was present when it happened. Have you considered that perhaps, he's the reason your magic keeps faltering?"

I try to pry my lips apart to tell her that the two incidents are entirely unrelated, but she's sealed them like the toxin in the canal sealed my gills.

When we reach the golden quay where bobs our ship, I hear her murmur to the sorceress nearest her, "Lock Shabbe off until an antidote is found. Land and air. Make the wards porous to animals." Her eyes cut to mine. " True animals."

I suck in a breath and shake my head, desperately trying to shape the word, "No," but her blood stifles my scream. I crane my neck, hunting the sky for a Crow, but no winged beast soars over us.

I look over my shoulder for Fallon, but between the dense vegetation and the throng of Shabbins and foreign soldiers on our heels, I cannot spot her. I spot Abrax, though, just off to my right. I flick my gaze toward the sky repeatedly. If he grasps my imploration to send word to Cathal of the queen's intent, he doesn't act on it. Merely transfers his gaze to the ship I'm forced to board.

I understand that my grandmother is trying to shield me. I genuinely do, and I am grateful. What I don't understand is why she's so adamant to separate me from Cathal. She cannot actually believe that he's the source of what's befallen me, can she? I mean, yes, the first time I failed to shift back into skin, it was because of his obsidian-laced blood, but he didn't force me to ingest it.

By the time Priya removes her silencing spell, we're halfway back to the pink isle, sailing so briskly that my dress and hair have dried, unlike my anger. I seethe. Especially since my grandmother has bound my backside to the deck's bench to prevent me from diving into the ocean.

She carries a cup of water to my lips.

I turn my head, refusing her offering. "What about mate?"

"The Crow will be fine." I'm about to tell her that's not the mate I'm referring to, when she adds, "Especially since you've healed him."

She's rendered me speechless, and not with her blood this time.

"You seem surprised." She cants her head, drawing the cup down to her hip. "Not only am I the queen, but I'm also the Mahananda's confidant. I know everything that transpires within my walls, emMoti. Everything ."

I tilt my chin higher, narrowing my eyes. "Then you aware I choose heal him. He no force me."

"Yes. I'm aware. The same way I'm well aware that he and Lorcan are planning on using you to heal the others. Why do you think they sent us to Isolacuori ahead of them? To iron out the details of how best to go about it."

"Cathal never force me."

"If it had endangered your life, he wouldn't, but since it merely weakens you?—"

"No, Taytah." I shake my head with such vehemence that it jostles my long locks. "You wrong."

"Oh, Daya. You still have so much to learn about our world."

In that moment, I dislike my grandmother. I dislike how she belittles me and vilifies Cathal. How she dismissed Fallon. "Mahananda will be mad at you, Taytah."

"For keeping you away from your Crow lover? I doubt it since it has another mate in store for you."

Gaze fastened to the sky, I say, "A mate you keep me away from."

"Only until an antidote is found."

"He round-ears. If no find antidote soon, maybe he die."

Her pupils shrink as she stares toward the faraway Lucin shore. "If you're bound to meet, then you will meet. Be it next month or next year or next decade."

I blanch because I know what a decade is.

"Once a cure is found, I'll crumble the wards, but until then, I'll not risk your life or the serp…" Her voice dies out as clouds streak over the sun, smothering its light.

Not clouds.

Crows.