43. Zendaya

Chapter 43

Zendaya

" H ow exactly are we going to go about this?" Justus murmurs as he leans in to kiss my cheek in customary Lucin fashion. "I don't even know where she's being kept."

I frown before remembering the circle inked on his palm. "You must use your connection to her."

As Cathal morphs, Justus leans toward my other cheek, bringing his mouth right up to my ear. "I've tried. I cannot feel her."

Except he mustn't have tried well enough, since the Mahananda instructed me to claim my bargain, and his was the only one I had.

We exchange a weighted look as he moves toward Agrippina.

Tell your father that you're so glad he came to check on you and walk to your bedchamber with him. Once you're out of earshot of the guards and behind closed doors, let me know. My eyes track up the corded length of Cathal's neck which snaps with heartbeat after heartbeat. Enzo, go with them.

Once they both retreat, albeit reluctantly, I ask Cathal in Crow, "You leave immediately or have time for drink?"

He crosses his arms. "It's seven in the morning." At my frown, he says, "I don't day-drink."

"I mean coffee. Or tea." I riffle through my mind for the word for juice in Crow, but it doesn't come so I say it in Shabbin.

"I'm not thirsty. Besides, I've a job to return to."

Annoyed, I don't even bother using Crow. "I'm sure Lorcan will understand if you took ten minutes off to visit with me."

He smiles, but it isn't good-natured. "Nah. He wouldn't understand," he replies in Crow. "We don't have time for idleness back in Luce."

My eyelid twitches at his underhanded insult. "And yet you had time to carry Justus over," I snipe back in Shabbin.

He answers in Crow: "Yes, which was very inconvenient, but my job's done and now I must fly back."

I pursue in my mother tongue: "Do I get to learn the reason you're acting so brusque with me?"

He dips his chin. "Well, let's just say that I've met someone."

My heart goes so still that I think he's scooped it out of my chest with his iron talons.

"Isn't it brilliant?" he asks, that false smile digging into his bristly cheeks.

No, it's not brilliant. It's the opposite of brilliant, actually. With a start, I realize this is the reason Fallon has been acting so odd each time I've asked after her father. Because she knew that he'd moved on and didn't dare tell me.

I rub the scar around my neck as though a new vine were choking me. "Is she Crow?" I ask, even though what I want to ask is: "Can you penetrate her mind?"

"I never aired out my private life before and have no intention to begin now." Smoke bleeds from his pores. "Anyway, I'm needed back in Luce, so"—he raises two fingers to his temple and flicks them in my direction—" alvee , Rajka ."

I don't know what his gesture means, or why he switches to Shabbin to say, "goodbye, Princess," the same way I don't know why I'm dwelling on either. Because it's taking my mind off the news that I've been replaced?

He springs upward. As I track his departure, my pulse grows mute. Glum, I dive into the Amkhuti and swim. I don't surface when Enzo tells me that my grandmother demanded they all join her for breakfast. I merely wallow in scales. When the sun is high, I finally climb out and traverse the gardens.

Are you back in your chamber, Agrippina?

Her voice immediately brightens my mind, but unfortunately, not my mood. Yes.

With Justus?

Yes.

I head there, my ribs cinched so tight around my lungs that by the time I reach her wing of the palace, I'm wheezing. Which of course leads Abrax to trot up to me and ask if I need him to call the healer.

I doubt a magical crystal exists to heal a broken heart, so I shake my head, and then, before crossing the threshold, I thank him for looking out for me. I'm about to tell him that I don't want to be disturbed when I think better of it. After all, nothing will kindle suspicion more than a command to stay away.

So I walk into my Serpents' quarters, as though I was here for a simple visit, and amble down the long common area roofed with a sky light as broad as the Kasha's. Unlike my wing, this one's made up of a dozen apartments that vary in size and configuration.

"You should go home, Abrax. You look worn out."

"I'm fine."

"Where's Asha?"

"Celebrating her mother's birthday. You're stuck with me today."

I raise a smile that I'm not feeling. "You don't have to shadow me everywhere."

"I'm sorry, but ever since you took off, your grandmother wants someone at your side at all times."

How inconvenient. With a sigh, I knuckle Agrippina's door. It's Ceres who draws it open. She greets me with a cautious nod. For some reason, I'd forgotten she'd stayed in Shabbe.

Agrippina and Justus both glance up from where they lounge in the small sitting area beside the window that gives onto the garden. Like Enzo's, her apartment overlooks this wing's private garden.

I start toward them but pause when I hear Abrax shuffle in behind me. I plant a fist on my hip. "Will you be following me to the privy, too?"

His jaw blazes. "No."

Going to be difficult to plot anything behind your grandmother's back if he hangs around, no? Maybe ask Enzo to create a distraction?

Good idea. Enzo, I need you to create a distraction that'll lead Abrax out of Agrippina's chambers.

I'm with your grandmother, distracting her. Tell the Blue One to pull her weight.

I might have smiled at his reply if I weren't so anxious. He's busy with the Queen.

Of course he is. Probably giving her yet another orgasm.

I blanch, then blurt out, "What?"

You didn't know? Why do you think she pays him so many visits?

You're having sexual relations with my grandmother? I ask Enzo.

Not that it's any of your business, but yes.

Except it is my business! He's my Serpent and she's my grandmother. I grimace at the thought of them laying together in the nude. How long has this been going on?

After I kissed you. And it wasn't premeditated. It just…happened. She doesn't want you knowing, so please pretend like you're unaware.

My jaw trembles from how hard I clench it. I've no right to feel angry but I do. I feel duped. I feel like I should've been told. Don't hide things from me, Enzo.

