31. Zendaya

Chapter 31

Zendaya

S uns and moons rise and fall, and although Fallon keeps her promise of visiting, her father doesn't come once. She tells me that he's busy in Nebba, ferreting out every last stock of serpent poison. It's been five weeks. Either he truly is going door to door, or he's using his hunt as an excuse to avoid my door.

Thankfully, I've got a new Serpent and an insatiably curious Asha to keep me distracted. Upon our return to Shabbe, my female guard stole into the healer's library and borrowed a book about poisons. After reading it cover to cover, she suggested that Enzo and I start ingesting a minuscule amount of serpent toxin daily in order to build a natural resistance. I thought her idea was brilliant; my grandmother did not. She went so far as to threaten to dismiss Asha if my guard ever suggested harming her granddaughter again.

I reassured Asha that she would never be dismissed. And then, after explaining Asha's theory, I asked Fallon to procure us some serpent poison. Reluctantly, she had.

I now possess a palm-sized vial filled with shimmering lavender flakes. It seems incredible that something so innocuous-looking—pretty, even—could create so much damage. Once a day, after breakfast, since I still prefer to slumber during the hottest hours, I ingest a single flake. Always under either Asha's or my daughter's watch.

The first time, it had prickled my airway before settling on my lungs like a damp cloth. Fallon had paled and bloodied her finger, ready to flay my throat open like Taytah had done, except in human form, it wasn't my throat that ached, but my lungs.

I'd kept her trembling finger at bay, since I could still manage faint wheezes. By the time the sun dipped beneath the horizon, the pressure on my lungs had eased. My daughter said never again , but I did it again. And again. A week into my makeshift treatment, I even upped my dose to two flakes because one no longer affected my lungs. It seemed like the book Asha had read had been telling the truth: I was developing a resistance to the toxin.

Asha suggested starting Enzo on the same regimen, but hurting the sweet creature felt wicked. Yes …he was sweet. Unfortunately. How I'd wished he were awful.

Anyway, I'd told her that if I managed to swim in freshwater, we'd begin dosing him as well, but until we tested the result, I'd spare him the unpleasant side-effects. I was now at five flakes per day. I still couldn't shift inside my bathtub. When I suggested a trip to Isolacuori, my poor daughter turned as green as Enzo's hair, so I let it go.

For now.

I'd eventually need to test my immunity, but I wouldn't risk doing so without a Shabbin present, preferably my daughter, because she was of royal bloodline, so her magic was superior to Asha's.

What I wouldn't give to show the Fae back in Luce what I've become. Enzo's voice carries my mind off my contemplations and onto his sprawled form. He rests beside me on my patio sofa, absorbing the nascent rays of sunshine. How high the bumbler has risen.

I take his hand in mine and give it a squeeze. His fingers are long and bony, like the rest of him, in spite of all the rich food Asha feeds him. "Never call yourself a bumbler in my presence again, for it makes me angry, and the world does not want an angry Serpent unleashed upon them."

His black eyes roll up toward me, buffed with emotion. I don't think a day goes by when the boy doesn't get all in his feels , as Asha calls it. He has an incredibly big heart and strives to fit everyone he meets—be they legged or winged or finned—inside. Many times I've been tempted to urge him to seal it off, but who am I to give him advice about hearts when mine has been bleeding since the fateful day I made him?

"As soon as Taytah allows us to journey to Luce, we will show all those bullies."

"What will we show them?" Asha asks, plopping herself down beside Enzo and shoving a bowl of fried cheese puffs doused in date syrup onto his lap. "Cook made extra for his favorite Serpent." She waggles her eyebrows at me. "Sorry, Day."

Day . To think that nickname was born from Enzo's clumsy speech. Leaving out the last letter was easier on his human tongue, so I suggested he forgo it always. Over time, Asha adopted the new moniker.

Her teasing raises the corners of my lips, but the sight of not one but three Crows flying overhead have them plummeting. Enzo's hand tumbles from mine as I jump to my feet and rush across my chambers.

When I burst out my front door, I come to an abrupt halt. The Crows are already in skin and funneling into the Kasha. Cathal isn't amongst them. Smothering my disappointment, I cut across the courtyard, circumventing the still-resting Mahananda, and enter the Kasha.

When my grandmother sees me, she pats the divan next to hers. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, Lorcan?"

"I've come to ask for your aid, Priya. Seven more of my people have now been infected with obsidian."

As I sit cross-legged on the crimson velour, the queen says, "The Mahananda isn't ready. I would've sent word if it had been."

"They didn't come for the Mahananda, Taytah; they came for me."

Both Erwin and Lorcan blink, probably stunned by my diction that has become as fluid as the Serpent tongue Enzo and I have been teaching Asha and Fallon. Try as they might, our language is more hiss and clucks than syllables, which makes learning it a true feat. Even my grandmother's trying, and although she masters all languages, there are many sounds she's incapable of reproducing.

