“It sort of feels like you’re having a conversation with yourself right now,” I drawled. “But it’s adorable.”
She grinned. “Sorry. It’s just that the Fates I spoke to clearly left some details out. You see,” she said, twisting toward me, “Aydun was talking about you.Youare the other true Primal of Death.”
Her words echoed through my thoughts as I stared at her.
“It makes sense,” she said. “Alone, your presence doesn’t impact anything. But with Kolis here, it does. The same would happen if the Queen of the Gods were in the mortal realm for any real length of time.”
“You sure about that?”
“I think so—no, I’m sure. It’s thevadentia.”
It took me a moment to remember what the word meant in the language of the gods. Kieran probably would’ve known in a heartbeat. “Foresight?”
She nodded. “It came with the Ascension. I’m not sure why only I… Actually, I think that might have to do with me being a descendant of the Queen of the Gods and female. And because, technically, I’m the firstDeminyento Ascend into Primalhood.”
“Well, aren’t you special?”
She shot me an arch look.
I chuckled. “So, you are our Queen, even more so now.”
“Wouldn’t that make you even more of a King?”
“No.” I leaned back and drew up a knee. “It would make me your Consort. Just as before.”
“I still reject that notion.”
“Of course, you do,” I parroted back her earlier words.
Poppy grinned, but it faded too quickly. “You said this would continue to add to the imbalance,” she said. “Has that already started?”
“Yeah.” I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. “The sun.”
She tensed. “The sun?”
“You know how it should rise in the east?”
“Should?” She stared. “I’m going to need a whole lot more detail. And fast.”
“Well, it doesn’t anymore,” I told her. “Now, it rises in the west.”
Poppy opened her mouth. Closed it. “That can’t be good.”
“Other than freaking out the mortals, it hasn’t had much of an impact. However, it did the switch up…” Damn, that was only two days ago. It felt longer than that. Then again, who knew how long Aydun had done whatever he had to halt time? “That was about two days ago.”
“So, the effects may not have been seen yet.” She gripped the blanket. “Has anything else completely illogical happened?”
“Not as far as I know, but I’m guessing the longer Kolis remains in this realm”—lifting a hand, I ran my fingers along her braid—“the more obvious the imbalance will become.”
“What could be more obvious than the sun rising in the west?” She shook her head. “He didn’t give any examples of what else could happen?”
“No.” I tugged the band securing her braid free and slipped it onto my wrist.
Poppy was quiet as I meticulously finger-combed her hair. “This is good news, though,” she said eventually. “Not the sun thing, of course.”
Chuckling, I gathered up her hair. “Definitely not that.”
“But you and Kieran are Primal gods,” she continued as I brought the length of hair over her shoulder. “It means both of you will be powerful.”