Concentrate on finding Meriam, will you?

I want to ask him if he likes her or if he took her into his bed out of spite. Unless Taytah is the one who preyed on him? I give my head a little shake and am about to ask Agrippina to distract Abrax when Ceres says, "Abrax, can I speak to you outside? I have a"—her gaze slides to Justus who just twirls his spoon inside his cup of tea—"pressing request."

My guard starts to protest but Ceres takes his arm and leads him out. The second the door's shut, I ask Agrippina whether she told her mother anything.

Agrippina shakes her head. She must've guessed Pappa wasn't just visiting for shits and giggles.

Frowning at her odd expression, I settle down beside Justus and murmur, "Any ideas of how to locate what I need, General?"

He glances down at the magical brand on his hand before eyeing the closed door. "What do you want with…it?"

"Answers." He seems so unconvinced that I ask my fellow shifter, What did you tell him?

That you wanted to meet your mother but your grandmother wouldn't hear of it.

You didn't mention the Mahananda, did you?

No.

"Everyone reviles the thing you need, but I don't. I will only help if you swear an oath to me that you won't harm it."

"I've no desire to harm it," I reply quietly.

"Speak the oath."

I can hear Cathal warning me against giving someone a bargain to lord over me, but Cathal's no longer at my side; he's at another's. Still I murmur, "No, General. Forgive me, but I will not give another male power over me."

He climbs to his feet. "Then I regret—I regret—" He rubs at his chest, creating tracks in the fitted black velvet jacket. He mutters in Lucin under his breath.

I was careful when I called in our bargain to use specific wording so that he couldn't leave here until she was found.

"Zendaya, you cannot keep me here indefinitely. Lorcan needs me. Luce needs me. I cannot shirk my responsibilities?—"

"The Mahananda prompted me to call on you," I murmur.

"That's impossible. It only talks to its keeper."

"Its keeper hasn't been listening to it recently."

He blinks. "It truly spoke to you?"

"Yes."

His gaze swerves toward his daughter.

"If Daya says it did, it did, Pappa."

His hand—the branded one—curls into a white-knuckled fist.

"You know where it is, don't you, General?" Though I formulate it as a question, it's not, for I can tell that he does.

His nostrils flare with the pain of keeping the truth from me. I consider swearing that my intent isn't to harm Meriam, but decide against giving Justus Rossi power over me. Who knows how the Faerie will use it?

"General?"

"Yes," he all but gasps. "Or at least, I knew. I heard it was moved after my unsuccessful attempt at breaking it out."

"You tried to break it out?"

"The Akwale keep threatening to drain it. And they would've, were it not for Lorcan's bargain."

My head rears back. "Lorcan's bargain?"

"Of keeping it alive. That's why he relinquished it to Priya in the first place."

Agrippina rakes in a breath that is so sudden and raucous that it steals my attention off her father. "Under Behati's bed," she breathes, her eyes shining with the light of a thousand stars. And then she's blinking and rubbing her arms that are peppered with goosebumps.

A door clicks, making my heart skitter. I swing my gaze off my Serpent, expecting to find both Abrax and Ceres standing there, but Ceres is alone. I don't know how she got rid of my guard but I've never been more grateful for his absence.

The glower Ceres pins Justus with scorches the air in time with her words.

What is your mother saying?

Verbatim: ‘Of course the whore witch didn't release our daughter.'

Didn't release you? From what?

She must repeat my question out loud, because Ceres's mouth pinches while Justus's softens around a sigh.

He drops back down to the sofa and leans so close that his mouth brushes my lobe. "Meriam can use Agrippina's eyes to see." He pulls in a quivering breath. "And she can murmur words inside her mind. I was afraid that when you turned my daughter, it had shattered their bond." He swallows, or rather, gulps. "She cast her spell the day you entrusted your daughter to mine. It was her way of keeping watch over Fallon. Over you. She used to be able to tap into Bronwen's eyes because of a deal the latter struck with the Cauldron, but every member of the Akwale could use your sister-in-law's eyes. Only Meriam could use Agrippina's." After a beat, he says, " Can use."

What is it? Why is Mamma fuming and Pappa weepy? Agrippina asks, her gaze swinging between her parents.

I impart Justus's confession through our bond, then scrutinize her expression, wondering which side of the emotional pendulum she will swing.

After a stretch of silence that feels endless, Agrippina finally reclines in her seat with a snort. At this point, I should earn a spot in your family tree.

Ceres says something to her daughter that has Agrippina shaking her head and Justus hissing words in Lucin that all elude me.

What's happening? I ask, mind reeling.

Mamma wants us to leave Shabbe immediately. She says my gift will get me slaughtered. She says that we should never have come back. Pappa tells her that Luce isn't safe for Serpents.

There is one place you'll be safe. Inside the Sky Castle. I ask Justus if he has any way of contacting a Crow.

He taps his arm and mentions that one of them owes him a bargain that he will claim. An hour later, Imogen flies a reluctant Agrippina and a fear-ravaged Ceres out of Shabbe.

"What now?" I ask Justus as Enzo wanders over, stabbing his messy hair.

Justus stares in the direction of the Mahananda, his eyes glittering as wildly as the Amkhuti. "Now, we set her free."

My blood cools and thickens like sludge as I calculate the cost of setting my mother free—my grandmother's trust and love.

" Is this truly what you desire, Mahananda? "

I will it to say yes , but instead it asks: " Is immortality for all shifters what you desire? "

" Yes. "

" Then you must set your mother free. "