Sure enough, Lorcan says, "How well you speak now, Zendaya."

"All thanks to my tutors."

"Yes, I've heard. I've also heard you're teaching your tutors Serpent." He smiles. "It's been rather entertaining to hear Fallon practice."

I cannot help but bristle. "My language may be different than all the others in the realm, but it's not any less intricate."

Lorcan's pupils shrink. "I did not mean to slight you, Daya. I find it entertaining because my mate is desperately trying to transcribe the sounds into syllables in order to create not only an alphabet, but also a dictionary. She's gone through at least six trees worth of pressed pulp and forty pots of ink."

Oh. "So that's the reason her fingers are forever black?"

"Yes."

"When I asked her about the stains, she told me she's been penning a novel with Phoebus."

A grimace reshapes Lorcan's face. "Because she meant to surprise you with it. And now I've just ruined the surprise. Will you please act exceedingly shocked the day she gifts it to you?"

I rub my chest that's suddenly full of scattered heartbeats. "Of course." Oh, Fallon, you sweet girl. "So tell me who needs healing, and how long ago has it been since they were infected?"

"Liora," Erwin says, his big arm wrapped around a female Crow not much larger than his limb. Liora stands at half his height and appears to be half his age. "My mate," he adds.

I assume the match is recent. Though I'm glad for him, I cannot help the jealous twinge that seizes my wrecked heart. I will it away…will all thoughts of Cathal away.

"She was hit with an arrow yesterday when we were ambushed by that colony of jungle zealots," Erwin explains.

I'm not certain whom he means, but I suppose it doesn't matter. I stand and pad closer to the girl whose hair is the same color of cooked carrot as Erwin's. If he hadn't said mates, I would've assumed she was his daughter. "Where did they get you, Liora?"

She blinks up at Erwin who replies, "In her shoulder. Forgive my mate. She doesn't speak Shabbin, Princess."

"They got Erwin in the back of the knee," Lorcan adds, arms crossed in front of his armor.

Erwin's face snaps toward his king, and in Crow, he says something about how his injury isn't important, only Liora's and only because of the baby. Yes, I understand. Now that my oral Shabbin comprehension is impeccable, Fallon has started teaching me her paternal tongue. My grasp of it is rudimentary, but if spoken slowly, I understand. Unlike ordinary-serpent speak which I cannot figure out for the life of me.

My gaze skims the female's abdomen. "I'll perform the healing inside the Amkhuti so I can shift immediately afterward."

My grandmother hasn't spoken a word, but I don't need her to utter any to know what she is thinking: she doesn't approve. If she had, she'd have let me heal the first Crows that were harmed. She hasn't, and now they're all stone.

"Perhaps your mate can take care of both healings, Daya?" Lorcan suggests.

Although I've grown quite fond of Enzo, the word mate feels ill-suited. He's my Serpent, the same way the two striped warriors are Lorcan's Crows. Every day, I grow further convinced that our connection has nothing amorous about it, but the only way to prove this would be to make another Serpent, which would require taking a human life.

Though people die in Shabbe, it doesn't happen often, and by the time I hear of it, it's too late. I've come to the conclusion that the person must be on the brink of death for my magic to absorb into their blood. I've asked Taytah to find me a sickly volunteer. Though she promises she will, she's yet to deliver a dying body at my feet.

"I like Lorcan's suggestion. Enzo will heal them both. We have lodgings. You and your mate are welcome to stay in Shabbe while Enzo recovers between lickings."

Lickings? It's the first time I've heard anyone refer to my healing method as a licking. I'm not fond of the term, however fitting it is. "That won't be necessary, for I'll be healing Erwin today."

My argument with the queen makes the big redheaded Crow wince and his mate cower.

"It's either Enzo, or they both wait for the Mahananda to unseal and?—"

In Serpent, I hiss a single word. One I know she'll understand. "Stop." And then in Shabbin, I say, "My body. My tongue, Sumaca."

She scowls, detesting when I call her Your Highness , which is exactly why I do it. I do love the woman dearly, but she's stuck in her ways and often forgets that I'm not some dullard incapable of educated judgement.

"You slept for three nights in scales after you healed Cathal. Three nights!" As though she senses the reminder won't be enough to dissuade me— she's right —she traipses over and claps my forehead with her palms to pour the images of my listless form coiled at the bottom of the Amkhuti. "What if it takes you longer this time? What if you don't shift back?" Her tone is bright with worry.

"Ask the Mahananda. Actually, ask it how it will affect Enzo."

She huffs.

"Please, Taytah."

She twists her ring around her finger with another huff. I think she's about to object when her eyes whiten. A moment later, she mutters, "The Mahananda says you and Enzo won't perish."

I smile. "See." I gesture for Erwin and his mate to follow me, then call out to my shifter.

