62. Zendaya

Chapter 62

Zendaya

A lexei and Katya. Those are the names of my new Serpents. Where in skin they looked nothing alike, in scales, they are one and the same—aside from their proportions. Katya remains markedly slighter than her brother.

My heart brims with relief and admittedly, a little bit of awe as they acclimate to their new bodies in the loose fence Agrippina, Enzo, and I have woven around them with our own bodies. Their scales shimmer like their human eyes used to—a grass-green edged in cocoa-brown.

I suddenly wonder if the next generation of Serpents will have black scales or if they'll inherit their parents' coloring.

Almost ready to shift back? Cathal asks as his winged shadow drapes over the water.

When I changed forms, he'd hooked my robe around his torso like a sash and shifted, drawing circles with Erwin, detracting serpents from coming too close with shrill caws that resonated inside the ocean and sent any wanderers scuttling away.

I still can't believe they would've murdered people. No one else is even a little bit alive? I ask my mate.

They've yet to find a single person with a pulse.

Not even a Faerie?

We've only come across half-bloods and humans. If there were any Faeries, they must've swam back to Luce.

I concentrate on my Serpents. How about we pursue this swim in the Amkhuti?

Alexei curls his tail into his body, then stretches it back out. How do we shift back, Your Highness?

Please, call me Daya. As for how to shift back, you must visualize your human form.

You know what just struck me? Agrippina asks. Deia in Lucin means Goddess . It's not spelled the same, mind you, but still…I think it's the perfect moniker. Mare Deia—Goddess of the Sea.

Agrippina, the children. I nod toward the two dappled Serpents. Let's give them our full attention.

Katya morphs almost instantly, but then she starts flailing her arms and sinking.

I think it's because her tattered wool dress is weighing her down, but then Alexei yells, She doesn't know how to swim!

I snatch her with my tail and propel her to the surface, passing her over to Cathal who carries her back to safety. Head to the beach before shifting, Alexei.

Once we're all back in skin, sister and brother embrace and whisper animatedly in Glacin, before twirling toward me and sketching reverential bows.

"There will be none of that," I tell them out loud, in Serpent.

Their eyes round. Either they're surprised to realize that our mind-tongue can be spoken out loud or they're surprised that they're fluent in it.

Aoife flies both children back to the Vahti where Asha welcomes them with open arms and a breakfast table laden with delicacies. I've realized that Asha is a nurturer and that her love language is food. That's how she won over Enzo's heart, or rather, stomach. Though I consider her my friend, he considers her the mother he never had. I wish he'd consider me that way, as well. Perhaps if I plied him with bowls of fried dough…

The children eat very little, picking at the heaps Asha has ladled onto their plates. Though they promise the food is tasty and express their gratitude multiple times in Serpent—a language Asha understands rather well thanks to Fallon's dictionary—she side-eyes their clavicles like the salient bones are personally affronting her.

"Their stomachs have probably shrunken from years of stinted rations," Agrippina explains. "It was the same in Luce. I used to smuggle bags of grain to Rax, and they would last certain families months, whereas those same bags would be used up in mere days in the Fae lands."

Ceres, who's joined us at the breakfast table, side-eyes her daughter. "You smuggled food to Racocci?"

She pats her mother's hand. "Pappa's secrets are a little more shocking, wouldn't you agree?"

Ceres squeezes her lips. I imagine that, yes, she does agree, though I also imagine she's not done discussing her daughter's parallel life.

"Can you show Katya and Alexei to a room and find them some clothes to wear, Asha?" I ask in Serpent, so that my words aren't lost on the twins. "And organize a fitting with the seamstress after they've rested."

Their eyes widen.

"Tomorrow, we begin swimming lessons." Before they can assume these lessons will be taught in scales, I add, "In skin."

Color leaches from their sunburnt cheeks.

"My Serpents, I will not have you drowning if your magic ever fails you."

"Why would our magic fail us?" Katya's voice is just as slight as she is. That of a girl who's always needed to live quietly.

"Because even magic isn't infallible. Besides, I'm certain you'll both be quick learners. Once you've mastered swimming, we'll start bloodcasting lessons."

"Bloodcasting?" they gasp out in unison.

Here, I assumed the news of our blood magic had spread, but apparently not.

"We Serpents are so much more formidable than Crows." Agrippina adds a wink that makes her mate cock a brow, Aoife smile, and Cathal…Cathal doesn't react, evidently elsewhere.

"Off we go, my sweets." Asha winds her arms around the twins' backs and rakes them down the winding path, chattering all the way.

Aoife leans forward and plants her elbows on the table, her long black braid flopping over her shoulder. "Zendaya, I know it's no my call, but maybe we cancel invitation we spread. Though we Crows can ensure safe passage of contenders, Agrippina is right. Sífair have a lot power."

