29. Zendaya

Chapter 29

Zendaya

I think for certain that the boy's dead the moment his body splashes the water.

I think the long piece of wood tipped in sharp metal that protrudes from his chest must've ended his mortal existence, but then his fingers spasm around the stalk and bubbles leak from his flaring nostrils. There's still life in him!

He tugs on the rusted spear. Though the thing moves, it's so long that he remains skewered upon it. His green eyes find mine in the dark, wide with desperation. I bite the wood and pull until I've disconnected it from his abdomen. He gasps, but the sound is consumed by the churning of water above as the fishing vessel clips away at great speed.

My blood boils with the desire to avenge the boy who threw himself in front of a spear destined for me. Though the glimpse I got of the murderer was distorted by water, I heard him speak and glimpsed yellow hair bound in a short tail.

I'll hunt the monster and make him pay, but first…first, I lap at his victim's gaping wound, hoping that my tongue will have the power to seal his flesh. The human's hand falls against my cheek and strokes, before drifting away. When his body gives a hard jerk, I glance at his face. His skin is as white as the moon gilding his listless body.

It's only then that I recall that humans can't breathe underwater. An idiot, Zendaya. That is what you are. How could you forget such an important fact about humans?

I coil around him and lug his limp form to the surface. His chest doesn't move. Neither do his lips. Both remain motionless, unlike my heart, which slams against every one of my bones, dumping adrenaline into my veins.

I tow the boy toward land, hoping that a Crow will spot my bright scales, snatch us both out, and carry us to the nearest town so a Lucin healer can succeed where I failed. Or Fallon! Perhaps my daughter knows a sigil that can drain his lungs and restart his heart?

I think of my grandmother as I swim. If anyone can resuscitate the male, it'll be her. But what if she turns saving his life into a bargain to trap me inside Shabbe without Cathal? Without Fallon? I can't risk calling upon her, so instead, I search the sky for my mate. For my daughter. For any Crow. When I catch the gleam of talons, I shift, loop my arm around the lifeless human, and yell.

A wavelet slaps me in the face before closing over my head and pressing me under. I kick my legs hard, reawakening the ache in my thigh. Something crashes over my head. I think it must be another wave, but it's a Crow. Its talons snag my dress and then it's lifting me. The fisherman's body is slipping, slipping.

"Wait!" I cry out. "The boy!"

My ride must call for reinforcement, because a second Crow swoops right underneath us and hovers until I've released the body of my protector onto its back. And then, skimming the surface of the ocean like a skipping stone, it takes off toward the beach and gently deposits the body there before morphing into skin—Fallon.

"Take me to Fallon," I yell, rolling my face toward the Crow's, recognizing him. "Please, Cathal."

Though I sense my mate wants to whisk me toward Monteluce, he indulges me. Six heartbeats later, I'm kneeling beside my daughter, who is inspecting the wan, lanky body. "I try heal him, but he drown."

Fallon frowns, pressing two fingers into his neck. "Well you revived him, Mádhi. He has a pulse."

I blink. "He do?"

She nods.

"Who is this man, Daya?" Cathal stands over us, a deep scowl marring his tenebrous face.

"He fisherman I follow to find Luce. He save me from yellow-hair human who try stab me."

Cathal's eyes skim the horizon, his attention locking on something in the distance. "Imogen, bring me the blond captain of that boat." He juts his chin. "Alive." As she flies off, he mutters, "Your grandmother's on her way. Unless you want to see me eviscerated, we should leave soon."

I glance toward the ocean, toward her red sails that are bloated even though there's not a single drop of wind.

"Don't you want to deal with the annos dòfain first, Dádhi?"

Cathal snorts. "Yes. But as soon as that's done, we leave. If…" His eyes go to mine. "If that is what you want, Daya?"

"Yes." My answer smooths all the fine lines crinkling his face.

"I'll wait here until imTaytah docks." Fallon straightens and dusts the sand off her sodden dress.

Black sand.

I swing my gaze back to the male lying on the beach, my chest tightening, my breaths shortening.

I palm his bony jaw, twisting it toward the moon.

The hooked nose. The wide lips set in a face that doesn't bear a single wrinkle. The cropped hair that is…that is…I can't tell its hue in such faint light.

He stirs. I release him so fast that his cheek smacks the sand. I rock back, then scuttle away. I think Cathal is calling my name but I can't hear him over my rushing pulse.

The boy's lids open, and I gasp because…because…

I lick my lips. How is this possible?

Cathal clasps my biceps and rights me before twirling me into his body, and then he scrapes his palms over my arms, ribs, cheeks.

"The Queen of Luce and her father are standing beside me. And…is that…holy castagnoli , that's the Princess of Shabbe." The unfamiliar voice must belong to the Serpent boy. "This must be the afterlife."

Fallon gasps, "Dádhi!"

Cathal tears his gaze off mine. I know the instant he sees what Fallon saw, what I saw, because his chest grows eerily still and his hands freeze on my body. I close my stinging eyes as Fallon asks the man a question in Lucin.

"Enzo, M-Maezza," he replies.

A tear slips down my cheek, chased by a second and a third.

"My head. My head!" At his howl, I pry my eyes open and spin. He's swiping at his black-smeared forehead.

Cathal stands rigidly at my back, his armor cold against my spine.

The fisherman grits his teeth, stifling another gritty howl before rubbing his forehead once more. This time, I realize it isn't sand—it's blood. And amidst the black, blooms an ivory dot.

Although my heart still thunders, I hear Fallon murmur, "I think Mádhi did more than heal him."

Cathal doesn't speak. I don't either.

The boy holds his hands in front of his face. "What is all this black goo?"

"Blood," I reply.

His lid-to-lid black eyes snap to my lid-to-lid black ones. " D-Dhoon ?"

I frown. "Yes. Blood."

His forehead furrows as he looks at Fallon and asks her something in Lucin that includes the word for blood in Shabbin.

"A Serpent…" he breathes. "I've transformed into a freaking almighty Serpent!" It is only then that I realize that his lips didn't move over any of those words.

He turns his awestruck expression toward me just as a wave froths around his body and completes his shift.