I'm right outside, Day.

Sure enough, he and Asha loiter beneath the honeysuckle-wrapped arbor. We've got Crows to heal.

Enzo trots after me, his linen robe flapping open around the skintight trunks he wears to swim. Crows need healing? I thought they were invulnerable.

Only my daughter. The others remain susceptible to obsidian.

He blinks. Though I've gotten used to the sight, I can't help but sometimes wish our eyes held a stroke of white and color. Granted our lurid hair does compensate for our reptilian orbs.

How do we heal them? he asks.

"What's happening?" Asha asks, falling into step beside us.

"Erwin and his mate have been infected with obsidian. I was just about to explain to Enzo how we will have to lave the wounds until the stone detritus oozes out. It'll smell horrid, Enzo, so it's best to do it in skin. Also, we'll need to shift immediately after. Lastly, it may make us unconscious for a few days."

Enzo nods. Anyone else may have questioned if it was a sound idea, or if we risked more than forced respite, but not my selfless shifter.

"We'll do it inside the Amkhuti." As we move down the path we take daily, I think of Cathal. I think of how I'd kneeled before him and licked his thigh. Of how his cock had hardened and leaked for me. Is it leaking for another?

The thought makes my ribs clench and my stomach fold in on itself like those paper serpents Asha folds while Enzo and I swim. She's crafted so many that Enzo has begun to thread them into garlands to decorate the walls of his chamber.

When we reach the Amkhuti, Enzo divests himself of his robe and dives in headfirst. I sometimes think the boy was already part-Serpent and that I simply activated that side of him.

He treads the water while I instruct Erwin and his mate to rid themselves of their clothes and armor before walking them through the process. Erwin translates it all for Liora. I commit each new word I hear to memory, trying to elucidate what it stands for.

Droplets splash my skin as our two patients dive into the moat. I'm about to duck beneath the surface to inspect the wounds when I catch sight of the Shabbin Queen standing beside Lorcan on the embankment's edge, deep in conversation with the male. I try to parse out what they're saying but their voices are too hushed.

I refocus on Erwin and his mate. After observing Liora's wound, I dive to get a look at Erwin's knee. It's swollen and black, which makes me wonder how he even manages to walk. When I surface, I ask Asha to magick some palm fronds into sturdy floats for the two Crows so they avoid unnecessary movement.

As she does so, I hear Erwin mutter to Liora something about Cathal staking them with obsidian if he catches wind of their visit.

I purse my lips, trying to stifle a retort, but it soars out regardless, "Just because Cathal doesn't care to see me doesn't give him a right to dictate who does care ."

Erwin's pale lashes flutter.

"Sorry for eavesdropping," I add.

Once he recovers from his shock, he licks his thin, pink lips and in Shabbin, he says, "What I meant was that he'd run us through with more obsidian for causing you harm. That's why Lorcan hasn't come to you for the others. Cathal has forbidden us from importuning you, and considering his mood since…since you left, we've tried to respect his wishes."

I stare at the redheaded Siorkahd member for a long moment, tempted to ask him for news about my former mate. Yes, Fallon reports on Cathal's Nebban dealings, but not on his private ones. I'm guessing she doesn't share those out of respect for all parties involved.

"If my mate hadn't been pregnant, and we weren't worried about how the curse will affect the baby, I wouldn't have come."

"I require no explanation, Erwin. Enzo and I are glad to help. And if this goes well, you can send the others."

His face scrunches up. "I'm afraid that won't be possible."

"Why not?"

"Because as you may have heard, the first three to be injured are blocks of obsidian, and the two others are days' away from the same fate." He shudders.

Just as Asha tosses in the fronds, I say, "I could come to them." Sure, I'd have to convince my grandmother to let me leave Shabbe, but it could be done. Plus, that way, I could visit Isolacuori. The more I turn over this plan, the more I grow determined to put it into action.

"Cathal would never allow it," Erwin says, as he hands one of the buoyant branches to his mate.

"Why would he need to be told?"

"He'd find out. The only reason he hasn't flocked over here is because he isn't aware that Liora and I were injured."

I roll my gaze toward the dawn-filled immensity, wishing he'd learn of it. Cathal might not want to see me, but I would very much like to lay eyes on him. If only to make sure he's well. "Ready?"

Erwin nods, reaching for his mate's hand. "Thank you for doing this. I owe you, Zendaya of Shabbe."

I suck in a breath when something stings my bicep. I pop my arm out of the water to find a glowing band circling my skin.

When I look back at Erwin, his expression holds no inkling of surprise. "It's the least I can do to show my gratitude."

I nod my thanks and sink. As I lap at his noxious blood to draw out the toxins, I decide exactly how I will use his bargain. Picturing the queen's fury distracts me from the Mahananda-awful task and makes time tick by faster. I see the infection clear and his skin draw close and then I see nothing but soothing darkness.