“That’s…odd.” He cocked his head, sending strands of hair against his cheek. “But I’m not sure what that has to do with me.”
“Nektas said…” I glanced at Poppy, not wanting to discuss this shit while she slept—I didn’t know what she could hear. I lowered my voice when I spoke again. “He said we stopped Kolis from returning to his full flesh and bone form. We assumed that meant he wasn’t entirely corporeal.”
Reaver stiffened, immediately getting where my mind had gone. “You think it was him?” He moved away from the bed and walked to the table. His voice lowered, too. “Just because no one saw anyone committing this crime? Or because someone said they believe your people obeyed orders?”
“It’s not just that.” I leaned against the chair. “The flowers and lawns were dead in front of those homes—and only those homes.”
He opened his mouth.
“The plants were completely gray and shattered with a single touch,” I added. “And it smelled like the houses did. Sweet yet stale. Not only that, one of the homes had dead birds in it.”
Reaver inhaled sharply. “Sweet yet… Like the Revenants smell? Like stale lilacs?”
Taking a sip, I nodded. The Revs did smell like stale lilacs. Except for Millicent—the First Daughter spoken of in that damn prophecy—who was a Revenant yet…not.
Poppy’s sister.
The scent didn’t cling to her. Come to think of it, Callum didn’t smell like stale lilacs either. Then again, they weren’t like the other Revenants.
Reaver’s brows slashed together. “Kolis has to be here. Or, at the very least, close. If not, the Blood Queen wouldn’t have acted when she did. But I don’t sense him. Neither have any of the other draken.”
“Would you have sensed him if he wasn’t fully restored?”
Reaver snapped his jaw shut. A moment passed. “I don’t know.”
“Is it possible for Kolis’s form to be more like a spirit? As in being able to move unseen but possessing enough of a physical form to have fangs.”
A single brow arched. “You do realize how…nonsensical that sounds, right?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “I do.” Taking a drink, I watched him drift away from the table. “So?”
“I suppose,” he said, stopping at the window. “Considering how he was put into stasis and how long he remained in it, there’d be little left of him but a few bones and blood.”
“What do you mean byput into stasis like he was?”
“He was impaled to his tomb with the bones of an Ancient. It wouldn’t have killed him, but it would have slowly eaten away at him until only his essence remained. I suppose that could appear as a spirit.”
Something struck me that I hadn’t thought about until then. “But he was being fed,” I said, mentioning the tomb in Oak Ambler I hadn’t been there to see. “Wouldn’t that mean he’d have some form?”
“The essence of any Primal is the Primal soul. Thearu’lisis different from a mortal’s or another god’s. Ithas form, a shape, even if it appears as nothing more than a shadow to us.” He paused. “And thearu’liscan solidify for short periods of time.”
Meaning, there’d be fangs.
Thearu’lissounded like ancient Atlantian—the language of the gods that I barely recognized. But if Koliswasnothingmore than a shadow right now, then that would explain how he could’ve entered the residences without being noticed. “Do you know how he can go from that form to his full state?”
Reaver was quiet for a long moment, his gaze shifting to Poppy.
“I only know of one way.” A shadow flashed across his face, too quick for me to decipher, as he turned his stare to mine. “I was a youngling when I heard Seraphena and Ione—the Goddess of Rebirth—speaking about it.”
My lips pressed into a flat line. “I know who Ione is.”
He let out a low, gruff huff, the sound thick with barely concealed irritation. “A vessel is needed.”
I waited for him to continue.
He didn’t.
My grip tightened on the glass. “Did you happen to overhear how one obtains such a vessel?”
