House of Pounding Hearts (The Kingdom of Crows #2)(93)

Lorcan is muttering something under his breath. Something about ridiculous plans.

“Has your voyage to Glace made you forget that they are my specialty?”

He grows quiet at my mention of Glace. Or perhaps it’s the memory of the cold front that settled between us the day he told me to stop playing games I didn’t know the rules to.

“You will never let that go, will you?” The salted wind snaps Lore’s black hair against the hard lines of his face.

I side-eye him. “I’m quite proficient at holding grudges.”

“You’re also quite proficient at forgiving men who don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

I press my lips together, returning my gaze to the ocean that is as agitated as I am. “I’ve not forgiven Dante.”

I take another step and another until the water rises over my chest and balloons my robe. I’m aware I will need to remove it so the serpents can have access to my wounds, but decide to keep it on until one arrives. The astral light may be thin, but Crows have exceptionally sharp senses, and even if Lorcan has seen me naked more times than I care to remember, I’d prefer not to flash him a nipple.

“Great Mórrígan, you are like nectar to them,” he murmurs.

“Beg your pardon?”

He nods his stubbled chin to the tusks slicing through the surface like shark fins. From the size of them, I take it I’m in the company of full-grown serpents. I drop my hands to the knot of my belt and untie it, then maneuver it off my arms with Lorcan’s help.

I slip it back on so that it now parts at my back and covers my front.

Lorcan’s long fingers glide up my long sleeves and wrap around my wrists. “May this work,” he murmurs, just as the beasts reach us.

Their black eyes rise over the waterline. I shiver for they are huge, and although I know they mean me no harm, it remains daunting to bathe with such monstrous creatures. Lorcan watches them, hissing when one attempts to nudge him away from me. His fingers tighten almost painfully around my skin as he stands his ground and growls at them to heal my wounds.

The serpent hisses, his long black tongue smacking Lore’s cheek.

I cannot stifle the laughter that rolls up my throat at the Sky King’s stunned expression, nor can I quit giggling as his gaze tightens on mine.

“Your mother would just love this.”

“Seeing you get assaulted by a sea creature?”

“That, too, but I meant seeing her daughter swim with the beasts she so loves. Knowing you found your way to them and them to you.”

His eyes glow in the darkness, bright like his wet skin. I concentrate on them as the giant scaled bodies weave around us, dorsal fins caressing my aching flesh. Suddenly, both stop twisting and the ocean turns quiet. I glance over my shoulder to make sure they haven’t left just as the larger of the two sweeps his velvet tongue against the cut between my shoulder blades.

My fingers dig into the roiling muscles and sinews of Lorcan’s forearms because, holy Mother of Crows, that hurts. A second tongue ribbons across my ankle before rising up the length of my shin and thigh.

I close my wet eyes and concentrate on my breathing.

“Enough.” Lorcan begins to pull me out of the ocean.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re in pain.”

My lids pop open. “No, Lore. I’m not in pain.”

“You’re crying.”

“Because I’m moved by the compassion and magic of these beasts who the Fae so fear.” I steal one of my hands out of his grasp and skim my fingers over the orange coils within my reach.

The serpent rattles and licks my skin faster as though to remove every last scratch on my body.

Lore frowns. I steal his hand from where it found new purchase on my hip and carry it to the serpent’s body, then press his long fingers against the creature’s dorsal fin which is as soft as crow feathers. The serpent rattles again, which makes Lore suck in a breath.

“It’s their way of showing gratitude.”

“It better be.”

I frown up at him. “Why do you say that?”

“Because our kind rattles to attract their mates.”

My grin deserts my face. “That’s surely not— Serpents cannot shapeshift, can they?”

“Do you really believe I’d let them lick you if there was anything human about these beasts?”

I’m too flustered by his answer to even breathe out my relief. Lore spins me, my feet slipping against the fine grains of sand, then runs his knuckles down my spine.

“What are you doing?” I choke out.

“Inspecting that their job is done.”

“It is.” Just as his fingers reach the dimples over my ass, I catch his hand and pull it away. “You could’ve just asked.”

Why ask when I’ve hands to feel?

Because I don’t care to be felt up by a man whose fingers will feel up someone else in a few hours.

I wait for him to deny this, but all he does is sigh against my neck, his warm breath adhering to my salted skin.

He grips my flapping robe from behind and belts it snuggly around my waist. “Come. You need to eat and rest.”

Although one of the serpents has retreated, the other hangs around as though waiting for the opportune moment to snatch me away from the other predator in the water. I reach over and scratch him around his ivory tusk, eliciting another rattle, one that reminds me of what Lore said about crow-rattling.