House of Pounding Hearts (The Kingdom of Crows #2)(17)

The birthplace of my ancestors.

Sorceresses . . .

I want to both shiver and shudder that I descend from women who use blood to cast spells.

To think that one day, a drop of what runs through the web beneath my skin will make me just as feared as they are. I take comfort in the fact that Phoebus, Syb, and the others know what I am, and they haven’t shunned me.

The desire to understand more about my heritage and learn how my powers will be unbound tempts me to plow through the wall behind which Lorcan resides—or use my door and then his. I’ve no doubt he’ll skirt the truth, for the day my magic is liberated, I become vulnerable to obsidian and get sucked out of Luce.

A lose-lose for the Crow King.

I suppose it’s not much of a win-win for me, unless . . .

Since I’m only half-Crow, perhaps I’d only become half stone. Still not ideal.

If my lower half becomes a block of obsidian, I can kiss walking around goodbye. If my upper half becomes stone— Well, definitely not ideal.

Lorcan would probably know what happens to half-breeds.

The floor tips. The stone wall blurs.

I’m suddenly standing in a room lined with books and more books. Thick leather spines embedded with gilt lettering. Some titles make sense, while others are clearly not in Lucin, what with their oblique dashes and apostrophes smack in the middle of words.

I whirl on myself, because where the underworld am I? I almost lose my balance when my nose grazes black leather and a hard arm bands around my back. I crane my neck and gulp when I meet a familiar golden stare.





Eight





“You cannot stay away, can you, Behach ?an?” His scent whispers over the tip of my nose, wind-spun sunshine and summer storms.

Giving Lorcan my best eye roll, I dig my palms into the hard leather covering an even harder chest. “Let go.”

His arm falls away so suddenly that I stumble backward and whack my tailbone into a bookcase.

“Why am I here?”

“Inside my mind? Because you’re my mate.”

“Your mind is a library?” I choose to skip over the second part of his answer.

A slow smile snares one corner of his mouth. “When I’m awake, my mind is anywhere my body is. When I’m asleep, my mind is any place my dreams take me.”

Huh. “What’s the scope on this mind link thingy?”

“Mating bond.”

I shoot him a withering look, which I hope translates what I think of him insisting on calling it a mating bond.

His smile grows. “Did a lash fall into your eye?”

I frown.

“Your left eye is twitching a tad manically.”

I snap my eyes wide and jack up my chin. The new look I hurtle his way does nothing to scare off his smile. “The scope, Morrgot? Focus. What’s the scope on this mind link?”

“Mating bond.”

“Mind link.” My stubbornness only amuses him further.

“There’s no scope. As long as both our hearts beat, we can penetrate each other’s minds.”

Well, merda. “Then how come Kahol cannot penetrate Zendaya’s mind?”

My enquiry does away with his smile. He turns so somber that black smoke begins to thicken around him. Tendrils dart through the air between us and ribbon around my bare calves and ankles.

For once, I don’t tell him off because his intent isn’t to infuriate me. I doubt he’s even aware of how deeply his emotions are causing him to smolder. “You think she’s dead, don’t you?”

“In all honesty, I do not know, but I pray the reason he cannot enter her mind is because Meriam drew a bloody sigil on her daughter that interferes with their bond.”

“By bloody, you mean . . .?”

“With blood.”

The concept of painting people with what runs through our veins unsettles my stomach further. “So for us to be unlinked, a Shabbin witch would need to swirl a little blood on my skin? Or preferably, on your skin?” I wrinkle my nose. “The sight of blood makes me queasy, except during my monthlies, which—is completely off-topic and of no interest.”

His smoke rushes back inside his flesh, or wherever it is his smoke goes.

“Anyway.” I rub the skin over my collarbone that’s undoubtedly become splotchy with a blush and focus on the books instead of the renewed upward curl of his lips. “I should—um, go.” I close my eyes and focus on my bedroom cell. After about three and a half seconds of intense concentration, I crack my lids open.

Lorcan sears me with a smirk.

“How do I get out of here?” I grumble.

He leans a slim hip against a high desk covered in yellowed maps. “You must want to leave.”

I gawk at him. “I want nothing more.”

“If you wanted nothing more, then you’d be back inside your body, Behach ?an.”

I blow out an annoyed breath that lifts a piece of my now-dried hair and focus on Phoebus returning with food. My stomach looses a deep growl, and that growl projects me back into my body that’s surprisingly still in the exact spot I left it.

Oh my Gods, I left my body.

I can leave my body.

This is wild.

And completely undesirable—but really, really wild.

And the worst part, I can’t even tell my best friend because he’ll wonder why I can mind-walk, and I’d prefer not to get into details as to why.