Cathal studies the spoon he toys with, the iridescent mother-of-pearl handle casting shards of color over his heavy-lidded stare.

What's wrong, mate? I ask.

He glances up, sets down the spoon. "Though there's power in numbers, the amount of magic you now wield can be dangerous without guidance."

"We wouldn't be converting just anyone to Naagaism," Agrippina butts in. "We'll have rigorous criteria. If they don't tick all the boxes, we'll send them on their merry way."

"So you will turn away starving children with no prospect back in their homeland?" Cathal challenges her.

Her lips press together. "We'll give them coin. Right, Daya? We can do that?"

"Of course."

Cathal blows out a breath he seems to have held on to since we left for the beach. "I just worry you all may end up choosing with your hearts instead of your heads."

"We are f-five!" Enzo exclaims. "If we've any ch-chance at being taken seriously, we c-cannot stay f-five."

Cathal reclines in his seat, but there's nothing relaxed about his posture. "So you'd prefer to balloon your numbers and risk that your extraordinary and dangerous magic land in the wrong hands?"

"Th-That isn't what I s-said," Enzo snaps. Day, you once said this decision was ours . Please let it stay ours.

I keep my gaze on his a long, long while. "Aoife, let's change our invitation process. Everyone can put in a request for consideration, but they must send in a written application."

Agrippina twists her lips. "Most humans are illiterate, Daya."

"If they're incapable of writing, the application can either be penned by another, or one of us will travel to meet?—"

"No," Cathal says. "Until Shabbe's secure and an antidote is found, you are safest here. All of you."

"Then a Crow can interview them," Agrippina suggests.

"We're stretched thin already," Cathal says.

Agrippina plucks a candied orange rind off the top of the curd dish. "Lorcan can surely spare one of you?"

"We can ask, Cathal," Reid offers.

Cathal's eyes twitch.

This solution displeases you. I reach over and brush his muscled thigh that jiggles from nerves. I'm almost surprised when he slips his arms out of their tight knot and scoops up my hand to twine our fingers. Why?

Do you know how many dead bodies were found? The last count was over three hundred. Three hundred in under one week. And we've only announced it in Luce, he adds.

My retracted tusk dips. Yet the twins are Glacin…

There's much trade between the kingdoms. A Lucin ship must've docked in Glace and spread the word. But that's beside the point…

"Can we be included in your little aside?" Agrippina sweeps a piece of flatbread in the bowl of curd, then tosses it into her mouth.

"I don't think the three of you realize how many people lust for magic," he says.

"You're wr-wrong," Enzo counters. "I kn-know. I was human b-before. I kn-know."

"Then you know that the majority of people who will apply are humans. Even though we've opened countless schools since our return, like Agrippina pointed out, almost all are illiterate. Which means they'd have to be interviewed in person."

Enzo musses his green hair that now curls around his ears. "Then Asha c-can conduct the interviews."

"We cannot spare her, Enzo," I say calmly, sensing his mounting agitation.

We cannot spare her, or you're siding with Cathal?

I bristle. We cannot spare her.

Enzo stews in silence, gaze affixed to his empty plate.

"I could do it," Ceres offers. "I could be your envoy."

Enzo spins in his seat to gape at her. I try to read from his posture whether he's pleased or horrified, considering his complicated past with Faeries.

"Mamma!" Agrippina adds nothing else but a wide grin, which makes Ceres's green eyes beam with gladness to have her daughter look upon her with such admiration.

Enzo? Would you be on board with Ceres interviewing future candidates?

Yes! He spins back toward me, his expression brimming with renewed excitement. Please say yes. Please?

How could I say no to something that makes you so happy?

Because your mate probably hates that we've found a solution, he mumbles.

Enzo, just because I welcome and value my mate's opinions on matters of state, he's not a Serpent nor does he have the responsibility of a pack. I give Cathal's hand a squeeze before letting go and sitting upright in my chair. "Ceres, we would be honored and grateful to let you be the judge of our future denmates."

Ceres glows, and so do my Serpents. If only every challenge we face could be so easily resolved.

"Could we please get a pen and paper?" she asks one of the attendants waiting on us.

"Right away, Shrima Rossi . "

As Enzo and Agrippina begin to throw out conditions, Aoife mentions how serpent killings may dissuade people from wanting to be transformed, while Reid reminds her that serpents were already considered homicidal beasts, so he disagrees.

A shadow blunts the sun over our heads as a Crow circles. My first thought is that another survivor has been pulled from the ocean and brought to me for healing. Though the Crow does have a rider, she's not a contender for my magic, only for my throne.